Playground Authentic Thai Cuisine
“If you're feeling brave or you want to play fear factor you can order the Red Ant larvae dish, or some fried grasshoppers.”
“Being a frequent visitor at Zabb Elee for quite some time, I just found another gem right next door to it.”
“Love, love, love the ant egg salad.”
Playground Authentic Thai Cuisine
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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When you eat Thai food, it doesn't necessarily mean the same thing to me. Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that the popularity of Thai food has boomed since the early 90's but the popular Thai dishes isn't what normal Thai people order. Yes, Pad Thai is the national dish(pronounced Pot Thai btw) but it's not all that popular in Thailand. Massaman curry, Panang, satay, tom yum soup, don't get me started with the fried rice except crab, Thai people love that shit for some reason. Point being when I eat Thai food with my mom and family, we order dishes that are different from the typical NYer. The flavors of Playground do a really nice job creating flavors that are similar to that of Thailand. This place has really odd hours, from 5pm to around 4 am. A majority of it's late night crowd are the Thai's that come in after they work their shift at other Thai restaurants or after a night of drinking and partying.
The food:
Raw shrimp in fish sauce- with Thai hot & spicy dressing. I have always really liked this dish, it's bright, super flavorful but holy shit is it spicy. It's kick you in the mouth on fire spicy. The dish isn't for everyone because of the heat and the raw shrimp factor. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Moo Sanook- marinated pork mixed with flour and hot sauce. Holy Jesus are these addictive. The pork is so insanely tender and juicy, the pork has a nice flavor to it. This is a must get. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Mixed seafood papaya salad- I am not the biggest papaya salad fan to begin with, I think it's a good dish but not a dish I would ever crave. To make it worse, the one here was off the day I had it, the papaya was not crunching as it should be. The flavor was pretty respectable but the papaya itself was bad. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Sour curry shrimp and fried Cha-Om leaves- with egg and sour curry soup. I really can' explain why I like this dish so much. It's a not a flavor many people will like because of the Cha-Om leaf, the flavor is very very distinct and I can see how some would be turned off but I love it. The soup has a nice sour flavor to it and the shrimp works well. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Green leaves wrapped salad- steamed white fish with mint, cabbage, Kaffir, red onions, cilantro w/ ground peanut & chili sauce. I never had this dish but it was super light and refreshing. It's essentially a build your own lettuce cup but with ground fish and wonderful aromatics and a nice chilli sauce. It was a good dish. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Crab fried rice- it was a good crab fried rice, I am not a big fried rice person but this was good. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
Thai coconut ice cream- Yes, it's prepackaged but it was a nice finish to the meal. I love Thai coconut ice cream and the one here is a must try. yelp.com/user_local_phot…
There's more than Sripraphai!!
Actually, Woodside/Elmhurst are home to a ton of Thai restaurants whose offerings have far more pop than any Thai in Manhattan. It's easy to get overwhelmed (oh no, too much good food, woe is me), but Playground is up there with the best of them.
This self-described "bar and bistro" is next door to Zabb Elee (yelp.com/biz/zabb-elee-w…), but definitely has a different feel, and serves a noticeably different (more local, more Thai) clientele. I'd initially assumed Playground was some dingy, second-rate place looking to cash in on Zabb's popularity. Turns out their relationship is less parasitic: Of course they're competitors, but Playground often has more customers. Its interior is cute and eclectic, more relaxed than Zabb even though both have the same narrow footprint. Art made of nail heads covers one wall and paper butterflies flutter above the bar against flatscreens playing Thai music videos.
The best thing about Playground is that the whole menu is accessible AND interesting – more so than Zabb, more so than Sripraphai, more so than Ayada, more so than Thailand's Center Point. As someone who lives nearby, I know I can come back 20 times, find something new I want to try each time, and actually enjoy it each time.
Everything starts at $8, which is spectacular. Branch out beyond fried noodles! The BBQ pork with Isan sauce is delicious (though I wish the sauce were spicier). The jungle curry is more of a soup: the fiery broth includes tons of add-ins like sprigs of green peppercorn and pretty bulbs of Thai eggplant. (Midway through the bowl is when your ears start sensing a change in atmospheric pressure due to the spiciness.) There are dishes here I've never even seen on other menus: for example, Yen Ta Fo was a sweet and tart noodle soup, stained bright neon pink by specially fermented tofu paste.
