Kao Soy

Always nice to warm up on a cold winter day with comfort food. Kao soy warms your belly but they could (literally) turn up the heat a little in the place.
Tucked right behind the bus stop is an authentic northern Thai restaurant with all the delicious classics!
Calamari fritters were perfectly fried crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and served inside a wonton skin flower. The dipping sauce is more chili than sweet which was awesome.
Tom yum soup is sour and savory and piping hot — yum!
Now for the main dish –kao soy is served with two drumsticks, heaping noodles both in the curry and on top, onions, pickled vegs, and a tasty sweet hot paste. The dish is def enough for two to share.
Can’t wait to come back and try the rest!

This is the real deal! If you want authentic Thai food this is the place. Small only seats about thirty people but wonderful! The crispy fried red snapper with Basil onions and bell peppers was a delight. we picked clean. Tom Yum soup had a real rich broth to it. We’ll be back for more. Staff were extremely nice and accommodating to changes in menu.

Used to be so good. Ka nom jean kang kiew wan (green curry noodle) and kao soy used to be my favorites. This time, I disappointed me big time. The green curry noodle was not thick and flavorful anymore. It was so soupy. Noodle was too soggy. Kao soy was totally lack of flavor. Papaya salad — a dish that’s an authentic restaurant should not fail. This place had failed it. It was so fishy with fish sauce and just plain sour with no other flavor. Very disappointed. Service was good. The food gets 0 star from me.
UPDATE: I got harassed by the owner for leaving him a low review (see attached photos). He claims that the chef and managers are from Thailand. Apparently, I am as well, so now who doesn’t know what the real Thai food supposed to be like!?!

After ikea shopping ., Me and my friends came on monday night… Im so craving for thai food… And i love thai food… This place has provide the dish that i never had in new york… Their kao soy dish was really good… Me and my friend like it. Also the sausage dish with green chily was amazing to… The service was great and attentive… Love the ambiance… I definetely will come back to try other dish…

I really enjoyed having lunch here today! The Thai ice tea was delicious and refreshing The paper rose straws add a personal touch to my drink! For appetizers we had fried calamari, which was perfectly breaded and fried, not greasy at all. I also enjoyed eating the rice bowl that it was served in. The coconut shrimp was crispy and sweet on the outside and the shrimp was perfectly moist on the inside, not over fried. The crab Rangoon was my favorite of the appetizers!!! The creamy crab and cheese filling was like heaven for your tastebuds and the sauce that accompanied it was extremely flavorful! For the main corse I had shrimp Pad Kee Mao was the best I had ever had! The spices are real Thai spices! I love spicy and this hit the spot!!! The dish was perfect! The fried ice cream was a delicious ending to this enjoyable lunch experience.
The atmosphere is very cozy and inviting; especially on this chilly day. The service, Jan makes you feel like your a long time friend that returned to her house to have lunch. She’s very personable and she made our experience here a memorable one!

Where to begin from?
Calamari Fitters, coconut Shrimp, Crab Rangoon, shrimp Pad Kee Mao…
This is a little Thai hidden gem in red hook. Love this place. Food is well balanced between spicy, sweet, sour, crunchyness and seasoning. Really great job guys. Recommend to everyone who is touring red hook and wants to get real Thai food. Will be back soon. Jen was phenomenal!!! Kudos

Food: I ordered the banana blossom fritter appetizer. The taste and presentation of the dish was great albeit very oily. The two sauces served with the dish, one sweet and one tangy fish sauce, we’re both very good as well.
Ambience: the space is a little too crowded with tables. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to sit for a meal. They are apparently focusing on quick turnover of tables and high volume service.
Service: the service was attentive and food runners were on task. However, I had a very uncomfortable confrontation with a server about meeting the $ 15 dollar minimum for credit card usage. The server handled it Rather poorly and in the end, I was coerced into purchasing a beer I didn’t want to reach the minimum. I would highly suggest the management to either do away with the minimum or add a service charge for small purchases. Unfortunately, this experience left a bad taste in mouth.

