ThongLor New York — Restaurant in New York

I've been eating here regularly for entirely too long to just be reviewing this place. There are a ton of Thai restaurants in Hell's Kitchen, and I've seen many come and go since moving to the city over a decade ago. ThongLor is, without hesitation, my favorite and my go-to basically every week.

First, the food is especially tasty. I first encountered Thai food while living in a house in college where it was the go-to of two of my close friends. We brought different things to the kitchen table; I had just returned from studying music in Indonesia and had fallen in love with the cuisine there, and two of my closest friends cooked Thai dishes better than I ever hope to. The flavors and balance of the food here sends me back to those moments and beyond.

Your standards are all solid. I can't admit without some blushing how often I've gotten some form of Pad Thai when not up for spicy food at night, and it's the best in the area; there's something special about the tamarind used that is just barely sweet and tart enough to pull together things that go missing elsewhere. The Khao Soi has all of the array of colors and textures that make it the vibrant dish I love.

On other nights though, the curry options are fantastic. Massaman curry is warm and perfect in winter. Jeen Juan curry is a step towards a more typical Thai palate, and was a great find thanks to a staff recommendation that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. The Kaeng Phed Ped Yang is just fantastic: crisp duck, sweet pineapple chunks, eggplant, peppers, fine bamboo shoots that taste clean and clear, Thai basil sprigs, and a red curry base just like I used to smell back in college.

The list goes on, which is in itself a great reason to keep coming back here. The staff are also fantastic, and they run the restaurant with a small handful of dedicated and extremely patient people (coming in late, I have seen them smile and seat a large party 30min until close, to find out they were going to send half of them out for BYOB. What. A. Server's. Nightmare).

Speaking of which, ThongLor is BYOB still. Their menu has alcoholic cocktail options originally planned to be included, but the path to a liquor license in the city is expensive and time consuming, and honestly? If this is working so well and their food is so good, there's no reason to fret over this at all.

Strongly...

They don't accept reservations but luckily, my friend and I met up early enough (6 pm on a Wednesday) and we got the last table. The restaurant is very small with maybe six tables inside and two outside. They have a drink menu but I don't think they have their alcohol license yet so I saw other people BYOB.

We decided to order a bunch of things to share:

-Phla Kung (shrimp salad - chili paste, red onion, mint, lettuce in a spicy lime dressing) - we originally wanted to get the soft shell crab salad, but the waitress said it wasn't that good, which I appreciated. We really enjoyed the shrimp salad. The shrimp were big and perfectly cooked, and the lime dressing was so fragrant/flavorful/delicious -Khao Soi (egg noodles and chicken in a Thai curry broth) - the broth was good but the chicken was not. It had that old leftover chicken taste. You also have to eat the noodles pretty quickly, otherwise it becomes a soggy mess -Chicken larb - the flavors were good but the chicken again had this leftover taste. The spicy lime dressing from the shrimp salad helped make this dish a bit more palatable -Pad Thai with mixed seafood wrapped in egg - this was on the “Chef’s Specials” section of the menu, which I guess meant they put an egg on it and charged $25 on it. So not worth it. There was barely any seafood - just whatever is on top, which was three pieces of squid, two shrimp, and two mussels. The noodles itself were good so you're better off just ordering the regular Pad Thai. That'll save you $9

I would probably come back just for the shrimp salad and maybe even the pad Thai. But just stay away from anything that has...

Party of 3 brown people, went at 5:30pm Friday. There was one party of 3, and another solo diner both non-brown. After being sat and waiting for the lady to finish with the other table, I asked a question only to be met with a "hold on ill get to you in a minute" she was then doing something behind the counter and again went to check on the other parties.

We ordered, and when the food came the pineapple fried rice with steamed tofu was absolutely terrible - the dish came out cold, the rice was undercooked, you could feel hard grains, and the tofu was fried not steamed as requested.

When we pointed this out, the lady said it's cold because you were eating your soup - a freshly made dish does not get cold, not lukewarm, cold in a matter of a few minutes.

They offered to "refry" it, not remake it. We stated we didn't want it.

Khao Soi was ok, broth flavor was alright but the one chicken leg they put in was completely bland and tasted old. So it was $18 for some egg noodles in broth.

Additionally, another worker was sat at a table in the dining area stamping the plain white napkins with their logo from an ink pad - I highly doubt this is sanitary, and might not adhere to standards.

Paid the bill and left.

I felt the service is prejudiced against non-whites, the food is lacking proper preparation, and is quite unsanitary. Rather disgusting overall.

Picked this place based on their menu and reviews but I certainly will not recommend it to anyone and I will definitely not be visiting again - Will take my business to where I'm welcomed and won't get sick...