Ricepot Thai Cookhouse — Restaurant in New York

So this review incapsulates two different dinner experiences. Let me start off by emphasizing just how friendly, sweet, and kind the staff are; they accommodated our request and even remedied any mishaps that occurred with our meal (I.e. papaya salad being too spicy for us to enjoy fully). So imma break down below our overall dining experience and the various appetizer and entrees that we had the opportunity to try:

Appetizers:

Chive cakes - second and third time ordering this and it is still addicting as hell! Just like my first experience, it was crunchy on the outside and mushy on the inside, a perfect and unique balance of texture and flavors!

Papaya salad - very refreshing and interesting texture between the crunchiness of the peanuts and the crispness of the papaya strips! The spicy version was incredibly spicy but that was probably an accident on their end when they sprinkled too much Thai chili powder on it. The non spicy version was tangy, crunchy and help cleanse our taste for the main entrees.

Drinks:

Thai iced tea - very creamy and sweet with a strong tea flavor that's perfect for Thai ice tea lovers. It is definitely on the sweeter end so I recommend adding some milk to it if you bring your Thai ice tea home!

Entrees:

Crying Tiger - perfectly cooked to medium rare, just like we wanted. The sauce that accompanied the steak was deliciously spicy/tangy as well! However, I wasn't too much of a big fan of the strip cut, for I found it a bit too rough, but that's just my personal preference, so if you like strips then this will definitely satisfy your cravings! If I had any recommendations, I would recommend using a fattier cut or using ribeyes instead (or maybe as a new menu item!), for I think fattier cuts will be richer and be perfect with rice and the sauce that it comes with! Just a thought! :p

Pad see ew (chicken and seafood) - both version of the pad see ew was delicious, for the flavors were definitely intense! The sweet and saltiness of the dish makes it deliciously memorable. However, some might find it just a tad too sweet. The sweetness definitely overpowers the saltiness, but it is still delicious in my opinion! Adding some hot sauce or their chili powder helps reduce the sweetness a bit and adds a kick to it! Highly recommend trying this!

Chicken cashew - fried pieces of chicken with a sweet Thai glaze over it, which was good but a bit too salty for us (definitely pairs well with rice though). It was definitely worth the try and reminded us of Chinese sweet and sour chicken from Cantonese restaurants (not the purely fried ones from Chinese takeouts :p).

Thai Fisherman stew - a flavorful pot of mixed seafood with a stew that tastes delicious with rice. It reminds us of soondubu (Korean tofu stew) because it comes with a similar small pot with similar portions. It was good overall and we liked it!

Bangkok fried rice - wow, this was a show stealer! You can definitely taste the Wok Hay (Cantonese term for fire-infused cooking on a wok that brings out the smoky flavor of the fried rice)! It smells deliciously fragrant and the seasoning was just perfect! We got the beef version and it was phenomenal! Just a tip, if you order pad see ew as well, eat the fried rice first because the intense flavors of the pad see ew will definitely blanket the taste of the fried rice since the fried rice is on the milder side. Highly recommend trying this!

My total 3 experiences dining here have been phenomenal and I can't wait to come back to try their many other items! A very comfortable and warm place to have a romantic dinner date or a simple heartfelt dinner to warm your tummy!

I hope this helps and thank you...

I'm confused by all the positive reviews I've seen for this restaurant. Maybe I ordered on an off day, who knows, but I don't think I'm going to be in a hurry to buy my next meal from here any time soon, considering how stiff competitive for Thai food is in this area.

