THEP Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

THEP Thai offers traditional Thai cuisine while also weaving in modern touches. The space itself feels serene and intentional, and the staff made the whole experience feel welcoming and easy. There’s a lot of thought put into the menu, not just in taste, but in how it brings pieces of Thai culture to the table.

We started with cocktails, my friend had the Mango Sticky Rice , made with rice-infused vodka, pandan liqueur, coconut rum, mango, lime, and milk. The drink captures the essence of khao niew mamuang, a classic Thai dessert of sticky rice with sweet mango and coconut milk. The pandan liqueur adds a soft vanilla-like aroma, which is commonly found in Southeast Asian sweets. It was smooth and not overly sweet.

I ordered the THEP Mule. The vodka was infused with Thai basil, an herb used in many central and northeastern Thai dishes. Unlike sweet basil, Thai basil has a slightly spicy, anise-like flavor that pairs beautifully with lime and ginger. The drink had a refreshing, earthy tone with just enough kick from the ginger ale. We also shared Coffee or Me?, which was made with Thai iced coffee, vanilla vodka, Kahlúa, Godiva, and cream. Thai iced coffee (oliang) is usually brewed with strong robusta beans and sweetened with condensed milk. Here, it was turned into a dessert cocktail, rich and layered, but not too sweet ,chocolatey and creamy in the best way.

For starters, we had the THEP Platter: a sampler of spring rolls, chive pancakes, crab rangoons, fried chicken dumplings, and fried shrimp dumplings. Each item had a crispy exterior and well-balanced filling. The crab rangoons, while originally Chinese-American, have become a common fusion item in Thai-American restaurants. The chive pancakes were savory and chewy, commonly found in Thai street markets under the name khanom gui chai.

The Papaya Salad (som tum) came next. This dish originates from Thailand’s northeastern region, Isan, and traditionally includes green papaya, long beans, tomato, peanuts, chili, lime, and pla ra (fermented fish sauce). It’s known for its sharp, pungent, and spicy flavor. The version here was more muted—fresh and crunchy, but the fish sauce and spice level were gentler, which made it more approachable, though slightly less authentic in intensity.

The Tom Yum Soup was done very well. This is a national dish of Thailand, and the shrimp version (tom yum goong) is one of the most recognized Thai soups globally. It had the signature lemongrass and galangal notes, balanced with lime and chili. The addition of coconut milk isn’t always traditional but adds a creamy texture that rounds out the heat and makes the soup feel more luxurious.

For mains, my friend had the Khao Pad Pu—crab fried rice served in a coconut shell. Fried rice (khao pad) is a common Thai comfort food, often cooked in a wok with fish sauce, garlic, egg, and vegetables. Here, it was elevated with sweet chunks of fresh crab and actual coconut meat scraped from the shell, which added a natural, light sweetness. The dish came with a spicy seafood sauce on the side, providing that traditional chili-lime-fish sauce punch.

The chicken red curry was also a standout. Gaeng phed is made from red chili paste, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, and often Thai eggplant or bamboo shoots. This version was creamy, aromatic, and had just the right amount of heat not overwhelming, but enough to highlight the richness of the curry paste. The chicken was tender and had absorbed the flavors well.

I had the Ogg Pla Pan, a lesser-known but deeply flavorful dish. The branzino was seared well, but the shrimp paste curry it was served in was very bold rich with fermented fish sauce, dried chili, Thai herbs, and balanced with eggplant and cherry tomatoes. The sauce was intense and leaned salty, which could slightly mask the fish’s natural taste. It was still a very interesting dish for those who enjoy the deeper flavors typical of Southern Thai cuisine, where fermented seafood products are commonly used to create depth.

Overall an amazing experience, will...

