Thai Villa – 5 E 19th St, New York, NY 10003, United States of America

We went here because…
Thai Villa – New York was on a list of highly recommended restaurants that were friendly to the GF’s of the population and once again we chanced our arm and just turned up and said “Hi, we’re from New Zealand, can we please have a table?” (I think the saying is “ignorance is bliss”). Once again they said let’s see what we can do, once again the place was pumping (on a Wednesday lunch time), but they found us a table on a little mezzanine (small enough for only two tables) that looked out over the whole restaurant, it was perfect.

The food…
You could say that we are Thai food enthusiasts (best word I could come up with at short notice, I’m sure there are others that could be used), so we probably already new half of what we were going to order before we walked in the door. We started with Spicy Chicken Wings, Duck Roll and Chicken Satay and for main chose Pork Pad Krapraw and Short Ribs Panang. I advised the server of my “issues” and he had it all under control.

The Spicy Chicken Wings certainly were spicy, but man they were good, the Duck Roll wasn’t gluten free, which was lucky because The Daughter was so busy devouring it, when The Wife went in for a bite, she almost got stabbed her hand with a fork. It was a very substantial serving and The Daughter was so happy with it, she almost didn’t want any Chicken Satay (which is unheard of).

The Chicken Satay was good without being anything special, it definitely wouldn’t feature in my top ten chicken satays of all time, in fact I would probably say it was almost surprisingly pedestrian.

The Short Ribs Panang was very tasty with quite a good burn, however I feel that the beef was slightly undercooked and didn’t quite fall apart like I had hoped. The Pork Pad Krapraw was stunning, I found myself eating through the “I couldn’t possibly eat another thing” barrier and then through what ever barrier comes after that, just to finish it.

The drinks…
Thai Villa – New York has a very good beverage list, The Wife was happy as she found a sauvignon blanc that she likes and I had a local cider, but it was lunch and there were approximately another 8000 steps to be completed in the afternoon (which were probably needed after all the food).

The service…
A special mention has to go Tori the waiter, he was exceptional, nothing was an issue and he made sure that my allergies were looked after and found that perfect balance between attentive and annoying.

The atmosphere…
When we arrived at Thai Villa – New York the street was quiet and there was a door into what seemed to be a closed restaurant, but when we eventually got inside it was on fire. It obviously has a great reputation to be so full on a Wednesday afternoon. It was an impressive setup with booths, mezzanines and even the open floor had screens that looked like a COVID hangover, but added privacy between groups of tables, which was probably needed with the buzz that was around. Seriously we kept hearing about how tough times were in hospitality, which we could relate to, however everywhere we went appeared to be bucking the trend.

The price was…
USD215 for three appetisers, two mains and six drinks

Overall
Thai Villa – New York was a great find, with some incredible food (okay a couple of dishes needed a tweak) and outstanding service (thanks to Tori). Overall I give Thai Villa – New York a strong 8.5/10

#RaumatiKitchenDiaries @thaivillanyc #thaifoodnyc #glutenfreenyc

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