Thai Diner — Restaurant in New York

One of the Thai restaurant that we really enjoyed in the past was Uncle Boons. Unfortunately, they closed its door permanently during the pandemic… The sister restaurant, Thai Diner has survived, and they offer some of the menu from Uncle Boons!

It was still early, and it was during the weekday, so the inside was almost empty. They have some counter seats at the bar, counter seats by the window to the right, and booth tables to the left. The booth seat has a storage underneath for your bags and other personal items! How considerate!

We started off with their Hot Cocktails, Hot Pandan Buttered Rum and Spiked Milo. The Pandan Rum drink has a very distinctive green color, almost neon green. Nice and strong, and it sure tasted great! It was so buttery, reminded me of butterscotch drinks. Spiked Milo was also nice and strong. There were two large green marshmallows on top, and they had kind of coarse, crackling sugar on the outside. It slowly melted into the hot chocolate…so good!

We heard that we should order small amount of food, as their dishes are very filling. So, we started off with Uncle Boon’s Khao Pat Puu, and Thai Disco Fries. Khap Pat Puu is a Traditional Crab Fried Rice, large enough to share among two or more people. It came with large chunks of crab meat! The sauce that came on the side was super spicy, but very refreshing. I only needed a small dab of that sauce, to give an extra flavor and a punch.

Thai Disco Fries is made with Fries smothered in Massaman Curry. I was super excited for this dish, as I love fries, and I love disco fries even more! This dish was soooo good! It had some Massaman Curry on the bottom, and it was packed with flavor! It had a good kick to it too, quite spicy. I loved their unique creation!

We wanted to order more food, but at this point, we were getting really full… But hey, we always have room for a dessert. We ordered Uncle Boons Coconut Sundae. This is for cream lover…as it is topped with loads of whipped cream! I loved the salty and crunchy peanuts against sweet and velvety cream. The whipped cream had unique sweet flavor from the palm sugar. The coconut gelato and toasted coconut made this dessert nice and coconut-y, but without being overwhelmingly so. Tasty!

At the end, instead of ordering four dishes and a dessert (or two) like we had planned, we only managed to have two dishes and a dessert… We just have to go back again to try more of Thai Diner’s delicious food! The price for some of the dishes are a bit high, but you do get the high quality, delicious food. The staffs here were welcoming, friendly, and didn’t rush us at all. If you are looking for a real-deal, delicious, spicy Thai food, give this...

I knew immediately, as we saw the menu, that this was going to be an experience and I was not disappointed. The deco—amazing. The workers (even the lady by the window who had to tell lots of people the long wait time)—super friendly and excited to be there. The energy of the place was just GOOD.

And the food. We were only two people and the prices were on the nicer end so we really had to think about what we wanted to make this experience about. You are definitely paying for the quality of food.

I went with the Panama Neuh even though I would normally go for phat see ew (the whole restaurant smelled so deliciously of it, I already knew that I didn’t need to order it because why would I go for my usual if everything is going to be good??) and it was everything that I could have ever wanted. It was creamy, but the acidity of the makrut lime cut through it just in time. The perfect amount of roasted peanuts sprinkled on the side, also perfectly spiced. Beef short rib so tender that you could expertly or not-so-expertly separate it with a spoon and fork (and as you do it in the bowl, the curry pours in between, letting the meat soak in all that additional flavor). It was all just so gorgeous. My favorite part about it was the slight sourness of the lime that stops all the rich flavor from becoming overwhelming, kind of like a bite of ume as a palette cleanser.

We also got drunken dumplings (comes in the most insane sauce which is labeled as spicy in the menu, but it really isn’t too bad) and phat see ew with fried chicken. Ended up having to try that too, which was not a mistake in any capacity. I recommend using the jalapeño vinegar sauce that comes on the side—the peppery flavor of the jalapeños pair perfectly with the flat noodles like a match made in heaven. I didn’t know how necessary it was until I tried it (very spicy though, so with caution).

Also- take a trip to the bathroom and study the meditation posters. I learned a lot.

All in all an amazing atmosphere with even more beautiful food. And do the frozen beer challenge while you’re there! This place is now a favorite and I will be...

The food tasted absolutely amazing from the french toast to the cheesesteak to the phat see ew. For the french toast you have to come Monday thru Friday from opening to 11am. The fruit on the french toast in the picture is dragon fruit. For the cheesesteak you have to come from 11am to 4pm and I believe it is on all days. The eggs were good. The homemade pork sausage was good, but it wasn't for my flavor profile. The seasoning is not what I expected. The Thai-rish coffee was really good if you want something hot with Irish whiskey (mine wasn't too strong). The Baan Salad was unexpectedly good. I did not expect it to taste like that. It had fried rice on it and some type of dressing that really brought the salad to life. The coconut Sundae looked and tasted amazing. It had the right amount of crunch and creaminess. It wasn't too sweet from the coconut and the peanuts did it justice. Everyone stared at me when I received it at the bar seating, they said they would order it next time. The cheesesteak has Asian flavored seasoning and you don't have to add nothing. The latte tasted normal. The Disco Fries were good, but I don't see why some people rave about it. It might be because it tastes different from everywhere else. It has a crunchy peanutty sauce that tastes great. I had the spicy tamarind mocktail because I don't like Tequila and I wasn't sure if I was going to like Mezcal. It tasted nice and spicy with some lime flavor. The phat see ew was good but I didn't use the green Chiles because it threw off the flavor profile for me even with the fried chicken. The fried chicken was not to my liking. I would love if they took the time to give it a variety of seasonings instead of just salt and pepper. It tasted like homemade chicken nuggets. The waitress and waiter that I had, since I did go on multiple occasions was Jung and Jose, both of them were superb in their customer service skills. They handled being really busy and didn't forget anything and was so attentive and kind. The atmosphere is a normal dining experience, except they give you a blank postcard with the bill for...