Chai

A very good restaurang found out of nowhere. I stumbled upon thjs restaurant where i was there for NY philharmonics. I absolutely loved the food here. I ate the popular chicken curry which was very delicious. They had a great service too. Very welcoming and smiling. I think i will come here again and again

Stumbled onto this little gem for a quick bite to eat. Greeted warmly and sat at the bar. I ordered the Yum Beef, sliced grilled beef tossed with scallions, red onions and spicy line dressing. It was amazing, light with a great kick of spice. The sake was served hot and the presentation was on point. The sweet corn fritters were light and the cucumber relish sauce was outstanding. This is a definite establishment to visit. You can’t go wrong… Great!!!

This place smells like fish food, and so does the Pad Thai. It always consistently smells disgusting.
If you can just acculturate yourself to the fish food smell of everything, it isn’t so bad. Perhaps its too much fish sauce? But honestly, fish sauce doesn’t smell that dank.

4 stars for sit-​in lunch (do yourself a favor and DON’T order take out):
Not bad for lunch — you get an app and an entrée for $ 8.95 and the portions are fair for the price. Was here with a colleague and we ordered pad thai and pad see ew. Both were pretty good — would come back again for a quick lunch.
Now going back to ordering take out — where was the food?! The amount of food that was in those plastic containers did nothing to satisfy my inner fat kid. I felt like it was HALF the serving size of what you get when you dine in! I was super disappointed and hungry upon finishing and began to daydream about a second lunch. Lesson learned.

Been here for lunch a couple of times, and I like it. The lunch specials I’ve tried were very tasty. I like the curries and the spring rolls. Portions are good. Service is quick, but they don’t rush you, and I like the atmosphere at street level… haven’t been upstairs yet.

I ordered the «golden calamari» and pad thai and my friend ordered the massaman curry at the end of December. She was disappointed by the curry. The pad thai was okay. What really irked me was the crispy calamari. Never in my life have I had such a terrible serving of calamari at a Thai place.
See picture. This was around $ 7! Untouched. Not crispy. DISGRACE TO HUMANITY. Just stop the madness.

Mixed feelings about this place. Went here randomly for lunch after passing by and browsing the menu. The wait was about 10 minutes.
The one thing you have to keep in mind is the size of this place. It’s a very cramped but popular place to eat. Being that it was winter and everyone had there heavy winter coats around, it was so hard to navigate through the restaurant. Going to the bathroom was a cramped mess.
Another thing I was a little annoyed about was the staff. They were friendly but it seemed like they were in a rush to get you out of there. Our waitress asked us twice within the span of 2 minutes if we were ready to order right as soon as we had settled down in our seats.
For appetizers, we got a soup and spring roll. The soup was good, but it was lukewarm! Being that it was 13 degrees outside, I would have appreciated some hot soup to warm me up. As for the spring rolls, they were sweet but a little stale. The carrots on top are very tasty. You can tell that they prepared the apps awhile ago and were waiting to serve them. Disappointed with that.
In terms of the actual meal, it was pretty solid. I got the red curry which came with a side of rice. It was pretty delicious. The amount of spicy and the chicken was on point. My boyfriend had got the Pad Thai which was very heavy on the peanut flavor. Nevertheless, he enjoyed his dish but was disappointed with the portion. They could have given us a little more food. For drinks, we ordered a bottle of sake which we were very satisfied with.
All in all, a decent place to eat. Though its a tiny place, the ambiance is lovely. It’s a very intimate place to grab a quick lunch. I would definitely go here again keeping in mind to avoid the apps.

Maybe it was because on Jan 2 they hadn’t had any fresh food brought in since before mas? The steamed snapper in banana leaves was a chewy dried up plate of yuck. I couldnt eat it and didnt bother to complain. Despite that the waitress offered to take it off the bill, which WAS really nice until she said ‘some people aren’t used to asian food.’
The only food to order here is something drowned in a sauce so you don’t have to know what you’re really eating.

I have some mixed feelings. I really enjoyed: the ambiance, prices are fair, menu has good variety and location is easy to get to.
The food was fine. Didn’t rock my socks but it wasn’t bad. I had the pad seeew, tom yum soup and the peanut dumplings. All were great but I wouldn’t order the peanut dumplings again. The yellow curry was good — so I think curries may be be way to go here. A bummer was that the service was very slow. We sat for about 5 mins before anyone came to take our order.
I will definitely be back to try it out again.

Get the Pad See Eiw with beef. It was delicious and approved by both my boyfriend and I. Appetizers were also on point. We got the Golden Calamari as well as the Fried Thai Chicken Wings. Thai iced tea was also good but I would’ve liked it more with less ice. Overall, food was great!
The only flaw was the seatings. The tables on the bottom floor were crammed too close to each other so there was not much privacy. Last time, my boyfriend and I were seated at a table upstairs with a lot more room. However, this tiny flaw won’t stop me from coming back.

