"When you go to Nua Thai, having a game plan is best. The staff usually bounces from waiting tables to dealing with to-go orders, so be sure to know what you want when it’s your turn to order. Most people dining at the Midtown Thai restaurant are groups of friends catching up over bowls of tom yum soup or the occasional solo diner with their usual order. The food at Nua Thai is vibrant, no matter if you’re dining in or shoveling forkfuls of it from a styrofoam tray, so settle in with a slightly spicy papaya salad for lunch or slurp some drunken noodles to finish off a weekday. And whatever you do, save a little room for some spoonfuls of the pillowy-soft mango sticky rice." - chelsea thomas, gianni greene, julie takahashi