Orderinny

Answer: Everywhere!
A profusion of orchids, all of the cloth and plastic kind greeted us at Fake Orchid, a thai restaurant in the east village on Friday night. We were there because Yanru read rave reviews about the place on menupages and wanted to test whether the food was up to snuff. I tagged along, fully intrigued with the choice of name. Would you call your restaurant Fake Something? Would you? Don't you want to be the most authentic? Shouldn't your name should bolster the authenticity of your cuisine? Anyway i digress...
At about 6:30 pm, we walked into a small and relatively empty restaurant. No people to watch? No matter at all, because our eyes were promptly assaulted by a slew of bright and crazy looking things that filled the room. The ambience in the small dining room is super kitschy and very fun, what with the mismatched furniture and serving ware, bright wall décor, fairy lights and tons of fake orchids. Fake orchids littered on table tops, hung from the ceiling, interwoven into the glittery lights on the walls, even attached to the disco ball (disco ball??!!) in the middle of the room…

Crazy Room in the dark!!
Crazy room with flash... See the offending disco ball?
The kitchen and room are manned by two thai ladies and service was very relaxed but gracious. We liked Fake Orchid because it was fun to hang out there, and besides us girls, the room was relatively empty save for 2 couples. They seemed to be enjoying themselves too, but before you drag your man there, please make sure he'll feel comfortable sitting in the cramped quarters basking in pink lighting. We tried imagining a colleague sitting there and he looked pretty miserable in our minds =)
Oh and the food was fairly decent although we found it slightly pricy (entrees around 9-12 dollars) compared to other thai places in the area, such as Klong. The Fake Orchid curry I ordered was neither too sweet nor over-spiced, and I liked the addition of the lychees into the curry. It didn't do anything to enhance the taste of the curry, but at least the very least, relieves some boredom from chewing too much chicken. I also like the inclusion of edamame in the curry, adds a little bit of crunch which I enjoyed.
In the end, I think we enjoyed our meal, but while it might be a good standby for a casual night out, I might give the other thai restaurants in the neighborhood a shot (and there are very many) before going back again. Truth to be told, I think I'm getting too old to stomach this much cuteness in such a tiny space =)

Fake Orchid
440 E9th St
(between 1st Ave and Ave A)