Somtum Der
“The Tom Saab soup is super spicy and delicious.the grilled pork with coconut rice is superb!”
“Okay, this is another must go to Thai restaurant if you want the authenticity of Isan (Northeastern Thai) taste.”
“The waiter was nice to switch it for a spicy papaya salad with salty egg, Tum Thai kai kem.”
Somtum Der
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Came here on a date. Nice cozy place and food was good for sharing. Both of us lived spicy food and came here look for something really spicy. The food was not that spicy for us but it was more spicy than normal Thai places.
Appetizer platter: fish cake, sausage, pork. All tastes great. I just dipped everything in the spicy sauce that came with the platter. Didn't know what to do with the peanuts and some raw chili peppers.
Spicy crab pad Thai: normal pad Thai but more spicy. A bit of crab meat on top. It's pad Thai; so Generally good!
Marinated beef with Der sticky rice: nice nice nice! My date liked it a lot. Probably because it is that rare Asian dish with all protein/meat and no carbs. The beef was marinated but I didn't think it was spicy. It is more like sweet, soy sauce flavor.
I loved the fried coconut sticky rice. Can really taste the coconut.
I was excited to come here, as I've been on a short trek to 'affordable' restaurants which are Michelin-starred. [Short because there are very few… :'(.] We entered this restaurant, which is just a few blocks down from St. Mark's. The decor is cute, very Thai (?) with red and gold colored walls and gold lighting to offset the mood. The staff was friendly, and welcomed us immediately.
We ordered the Papaya Salad with Salted Egg, Duck Larb, Pad Kee Mao, Coconut Beef Skewers. Overall, everything was pretty good and spicy in just the right ways. The coconut beef skewers was probably the best dish, as the beef was juicy, though I wish there were more pungent coconut flavors.
The reason behind the 'just okay' rating is that nothing absolutely blew my socks off. Everything was good, but I feel like I've had better Thai at a certain place in Elmhurst with bigger portions and a cheaper price. There was no dish that clicked the Michelin lightbulb inside my head & had me saying "Ah. this is why!" Instead, I was a bit disappointed as the dishes definitely delivered spicy heat levels, but not flavorful levels. The coconut rice here is also not as good as a certain place, since the flavors were subtle and the grain was a bit dry.
The prices are a bit on the pricier end for the smaller portions as well. I probably wouldn't come back here…
I am a Thai American so I am more critical of Thai food than your average New Yorker. I visit Thailand twice a year so I have a very good understanding of what to expect from different regions of Thai cusine. Somtum Der is an Isan Thai restaurant, which is North Eastern Thailand, their cuisine is influenced by Cambodia and the region is known for their papaya salads, grilled meats, citrus meat salads and sticky rice. Isan has always been my favorite kind of Thai food, so it kinda pains me that this dinner was a miss. Overall, the meal was just OK to me, it was very very very clear to me that they adjusted the flavors to fit the local clientele. The flavors were Americanized, the spice level was toned down, the portions were small, and the biggest kicker for me was everything was too sweet. Also, it is dark as fuck inside so forget pictures. lol Also, turns out they have locations in Thailand, Vietnam, China and Tokyo.
The food:
Sa Poak Kai Tod Der- Der styled deep fried chicken thigh. This is one of their popular dishes and I thought it was good, the chicken had good flavor and was nicely fried without being greasy. This was my fav dish of the night.
Goong Chae Nam Pla- Thai prawn sashimi with house special green chili sauce. I was pretty surprised how much I enjoyed this dish. I normally get this as an app in most Thai restaurants since when done right, it is an explosion of flavors, this place did it right. The raw shrimp had really good flavor and it was a very good spice level but it would be too spicy for many, I did feel the dish should have had more sauce. Overall, a dish to get. And if you want it less spicy, then push some of the chilies off to the side.
Nue Rong Hai Der + Khao Ji- House special grilled marinated beef. This was the dish I was most eager to dry and it was kinda a fail. The beef was just OK, the beef fell flat. I felt the beef needed to be marinated more and the meat should have been more tender. This dish makes me sad =(
Tum Thai Kai Kem- Thai spicy papaya salad with salted egg. The salted egg is not something I normally order since the egg is pretty aggressive but this dish wasn't half bad, the flavor was good but the egg yolk made the sauce pretty chalky which was kinda off putting. I ordered this dish medium spicy and it had a quick burn but it disappeared quickly.
