SaiTong Thai — Restaurant in New York

Winter is the great time to check out fat broth and warm curries, which brought Saitong Thai to my friend’s and my attention. We knew they had something on the menu that definitely fulfill wishes we want.

Courses:

Spicy Pork Hock Soup Easy one to chose. Who doesn’t love a big pork shank with gelatinous skin and lustrous bone meat with a spicy savory lemongrass broth? The waiter sliced the pork hock and separated the meat and the skin from the bones. The broth is really rich, a blend of sweet and tangy and aromatic and herby, and the texture is almost viscous from the gelatinous content of the pork skin. The pork skin actually is more flavorful than the broth, an indication that the pork hock is probably braised longer than then broth. The pork skin sucks all the flavor from the braise and tasted good amount of garlic, shallots, lemongrass, and galangal, with a touch of chili. There are mushroom inside to add to the umami palate and overall it is a great balance of savory, sour, sweet, and spicy notes, hearty and comforting.

Black Spaghetti Crab Curry Both my friend and I were fans of black ink spaghetti so we ordered this. I am not a huge fan of the texture of the noodle as it doesn’t give me a toothfulness I am expecting, but everything from the curry sauce to the fried crab to the crab meat to the fish roe to the fried basil leaves are beyond my expectations.

The curry sauce is not so coconut forward, I think the coconut milk acts more as the creaming/thickening agent a bit, but it contains a lot of spices from the lime leaves and betel leaves that intrigue my tongue. The sauce is indeed paste-like, thick and coats the spaghetti very well. The fish roe adds a pleasant crunch to the texture and they did a wonderful job frying the soft-shell crabs and the basil leaves: even when left in the plate on top of a curry the fried leaves and crabs held their textural integrity and was still crispy and crunchy. I loved this dish, and I devoured a bowl of rice with paste besides the spaghetti.

In hindsight I saw their fried whole snapper dish, that’s a gigantic monster that waits to be conquered by mouth. I was very tempered to come back again just for that.

The space is a bit limited for lunch as only the first floor is open for dining. The restrooms are on the second floor. I liked their decor: the wood and the black and the gold is so graceful and pleasant. The service is quick and eager, and the location is easy to access. Overall a nice place to eat if you are...

We were initially excited to try this restaurant, as we are visiting NY and Thai is perhaps our favorite cuisine. The high rating was encouraging, but the experience utterly disappointing. We arrived and while being seated the only thing the hostess said after we arrived at the table was, "You have an hour and thirty minutes." Not, enjoy your meal or anything else. Just another way of saying, "The timer has started." When asking for hot water instead of iced water, I would have thought we had offended the gentleman who was next to arrive at our table. However, the water was hot indeed, very nice, while the limes were in a severely cracked cup. A bit odd, but okay. When ordering, the waitress let us know that there are no substitutions, not even for dietary reasons. I had asked for the bean thread noodles instead of egg or rice noodles. Not a chance. They do not substitute anything. Okay. I asked for more time, but in the end, we waited past a full pot of hot water before we were asked about our order. We ordered the shrimp dish with glass noodles and it looked nice when it came out, but the shrimp was about as fishy tasting as we had ever experience with frozen seafood. The glass noodles were overly sticky and remained a challenge to eat without ending up cutting them up in the bowl. The flavor was lacking. I understand that restaurants cannot please all customers, but we only wanted reasonable service and an enjoyable dish at a nice place. We missed out on both. They did not return to the table to ask us at anytime about our meal, and the only way to get their attention was to act as if I was hailing a taxi. We will not return for another try, particularly because of the service. There may be some outstanding dishes, but not worth that experience again. I will add that upon existing, the hostess opened the door for us. This was the nicest thing that happened...

I was so excited to try this place after reading all the 5 stars reviews—but wow, what a letdown! From start to finish, it was a disaster. Pls avoid at all cost I really don’t want you guys to waste your money.

First, I tried to order the lobster pasta and pork hock soup that other reviewers hyped up for. Guess what? They didn’t have either one. Fine, I’ll trust the waitress’s recommendations. Still hopeful at this point! I tried to order mango sticky rice for dessert. Waitress said nope ran out. So I asked for dessert menu waitress stopped us again and told us In fact, they didn’t have any desserts at all.

At this point, we just ordered the few dishes they did have available. Got the squid pasta pork salad and duck curry. 5 minutes later, boom—three dishes were already on the table. Sounds efficient, right? Wrong. I bite into the scallop in the seafood pasta. Ew!!! The food was stone cold. Clearly, it had been pre-made and forgotten about. I asked the waitress about it and she immediately took it back without second questioning. Didn’t even try to feel the stone cold plate. I guess she’s very familiar with this situation and didn’t hesitate to send it back. Ahh another dish came up. At this point seeing it already make me sick enough. If anyone cooks at home and have bought a Trader Joe’s package curry the microwave ones would know. The curry in front looks exactly like one after microwaving… At this point I already lose my appetite yet I was still starving.

After all that, we got the pastas back from the microwave waitress said hot now? Yes hot now but the food was still tasteless. The only edible thing was the salad—because, of course, it didn’t require any microwaving.

Super disappointing! If you’re craving microwaved, flavorless food, then sure, give this place a try. Otherwise, save your time and money. This restaurant is a total scam. Avoid...