The following is a reprint of a professional review by Ms. Sammath which originally appeared in The Star Ledger on August 9, 1996. It is published here by the owners of the restaurant solely as a supplemental resource to their website with dine.com (located at http://newmaintaste.dine.com) An Artfully Prepared Feast Fit for the King of Siam By Laurie Sammeth If Thai food is an acquired taste, Chatham's New Main Taste Thai Cuisine is most apt to put a novice in an acquisitive frame of mind. On our most recent visit, a friend who'd thought herself immune to this national style became an instant convert. Thailand's chefs have absorbed European, Chinese and Indian influences into a sophisticated repertoire that aims at creating complex harmonies within a single dish and among groups of dishes. The aim is to set the key flavors of salt, sour, spic and sweet in vivid counterpoint, shading the clash with herbs like mint, basil and cilantro. Ingredients ... more

The following is a reprint of a professional review by Ms. Sammath which originally appeared in The Star Ledger on August 9, 1996. It is published here by the owners of the restaurant solely as a supplemental resource to their website with dine.com (located at http://newmaintaste.dine.com)
An Artfully Prepared Feast Fit for the King of Siam By Laurie Sammeth
If Thai food is an acquired taste, Chatham's New Main Taste Thai Cuisine is most apt to put a novice in an acquisitive frame of mind. On our most recent visit, a friend who'd thought herself immune to this national style became an instant convert.
Thailand's chefs have absorbed European, Chinese and Indian influences into a sophisticated repertoire that aims at creating complex harmonies within a single dish and among groups of dishes. The aim is to set the key flavors of salt, sour, spic and sweet in vivid counterpoint, shading the clash with herbs like mint, basil and cilantro. Ingredients are artfully contrasted in texture and even color.
The vibrant patterns woven by New Main Taste's meticulous chefs are worlds away from the slapdash, unbalanced fare served up at mnay Asian-American restaurants. Even the garnishes and side greens are first-rate. Fragrant seasonings stoke ones senses before the first bite is taken.
"We think eating is an art, " says manager Pakta Punyaratabandhu, whose family opened the restaurant eight years ago. the goal is "gourmet-style fine dining. Everything is fresh. Even soups are made to order. Only the curry is pre-cooked because it has to simmer for hours."
New Main Taste was founded by the manager's publicity-shy mother Nida, whose grandmother had mastered a "high kind of cooking" at Thailand's Royal Palace. Nida Punyaratabandhu occasionally cooks herself, while fine-tuning the family recipes and overseeing the other chefs.
The custom at Thai restaurants is to order one dish for each diner and one for the table. A mix-and-match medley is best enjoyed in small groups, but this is rewarding food under any circumstances. While most Thai restaurants leave patrons on their own, New Main Taste offers all-important guidance. Our young server gently pointed outa sameness of sauces among the dishes we'd originally ordered and steered us toward a more balanced variety. The chef sent word that he didn't consider a certain fish fresh enough, and recommended a substitute.
Fashioning each meal from scratch allows for finely judged spicing. We specified medium-to-spicy, which raised the hottest dishes to a mildly intense thermal threshold and left our lips burning pleasantly. "Very spicy" is for natives or daredevils. By the way, the servers' flawless English takes on added importance when negotiating such adjustments.
The setting may be modest and the prices only moderately high, but a clue to New Main Taste's quality is provided by its fine designer tableware. A brass fork and soup spoon, essential Thai implements, are furnished along with standard silverware. (Thais use chopsticks only with noodle dishes).
Traditional Thai serving style is based on a steady flow of alternating flavors and textures rather than arbitrary distinctions between appetizers and entrees, but the restaurants bow to Western customs. One flawless New Main Taste starter is the mee krob ($6.95), a medley of tastes and textures in itself. Sweet and supple caramelized rice noodles are lent a teasing bite by spiced tofu and marinated chicken, piqued by sour three-flavor tamarind sauce and spiked with pickled garlic and salty shrimp. Slivered carrots add color.
Definitely more fiery but just as complex is a sald ($8.95) of robust greens with lemon grass and citrus leaves wrapped around good grilled steak sliced Thai-style into bite-sized chips, massaged with chili oil and showered with lime juice. Yum vun sen ($8.95) juggles textures by threading satiny, cellophane-like silver noodles among steamed shrimp dressed with chili oil and lemon sauce. One of our party bit into a decorative Thai chile in this dish, bringing our dinner to a temporary halt. Beware.
A less stimulating starter was poo jha ($11.95), a pate-like slab of delicately breaded and lightly seasoned crabmeat served in a crab shell with a demure version of Thailand's familiar peanut dressing. This mild dish was badly served by arriving after our taste buds had been fired up by the spicier appetizers. It seemed anti-climactic.
One rousing entree is duck curry ($19.95), boneless chunks of moist duck bathed in a subtly fierce red chili curry sauce sweetened with coconut milk and plumped out with pineapple, bell peppers and tomato. An almost overrich signature dish, koong long jon ($23.99) brings jumbo shrimp marinated wit hspices, honey and port wine and broccoli (American, not Chinese). On our oder, green beans were substituted for the promised asparagus.
Our waitress suggested that we balance these dishes with koong chu chee ($19.95), and lighter and milder curry dish, replacing its usual shrimp with tender, cilantro-laced pork. Thank you.
Pad Thai, the classic stir-fried noodle dish ($14.95) also receives a sparkling treatment.
Thai desserts remain a taste I've only partially acquired, but I was intrigued by a warm pudding ($3.95) of sticky, naturally black rice in coconut cream. Coconut ice cream ($4.25) faintly infused with tropical fruit was pallid stuff, though it brought a cooling balm to our tingling lips. Almost as much dessert value was provided by a goblet of espresso-like Thai iced coffee, which tasted like coffee ice cream. Visually dramatic orange spicy iced tea was refreshing, if a tad bland.
New Main Taste offers a presentable list of mid-level brand many wines many at around $20. Still, icy Thai beer would be less competitive with the swirl of textures and temperatures. Though this warming food would be especially gratifying in winter, New Main Taste is a restaurant for all seasons.
copyright Star Ledger, 1996. less