I ordered several dishes from here as part of a birthday dinner feast, and this place had great reviews, so I was eagerly looking forward to trying the food. The food was delivered promptly, and they were all still hot, to the point that I slightly burned my fingers unpacking the food cartons from their delivery bags. Portions were a bit small, considering the price. Here's what I tried:

Pineapple Fried Rice: A go-to order from any Thai restaurant, even though it's not an exclusive Thai cuisine dish. There was no pineapple that I could tell. The rice was white as snow and tasted like bland rice white with some small shrimp mixed in. I can make better fried rice than this. 2/5

Curry Puffs: Yet another favorite from Thai restaurants. This came in a set of 3 giant puffs, and while impressive-looking, was much blander than any other curry puffs I've even tasted. I could barely taste any curry at all. I did like the sweet chili sauce that came with the puffs. 2.5/5

Ricepot Pad Thai: One of the weirdest-tasting pad thai I've ever tasted. It tasted like extremely salty fish oil stir-fried noodles. Bizzare. Almost inedible. Pork belly was very tough to chew and not tender. 1/5

Drunken Noodles: The best dish out of these, which is not saying much. It could have been spicier and more flavorful, but only this dish was truly reminiscent of Thai cuisine out of the bunch. 3.5/5

Hat Yat Chicken: A bit like General Tso's Chicken, except with more sweet chili flavor and with drumsticks and chicken breasts, instead of boneless pieces of chicken meat. We agreed that Popeyes chicken has more tender meat than this. The flavor was alright, but the meat quality was disappointing. 2.5/5

Thai Iced Tea: I've never had such odd-tasting Thai iced tea before. It tastes strongly of condensed milk than of Thai tea leaves. The sweet, earthy aroma in this drink is lost, muddled by the overpowering taste of the condensed milk. The balance is noticeably off, like what often happens when I try to make my own Thai iced tea. 2.5/5

Pink Lychee Soda: I did like this drink more than the Thai iced tea, because I've never had this before. It tastes more of Sprite soda than of lychee, but it was refreshing and helped me to cool down from the heat. 4/5

Nearly everything I had ordered from this restaurant had issues with the flavor and honestly, I'm not impressed. There's a plethora of Thai restaurants around, and this is not worthy enough of getting a place in the regular dinner options for us. Plus, the food is pricey and the portions are small, which might work out, since that means less bland and bad leftovers for later, but that's not good for the...

So far we have went there twice and it just keeps getting better. The first time we went I ordered their "Beef Noodle Soup" and let me just say it brought back so many memories of a previous Thai place we went to years ago in Manhattan. The beef broth is delicate and flavorful. The beef is extremely tender as well. They also put two types of beef in the soup for a diversity in flavor. A small serving of hot sauce is given on the side so you have complete control of spice of the dish. They portion size is exceptionally generous and unless a person has been fasting all day it can be a challenge to eat all of it. The soup also remains very hot as you are eating it so you don't have to worry about it going cold and not rush yourself into eating it faster.

The chives cakes are an wonderful appetizer. They come out a respectable time before the main dish, in this case soup, is presented. A word of caution is recommended when eating these as they are especially hot. Taking one and splitting it in half is recommended to let it cool off as I have gotten my mouth burned as a result of my disregard for the temperature of these cakes. However, in terms of flavorful, the chive cakes offer a unique combination of being crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside.

The second time we visited this place was a week later. I had decided to order the "Kao Soi" (attached image) The description that the menu provided was enticing. The mention of "tender chicken" was intriguing which prompted me to order it. When the dish was brought out, I had a strong sense of feeling that I would be throughly enjoying it before even tasting it, in which I was correct. The previously mentioned "tender chicken" is the star of this dish. It quite literally melts in your mouth. In addition to the peices of tender chicken within the bowl, an entire chicken drumstick is also given. This allows for the person eating to interact more with the dish as you peel of peices of chicken off the drumstick. The tremendously creamy curry broth is completely balanced as it allows for other components of the dish to thrive while providing it individual character. The vegetables provide and essential crunch to the dish as all the other elements as soft in nature. In addition, the raw red onion provides a bold flavor that improves the experience. The noodles take up a large amount of volume inside the bowl. They are remarkable in their ability to be coated in that spectacular curry broth.

The food is priced at an acceptable amount as the quality of this food is outstanding. I can't wait to try out more of their wonderful menu items that I'm sure are equally as good.

P.S. I hope they have the pork belly basket next time I visit as they were...