My friends and I randomly dropped into Kao Soy looking for something to eat around Red Hook. Upon entering, I noticed their closely-​packed interior with limited seating. We all started with some refreshing Thai iced-​teas which is a must in any Thai restaurant. For appetizers, we had the fried calamari, curried chicken puffs, and the soy & herb-​marinated pork strips. They were all disappointing. We also had the banana blossom fritters which sounded interesting but tastes like fried nothing. Once again… disappointing. For entrees, we ordered:
KHAO SOY — A staple dish in Northern Thailand. It’s essentially a curry noodle soup. This was supposed to be their «signature dish» so I was expecting a bowl of rich curry goodness. It had an appealing presentation with the fried noodles perched on top of drumsticks with the curry soup right underneath. However, it looked better than it tasted. What a shame… I was only able to taste the coconut milk in the soup. The curry flavor was almost non-​existent. It didn’t even smell aromatic when the dish was brought out. Having recently traveled to Chiang Mai, this dish is definitely not the real deal.
SAI OUA — Pretty much just pork sausage, fried marinated pork, assorted veggies, and a side of sticky rice. I liked the fried marinated pork the most in this dish. The meat was well marinated and had a good flavor that reminded me of how Korean kalbi would taste. It was delicious and the sticky rice complemented the pork very well. However, the sausage on the other hand was too dry.
As for the service, I didn’t appreciate the waiter handing us the bill before we started our main entrees. They had to «close the register» which was probably their tactic of telling us to hurry up and get out since it was near their closing time. Overall, the dishes all lacked in flavor and substance. The best thing the whole night was the Thai iced-​tea. Definitely not the type of place to go out of your way to try.

It seems I’ve missed the boat on what was probably a great spot a few months ago when Pete Wells wrote a glowing review in the Times. New management running the show now. Bummer.
At 9:30 on a Saturday a few tables were still open and we felt lucky to have no wait for a table for two. The menu has your basic Thai curries & noodle standbys alongside an interesting variety of more challenging dishes like anchovy salad and descriptions listing «lots of chiles». We’re off to a good start.
Pla Khoong shrimp salad ($ 10) with lemongrass had 4 very fresh, large shrimp but the other ingredients from the menu — keffir, mint, fried dry chili, shallot, spicy lime dressing — were barely perceptible in the mound of lettuce. This was about a ²⁄₁₀ on the spicy scale for me and was very safe for my spice-​averse friend.
I’m a bit embarrassed that we ordered a chicken pad see ew ($ 9) as an insurance policy in an untested Thai place. Go ahead and judge, we are usually disappointed with new places and were really hungry! It was not too oily, a bit bland but it hit the spot.
Based on the NYT hype and some favorable Unilocal reviews, we thought this place could potentially turn out a good whole fish. We probably should have sent the charred red snapper (Pla Tod Nam Prik Ta Dang $ 24) back to the kitchen as it was dry and fried beyond well done all the way through. The steamed Brussels sprouts, snap peas, asparagus and jasmine rice served with the fish was very fresh, perfectly cooked and superior to the joyless red snapper.
This place was a strikeout this particular night — if we hadn’t taken a chance on the fish I would have said it’s a decent neighborhood spot. My recommendation: If you want seafood walk yourself up Van Brunt to Red Hook Lobster Pound, if you want Thai head over to Pok Pok.
On the way out I heard one of the owners telling a customer he’s opening a second location somewhere on 3^rd Ave in Manhattan soon. I’m sure it will be a success if they can bring back the magic that originally put them on the map.

Went shopping in IKEA today. Didn’t want to eat there and found this place on Unilocal.
This place is 2 minutes drive from IKEA. Very small restaurant. First impression with the service was not good. The tall waitress has attitude. (I thought because I’m Asian? Just saw other reviews about the unfriendly service too but they are not Asian) She didn’t smile or say anything. She looked mad. I told her what I want and she didn’t say a word and walked away. A guy was picking up takeout. She walked up to him. Grabbed the money and walked away. Didn’t say Thank you or anything.
I got Kao soy and it was good but not enough egg noodles. There were more fried noodles than egg noodles. It’s curry soup base with 2 drumsticks in there.
I would return if I am in the area again but hopefully to see improvement for the service next time.

