Somtum Der — Restaurant in New York

It is funny how most recent reviews can be deceiving. I had a great meal and experience at Wan Waan (8th Ave), which had horrendous recent reviews, but had a terrible experience at Somtum Dur, which had very good reviews. Also, while most Thai restaurants serve pork belly few serve pork neck, so I was excited.

So I go into Somtum Dur at 2:30pm in the afternoon, and other than one family was empty. I ordered the pork neck, and it seemed like the family were VIPs, as numerous workers in the restaurant came up to them, were grinning and talking to them. Ok, no problem at all.

However, it was taking a long time for the pork neck to come out. To their credit, the restaurant recognized this, and someone from the kitchen came out to apologize....and I was told that the pork neck that was intended for me was given to that family. Ok, once again, no big deal.....mistakes happen, and they gave me some rice treat on a stick that was tasty.

Next, after numerous other dishes were delivered to this table, and more people came out to talk to them, I had to ask about mine. They told me five more minutes, which by that time was longer than the ten more minutes they told me before.

Finally, the dish came out, and it was not worth the wait. First of all, it was not presented the way it was in the menu and the way it was presented to the family. This wouldn't have been a big deal, except that the meat itself was mostly fat, had zero taste, was cooked just enough to not make me sick, and the meat was strewn about the plate, sloppily presented. I've had pork neck all over the world, and every other time it is a solid meat, crispy, and very tasty, so I have a basis of comparison.

While they provided the rice dish and reduced the cost by 20%, after this situation played out their apology seemed insincere. I don't know if they just had a bad staff for the day....bad cooks, bad service, inadequate supply....don't know.

I gave them a well-deserved piece of my mind and am doing so here. What I do know is that if you give others preferential treatment, at least provide a bit of decent service and honesty about the situation. What I also know is that there are much, MUCH better thai restaurants in Manhattan and locally (Wan Waan, for example), and that Somtum Der will receive no more of...

3.5 stars - Thai ranks second to Chinese as cuisines my fiancé and I don't care much about. But after attempting to walk in without reservation to 4 different restaurants in the area and knowing it's far more familiar to my grandma than any "white" food, my fiancé and I decided to give Somtum a try.

We all had Northern Thai cuisine once at Zabb Elee just a few blocks away and weren't too impressed. This time, armed with our yelp app, my fiancé and I read up on all the recommendations and ultimately decided on duck spicy salad, beef skewers, catfish soup, and house special seafood suki.

The first dishes - duck, beef, catfish all arrived fairly quickly. Not quite sure what was the hold up with our suki, we were literally done with the first three plates and ready for our bill when we finally asked our server to check the order. Nevertheless it was worth the wait because it was one of the better dishes of our meal.

Spicy duck salad - way too salty, sour and fatty. It had a strange funny after taste where I couldn't stomach a second bite.

Catfish soup - the fish was way overcooked and really dry even after being dunked into a bowl of soup. I did enjoyed the enoki mushroom.

Beef skewers - I wished we just ordered more of these because they were one of the best skewers I've had in life. So well marinated, so juicy! Loaded with flavors and went so well with the spicy dip. Came in 3 per order - perfect sharing for us!

Seafood suki - the suki noodle was way overcooked to a point they were indistinguishable in our plate. It was however pretty tasty in the sweet tomato sauce along with the fish cakes, shrimp, and calamari.

We ended our meal with their jelly shaved ice - which was frozen herbal jelly in milk tea. It was quite refreshing and would had been perfect summer treat!

Overall - Perhaps Northern Thai is more of an acquired taste for us, again we weren't overly impressed. Service was warm, food was well priced. Probably won't return any time soon but if we do, skewers for appetizer, entree, and...

The 2 stars are ONLY for food not the SERVICE. I ordered lots of food and one thing was missing. I thought it was coming out so I did not remind or ask the server. My friend and I were waiting for that food about 30 mins and nothing appeared on my table. I decided to ask the server (the girl with a hat and glasses) about that order and she clearly looked guilty that she forgot as evidenced by her facial expression and body language. She claimed that it was coming out and that made my friend and I waited longer for another 20 mins. I was fine with that IF SHE ADMITTED AND APOLOGIZED. However, she did not show up at my table again and had her friend come to serve us instead. I was really disappointed. When I asked for the bill, there was one thing off. The bill included “Bar Service” for $13!!!!! Can you believe that???? I asked them what was the “BAR SERVICE”? and they simply said that “every food that comes out from the bar will be charged for service” . My friend and I were extremely surprised because this was not the first time that we visited here. In fact, it was our 6 or 7 times and I have never been charged for this crazy and outrageous service before. I did ask ALL OF MY FRIENDS who have been here and they all agreed that there is no such thing as “Bar Service”. Personally, I would assume that I was charged because the first server was afraid that she would not get tips as high as she expected. That’s my only assumption and it might be accurate. . Anyway, I am not coming back again even though I have been such a big fan for this restaurant for a quite a long time. . DISAPPOINTED!!!!!

EDITS: I FOUND A NEW THAI RESTAURANT THAT SERVES FOOD LIKE HERE. IT’S CALLED “HUG ESAN”