While making the rounds for our fall restaurant preview last month, I found myself on the phone with Rocky Romruen, a restaurateur from Bangkok who for the last decade has operated Thai spots around the city — fairly classic places that you can count on for serviceable pad kee mao.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when Mr. Romruen told me about his latest project, Narkara, where the cost of dinner can easily exceed $300 for two, and there is only one noodle dish on the menu: a punishingly spicy papaya salad doused in fish sauce. “We have to keep changing with the trends,” he said.
“What trends?” you might ask. Thai restaurants are becoming sleeker and spendier. Their chefs are spotlighting regional foods and serving them in extravagant settings you wouldn’t believe or throwing the rules out altogether. Here are three new spots worth checking out.
Next stop … northern Thailand
If you want a sense of where Thai cooking may be headed, I’d suggest dining at Mr. Romruen’s restaurant, Narkara. Lavish and low-lit, this Union Square-adjacent spot is a fine example of gussied up regional dishes and the settings they appear in. There are some interesting items on the menu, to be sure. We ordered a red curry that the kitchen solidifies overnight into a custard-like block of terrine, and a platter of crisp coconut “pancakes” stacked with lumps of curried crab.
However interesting the appetizers may sound, they are a bit pricey with mixed results. So, I’d lean toward the entrees, which are less concerned with presentation and much better for it. There’s a sea bass roasted in banana leaf until it’s as soft as silken tofu, and an inky-dark bowl of chicken soup bobbing with meatballs. There was a flavor in the broth that I couldn’t quite place. A server told us it was makwaen pepper, a cousin of the Sichuan peppercorn native to northern Thailand. Right as he said it, my lips started to buzz.
5 East 17th Street (Fifth Avenue), Union Square
Bangkok off Broadway
BKK is the airport code for Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. It’s also the name of one of my new favorite bars, so close to Columbus Circle you can hear the horse-drawn carriages. There, the chef Teerawong Nanthavatsiri is pushing Thai American cooking in playful directions. (His style, a form of local fusion, reminds me of the cooking at Little Grenjai in Bed-Stuy or Zaab Burger, a stall in Essex Market selling sticky-rice smash burgers.)
In Mr. Nanthavatsiri’s hands, nothing is sacred. Not his spring rolls, dusted in everything bagel seasoning, nor his “shrimp” doughnuts, made with minced chicken and pork. Some of the experiments are more successful than others — I didn’t need ma hor, fruit topped with pork, to be reimagined as a tart — but the ones that work are irresistible. My favorite is the hot dog, a sour sausage plopped into a brioche bun, followed by BKK’s Thai French dip. It’s like the French dip you know and love right up until you dunk it in the side of broth, a deeply beefy spiced jus based on a recipe for boat noodles.
238 West 56th Street (Broadway), Midtown
A new spot for Thai hot pot
After the blinding lights, the first thing you’ll notice about Unglo is its custom copper grills, built into every table and still gleaming (the place opened only in September). They were designed in Thailand, forged in China and shipped to the Upper West Side so we could collectively indulge in moo krata, or mu kratha, a cross between Korean barbecue and Japanese shabu-shabu. Each grill features a broad surface for searing meats and a surrounding ring of shimmering, boiling broth.
Before Unglo opened in September, the only place I knew serving moo krata was Boon Dee in Fresh Meadows, Queens. There, you can eat as much as you want for about $40, though it may require a long train ride, depending on where you’re coming from. Unglo is a lot easier to get to, with prices to match, and several flourishes like Wagyu beef and caviar upcharges. But I’d opt for the “classic set,” a full feast that includes salad, noodles and platters of beef and pork for grilling. A friend and I ordered that set on a recent weekday afternoon and left clutching our stomachs for about $70 each.
35 West 64th Street (Broadway), Upper West Side
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