The Thai here is ON.POINT.
The papaya salad was hell fire hot. I was crying and sweating in a way that i have only experienced in SE Asia and I loved every minute of it. This dish is not for the faint of heart. Many endorphins were released while eating this salad.
Everyone on Unilocal has already given accolades to the banana blossom fritters. They have a nice little peanut and chili dipping sauce to accompany them. The fritters are more substantial than I was expecting and there was definitely eggplant and possibly onions also in there. So worth getting if your dining in. Not sure how they would hold up for delivery or take out. I think eating them fresh is part of what makes them so good.
The namesake dish Kao Soy is a curry stew like dish — similar to a spicier, heartier Massaman with chicken on the bone sitting right in the middle. The presentation requires a photo — steaming bowl of curry piled high with crispy noodles and soft, thinner style noodles layered underneath.
Honorable mention to the eggplant and shrimp curry and especially loved that the eggplant were Thai eggplant (not as common as one would hope and expect at other neighborhood Thai joints) and were quartered and cooked perfectly (aka not a mushy, falling apart slice of eggplant). Bowl of rice comes with.
The staff are wonderful. Super nice and accommodating (we went with a two year old at opening) and it was great. We were one of two other diners in there at that time. The place is tiny so not necessarily awesome for little ones unless you go at less crowded times. Waits can be in the upswing of 2 hours at prime dinner time on the weekend but there is a dive bar across the street that doesn’t disappoint and is probably doing the best business they’ve done since Kao Soy opened.
Décor is nothing special and is actually a little strange with weird shelving and knickknacks around and a «fireplace» that was on when it was 70 degrees outside. Anyway — go for the food not the ambiance.
Take out available but can also be a long wait depending on time/​day of ordering.

SO GOOD!
Came here on a Friday night and we were a table of 6. While we did have to wait, the hostess was nice enough to take our number so we could get a drink at a nearby bar while waiting.
Once we sat, the restaurant is a little bit crowded– it’s a small space so keep this in mind when you’re thinking about how much personal space you need while dining. Our order was taken pretty quickly and the server was quick to make delicious recommendations for us. Since the prices were very affordable, we just asked that she make a couple of choices on our behalf just to make sure that we didn’t miss out on anything really delicious.
We got a whole host of foods that represent Northern Thai cooking– the fried banana fritters which were BOMB and the sausages which had a really fragrant taste of lemongrass and pork. We also ordered a mango salad which really showcased what SPICY means. We were off to a great start. Then we all shared the fried whole fish, the Kao Soy noodles in curry, and the Hang Le curry. ALL were amazing and delicious. With Thai food, you really have to just go for it if they offer you a sauce. The curries were both really good and we left with very full bellies.
The price of the meal was really very reasonable with it coming out to a little over $ 20 per person before tip. Bottom line though, if you’re looking for pad thai or other quite americanized thai dishes, you’re better off going somewhere else. This place is the real deal and I can say that because I’m married to a Thai man :)
There’s a lot that I love about Red Hook and this little place definitely adds to the charm! What a wonderful addition to the neighborhood!

I feel I’m being quite generous with 3 stars.
Newish spot, but already busy. We got here just 15 minutes after lunch opening on a Saturday (1:15p), and there were only 4 seats left at the bar. Since this place seats only 24 people, timing is crucial.
Food wise, we have mixed feelings. Their appetizers were great, but the entrees were very disappointing.
Khanom Jeeb (steamed chicken and shrimp dumplings): delicious.
Krabong Hua Plee (banana blossom fritters): phenomenal; we couldn’t have enough.
Som Tum (papaya salad): tasty, and very spicy.
Pad Kraprow (pork in Thai basil, pepper & onion in spicy chili sauce): awful; the pork was dry and tough, while the rest of the vegetables were uninspiring. Sadly, a bad dish.
Kang Hung Le (northern Thai pork belly with a drumstick): it was not pork belly, but rather boring pork stew; the drumstick was old, and it came with a big chunk of tasteless cabbage and rice. Another bad choice.
If we had known, we would have been happy to stay with the appetizers however, considering the location we don’t have many reasons to go back.