This Thai restaurant received the highest food rating out of all Asian restaurants in the NJ area by the Zagat Restaurant Survey. Now I know why. The food here is not only incredible and delicately prepared, but unique and original. You will find dishes here that you will not be able to find at any other Thai restaurant. I recommend one Chef's Special Creation in particular: The Pla Pa Pang, crispy red snapper with a mouth watering crabmeat stuffing with a tangy sweet and spicy mushroom and ginger sauce. My favorite appetizer so far is their Duck Salad: Crispy morsels of fried duck with a light lemongrass dressing tossed with greens, apples, and shoots of unripe mango. While most of the dishes seem "nouveaux, " the classic Thai dishes are done to authentic perfection. I havn't had curry this good since I was in Thailand (They offer a different type of chicken curry every day). The restaurant is small, but artistically decorated, with pink napkins folded in the s ... more

This Thai restaurant received the highest food rating out of all Asian restaurants in the NJ area by the Zagat Restaurant Survey. Now I know why. The food here is not only incredible and delicately prepared, but unique and original. You will find dishes here that you will not be able to find at any other Thai restaurant. I recommend one Chef's Special Creation in particular: The Pla Pa Pang, crispy red snapper with a mouth watering crabmeat stuffing with a tangy sweet and spicy mushroom and ginger sauce. My favorite appetizer so far is their Duck Salad: Crispy morsels of fried duck with a light lemongrass dressing tossed with greens, apples, and shoots of unripe mango. While most of the dishes seem "nouveaux, " the classic Thai dishes are done to authentic perfection. I havn't had curry this good since I was in Thailand (They offer a different type of chicken curry every day). The restaurant is small, but artistically decorated, with pink napkins folded in the shape of lotus blossoms and beautiful Villeroy & Boch plates. The artful way the food is decorated, with carved flower radishes, will impress any business associate. This is not a good restaurant to "eat and run, " but one to savor and linger while sipping a glass of wine. The service can be slow on weekend nights, when the restaurant is normally packed, but on weekdays, when you are enjoying a quiet dinner with your mate in an intimate corner, you will think that you have found a little treasure in the heart of Chatham that no one else knows about. less