Ordered a Pad Thai & Red Curry to go on Christmas Day, and found my shrimp pad Thai only have 3 shrimps in there.
I guess Grinch stole all the other shrimps from me.
Aside from that the pad Thai is too salty. Nothing like the good old typical of pad Thai we get in an authentic thai restaurant. Although the servers were all Thais but that doesn’t mean anything.
So here’s the break down
Pros:
Nice polite staff,
Hip décor & Good ambiance,
cute crowd on that day
Location, location, location
Con:
Taste of the pad Thai is below average (considered Manhattan is a very cultural place and people have a higher standard be taste when it comes to authentic food)
Stingy on the shrimp, but they could blame the Grinch
Therefore, it average to a 3 stars for them. The nice staff and the good ambiance compensate for their food, which should not have survived the competition in Manhattan for 6 months

Excellent Thai food. Ambience is very dark and intimate, with eclectic décor. Small place though, so definitely not recommended for parties more than 4 people. Came on a Wednesday night for dinner and it was pretty full.
The food was delicious. I ordered the BBQ pork shoulder which was moist and flavorful, and the rice that came with it was in the cutest half moon shape! Also ordered the «most popular» dish which was a mix of crunchy fried noodle and flat egg noodle in coconut and curry sauce. That was superb. Excellent mix of Flavors and textures.
Highly recommended for a nice dinner spot

Inconsistent Thai
Overall 2.5 Stars
I’ve been ordering take-​out on and off from Chai Thai for a few years and they have been as consistent with the food as I have been eating there. My first experience in 2014 was good. The Pad Sea Eiw was well flavored, the meat was tender and the vegetables were almost non-​existent which is a big plus for me. The side salad and dressing was plainly terrible. The dressing tasted off as if it stayed out for too long without being refrigerated. The lettuce itself was good and fresh.
My next experience was the fried rice which was bland. I went to the pad thai, but still the food wasn’t prepared in a consistent manner.
My final experience for dinner (take-​out) in early September was the final straw. It was the worst Thai food experience I’ve ever had. I have had mediocre dishes are other Thai restaurants, but this takes the cake. If I paid the $ 8.95 lunch special price, I probably wouldn’t be as annoyed, but since the Pad Sea Eiw was $ 10 without a side and I ordered some dim sum on the side for an extra $ 6 I felt I had been robbed.
The dim sum was passable and even good, but the Pad Sea Eiw was mush. The noodles and egg had the same texture as silly putty that has been sitting out for a period of time (Example Here:
)
I understand how restaurants are busy during their typical dinner rush, but to allow the food to reach a low standard like this is sad. The meat had no taste or picked up the gooey flavor of the overcooked noodles and egg.
I rarely throw away food, but I got through half the dish hoping it would get better. It didn’t…
Chai Thai is usually busy for both lunch and dinner so try and beat the rush whenever you can by going early.
If you want to try it out don’t go in with high expectations, you will be in a shock of disappointment or appeasement.
Maybe it being a terrible experience is an over exaggeration, but with the stiff competition of Thai restaurants in the area, you can’t be making so many mistakes. Eventually the flow of new customers will disappear and the regulars will find something new.

I’ve ordered from here a handful of times after realizing that it’s associated with the Chai in Brooklyn, which I ate at a few years ago before a concert. I loved it in Brooklyn, and hoped for the same at this location.
I’ve been pretty happy with my orders! The Chiang Mai Noodles are my go to, and they always arrive hot and flavorful… definitely reminds me of the Chiang Mai noodles I had when I was in Thailand. (Ps: they’re also the best decision when you’re sick and not feeling well… I swear they are magic and they make you feel much better!)
I’m sad to say that I haven’t been to the restaurant in person yet, but plan to get over there ASAP… My weekly Chiang Mai noodle craving is kicking in…

Lunch special for $ 8.95 with either soup, or spring roll.
I enjoyed my lunch, Pad Thai with Chicken it was actually delicious. I was hesitant based on the 3 star rating on Unilocal. The ambiance is very very quiet, whenever my phone rang I felt like I was making too much noise. However, it’s a cozy place to go for lunch or dinner; they have a very nice décor.

Food was fine. I order the rice noodle with ground pork. Everything seemed fine but it seems the noodles were substituted with something else – yellowish color. It’s just not the common noodle used to make this.
The setting was nice. Nice lotus floating on the small artificial pond.

Chai is the place you go for a quick, but hearty meal. It’s casual enough for friends but has enough ambiance for a date — anytime of the day. The menu is easy to read with order numbers and pictures (who doesn’t like visuals?!) so it was an easy selection even if you are unfamiliar to Thai food.
For appetizer, we had the Grilled Edamame with Sea Salt And Thai Chili Powder and corn fritters, which were amazing, but just know the edamame is enough for 2. For the meal, we had the Kapow and Kao Pad Lychee, both were amazing as well. We also ordered a bottle of wine for the table, that was no more than $ 25.
All in all, it was a inexpensive meal that was made fresh, served hot, and filled the tummy for an afternoon nap.

Having really been craving some Thai food, and was starving after work. I remembered passing this place the other say. So decided to give it a try. It was about 3:30, and lunch special was still on. There were some tables occupied, but I was seated right away. I ordered my go to Beef Pad See Ew and chose the spring roll that comes with it. Spring roll wasn’t crispy. Probably pre-​made. A single tiny one cut into two pieces. Noodles came super quick. It was a very small portion. It surprisingly tasted better than I expected. Overall, good service and food. Will definitely come back to try other things.

Chai is a half step up from your standard local Thai place. Average portions, standard prices, and good food, but with a bigger-​than-​average menu, artsy presentation and a chic, dark interior.
I ordered the Thai basil and chili oil stir fry with mock duck ($ 10), and it was really good; they used a lot of basil and the mock duck was expertly prepared.
My friend got the steamed vegetables with peanut sauce ($ 10). True to the name, it was literally a pile of steamed vegetables with a dish of peanut sauce. I’m not sure why anyone would ever order this, but my friend seemed to like it enough.
They charge $ 1 extra for brown rice.

Been here a few times… I have to say my very first visit was years ago and if I remember correctly food was good. I don’t know what happened along the years but jeez… I came back here twice & order the same dish twice.
— Duck Tamarind was NOT good at all. It felt more like a vegetable dish w/​a few pieces of duck. Steer clear from this dish. Unless your a vegetable person.
Disappointed.

Kleines Thailändisches Restaurant mit günstigem Mittagstisch für 7, 90 $ zzgl. Tax inkl. Suppe/​Salat und Wasser.