H'orderves Der- Samplers of Nam Sod, Moo Yor, Moo Dad Dieo, and Fried Isan Sausages. I didn't really care for this, the platter was lacking and nothing really stood out. I would skip this.
Tum Kor Moo Yang- Spicy papaya salad mixed with grilled pork neck. I normally love pork neck but the pork neck here was way too sweet. The flavor of the salad was good and the papaya salad was nice and crunchy but the sweetness of the pork neck really messed up the dish. I ordered this medium spicy as well, but this one came off more sweet than anything else.
Grilled Sticky Rice- Der's Style. Personally, I thought it was kinda silly to serve this on skewers, the flavor was OK but I thought it was too sweet and the sticky rice came out too mushy. The rice should have had a drier, more firm texture.
Somtum Der
NY Manhattan LES
8pm Sunday 17th July 2016
Four Stars
Somtum Der has a current Michelin Star which is just as impressive as their food. This restaurant pops up as one of the best thai restaurants in the city. So Tiffany, her Brother, and I decided to try it out. The red walls, basket lanterns, black pleather booths, and glass jars filled with ingredients complete the look of this place. We started with the "Tum Thai" which is the classic Papaya Salad. They have several options but the pork neck one sounded delicious to me (Next time). We asked for 1 chili and it was still spicy (which I thoroughly enjoyed). The papaya was fresh, the dressing was spicy, sour, and salty, the peanuts and green beans added crunch. It was simple and delicious. The "Koi Goong" was a prawn salad with thinly sliced red onions, herbs, lots of spice, and roasted minced rice. It packed a lot of flavor into such a small dish. The "Moo Ping Kati Sod" or Pork Skewers were marinated in coconut milk and grilled to perfection. It was served with rice noodles and salty, citrusy dipping sauce. The Beef Skewers were similarly good. The toasted sticky rice skewers complimented the meat superbly. We finished the meal with "Pad Ki Mao" with pork. It is similar to drunken noodles with fried basil and a touch of heat. I am sure it could have been spicier but my dinner companions needed two diet cokes and two thai ice teas to cool their tongues. The final bill was $87 which was not so bad. The service was a bit slow and I ate off a chipped plate which high irregular for such a high rated place.
Still not sure if this place is michelin star worthy but food here is pretty decent! Especially the northeastern thai food!
Get somtum and all the laab, namtok my friends! I dont thunk their pad thai or pad see ew are any better than those you can find in nyc. The point is this place is northeastern thai restaurant so order their signature dishes, which i shall warn you– they are spicy.
Order the coconut rice on the stick! They are sooooo good and will help you when your tongue is burning from the chillis in somtum 🙂
The dessert was very interesting! The shaved ice was delicious and so is the grass jelly in milk!
Perfectly good thai place – I am not sure if I just missed it but how is this michelin rated?
Things you should definitely order:
– grilled sticky rice (only 3 per order)
– fried chicken
– any of the seafood dishes
The service is really great here and the food was pretty tasty, but I'm taking off a star because it was definitely overpriced for the portion size and quality.
Can get busy around 6-7pm so be warned if you have a large group!
The food here is different from the usual Americanized Thai food. We got a spicy duck larb salad, and it as definitely very spicy. The acidity of the salad and fried duck went along really well with the spice.
We ate the duck with a vegetable fried rice to ease the spiciness. The mushrooms the fried rice came with were surprisingly fragrant and we didn't really need to use the spicy soy sauce that came with it.
Lastly, we also got fried minced pork balls. They were piping hot when they came, and the meat had a similar sour kick as the duck.
The bill came out to be about 35 dollars (including a Thai iced tea) for two people, which wasn't bad considering the quality of the food and the nice atmosphere of the restaurant.
Went back last night and it was just as good, AND SPICY, as the first time. We ended up getting a lot of the same things I had the first time but we also added in some soups. We got the chicken soup and the spicy pork cartilage soup and both were amazing. The chicken soup was reminiscent of Tom Yum and had about 7 or 8 chicken wings in it. So good. The pork cartilage soup was awesome too but I preferred the chicken.
The som tum's were delicious as expected as were the coconut pork skewers and the prawn sashimi. Such great flavors from this place. My old man and brother were both extremely impressed. This place is a gem.