Pongsri Thai Restaurant

Worst red curry ever. No coconut milk at all, pretty bland. Even the diet cocked was the worst ever, tasted like medicine. Avoid it!!!

Frigid and not so pleasant when taking order — started off dinner with attitude from short stumpy lady. Hope she is not owner as this is not the standard for NYC service. However service got better, it would be almost a 4 star as the duck and fried fish was delicious, although not authentic and more geared towards American pallet.

Pros: large tables and normal chairs (all the thai places nowadays are SO crowded), authentic food, good location for pre-​theatre
Cons: A little pricey for Thai food, serving sizes are okay, but seem a little light, not really an inspiring place where I feel I can relax.
Overall, it’s a place I’ve been a few times, but it could be better.

Promptly acknowledged and seated. Nice!
Ordered and food was out in jo time. Super nice!
Food was surprisingly great. Super awesome sauce!
Service is great, nice and quiet atmosphere + casual ambience. I did arrive about 4:30pm…FYI. (it will get sightly louder as people come in… still all good!!)
I had the chicken, vegetable, bean sauce and ie was delish.
Small-​ish cozy place, overall it’s great I would come back. And they deliver. Even better…

Superb Thai Food in the heart of the Theater District
Came to grab a bite of good Thai before the show. We were told there may be a 30 min wait — but we were seated right away. The dining room is small but the very clean. I ordered the # 107: coconut milk based yellow curry with sweet potatoes, onion and red and green peppers — with your choice of protein. XLNT.

Went here randomly, just searching for a quick nearby bite before watching a play. The food came out in the blink of an eye. I literally ordered my food, went to the restroom, came back and there it was on the table lol not complaining though. I wasn’t very impressed by my dish to be honest. I ordered the Pad Kee Mao with calamari and besides it being spicy, it tasted pretty bland to me (and I’m not even that picky). I only ate a few bites of it and ended up eating more of my friends red curry dish. It seemed to be packed with people coming in and out though, I also did enjoy my friends dish. Maybe it was just the Pad Kee Mao that didn’t do it for me.

It stinks that I couldn’t check in through Unilocal because the connection didn’t work on my phone. With that said, I’ve been to this place several times and I haven’t been disappointed with the food nor the service. Everyone is rather helpful and courteous, and the portions are pretty generous. It was an excellent place to enjoy a good conversation and food. The Pad Thai was pretty standard, which means it was pretty damn good. There was this other dish we had that was noodles and peanut sauce with pork and some other stuff and that tasted delicious as well. I don’t think we could go wrong that night ordering whatever! Would definitely go back again.

Did you know this was the first Thai restaurant to open in New York City? Well, now you do.
I used to come here before Broadway shows with my family as a little girl. I remember walking down the steps and feeling like I was genuinely in Thailand. Steaming hot metal pots of rice to the table, sweet and spicy appetizers, pink tablecloths and sweet service. It’s very different now and has definitely Americanized since the nineties, but still, this spot is special to me. Solid place for dinner + a show and arguably — a New York landmark.

What happened? This place used to be so good. They did not/​do not have pad see yoo wide flat noodles anymore nor did the dish taste anything like it did on my last visit. They also seem to close earlier now – rushing us out at around 11pm on a Saturday night. Um, do you have new owners with new recipes who have forgotten where you are located? #Disappointing

I’ve been somewhat of a regular at this place for about 6 years. Needless to stay I havent been very adventurous with what I order but everything I’ve had so far have been good to great; except for the spring rolls– too oily for my liking but one would argue theyre spring rolls so they would be. The shrimp cake and the ducky salad has to be my favorite dishes in the menu. Their tom yum goong soup is second to the famous (and my favorite) Jaiya. Green curry, pad kee mao, and the thai style fried rice would come second. Service is super fast. My one complaint has always been that they do not substitute certain vegetables, even though there isnt a whole lot to choose from!
If you’re planning on ordering during prime lunch rush hour, make sure to give yourself 45 min at the least. I’ve been h-​angry waiting for the delivery few times.

Close to 3 stars. Upgrade to 4 because service was fast and the prices are very fair for neighborhood.
Food — functional, not great. Ingredients were fresh but overall flavor was a bit flat versus what I’m accustomed to for Thai.
If you’re in the neighborhood and in a rush you won’t regret your visit. However, if you have time take the walk to 9^th for better options.

