April 2026.
This Thai place came highly recommended but surprised us a bit by its atmosphere. It’s located in the East Village area and is a narrow but long room, quite crowded and busy at 6 PM. The lady outside acknowledged our reservation but warned us that we would have to be out an hour and a half after arrival. We were shown to a tiny table near the back and could see with most tables being occupied that turning over diners might be a priority.
Our server was efficient and quick almost to the point of dismissiveness but warmed up after we ordered a bottle of riesling. The menu is printed on a single card so isn’t as complex as some multi-page Asian disquisitions. After talking it over with the server we went for “duck rolls” and other dumplings as starters. These were quite tasty, the rolls crisp with some recognizable duck flavour and a sour flavoured dip and the dumplings also roll-like but stuffed with a savoury and tasty mix. Neither of these items seemed over-the-top flavour-wise, more in the just-fine category.
We then ordered spareribs which arrived like the starters very quickly. It was six or eight cut spareribs dressed in a fairly delicious Asian sauce with plenty of heat. These were tender and delicious, accompanied by a bowl of steamed rice which benefited from a few drops of soy sauce which we requested.
Still not quite feeling satisfied a shrimp padthai also came immediately after we requested it and it was the typical noodles with half a dozen tasty cooked shrimp with appropriate seasoning. Again two things were clear: the food is respectable and tasty but nothing to write home about, and it is sitting ready to go in the kitchen at a moment’s notice.
We were out the door inside of about 40 minutes, somewhat relieved to be away from the pressure and very noisy atmosphere of this obviously successful restaurant. Our impression was get the job done, rather than anything approaching dignity, peace and quiet, etc. If the food itself had been really spectacular you could imagine immersing yourself in the chaos as a reasonable price to pay. The economic price by the way of about US$155 was not unreasonable considering about half of it was a pretty generic but acceptable bottle of wine.
I had to wonder whether there would be other Thai restaurants in this monster of a culinary city that would serve food as good or better in a less frenetic environment.
Food 7.9, service 7.0, ambience – either you get with it or you don’t, value 7.5, peace and quiet 5.5.
