The NYC Restaurant With The Hands-Down Best Thai Food, According To Customers

In Woodside, on the west side of Queens, you will find not only find the best Thai restaurant in New York City, but also a meal that may entirely redefine how you think of the cuisine. A simple exterior, with a sign featuring red cursive writing spelling out the name "SriPraPhai" against a black background, belies a charming interior and exquisite selection of dishes on offer.

Named for the owner, Sripraphai Tipmanee, this restaurant has been slinging a different sort of Thai cuisine since the '90s. The venture began as a small bakery, offering traditional Thai desserts to the community, but through passion, dedication, and really good food, has grown and evolved. Now there are not one, but two restaurants by the name, that reviewers on Yelp and other platforms heap praise upon with statements like, "The BEST Thai restaurant I have been to in the States."

What makes Sripraphai special cannot be pared down to just one aspect of the restaurant — it is a place that manages every part of this complicated business with aplomb — but the focus on regional Thai cuisines is one of the greatest draws. The menu is long, featuring over 120 dishes from all over Thailand, offering a broader glimpse into the varied culinary culture of the country than most Thai restaurants. In each dish, the chefs work a careful interplay of light preparation and a complex balance of flavors, seeking to weave together intense aromatics with all five of the major tastes. As one Trip Advisor reviewer playfully describes the restaurant, "It's pronounced 'better than the other Thai Food you've been eating.'"

The traditional Thai restaurant dishes are done well here — you can get a delicious bowl of tom yum soup, an excellent plate of drunken noodles, and an always-divine glass of Thai iced tea — but the true beauty of Sripraphai is the extensive menu full of atypical delights. Some of the dishes on offer may prove novel even for the most intrepid Thai food enthusiasts. And, for the rest, well, bravery in ordering is the only way you ever find a new favorite food. Plus, sticking to only what you already know is one of the persistent mistakes everyone makes at Thai restaurants.

39 spiral-bound pages is heavy in the hand and may seem like a lot to wade through, but the restaurant helps the process with some chef's suggestions like the crispy Chinese watercress salad with shrimp, squid, cashews, and peanuts and the chicken curry puffs, crisp pastry stuffed with chicken, potato, and onion and served with a cucumber sauce. For the best results, though, it is often wise to peruse online reviews from previous diners. For this restaurant, there are plenty out there to point you in the right direction.

There isn't room enough here to delve into all of the dishes diners endorse, but the duck green curry and fried catfish are common favorites that also aren't something you'll find at every Thai takeout. Add to that a plate of ground pork larb and a Thai omelet, and you have yourself an order that will knock your socks off with both flavor and novelty. You can stick to what you know or you can lean on the advice of those who dined before — either way you're guaranteed a great meal.