Tag Archives: thai town

Midtown West, Press Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Thai

Taladwat

July 26, 2019 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

The folks behind Pure Thai Cook House and Feast have collaborated to create one of Thai Town’s newest joints, Taladwat.

My food buddy from Instagram, @NYCFoodFOMO, organized a few of us to go try some of their noteworthy dishes. Here’s how it went down:

I don’t remember the names of any of these dishes, but I can do a good job explaining them. The first one is a scallion omelette. This was great.

This roasted calamari was a favorite among all of us I think.

The coconut curry chicken was a little sweet for my liking, but the meat was delicious.

On the opposite end, this savory and spicy larb style ground chicken dish was awesome. My favorite of the night.

We had two types of pork. This was a pork belly in curry.

And this was stir fried with string beans. I liked this better.

This ground shrimp and shrimp paste “sausage” patty in a banana leaf was delicious. You can see the herbs mixed into it. Lots of flavor.

This braised ginger short rib dish was really tender. Definitely a go to for you meat lovers.

Soak up that sauce with this nice rice.

Then move on to dessert: pumpkin custard on sticky rice and mango sticky rice.

This place is worth trying when the sister joint Pure is jam-packed (it often is). I still prefer Pure to this, and perhaps Chai Thai and Noodies as well (for this part of town, anyway).

TALADWAT
714 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews, Thai

Pure Thai Cookhouse

September 24, 2018 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Pure Thai Cookhouse is probably the best Thai restaurant in what I like to refer to as “Thai Town;” the stretch of Thai restaurants from the 40s through the 50s in Hell’s Kitchen.

The place is always jam packed with waits for tables at lunch and dinner time, and we even had to wait 10 minutes to get seated at the odd 2pm time frame (they don’t take reservations). That said, if you decide to come here, be prepared to wait. Also be prepared to sit at a small table, likely on a small stool, and way too close to other diners, as if you were actually eating street food in Thailand. Usually a seating situation like that pisses me off, but I didn’t mind so much at this place.

We started with these crab and chicken dumplings that were on special for $10. They were really nice.

Next up was the Ratchaburi crab and pork dry noodles.

This dish was excellent. The pork itself was so tender and juicy. We were both expecting something dry and tough. The crab was a good portion of quality meat, and the sauce was a delicate balance of sweet and spicy.

I ordered the turmeric beef as my main dish. This came with rice, and it was very tender and flavorful. It looks mega spicy, but it was more like a medium.

My wife ordered the jungle curry, which didn’t seem like a curry dish at all. Our expectation was a saucy dish with a bowl of rice on the side. This came out more like a fried rice dish. Not saucy, but it had really great flavors. We liked this better than the beef.

I definitely recommend this place. Just be ready for a wait and some small seats!

PURE THAI COOKHOUSE
766 9th Ave #2
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews, Thai

Wondee Siam II

August 28, 2017 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

Thai Town (Hell’s Kitchen) delivers again with Wondee Siam II. I believe there are three of four restaurants with the same name, but I’ve only been to two of them. This one, like the other, is good.

We started with Thai iced tea and Thai iced coffee. Addicting as fuck.

Then we had this really interesting ground shrimp, pork and crab meat thing. It was deep fried in a tofu skin wrapper (contrary to popular belief, I love tofu skin)

My wife had this delicious crispy duck salad dish – clearly the winner of the day.

I had a wide noodle dish with chicken and mixed veggies. Hit the spot.

WONDEE SIAM II
813 9th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Midtown West, Restaurant Reviews, Thai

Chai Thai Kitchen

September 5, 2016 Johnny Prime Leave a comment

My wife and I came in here for a quick meal after passing by for two years and wondering if it was any good. The quick verdict: it was!

We started with these sweet chicken and peanut dumplings.

I don’t mean “sweet” in the way a dude would say after waking up with an awesome tattoo after a drunk night out.

I mean “Sweet” in the actual flavor sensation. The peanuts had an almost honey roasted type of sweetness to them.

My wife nabbed this spicy coconut chicken curry noodle dish, which was topped with crispy fried “bird’s nest” noodles as well. Usually these dishes are way too “sweet” for me, but this was really good.

It came with rice (unless that was my dish that came with rice?), but might have benefitted from a hunk of French bread for dipping. But I think that’s more of a Vietnamese thing than a Thai thing.

I went with a dish that really jumped off the menu at me, because it reminded me of the fried whole fish we had in Vietnam that I loved so much.