Pok Pok NY
“With two people we decided on three choices, first we began with the Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings.”
“Shortly thereafter, we were graced with the Chaing Mai sausage and the piece d'resistance, Kaeng Hang Leh.”
“Moving onto more adventurous fare, the Muu Paa Kham Waan (grilled boar collar) and the Neua Nam Tok (flank steak salad) are both excellent choices.”
Pok Pok NY
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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When I have a culinary crush, I crush HARD. My love affair with Andy Ricker began with Anthony Bourdain's trip to Northern Thailand courtesy of CNN. This was followed by countless mini-docs and profiles on Andy, the birth of Pok Pok and all its manifestations now on both coasts. After all this buildup, I finally had the opportunity to eat the food Andy fell in love with decades ago while back packing and then living in Chiang Mai province.
Andy, Andy, Andy…I think I am ruined for all Thai food from this point onward. The complexity of flavors in the pork shoulder/belly Burmese style curry, the curried pork sausage with spicy green chili dip and those famous wings overloaded my senses to such an extent that it wasn't until EVERYTHING was devoured that I realized I never took a photo of anything I ate. That's how effective the food was; having the power to transport you to another country on the other side of the earth and make you forget technology for a long minute. I'm sure the massive Thai Gin and Tonic probably helped that happen too.
The brilliant take on an Affogato was a perfect ending to this experience. Rich condensced milk ice cream with churro like donuts to dip into the creamy pool created when the hot espresso is poured over it all. Every cell in my body NEEDS to come back.
I like Pok Pok, but it's not undying love or anything. My first visit was a couple years ago – my crew and I were told there was a 90 minute wait so we went across the street to Whiskey Soda Lounge. The bar was owned by Pok Pok at the time so they double whammied us that night with a large bar tab followed by a large dinner check.
I know for sure I was loving the cocktails at the Whiskey Soda Lounge, and we enjoyed the wings so much at the lounge, that we ordered a second round to kick off our meal over at Pok Pok. Perhaps I was too stuffed on wings to really appreciate my entree, but I remember being a bit underwhelmed.
My second visit was a couple weekends ago, and we went just for the wings. We were seated right away this time at the cute, outdoor patio. We feasted on the wings with a side of sticky rice and some drinks to wash it all down. Service was great, with servers working together to run dishes, clear plates and take drink orders. See ya next time, wings!
I don't know. I was just not that impressed with my meal here, especially since this place was so hyped up in the past for me. Their menus revolve seasonally, so the stuff I had may not be offered now. I just remember being underwhelmed with the salad dish I got and my main was also completely unremarkable. The dessert my partner and I had shared at the end of our meal(ice cream served on basically what was akin to a hot dog bun) was just very bland.
Maybe I've been spoiled by being near authentic Thai places in my neck of the woods, but this place was just very underwhelming to me. The flavors were just kind of muddy to me when I'm used to Thai food being powerful and bright, as horribly pretentious as that sounds. I guess if you happen to be in Red Hook, this will probably be your best bet for more authentic Thai. Other than that, try out the other one Michelin starred restaurants over this one.
I was told this place was the best thai place in NYC and so decided to check it out.
When looking at the menu, I then realized it was not the typical Thai place that I am used to. Their cooking style is different and they did not even have pad thai. I love me some pad thai.
I do appreciate the authenticity of this place but its not something that I would crave. I think this place is great for those that like this style of thai food.
Great food, I just had to adjust and take time to read what the dishes were versus me knowing exactly what I want and usually eat.
I really enjoyed Pok Pok. We shared a bunch of dishes.
– Hoi Thawt (crepe w mussels) – I didn't like this. It was too greasy and didn't taste great.
– Yunnan-Styled Stir-Fried Corn – hot corn side dish. This was pretty good. Semi spicy.
– Khao Man Som Tam – this was my favorite. Shredded pork with coconut rice. So yummy. The papaya salad that came with it was amazing and next time I'm going to order the full size version. Reminded me of Thailand. Salad was spicy but not the pork.
