Nana Noodles Sushi & Thai offers tasty, affordable fare in a hidden neighborhood setting

Sushi-sashimi combination plate.

This neighborhood Japanese-Thai eatery in West Delray Beach has lots of fans for its well-priced, flavorful dishes, cozy inside, outside tables and delivery

By ALAN J. WAX

It’s easy to miss Nana Noodles Sushi & Thai in Delray Beach.

This neighborhood eatery occupies a small storefront at the derrière end of the Marketplace of Delray shopping center

(Winn Dixie) behind Wood & Fire at W. Atlantic Avenue and Military Trail. (To reach it, you can use the driveway it shares with its next-door neighbor, the Big Apple Bazaar flea market, and then turn right.)

Nevertheless, there’s cozy inside dining with socially distant tables and a sushi bar. Outside, there are a few red metal tables under a canopy strung with icicle lights.

Nana exterior.

Nana interior.

Nana’s has been serving better-than-average Thai food and sushi/sashimi since 2014. It’s the kind of place you’re glad to have in your neighborhood when you just want a simple but satisfying meal without having to travel and not worry about breaking the bank.

The restaurant has plenty of fans. There’s a steady stream of takeout customers and delivery service drivers passing through Nana’s doors on any given night. Of course, dining outside, just feet from the curb during the evening, means auto headlights shining in your face.

The two young servers we’ve encountered during our visits were polite, friendly, eager and attentive.

And Nana’s menu offers a wide variety of Thai and sushi/sashimi dishes that will satisfy most diners.

Raw fish was firm, fresh and attractively plated, albeit ungarnished.  The accompanying pickled ginger was white rather than dyed pink — a plus. The sushi and sashimi combination plate ($19.95) consisted of six pieces of sushi and nine of sashimi, the chef’s choice. No surprises here. The selections were the usual suspects: salmon, maguro (tuna), halibut, cooked ebi (shrimp), hamachi (yellowtail), sea scallops, surimi (imitation crab) and white tuna (aka escolar). Boring as it might have seemed, it suited the moment of our visit. I passed on the wide selection of rolls, which filled a full menu page. I’m a purist and not a fan of these often-farcical Japanese-American concoctions.

Chicken Tom Kha soup.

Massaman chicken curry.

Most Thai options we ordered were quite good, though a dining companion was disappointed by a bland rendition of chicken pad see ew, a noodle dish, that in this case was prepared with regular broccoli instead of the more delicate Chinese variety.

However, chicken satay skewers ($7.95) were tender and enjoyable as an appetizer and were accompanied by cucumber vinegar salad and peanut dipping sauce.

Tom kha soup with chicken ($4.59), almost a meal in itself, was a creamy broth flavored with coconut milk and chock-a-block filled with sliced chicken, mushrooms and vegetables. However, it needed to be kicked up a bit to suit my heat-loving palate.

Tamarind duck.

Crispy duck with a sweet tamarind sauce ($21.95) was a crunchy, meaty half bird garnished with crispy fried shallots and suited my spice-fearing spouse, though she scraped off the bits of shallots that were atop the deep-fried bird. A steak knife was provided for dissection. Ordered on a subsequent visit without the shallots, the kitchen obliged.

Massaman curry, a dish from southern Thailand, with chicken ($12.95) was a tasty, satisfying mélange of Massaman curry paste (a slightly sweet blend of mild red chilis and coriander and cumin seeds with coconut milk, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, avocado, onions and peanuts). It arrived at just about the right heat level, No. 4, enough to tingle my lips.

To wash it all down, Nana offers a handful of sakes, beers and wines as well as soft drinks.

No doubt, there are more refined Thai-Japanese dining options in and around Delray Beach. Nana, however, is a reliable, satisfying, low-key option. And, despite its seemingly difficult-to-find location, it’s a solid choice for neighborhood Thai and sushi dining.

Nana Noodles Sushi & Thai

5195 W Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33484

561-450-6912

nananoodlessushibar.com

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