Lui’s Thai Food
“It is a cozy restaurant that makes you feel like you're in someone's living room eating dinner with everyone else dining at the restaurant.”
“For $20 a person (including tip) my 5 girlfriends and I left STUFFED and well buzzed at this new Thai BYOB on my block.”
“Dessert:
+ Coconut Flan (not such a traditional jello-like flan, more like a bread pudding.”
Lui’s Thai Food
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Caters: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
This place is a total hidden gem. Although the wait can be long for how tiny the restaurant is it's totally worth it. First off its Byob which is a definite plus. Secondly the food is just out of this world. We recently came back from a trip to Bangkok where we were lucky enough to have some of the most amazing food, coming here felt like a walk down memory lane.
They really allow you to enjoy your experience here. No one tried to rush us out and the courses came out nicely spaced, giving us ample opportunity to enjoy each other's company. The pork and shrimp spring rolls were truly delightful and the pad Thai was not greasy and had tons of flavor. I of course added some Thai chilis to add some extra heat which they nicely brought out.
Did I mention the adorable dinnerware. All of the plates and serving dishes make you feel as if you're in someone's home. We will definitely be back and will be bringing friends!
I'm not gonna say I love this restaurant, but I don't necessarily hate it either. It's a small restaurant with maybe 5 tables. My cousin was telling me about this place and I thought I'd give it a try. The service was really good and the guy who runs this place was really nice. We started off with a papaya salad, which was actually pretty spicy. Surprisingly this was a tiny dish compared to other thai places I've been to. It was good, but you just have to watch out of the jalapeños in there. I mistaken it for the string beans and ended up drinking a whole pitcher of water. The spare ribs and crispy duck was very flavorful, but extremely salty! I can taste all the fish sauce they put it in. Food is good, but I've had better.
By the way, it's BYOB. There's a liquor store on 1st Ave between 2nd and 3rd street.
Best Thai food in the city. The end.
Well… I don't think Yelp will let me get away with that so here's the run down
1. Drunken noodles – they had a special with salmon but I swapped it out for shrimp. Was fresh with tantalizing aromas of fresh basil, chili and tomato. I've never had drunken noodles with roast peppers, eggs and onions and I loved it. So much flavor!
2 soft shell crab Panang curry- special also to have soft shell crab although they say that the Penang is always on the menu just with different protein. WOWZA. THE BEST PANANG CURRY EVER! just enough heat to enjoy it, coconut based curry added a sweet base with scallions adding some freshness too.
We were so excited with our dishes we asked how far they deliver. The waitress disappeared only to bring out LUI herself!!! The chef came out to introduce herself which way such a rear event and really represented how this is really "home cooking" at its finest!
3. Sticky rice dessert. A fresh and traditional dish. Was delicious and authentic (I've been to Thailand 3 times) but maybe some people won't enjoy it because it's not Americas idea of dessert.
4. BYOB. Our meal came to $23 each. Thank u byob!
Will be back. Again. And again. And again.
I decided to come here to pop my Thai food cherry. This place was on my Bookmarks for a while when I saw good reviews and reasonable prices. I am so glad we decided to come here one night as our last resort but I am so glad we did especially as my 1st time to try Thai food.
The place is small but surprisingly can fit lots of groups and the atmosphere is laid back and a touch of "fancy casual" if that's even a word. It would definitely have been better to come back during day to take nicer pictures.
It took us a while to order, everything on the menu seemed good and reasonable. I eventually went with the garlic chicken which was out of this world. Super flavorful, savory, and a touch of sweetness. My friend ordered a tofu app which was good as well. The portions are very reasonable as well.
The place is almost perfect except that I had a bit trouble communicating with the waitress who did not speak good English when I had questions about the menu cause the menu is a but vague in how the food is prepared. I also didn't want rice as a side cause I watch my carbs with diabetes and they make no subs but it was fine cause my friend was happy to eat it.
Also BYOB, major major plus especially for a cute place like this. Will def come back here with a group of friends during the day for lunch to take better pictures.
This place is an experience. If you are looking for a mainstream Thai restaurant, do not come here. This is quite literally a hole in the wall Thai restaurant that serves delicious food.
AMBIANCE: First of all, the restaurant is TINY!! There are like 6 tiny tables. And when I say tiny, I mean the table may be round 18" diameter table which seats you and your guest. There's barely enough room on the table for two glasses and two dishes. Of note, the bathroom is hilariously about 1/3 the size of the restaurant.
THE DRINKS: There is NO alcohol served here but they have a very generous BYOB policy! There is a wine shop just 2 streets away called Urban Wine & Spirits (on 1st Ave between 2nd and 3rd St). Definitely bring in some wine or beer to pair with your Thai food.