Absolutely enjoyed the experience. I had curry chicken (#105) The presentation was delightful with a pleasant mix of colors. It was apparent that care had been taken in it preparation.
The flavor was both, unique and pleasing. For this selection sweet potatoes were used instead of regular spuds. The portions are large enough to satisfy the fat man.
There are 4 levels of spice. I chose #2 and it was perfect. A very slight bite but not enough to have you reaching for a drink.
The service was superb and friendly tanking only about 15 minutes for my selection to arrive at my table.
The street level dining room was packed so I was seated upstairs. It was very open and quiet. It would be a superb place to have a romantic Thai dinner.
My cost was about $ 20. I had extra rice on the side and a diet coke.
It is only about a block up the street from the Crown Plaza Time Square.
An easy five stars.

My coworker and I come here for lunch as least once a month. It is really the only Thai restaurant that we know of in the area. You usually don’t wait more than a few minutes to be seated but don’t be fooled this place does get crowded. Service is pretty quick. Food is a little better than decent and really fulfills the food craving. They have a lunch menu that offers your usual Thai entrees. For lunch in the Times Square area it is reasonably priced. They do serve beer and wine.

There’s a lot of options for Thai food nowadays.
This one was just for convenience in location if you are around Times Square area, otherwise you should go to Hell’s Kitchen for better Thai Food.
Lunch special available. for $ 13.00 you get a nice Rice or noodle dishes.
I ordered the Beef Pad See Eww — Simple, 3 main topic (Beef, Chinese Broccoli and Thick flat Noodles). Apparently there was 40% meat, 40% Chinese Broccoli, and 20% noodles. It wasn’t full for me.
2^nd floor is quiet, 1^st floor during Lunch hours is a mad house. Just FYI.

4.5 stars
I’m always weary about eating around Theater district. I feel like the most reviewed places are the touristy restaurants, done by tourists. A colleague had vouched for this restaurant, even proclaiming it was her favorite Thai place in the city! Based on that review, we decided to give it a try before our show on Thursday.
The restaurant is plainly decorated, especially considering its location. We started off with two orders of summer rolls. For our entrées, I ordered a chicken pad see ew and my husband ordered a chicken pad Thai dish. We also split a chicken szechuan. Everything was very good. The portions were large and the prices were very, very reasonable (especially for a Theater district restaurant)! We both enjoyed the fact the food seemed very clean and not oily at all. The only dish that was disappointing was the pad see ew. It was a little bland and the noodles were a bit overcooked.

Consistent good food, had the chicken noodle soup. Reasonable price for lunch special in theater district/​midtown ($ 8 with chicken) — $ 10 credit card minimum!!!
Would go again!

Pongsri– thank you for being you. Always open, always the consistent food, always the consistent service.
I work in the area, and Pongsri has become our go-​to-​place for welcome/​farewell lunches with my coworkers. Just make a reservation beforehand to be safe, it gets packed during lunch (but they have an upstairs as well, so you’ll get seated pretty quickly even without)
The lunch specials cannot be beat– starting from $ 8~$ 11, you can get a wide array of Thai fare– from pad thai, to curry, to some good stirfries! Nothing to write home about, but I’ve never had a bad experience.

The food is really amazing here! We got seated as a party of 8 even though only four of us were there.
It’s tucked away in a half basement walk-​in area but the ambiance is really nice — it felt like it has been established for a while. Not surprisingly the menu indicates in from that it has been around since 1972!
The meal took about an hour and we ordered a lot of things the host recommended.
Pad Thai — pretty good but did not wow me! What every good Thai restaurant should’ve mastered.
Seafood platter — the sauce is so amazing. Spicy and syrupy. seafood selection was also really good but mostly shellfish.
Green curry with chicken — it was smaller than expected but so yummy! I drizzled the curry all over my rice like how you’re supposed to do it.
Duck salad — salad was okay but duck was so crispy!
Tom yum soup — worst dish of the day. Not flavorful or spicy. Bleh
Crispy tilapia (no. 40) — not bad it was crispy and had peanuts. The flavor is sour and spicy.
I like this place because it offers more than a regular Thai food restaurant. Lots of entrée platters. But then there are also misses on the menu. Best to ask for recommendation! Would come back again

Off the main 8^th Avenue is this hidden spot. You walk in and the place is roomy. Quickly you are seated. It was 10pm and they gladly preswnted the menue. Late dinners after a broadway show is perfect way to dine and chat without posting a review :)
We orderrd the Thai version of wonton soup and it was perfect. Freshly made wontons, garnished with chives. The broth tasty. The night wss a summer night but after being indoors in aur conditioning, this little cup was magical. We both ordered Pad See-​Ew. Deliciously fresh. One selected pork and the other shrimp. Veggies delight and noodles smooth and yummy. Glad we ran inyo this place. But that is the magic of New York city :) every street has its magic.