This is a new and very much buzzed about little spot that has opened in Red Hook on Van Brunt st. I work a few blocks away and finally made my way in. I sampled a few dishes and this place is clearly more authentic than the average Thai takeout spot. The décor is very cute with wood tables and floors. The staff are all very friendly.
I ordered the Krabong Hua Plee which are fried Banana Blossoms. Didnt even know Bananas made blossoms but they do and you can fry them. They were light and crunchy, didnt really taste like banana but reminded me of squash blossoms. They were served with a spicy garlic lime dipping sauce and a sweet peanut chili sauce which worked off each other well. I also got the namesake dish of Kao Soy which is an odd dish of a spicy curry broth which plays more like a sauce, tastes of coconut and chili, with soft egg noodles in the broth and crunchy, light, delicious fried egg noodles on top that break off into the broth. It has two juicy chicken legs in the broth and is served with garnishes of pickles, shallots, chili, lime and green onion to your liking and they all add something. The dish is as complex and interesting as any I have had as you really get everything, sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy, tender all in one bowl. It is also quite hearty and on a 41 degree «spring» day it hit the spot.
I also just for comparison sake had my usual Thai dish Chicken Pad Thai which was good but pretty basic and the portion was kinda small.
If you wanna try something different and authentic I would advise giving this spot a try.

Come for the restaurant’s namesake dish, which is now widely available in New York but never presented at the standard Sirchai Serparplarn has done here.
The broth is thick enough to be a stew, spicy and denser than expected. To reach it requires plowing through a nest of fried egg noodles, lighter than they appear and perfectly crunchy. They will slop in the broth more and more with each bite — I was incapable of getting not getting a sizable fraction of this on my shirt. Perhaps you’ll manage better.
Before the kao soy — which is hearty enough to not require anything else — I made my way along with a dining companion through an order of fish balls. I remember barbecuing these over the flame of a Hong Kong campfire many years ago, and I’ve seldom had the dish prepared as well since. It comes with a tamarind-​cilantro sauce, which manages to balance out the savory flavor without turning it to something a three-​year-​old would enjoy.
Calamari, pad thai and pad see-​ew are on the menu, but please ignore them. There’s been an awful lot of consideration placed to bring real regional Thai cooking and reasonable prices to this small spot in Red Hook, and it would be a shame to come here and not sample it.

All the reviews below me, WTF are you guys talking about?
This is the first and last time I will come to this restaurant.
My friend and I tried the «Pad Kraprow» and the «Laad Nah Talay.»
The nice waiter advised me that the «Pad Krapow» was very spicy so I asked for a much less spicy version. I assure you, I can handle spicy food but this dish was beyond spicy.
I had a few bites and had to give the dish to my friend. We both suffered in the bathroom last night. Sorry but not sorry.
Also, the «Laad Nah Talay», It was bland and had no flavor whatsoever. It was actually kind of gross.
3 stars for the service and 2 stars for the food. Maybe it’s the only Thai restaurant in Red Hook but seriously? Luck Thai or Joya are MUCH much better and a lot cheaper as well.

Excellent Thai food, on par with Pok Pok (to keep it B61). Noodles moist, chicken not too tough, shrimp spicy and fresh.
One star off for odd service and phone manners.

Yeah — it’s definitely worth the 5 stars! Located in the industrial area of Red Hook this place shines with warmth and comfort.
A grand slam in flavor and environment. The space is small so they get busy during peak times. We sat at the bar (kinda uncomfortably) but they moved us to a table as soon as one became available. Awesome service! The ladies were super sweet and came around to all the tables just checking up on things.
My Sai-​Oua (Pork Sausage) dish was by far one of the best pieces of meat I have enjoyed. The spice in the sausage was remarkable — not heat-​your-​mouth-​and-​burn-​your-​tastebuds-​hot but flavorful, delicate heat which lingered like a warm hug from a loved one. Then you get the delectable pieces of pork along with the sausage and your mind just shuts down from sensory overload.
It wasn’t just the sausage either, my friend ordered the Kang Hung Le — a delicious Pork Belly stew with a juicy crispy drumstick. Warning if you don’t like deliciously seasoned chunks of pork belly fat you might want to steer clear of the stew. And the drumstick was amazing. Such a great dish!
Cant wait to go back!