THE MENU: The menu changes often and there are always chef's specials depending on the season. I think Lui must literally live in the kitchen and cook things in his kitchen like he is going to be serving his family. The food tastes home-made. The menu itself is not very extensive and there are absolutely no substitutions or changes. I think this probably helps control their cost and improve the overall quality of the food. I highly recommend the seared salmon with green curry. It is EXCELLENT. The appetizers are also very good. I highly recommend the veggie massa-mun curry bun or the steamed mussels. Both are awesome.
This is a hole in the wall restaurant, very (when i say very, i mean VERY) small with about 5-6 tables only. I read many of the good reviews people left for this restaurant so i figured i'll try it. I didnt think the restaurant's size would bother me much becos a lot of good restaurants are usually very small.
So we came here and there was a 45-60 min wait. Expected. We were called and seated. We had to kill some time before since we did wait 45-60 mins so we had our drinks from a coffee shop around the corner. The waitress came and gave us paper bags becos there is a no outside drink policy.. But mind u, they have a BYOB policy.. So i guess we shoulda brought alcohol while we were waiting then? Um.. My bad but thats just totally weird and i really cant understand that becos it wasnt like we didnt order thai iced teas and tom yum soup.. So idk what the deal was.. Anyways we cooperated cos we're mature adults..
We ordered almost everything ppl raved abt, the spring rolls (i forgot the exact name), papaya salad, tom yum soup, mussels, chicken pad thai, drunken noodles w salmon, soft shell crab curry, roast duck, calamari.. And mango sticky rice
The tom yum soup had like 2-3 pcs of shrimp and mushrooms/onions.. It was alil bit watered down and not sour or spicy.. But kinda sweet.. Odd.
Spring rolls outside was crispy and went well w the dippin sauce, however beef inside was overcooked
Papaya salad was chewy.. And tough..
Mussels did not taste fresh, kinda had this sea-ish and stinky taste ;( the sauce was good tho..
Chicken pad thai looked good but it tasted alittle bit dry.. And lacked flavor
Drunken noodle w salmon was pretty decent. Nothing spectacular but probably one of the best dish so far
The soft shell crab curry however was very good. This was the ONLY dish we were happy abt. $$20 for 3 pcs of soft shell crab.. Curry sauce is slightly spicy so ppl who do not take spicy well, this may be too hot for u but its good w rice which they dont come w rice.. We ordered it separately
Roast duck was dry and i literally only took one bite and did not touch the dish again
The calamari dish was such a joke.. There were only 3 pcs of calamari w 4-5 pcs of shrimp. Shrimp was ok, didnt getto try the calamari didnt have enough and dont wanna leave any of my friends sad without one lol
The mango sticky rice! Well.. It never came. They had ONE mango left (i assume) cos the lady came to us to show us a BLACK mango and told us they cannot make it. They apologized but.. I cant understand that its a Friday night, everyone knos thais famous dessert is the mango sticky rice.. And u only have one black mango and cannot make the dessert? I think thas a huge fail for a thai restaurant.. They compensated by givin us sticky rice on the house.. Since it was already started and made. We took a few bites and it jus wasnt the same w/o the mango..
This was the most disappointing meal i've ever had especially from all these good reviews i've read. This was definitely my first and last time. I came w a couple who visited Thailand before and actually had authentic thai food. They were super disappointed becos the food tasted NOTHING like what they had in Thailand..
The whole dining experience was very uncomfortable becos we didnt have much space to move around comfortably. Many ppl stated this was an intimate spot to take ur dates.. Um yes if u dont want ur date to order a lot of food lol cos u can probably only fit 2 dishes PER table!
The odd thing is, their bathroom is BIG. Such wasted space cos the bathroom can be smaller so they can add more space in the seating room..
Overall, not what we expected.. And sorry but this restaurant is only a 1 star in my book.
Lui's Thai Food is a small restaurant in East Village.
My friend recommended Lui's Thai, and I've had it bookmarked on Yelp for weeks!
It was 7:30pm on a Saturday night. I came here in a group of four without a reservation, and we were seated immediately. Their menu includes your typical fried rice and pad thai, but also have some unfamiliar items. I ordered the Puffy Tofu Massa-Mun, a curry/stew of spices, lotus seeds, corn and potato. If you like Indian food, you'll like this!
The restaurant is small, and the seating is limited, but don't let that steer you away. They spread out the tables more than other small restuarants, so you won't be elbow-ing the diners next to you. Their plates are mismatched, girly, and very-"Anthropologie". It's the kind of dinner spread that you'll want to take a picture of.
Not only are they great to dine in, they have a popular take-out menu. During our meal, streams of food-delivery dudes came in and out to feed hungry New Yorkers. If you live in the East Village or LES, consider take-out from here!
This place is the bomb. BYOB first of all. The food is very good on top of that. The service is fast and friendly. The same server has been working there the past few times I went. You can tell the food is made fresh and it is quality. Which is hard to find. My friend had an apartment right on that block so we were frequent visitors. I love this place for thai cravings.