I came into this restaurant randomly on a Wednesday night with a few people when we were in the area. I am so glad that I did not have high expectations for this place, as the food was mediocre.
I ordered the Gang Ka-​Ree — coconut milk with yellow curry, onion, bell pepper and sweet potatoes, with the chicken option ($ 13.95) with steamed rice ($ 1.50). I was unaware that it did not come with rice and it was an additional cost, since the waiter did not mention anything when he took my order. When my dish came out, it smelled pretty decent, however I felt that my dish was quite diluted.
My friend’s dish, Green Curry — green curry with green beans, carrots, bamboo shoots and coconut milk ($ 13.95) came in a bowl of noodles, which we all were surprised about. The menu did not mentioned anything about noodles or rice options.
Overall, it was fairly mediocre. There was nothing unique about this place. It seems like a regular Thai restaurant. Even though my dish was fairly okay, I would not come back for the dinner prices. I would rather opt in for the lunch special option of paying $ 8.95 with rice included.

I never dined here but had delivery orders a few times for lunch because it’s close to my office. Recently I had a pleasure to order a whole snapper in green curry sauce. Not bad at all when the fish came swimming your way. In the past I’ve ordered Pad Kee Mao and Pad Thai. I thought Pad Kee Mao is better than their Pad Thai but always ask for less oil, it can be too oily sometimes. The snapper was tasty. Pad Thai is not that authentic here. Overall the restaurant is OK, it doesn’t hurt to try it. So, try it!

Was here tonight to meet friends for dinner around 6. My friend chose it because he had been here before and also because he is vegetarian and they have a vegetarian-​friendly page.
He enjoyed his tofu curry except we didn’t know rice was a separate charge of $ 1.50.
Two others had chicken pad thai and said they liked it.
I had the chicken pad see yu and thought the flavors were good.
All around decent meal, not amazing, and would have given another star if the prices were slightly better, or at least if rice came with the curry.
I prefer Pam’s Real Thai not far from here.

Prevailing for years, this restaurant has withstood times in the city. Whoever their Chef is, he did an outstanding job with my favorite Thai dish cellophane woon sen dish with shrimp. It could use a another or 2 more though. Nevertheless, it was very fresh and the way I like it best.
We also ordered another noodle dish called Sod Nam or Nam Sod with ground pork. They taste quite close together so it was good compliment. Both have lime.
A great place for quick lunch or dinner.
I’ve had fried frog’s legs here before. They prepare that good as well.

(2.5 stars) I wasn’t too crazy with our dinner from here although I will say, I was super impressed with how quick the service was. It was rather inattentive but we had a show to catch and the food was ready in 10 minutes tops.
I ordered beef pad see ew spicy and I will say, it was definitely spicy. Although I appreciated the kick and did enjoy the dish, I didn’t care for the Chinese broccoli, the beef was a bit chewy, and some of the noodles were under-​cooked. I guess that’s too be expected when a meal is prepared so quickly. Nevertheless, not a bad choice.
We ordered some spring rolls to start and those were pretty good. Tasty, but a little too oily for my liking. Also, my sister ordered beef and broccoli (which may have been on the menu?) and that was a big letdown. The beef was super tough and particularly unappetizing.
It’s certainly not the best Thai restaurant in the theater district but its not an awful option when in need of a quick and relatively cheap bite.

Bland Unambitious Thai Food
*Note* My review is based on take-​out only.
Food:
To put it simply the food is bland. One would expect a dish with the word «flavor» and curry in it would have taste, any taste.
I went back to try and see if this was a miss, but the second dish I tried (pad-​se-​eil) which is normally on the sweeter side, was a bust. My last two bites of the dish were the only ones to give a hint of taste to the dish.
Despite the food being bland, the food is rather well cooked. Nothing is underdone or dry.
Service/​Speed:
For take-​out the service is quick and professional, but there is no welcoming feeling. The gentleman taking the order is a no-​nonsense individual. Know what your order is, don’t waste his time, and don’t block the entrance for the other customers.
Your take-​out order arrives relatively quickly. Typically it is uncommon to wait longer than 5 – 10 minutes. If it takes longer than that remind the gentleman at the front because it is likely it is sitting on the counter next to him.
Overall: 2.49 Stars
I have visited Pongsri on two occasions in the last 6 months and both times I have left disappointed.
Both dishes I’ve tried have been flavorless, which is ironic considering one of the dishes I ordered (Ka-​Ree Fried Rice) specifically mentions the word flavor.
The only plus is the speed you receive your food for take-​out orders and being straight to the point when taking orders.
I won’t fault you for trying Pongsri, but there are many better options on 8^th and 9^th avenue.