Mommy Pai’s

the geniuses behind thai diner have done it again. chicken finger so good it sent me back in time. cheers

The new hottest spot in town is Mommy Pai's, a window dishing up adult-ified chicken fingers, from the team behind Thai Diner. I've been waiting for a good occasion to try Thai Diner, but once I heard they had opened up a more casual concept chicken fingers spot, decided to hit up Mommy Pai's first. First off, they're only open 11am-4pm, making this a lunch/afternoon snack spot only (at least during this soft opening). Hopefully they'll expand their hours once the buzz dies down - I could see this being a great late night spot. We arrived around 3pm, ordered 45 min later, and got our food at 4:45pm so I would suggest lining up first thing before they open unless you've got some time to spare. They did hand out fans to help people cool down in the summer heat, which was well appreciated. We ordered one chicken fingers combo with fried red curry spicy fingers, mommy cakes, and the pineapple thai basil drink and an order of curry puff mozzarella sticks. For sauces, we opted for the Phuket island sauce and noom spicy green sauce. I was really looking forward to the Muay Thai, but they were sold out by the time it was our turn to order, so I'll have to try to catch it earlier next time. Once we ordered, we got our drink and were quoted 45 min so we took a stroll around the neighborhood and hit up a few shops in the meantime. The chicken fingers are by far the most creative take on chicken fingers/strips I've ever had. I'm a strictly dark meat kind of person, so I'm a huge fan of the fact that they use dark meat for here. The chicken is juicy and well marinated, with a coating similar to chick fil a's. I heard a lot of buzz about the Phuket sauce and thought that would be the one I'd like, but surprisingly the green noom, similar to a Mexican salsa verde, was my favorite to go with the chicken fingers. The Phuket sauce was an interesting take on an orange-y fry sauce. The description only said galangal and green peppercorn, but it tasted like garlic chives to me. The hibiscus soy marinated quail egg was very interesting - deeply savory but also fruity from the hibiscus. I liked the mochi-like texture of the mommy cakes, but wasn't crazy about the shredded coconut in them. The mozzarella sticks were really good - super cheesy, with a thin crust and a slight curry flavor. The sweet and sour sauces worked perfectly to cut through the fattiness of the cheese too. The pineapple thai basil drink was a bit too sweet (especially as it melted quickly in the summer heat), but had really strong pineapple and basil flavor. I would've preferred to have gotten our drink with the food, since I think the chicken would've cut through the sweetness a bit, but I'm mostly just happy to get frozen drink options. Overall, a great new addition to the city but I might wait it out a bit until the hype dies down first before I stand in line again. If they start doing online orders to go, I could see this becoming a regular in my rotation.

Mommy Pai's is a Thai/American-fare mashup in the Nolita 'hood, brought to you from the team behind Thai Diner. Besides being known for their grilled and fried chicken fingers, they also have sandwiches, combo sets, sides, desserts, and drinks. We ordered: +the Muay Thai and the Coconut fried chicken +the 3 Fried Fingers - served with pickles, a hibiscus quail egg, and a choice of a sauce (Phuket Island, Heavenly BBQ, Noom Spicy Green Sauce, Sweet Soy Mustard, Passionfruit Pink Peppercorn Sweet & Sour, Sweet Chili Nam Jim, Crying Tiger, and Thai Hot Honey with Orange & Makrut Lime); we decided to get another order of all 8 sauces to sample them all +the Jungle Queen - a smahed oragnic chicken thigh with fermented bamboo, green chili relish, American, Phuket Island Sauce, opal, and Thai basil +Curry Puff Mozzarella Sticks, served with red chili sauce and ajat +and, Green Curry Kanom Jiin Noodles - prepared with rice noodles, chilled green curry, avocado, Thai & Opal basils, pickled Thai green chilis, and crispy shallot Note that this place is currently take-out only, so show up earlier as there tends to be a long line! Staff are super efficient and are more than happy to provide you further information of the items on their menu; there are also GF options. +fried chicken +combos +takeout only +efficient staff & service