Bangkok BAR NYC

Walked into Bangkok Bar the other day on a whim and was hoping to relive the month I just spent in Thailand. Started with pork belly bun and if I could I’d of have had ten more. Next was Pad Gra Prao Chicken with a fried egg and if I closed my eyes I’d swear i was right back on the food crazed streets of Bangkok.

The opening of Urbanspace Vanderbilt totally changes the lunch scene in Midtown East. Now, I can walk 10+ blocks down to Grand Central for a plethora of delicious lunch options rather than schlepping it to Dishes for the usual boring buffet. I will admit that the prices here are on the expensive side, even for Midtown. My chicken pad thai was $ 13! (For reference, you can order the equivalent from Sukhumvit 51 for $ 9 and from the street cart at the corner of 54^th and Park for $ 7.) But the flavors are there and definitely satisfied my craving for a pad thai. The only thing I will note is that they seem to have a lot of precooked pad thai ready for lunch because as soon as I ordered, they were able to give me my food. This may explain why the chicken was a little overdone and dry. Anyway, if you’ve got $ 13 to shell out, I would spend it here rather than at the overpriced lunch buffets that are so abundant in this area.

The flavors were delicious, until I bit into a piece of chicken in my green Thai curry tofu bowl. I’ve been vegetarian for 15 years and this was a disgusting shock. Really makes me skeptical about their cleanliness. I will not be returning.

eh, sorry, nice people here, but this isn’t good pad thai, overly vinegary (pretty sure my colleague and I stunk up the office that Friday…) and especially not at $ 12. I have eaten a lot of pad thai and safe to say this is not good at all. let’s put it this way. I like the pad thai from the sixth avenue street cart better. the whole vanderbilt food hall is so-​so food at not so great prices.

This place is pretty terrible, sadly. I gave it two chances, a third I will not try. First time was some beef/​chicken (?) rice bowl Roma something. Quite spicy. JUST ALRIGHT. Nothing spectacular.
Second chance was the tofu pad Thai. I’m Asian and from Queens so you know I’ve eaten fair share of Thai food. It was one of the worse pad Thais I have ever had. It’s like they used old noodles or old fish sauce or had too much fish sauce. Either it was too old or too … something. Whatever it was, just wasn’t fresh, tells ya.
There were barely any bean sprouts. And the sprouts that were in there — were old and weak. Sprinkle of peanut.
For both times, I could not finish them in the end. And I finish my lunches usually…
Too bad, there isn’t much Thai food in this neck of town…

Bangkok B.A.R. specializes in fresh street food of Thailand that utilizes traditional ingredients and techniques. In addition to the classic noodle dishes like Pad Thai and curry rice bowls, Bangkok B.A.R. showcases the Hangover Noodle Soup. The dish features tender pieces of chicken and rice noodles in warm chicken broth, which are then topped with cilantro, crushed peanuts, and a hint of spicy seasoning. The noodles were a bit overcooked and it was SO spicy!

Kind of surprised at the dismal reviews for this place. I enjoyed my meal here quite a lot. I ate here today and got the rice bowl. They allow you to try two different toppings so I got the green curry chicken, and the spicy chicken basil. Yes, it came to me quickly because I don’t expect a small food vendor to start cooking a curry from scratch the moment I order it. My dishes were very spicy which I loved. I order Thai food pretty often and the flavors here really were above average. The only reason it’s 3 stars and not 4 is that I thought it was a little too expensive.

I had their pad thai at a street market before and was satisfied. I got the chicken curry over brown rice this time and it was not good. The chicken tasted like it had been sitting there in a heating tray all morning and had the wrong texture. Rice was also too cold. Bad meal. The line moved fairly long. If you get pad thai, it’s pre-​prepared and they add peanuts or something.

Hair in my food! Long line. Expensive for the amount of food. And my food tasted like someone mixed peanut butter, sugar and water and served it as a sauce — sweetness at the level of a fruit compote. FAIL!

Disappointing experience at lunch.
I was very excited for the opening of Bangkok Bar which advertised thai noodle soups. I guess they still have some growing pains to work through as today was the first day they offered appetizers.
The menu currently consists of chicken or tofu pad thai and then rice bowls. Everything is $ 12 and add-​ons (egg/​veggie are $ 2). The portions are very small and mostly rice/​noodle. Everything is premade, the rice bowl toppings are on a steam table and the pad thai is cooked in large quantities, portioned and then handed off to each customer. Lines are long but they move fast because of this pre-​cooked process.
I got the chicken curry. While the flavors were all there, I was very disappointed in the size of the bowl and the portion of chicken curry (¹⁄₅ of the rice). I also added my own hot sauce to it since it was barely spicy.
Hopefully they work through these growing pains and serve larger portions for the price they are charging!

I decided to come here early so I dont have to wait in long line (11.30 AM), there is no escaping at Bangkok Bar! The menus that they have in front of the counter have no specifics for each item therefore every single customer started asking question & causing a long line!, there is only one cash register!, I ordered chicken padthai, it’s quite tasty but I’m surprised to see the portion is so small! so I would not pay $ 12 again for a small serving of padthai, there are other places you can get good Thai food at a reasonable price such as Pam’s Thai

For basic mediocre Thai takeout food it was not worth the price. The place can get pretty mobbed during the lunch rush.