Wayla — Restaurant in New York

I recently dined at Wayla with a large group of friends, and we had a wonderful time. It is our second time back and it does not fail to impress. I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone for any occasion, professional or personal, large group or small.

As you can see from the attached photo, the restaurant seeks to impress. If you are lucky enough to come with a large group, you may have the luck we did to sit in this private outdoor space in their backyard. It is particularly perfect if you are seeking a more intimate setting, private, but without any airs. The space is beautiful, comfortable, and unpretentious.

And even if you find yourself inside the restaurant or in the general space of the backyard, you need not worry. For what truly makes this restaurant worth visiting is the food and service. In fact, I can't decide which I was more impressed with.

I will begin with food. Wayla has recently changed their dinner menu and the results are exceptional. Even if you may find yourself missing the previous lobster noodles (sen chan pad, I believe), there are so many new stand outs you will forget you may have missed anything at all. When you visit Wayla, be sure to try as many of the following items as possible. For apps: Yum Nam Khao Tod, Nua Sa Wan, Sai Oau, and Tod Mun Kung. Even for the less adventurous eater, there are familiar dinner staples: chicken wings (amazing), calamari (with a great sauce), curry puffs, and Som Tum Thai.

Once you have gone this far in your order, the rest is easy: the branzino (Larb Pla Tod), the green curry with crispy duck (Gang Keaw Wan Ped), the ribs (my god the ribs--See Krong Moo Yang), and the steak. For larger parties, do not skip out on the veggies: the brussels and the long beans. Then finally, do a double dose of crab: Khao Pad Pu and Sen Chan Pad Crab.

My advice: bring as many people as you can so you can try as much as possible.

Now finally, go and visit this restaurant for the friendly staff. While we were graciously assisted by a wonderful server throughout our time there, it felt that all the staff members took the same time and patience with us. Any questions we had--answered. Anything we needed: provided. For example, if you are unsure of how much to order you can expect an honest answer to suit the needs of your gathering. If you want a description of the food, each staff member is ready to describe it before ordering and describe when it is placed on the table. If you have allergies, fear not--the knowledge here knows no bounds.

Before I sign off, I would like to particularly shout out the bar staff Billy and James for taking the time to walk us through the new cocktails and to Tom Tom for making us all feel special. We most certainly will be back for our third...

As soon as you arrive at the restaurant, you have to go down some steep poorly designed steps, that don’t feel super safe. Once you get inside, it has a speakeasy vibe and dark ambience. I get the look they were going for, but it was almost too dark to even see our menus lol. My party was seated directly by the blasting air conditioning system so it was absolutely freezing. Next, service was just OK. I did get a sense that we were being rushed. There was someone—not sure if they were a waiter, perhaps a manager based on their attire—whom kept reminding us that they needed our table soon, which was very annoying and their overall “hospitality” when checking in, just came off as fake. I understand that it’s a busy restaurant, but I didn’t feel the most welcomed. Additionally, our waiter had to be reminded several times about straws, and when I requested napkins, he was stingy with the amount he gave. But, I will say, his service improved over night, he was nice, seemed honest and for the most part, his dish recommendations were tasty. Speaking of food—my steak was great, really well cooked and seasoned nicely. The ribs were also a group favorite and were super tender. I loved the curry puffs, easily the best I’ve ever had, and the sauce was amazing. The fried calamari was good. The chicken wings were good, but abnormally tiny. The crab fried rice was very tasty and there was a good portion of lump crab meat. The lobster noodle dish was a bit disappointing. The noodles were too chewy and the lobster was a bit chewy and over cooked as well; the dish was a little too sweet for my liking but it wasn’t bad. The fried branzino was tasty and conveniently chopped. Drinks were hit or miss. Mango mouse dessert wasn’t too appetizing. The flavor didn’t go together, had an odd texture and the purple sticky rice was hard. However, the coconut ice cream was delicious. Wayla is definitely better than the average restaurant, but I wouldn’t say it’s amazing across the board. Would I go back? Maybe. Would I...

This review is based ONLY on experience with lunch at Little Wayla. Dinner is great and is totally different.

The food at Wayla is amazing which is why I keep going back, but the lunch service is bad, after three separate bad experiences, I'm calling it quits.

Here's a quick summary of 3 separate visits spaced over approximately 3 months.

Visit 1: Ordered takeout via doordash. Order was accepted. After the specified time, I showed up to pick up my food. When I showed up, I was informed that the kitchen was closed that day and although the staff was helpful in getting me a refund (they initially weren't sure how to process it), why would they accept my order if they couldn't make my food?

Visit 2: Ordered takeout via doordash. Order was accepted. When I showed up to pickup my food, the staff hadn't noticed my order come through so they hadn't started working on it yet (I arrived 25 minutes after ordering). After I said I would wait for them to make my order, they then told me all the dishes in the kitchen were dirty so they couldnt make my order. The real point of annoyance was that they could have made my order with the lunch special options which were readily available in front of them with 0 wait time, but they only opted to do that after I asked them why they couldn't make my order using what was available.

Visit 3: Arrived after opening, lunch service still being set up. No problem. Took too long to set up. Person in front of me pointed out that she was given the same portion for both the large and small lunch special, a valid concern. That customer was then charged an incorrect amount for their order by one of the staff and only corrected when they pointed it out. For my order, there were no lids that fit containers. Inconvenient.

TLDR: The Little Wayla lunch service really lacks any consideration or care for customers. 3 orders resulted in 3 bad experiences. Even though the food is great, it's not enough to keep me dealing with...