As of 12÷29÷14, Kao Soy was still holding a perfect 5-​star rating, which really intrigued my boyfriend and I to come in for a visit. While the space looked really nice, the quality of the food and overall experience doesn’t warrant a 5-​star rating at all.
The restaurant is very small, with scattered tables that fit 2 – 4. It was very intimate, and would’ve been nice for a date. Décor is simple and tasteful, a little bit on the darker side.
The food only takes a 3 out of 5 at best, definitely not 5-​star quality. Also, know that the portions are VERY small. It may look like we ordered a lot for 2 people, but we actually both left feeling unsatisfied. For our meal, we ordered:
— Fried Calamari/​Pla Muk Tod, B
— Steak Jim Jaew, C
— Papaya Salad, C (me), B (the mister)
— Kao Soy, B
— Sticky Rice, B
Appetizers: The fried calamari was all right — a mix of both crispy and soft to bite. This appetizer comes with a very sweet dipping sauce. The papaya salad was WAY too spicy for my liking, literally causing me to pant, and down multiple glasses of water. Our server recommended we eat this alongside sticky rice, and while it helped ease a little bit of the spiciness, it still burned my taste buds far too much for me to enjoy it. The mister — who loves his food extremely spicy — found that it was pretty good at that spice level; not perfect, but good enough.
Entrees: Kao Soy and Steak Jim Jaew were all right, but entrees were disappointing overall since so many raved about the Kao Soy (restaurant’s signature dish). I liked the noodles that had softened at the very bottom of the Kao Soy, but I wasn’t fond of the crispy noodles on top at all. The only part of the Steak Jim Jaew dish I liked was the fresh, crisp snow peas.
Kao Soy did not impress us at all unfortunately. Unlikely that we’ll make a return trip.

Undoubtedly, most definitely worth the trek to Red Hook, especially (for me at least) on weekends, when the Fairway/​IKEA ferry is free! Just a short walk – a few blocks at most – from the water (with stunning views of the Statue of Liberty & lower-​Manhattan skyline), Kao Soy serves up some remarkably fresh and clean flavors in large portions for reasonable prices, and their wait-​staff are all incredibly friendly yet efficient.
The house specialty, its namesake dish, Kao Soy, is banging, to say the least. A thick curried-​creamy gravy with two hunks of bone-​in skin-​on dark-​meat chicken, with a valley of thick egg noodles and a mountain of thin crispy noodles, accompanied by shallots & lime & mustard greens & red chili flakes – this dish really covers all the bases. As amazing as it is, this wasn’t even my favorite course, and that’s saying a lot.
Over the course of two days, two consecutive weekend evening visits, we tried pretty much everything on the menu. My friends and I, six people total, ate our way through almost all of the non-​traditional Americanized Thai dishes. So while I cannot yet report back on the Phat Thai & Phat Si Io & Kao Pad, I can confidently exclaim that you won’t be missing them, at least not for awhile, when you have the likes of Pomelo Salad (with watercress & coconut & shallot & shrimp) & Broad Noodles with Shrimp and Squid and Soy Sauce & Spicy Herbal Sausage (with fried pork, green chili sauce, asparagus, carrots, and cucumbers). These three dishes were my absolute favorites.
Other dishes – like the Banana Blossom Fritters & Massaman Curry & Pork with Mushrooms and Ginger Sauce & Shrimp with Green Curry and Rice Vermicelli and Coconut Meat and Anchovies and Hard-​Boiled Eggs & Medium Rare Grilled Steak with String Beans and Sticky Rice – were all excellent, even outstanding. We had other dishes, and I will absolutely be back to try many more dishes, especially considering the aforementioned incredibly service («Welcome Back!» «Long Time No See!» «Next time you come, you must try some different food, I can tell you will love them!»), etc.