– Cha Ca "La Vong" – catfish in a curry type sauce. The sauce was oil. The catfish was good but I didn't like the oily noodles that much. Not spicy. Nice lemongrass flavor.
– Muu Paa Kham Waan – sliced boar collar. This was super spicy but also very good. It is basically a plate of sliced meat and its served with lettuce. I made a little lettuce wrap with some sticky rice. The portion of lettuce to meat was way off though.
– Mango sticky rice – sooo delicious. I'm so glad they had this (mangos must be in season!). Reminded me of Thailand. This is a must try.
Other notable items:
– Our waitress was super nice and attentive.
– Thai iced tea and drinking vinegars were good.
– Got pretty loud.
I will be back to try other items for sure!
Decided to come here for dinner with a group of 4 and we took the last reservation on opentable. I knew prior to coming that they had 1 Michelin star so I really had expectations for this place. We were immediately seated and our waiter was super nice and attentive. He explained to us that the menu was family style so each of us ordered one dish to share. This is where my first issue comes in. He explains it as family style but yet the portions do not reflect that at all. I would just call it a la carte and hopefully other reviewers would round up on their rating. I definitely think this is a 3.5 star place but I rounded down.
For appetizers we had the fish sauce wings and papaya salad. I thought the dishes were just okay. The wings seemed more "burnt" than glazed and the choice of wings had very little meat on them. The papaya salad had all the components but it was definitely more sour.
We ordered the Naua Naam Tok (steak salad), , Kaeng Awm Neua (beef stew), Phat Hoi Laai Samun Phrai (steamed manila clams).
Drinks: Tamarind drinking vinegar, Cha Yen, and Hibiki 12 yr
Overall, I only enjoyed half the dishes we ordered. The two that I liked were the beef shin stew and manila clams. I really thought the stew had a lot of in depth flavors.
All the drinks were excellent. The Cha Yen is a different twist to the Thai Iced Tea, instead of using evaporated milk, they used lime juice. I am sure most people will still prefer the evaporated milk because it's sweet. This version is more like a hybrid between tea and tamarind. Surprisingly you can still taste the tea flavor and overall I thought it was very good. The Hibiki 12 year was amazing as usual. Really hard to find now a days and I'm glad they had it.
Their water has coconut flavor infused into it. They also had spicy peanuts for the table. I appreciated the attention to detail.
Overall, some of the dishes stood out while others missed the mark. I would come here knowing in advance this is NOT family style. There isn't enough to go around, especially if you have more than 4 people. Just assume this place is more a la carte. I would not make a special trip out here.
The drinks and service here was excellent.
Wish there was an option for a zero star.
The smell alone can make you puke.
Is it possible that I am biased! Maybe this was my first time trying Vietnamese food and it was gross.
Stay away from this place!
Just thinking about my experience here makes me want to puke! I believe Pok Pok in Portland needs to sue the hell out of them… How can you carry the same name as one of my all time favorite chicken wings, and be so shitty?
We arrived on a late Friday afternoon to be seated immediately, and without looking on the menu, we knew what we wanted to try. There addictively crazy good, fish sauce chicken wings, exactly like the one we had in Portland.
But nothing prepared us for the following. After the waitress put the chicken wings on the table, we started smelling something really fishy (no pun intended, lol), but we weren't sure what it is. I decided to bite into one of the chicken wings, it was a nightmare come true. The smell, the texture, the quality, all of it was so off putting! I simply couldn't look at chicken wings for two whole weeks as it reminded me of that otrocous smell.
I was so outraged and disgusted that I ran to the hostes and asked for the manager. after waiting for about 15 minutes, the manager finally came out. From my conversation with her it looked like she is used to these types of complaints. she didn't seem interested, or surprised by my comments.
I don't think anybody should go through that horrible experience here, especially when it's tainting the good name of Pok Pok in Portland.