A national embarrassment

I have lived in New York for more than a year now and, as I had a UK guest, I thought I’d return to this restaurant to prove to them that this really is the better side of the Atlantic. What a mistake. Let me start at the beginning. They completely screwed up our reservation. We were summoned 20 minutes too early, asked to leave, then allowed to return. When we were finally seated in the restaurant - which ironically took about as long as it would take someone to go to ikea in Brooklyn, buy a new table and chairs, and then return - we were placed in the blazing sun. Most uncomfortable. No water was pro-offered, likely because Hatty and Ellie hadn’t yet worked out who was on the inside tables and who was on the outside tables. When a member of staff, with staff being heretofore referred to as members of the jar-head clan, did finally come outside they went to ANOTHER table. To add insult to injury, this table was seated AFTER us. When a member of the jar-head clan did eventually reach our table, I was so dehydrated that I must have looked like one of those Egyptian mummies you see at the Met. The jar-head clan adherent clearly agreed, because water arrived shortly after her initial visit post-haste. We waited for our drinks. We were for our drinks. We waited for our drinks. Yes, dear reader, they did not arrive. When I inquired to Melanie/Tilly/Sasha as to where they were, the jar-head clan member said I had to ask their leader - the keeper of the jar lids. Problems continued with our food. We waited for our food. We waited for our food. We waited for our food. At one point, I peered upwards and saw a vulture circling overhead - likely wondering when I was going to expire from a combination of dehydration and starvation and become its next meal. We got so fed up we asked for our food to be given to us in take-out pots. They agreed, but sent us outside the restaurant while they prepared it. This, mercifully, did see us finally able to stand in the shade. But, alas, there was a dreadful stench from the nearby bins. We finally received our food and promptly left. No tip was offered.

Dear reader, if one is hoping not to end up looking like a 4,500-year-old Egyptian mummy or to prove to one’s friends that New York is REALLY the place to be, then this restaurant would be best avoided.

I can only hope management reads this review and quickly offers us a FULL refund, and an apology to HM Government for putting one of its citizens through such an ordeal. (I hear that after viewing my Instagram story the Met has also called the establishment, saying it saw one of its mummies there and would quite like it back. This is particularly worrying as, unlike the British museum, they are aware of what is in their...

Friday rolls around once a week, and with it a sense that one deserves something (“something” being left to much interpretation, and whether one really “deserves” is a topic for another day ), “something” in this case, on this friday: a pleasant meal.

The natural progression of this desire for a pleasant meal is, well, which cuisine to choose! The determination had freaked havoc on my internal monologue for much of the day, here? there? this? that? I could go any way, but some path of discernment arose. I had mediterranean inspired meals for much of the week, let’s see what the far east has to offer. I am, of course, no stranger to the delectability of asian flavors. Ok… well there is a couple options… hmm… AH; THAI FOOD. That’s it! Now, where to go? THEP was the closest, and a brief scan on gmaps heightened my confidence in my decision.

Enough blabbering, to get to the meal. I stroll in, no reservation: “Table for one” ☝🏽😲 I murmur, “right this way” (excellent). A bar seat… ok… what to have? what. to. have? I went with the Tom Yum soup and Khao Pad Mun Nua (i definitely pulled that from memory) and a Smashing Peach for drink, on the rocks please (i didn’t have to ask, it came with ice). Anywho, the Tom Yum didn’t quite meet expectations, expectations that were fully fabricated in my mind, having never had Tom Yum soup before. I expected a thick creamy soup, it wasn’t quite that but it did have great thai flavors of lime spice coconut and basil. The contents of the soup were sparse, just slivers of chicken (albeit nicely tender) and mushrooms. Perhaps it was in line with some austerity of the dish from its roots, who’s to say, certainly not me. Enough soup chat, let’s get to the main dish. I am not going to spell it again, refer to spelling above, but this was delicious. The ribeye was cooked to perfection, and had bits of fat that melt in your mouth. c'était fantastique. the meat laid on a bed of unsuspecting rice which was the most flavorful rice my mouth has ever hosted, in all my years. D lish.

Drink was nice too! and I had a great time, would recommend to my...