Bangkok Degree

A New Thai Restaurant Spices Up Park Slope With Bird’s Eye Chiles and Fiery Curries | Eater NY

"Open since January on Park Slope’s Union Street, slightly downhill from Seventh Avenue, I find Bangkok Degree to be an ambitious, BYOB Thai restaurant that combines predictable staples with inventive, sometimes luxe, regional and old-fashioned home-style recipes. The decor feels tropical — vines hang from the ceiling, wood-paneled walls in a mottled brown, metal chairs and a small non-alcoholic bar that also serves curiosities like butterfly pea lemonade (which, doctored with a shot of mezcal, paired exceptionally well with a grandma-dish main). The kitchen, run by Chusak Srithongsul and Wirot Sirimatrasit, emphasizes recipes from Thai homes: a northern-style hung lay ($18) arrives as a crock of wobbly pork belly and potato in a curry flavored with pickled garlic and ginger, topped with raw ginger matchsticks that blunt the pork’s fattiness; the basil tray ($30) is the best dish for sharing — a large heap of coarsely ground chicken basil spiked with pickled bird’s-eye chiles, served with two cones of rice, fishy chile vinegar, sliced cucumbers and two runny fried eggs for a DIY, street-food staple experience; signature dishes include a head-on whole red snapper with lemongrass and fresh herbs, a green curry of giant river prawns, and a Massaman crowned by a pair of beef ribs studded with peanuts that are mellow, supremely meaty and fall-off-the-bone tender. I also enjoyed the inventive DB drunken noodles ($23) — wavy dried noodles studded with shrimp, chicken, squid, hot chiles, onions and eggs — and a range of appetizers from a tuna tartar larb ($16) with avocado and fried wonton skins to steamed quail-egg dumplings, garlic-butter edamame, and a salad with fermented tea leaves. The menu borrows confidently from across Southeast, East and South Asia, and overall the restaurant instantly makes the Slope one of NYC’s premier Thai dining destinations." - Robert Sietsema