Glenn C.
Yelp
I went to this well regarded Thai restaurant a long while ago with one of my groups where we shared a bunch of dishes. It seems a lot of the poorer reviews are either for delivery which I honestly don't really count as it's not their fault or it's for generic American style Thai good such as Pad Thai so for people who are actually ordering good Thai food, it's even more stellar than the average which is already high. The staff here was friendly and attentive even when the restaurant got more crowded. They have a particularly good cocktail menu for a Thai spot being both reasonably priced and well flavored with the prices becoming even more reasonable during happy hour as they're all $10 for the signature cocktails instead of the usual $14 to $15. I had the Topaz with mezcal, yuzu, mango, lime, and orange bitter which was excellent with a bit of smokiness, some sweetness, and a hint of bitterness. Other people enjoyed the Prik Khing which is a spicy cocktail with chili infused Tito's vodka, the Tub Tim which has Thai moonshine (presumably ya dong), and someone thought the Mekong; their take on an Old Fashioned; was alright. We shared and a lot of food but unfortunately a lot of my photos did not come well.
The Som Tum Thai/Papaya Salad for $15 with papaya, string beans, tomato, peanut, lime, and chili was pretty good here and well portioned. It could have been a bit spicier but I'm very used to the Isan style which is almost too chili focused. Otherwise, it wasn't overly sweet and just well balanced. The largest plate was the Pla Neung Manow for $36 with a steamed whole de-boned branzino fish with chili, lime, cilantro, and culantro (i.e. sawtooth coriander) in chili lime broth and it was decent. The fish was nice and tender and the broth had a good herbal flavor but it could have used a bit more heat.
The Crying Tiger for $32 with grilled strip loin, toasted rice powder, and fried garlic served with sticky rice, fresh dill, and Thai spicy sauce was my favorite. Nicely cooked tender steak with a good version of Nam Jim Jaew; the chili sauce served on the side. It's a bit worse than a few spots in Queens but that's comparing Fort Greene to larger Thai areas which is almost a bit mean. The other best dish was the Ghang Phed Ped Yang for $26 or Duck Curry with crispy half duck, lychee, pineapple, tomato, bell pepper, basil, curry paste, and coconut milk. Again, the meat was well cooked and the curry which I'm presuming was a Penang/Phanaeng curry; a specific type of red curry; had a good mix of sweetness and spiciness. It was also nice to not just have pineapple but lychee as well with the only other spot I know doing it this way being one of my favorite Thai spots period, Sa Ran Rom (oops mentioning Elmhurst again.)
The Crab Fried Rice for $26 with crab meat, rice, egg, scallion, cilantro, and cucumber served with chili lime sauce and chili fish sauce was a particularly tasty version. I'm usually not the biggest fan of Thai style fried rice but the one here had good texture and flavor from the wok and plenty of lump crab meat with the fish sauce and chili sauce adding some good extra heat and sourness when needed. Also with crab was the Ghang Pu Crab Curry for $25 or Crab meat with Thai southern curry. The version here wasn't too sweet and had a mild kick (could have been a bit spicier.) It wasn't as good as Pranakhon but the prices were more reasonable and again there was a good amount of crab meat for the price.
We were going to get the Khua Kling/spicy minced flank beef but they didn't appear to have it on the menu anymore so we got the Khao Soi for $26 instead with egg noodles, red onion, cilantro, and pickled mustard greens with chicken leg quarters in a red curry coconut broth. I've had this in plenty of Thai spots and the version here was solid. Again the meat was well cooked and the sauce wasn't too sweet and it was a pretty solid version of this dish. Also with chicken was probably the weakest dish; the Pad See Ew for $17 with chicken, flat noodles, egg, and Chinese broccoli. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the dish but the price was a bit high for being only marginally better than takeout and some of the pieces of chicken unlike everything else were a bit gummy. As mentioned above, the weakest dishes here described by others are the generic Thai dishes and this kind of fits that bill perfectly as well.
We had two desserts which were around $15, the Mango Sticky Rice and the Pumpkin Custard. My preference of the two was the pumpkin custard as expected as this is one of my favorite Thai desserts but the mango was surprisingly sweet for that time of year/January. They were both good with decent portions.
The food here is a bit pricier than many of the other Thai spots but the flavors are solid. There is another Thai spot I prefer pretty heavily in Brooklyn called Boran as well as the recently opened location of Zabb PuTawn near me as well but solid. Out of review space. Low 4