Lily Thai — Restaurant in New York

I've been here twice. The first time was about a year ago. My experience was great. Wonderful food, good service, great price. This time was awful. Price wasn't so bad: $60 incl. tip for 3 people (I normally give 20% tip, however, I only gave 10% tip this time for bad service).

Soup was bad:

Tom Kha soup had no lime-salt interplay. It was bland, sweet(?) and uninspired. I had one very lonely shrimp with an entire bowl of soup to itself. They should've made sure he at least had a playmate. I'm sorry, but to qualify as "shrimp tom kha, you really need to have more than one shrimp. I've had better tom kha from a can.

Appetizers were actually pretty good:

Spare ribs were amazing. If I ever come back , it would be just for them.

Fried calamari was surprisingly good. Who ever heard of fried calamari at a Thai place? But then again, it's not hard to make food taste good by frying. Fried poop would probably not be half bad.

Entrees were uninspired and bland.

The curry was ... feh. Again, totally uninspired. Bland. The beef's texture and flavor was that of boiled beef - a bit rubbery and tasteless.

Steamed fish (striped bass) was ok. I've had much better. They could've done interesting things with it. As it was, all I can say is ... "meh!"

Service was abysmal.

Inattentive, but when they were attentive, they "hovered". I hate hovering waiters. They should simply walk past tables and glance in the patron's direction to try to make eye contact. If no eye contact is established, leave the customer alone. We will definitely try to initiate eye contact when we want something. What's so hard about this?

We felt like they were rushing us out towards the end...

I was craving for simple Thai food and nothing had to be unique, so I decided to place an order for delivery from Lily Thai restaurant.

Thai Fried Rice with Pork, White Rice: I actually impressed with this dish because the rice cooked perfectly not too soggy and taste better than my expectation. 9/10 Yum Koong Grilled Shrimp: shrimp was too dried 6/10 Pad Thai Shrimp: as I don't have a high hope on Pad Thai in US as long as it is not too sweet, I'm ok. 7/10

In my opinion, this place is good if you want to have delivery order. I walk my dog by the restaurant often and doesn't seem to be a special place to sit and eat. I love fancy place but sometimes I want something simple too so this restaurant will be in my easy and...

I like Lily’s restaurant, and the food is good. I’ve been there more than four times with my family, but each visit has given me a reason not to return. They overcharge for drinks without informing customers. I ordered a mojito and was asked to choose a flavor—only to find out that doing so increased the price from $18 to $21. If you ask for water, they bring a bottle of distilled water and charge over $12 for it. To make matters worse, they add a 4% fee unless you pay in cash. They promote supporting Black-owned businesses, but their excessive charges and additional fees make it frustrating. The service is also very slow, and they don’t provide bread or anything on the table. Avoid this place until they address...