Also, they serve fried grasshoppers (!!). Yes, really.
Playground is one of the only spots in the neighborhood open late (til 4am, rivaling the Irish pubs!). They also deliver later than most – til 1am, officially – but aren't on the usual delivery websites. Communication via phone can be tough if you don't speak Thai. Eating in is more fun, anyway.
Years ago I gave Sripraphai 5 stars. It's still great for what it is, but the Thai scene in Woodside has evolved and diversified. Playground's fun (ha) food and ambiance, cheap prices, and ridiculous hours put it on top.
Food: We came here for grasshoppers but they ran out of them, so we had sour shrimp curry, yen ta four noodles and ant's larvae salad. I love all of them especially the salad, since I have had many tasteless Thai salads before. The sour curry had omelets in it and tastes interesting. The noodles was large in size and with tasty broth.
Environment: The restaurant was a little too noisy because of the Thai Pops they were playing. It was very dark, making reading their menu a challenging task because the menu is really long.
As a Thai cuisine snob who has experience with eating things both on and off the menu (my aunt is the owner and chef), this place is worth making the trek out to Queens. It is TRUE AUTHENTIC Thai food.
I usually order a Thai-American dish like pad thai or pad see ew, just to test the waters and even these dishes, the chef does right. They're flavorful to the right extent, not overly sweet, and not sloshy.
What's really fun to eat here are the yums aka spicy salads and the bar snack appetizers. No where else in the city can you find such unique, tasty mini dishes that I promise won't fill you up. Trust me, you won't want to order a pad thai for yourself and call it a night. The yums encompass all the flavors a traditional spicy salad is supposed to have–spicy, sour, salty, and a bit sweet. They're spicy but make you want to keep on eating.
GREEN PAPAYA SALAD. A MOUNTAIN OF AMAZING.
The portions are generous and you must try everything! Whatever sounds "traditional" to you, don't order it! Go out of your comfort zone and you won't regret it.
The downside is that they're not open for lunch on weekdays but now OPEN for LUNCH on WEEKENDS FYI. They also serve the late night crowd in the bar/lounge downstairs (owned by the same person).
Surprisingly good, but **CASH ONLY** as of now.
I've had a lot of other Thai food in the area – Sripraphai, Spicy Shallot, Ayads, etc. This place is up there! It doesn't look like much from the outside, but you shouldn't judge just from that. It is pretty small inside, but they have cool wall art and service is quick.
They have a large menu and a lot of options other than the usual Pad Thai or Pad See Ew. As interesting as they all looked, I was a little unsure and just went with the shrimp pad see ew. And it was good! It came with a good portion of noodles and the shrimp was cooked well. I also got a Thai iced tea (because of course) and it was only $2! We also for curry puffs – not too memorable, but they were exactly what they sound like.
For dessert, we went for this pudding-like dessert that came with bread to dip it in! I've never had anything like it before, and I loved it. It was sweet and had sort of a green tea flavor to it. The bread was soft and perfect for dipping. It was seriously addicting!
I'll be back to try some other authentic Thai dishes and that dessert!
Tried the ants egg salad today and it wasn't bad. My friend and I figured out how to describe the taste and texture of the little eggs: tiny oysters the size of tic tacs that pops in your mouth, a little creamy but not fishy
Started going here more often and the food is good depending on what you order. I'm still not a fan of their sauteed items but the apps are pretty good. They have these large grilled prawns. I was excited to have time because i love seafood however their seafood nam jim was not goood!!
Items i enjoy having here
Fried grasshoppers
Moo dad diew
Moo sanook
Suar rong hai
Yum hoy nang lom
Yum yum yum
3.5 stars
I thought I left a review before, anyway I came here last year. I remember we ordered the ant larvae salad. It was really limey. We just wanted to try something exotic, not as extreme as the grasshoppers or silk worms. It was interesting, but I'm not exactly sure what it's supposed to taste like since it was overpowered by all the lime juice.
The sticky rice was a bit hard so I didn't really bother eating it. Basil fried rice is great practically anywhere. I can't recall the other dishes we tried, but everything was really spicy, but it was good overall. I just couldn't taste anything after awhile.
The service was great, very attentive. It's a bit dark in there, but we don't mind.