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A bowl filled with all sorts of colorful ingredients.
Khao yum is a toss-it-yourself southern Thai salad.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

25 Thrilling Thai Restaurants in New York City

From classic curries and basil stir fries to regional specialties such as sour sausage, broiled river prawns, and creamy chicken roti

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Khao yum is a toss-it-yourself southern Thai salad.
| Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thai restaurants are one of the fastest-growing dining segments in New York City. And with more places specializing in regional cuisines, the Thai scene has never been more exciting. Today, it’s easy to find the fiery food of Isan in the northeast, the mellower food of Chiang Mai near the Burmese border, oodles of noodles from the ancient historic city of Sukhothai, the curries of central and southern Thailand, the urban cuisine of Bangkok (including the unique food of its Chinatown), and the Malaysian-leaning gastronomy of the southern peninsula. Here are a few of our favorite Thai restaurants.

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Thai Hot Box

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Hot Box is a closet of a space on the Upper East Side with exceptional Thai food at bargain prices, specializing in Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. From the first category comes a splendid krapow kai daow, which might qualify as the Thai dish of the year in New York City, featuring a mound of chile-laced pork in a sweet dark sauce, fluffy rice, and a runny fried egg, incendiary and delicious.

Fried egg, very yellow, white rice, brown ground meat.
Krapow kai daow at Hot Box.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Lum Lum

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Replacing the well-regarded Pam Real Thai Food, Lum Lum (“delicious” in Thai) is the work of Sommy and Mo Hensawang, who hail from the Ayutthaya province north of Bangkok. Some of the recipes are their mother’s, including an arresting squid soup thickened with ink. Fresh herbs are heaped upon the plates and made spectacular use of in rice casseroles, salads, and noodles, and the spice level is in the 90th percentile unless you request otherwise.

A black broth with squid rings, scallions, and red chiles on top.
Squid-ink soup at Lum Lum.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thonglor

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The Thonglor neighborhood is the East Village of Bangkok, a hopping area known for its art galleries, Japanese restaurants, spas, and hot dog stands. Astoria’s Thonglor changed its name from Red Basil Thai not long ago, upping its food game to include lots of crispy duck and whole fish dishes, of which red snapper is king. Got the picture? A somewhat upscale place where your money is well spent on premium ingredients, with the setting nothing special for a Thai restaurant.

A duck leg points skyward.
Duck panang curry at Thonglor.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mitr Thai Restaurant

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Hidden in plain sight just south of Rockefeller Center, newcomer Mitr Thai may be the city’s glitziest Thai restaurant, with gold trimmings and fancy woodwork. A luxury restaurant specializing in street food, it offers dishes from all over the country, including lots from Bangkok. The shrimp-and-betel fritter is a beachside snack from southern Thailand, a crunchy fried patty with subtle herbal flavors served with a sweet dipping sauce and a pair of fresh betel leaves.

A round brown fritter on green leaves.
Shrimp and betel fritter at Mitr Thai.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thai Nara Halal

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The food at this Woodside gem hails from southernmost Thailand adjacent to Malaysia. That means creamy coconut milk curries presented as soups that feature egg noodles instead of rice, and a Thai-leaning version of roti canai, possessing a chunkier, more vegetable-filled dipping sauce, with a rare beef version available. Lots of seafood on the menu, and all meat is halal at this institution representing the cuisine of the southern region’s Muslim minority.

Beef roti, the bread wadded, the dark  curry in a bowl.
Beef roti at Thai Nara.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Sripraphai

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It’s been more than 30 years since a modest Thai bakery in Woodside started by Sripraphai Tipmanee morphed into this full-blown restaurant. The lengthy menu is all over the place, listing Isan sour sausage, mango sticky rice, and umpteen curry and noodle choices, nearly all of which are good. Sit in the leafy rear garden, and admire the cascades of flowers.

Sripraphai’s flower bedecked garden
In the summer, the backyard garden is the place to sit.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tea Cup Cafe

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There’s no Thai restaurant quite like this one. Located on the fabled Thai strip of Woodside Avenue, it’s like a cross between a coffee bar and mom’s kitchen, where a talented cook whips up ramen in various permutations, hot pots, and intestine soups. Snacks and main courses change constantly on a chalkboard and various handwritten menus. Or just drop by for a cup of tea or coffee on a cold day.

A bowl with clear broth and flounder filets.
Tea Cup’s fish soup.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hug Esan

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There’s no stinting on the fish sauce and other sharp flavors at the affectionately named Hug Esan, from owners Chiraporn Sornphoom and Jariya Charoenwong and chef Jintana Khamphaiboon. The fascinating, delicious, and frequently fiery Isan menu runs to chicken with jeaw sauce, toasted rice salad dotted with sour sausage, crab omelet served over rice, whole fish, plus the usual larbs and papaya salads.

At peak times, tiny Hug Esan is often filled up.
The convivial scene inside Hug Esan.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Zaab Zaab

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While the city has enjoyed a rich collection of Isan restaurants from the northeastern section of Thailand bordering the Mekong River, Zaab Zaab plunges deeper with novel dishes and organ meats galore. Located amidst Elmhurst’s thriving Thai Town in a small, colorful space, Zaab Zaab’s menu from chef Aniwat Khotsopa runs to duck larb, tilapia roasted with salt, and tom hang — a steamed assortment of cow tripe, spleen, and intestine with two dipping sauces. A new branch in Williamsburg concentrates on fish.

A whole fish, white rice noodles, and thicket of herbs and lettuce.
Roast tilapia, Isan fashion at Zaab Zaab.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Eim Khao Mun Kai

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It’s a tribute to Elmhurst as a Thai neighborhood that the large population of restaurants includes a couple that specialize in only one dish. In this case, that dish is Hainanese-style chicken from China’s southernmost region, offered from a Thai perspective. The bargain set meal includes a quarter chicken poached in an aromatic broth, rice cooked in broth, a dark consomme, and a few slices of cucumber. Chicken is halal.

Slice skinless chicken with rice and broth on the side.
Hainanese chicken with all the fixins.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Chao Thai

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This tiny pink palace of Thai food was once a twosome, but the more ambitious branch south of the LIRR overpass is now history. The neighborhood is left with an Elmhurst original that was one of the first to excite us with Isan regional fare. It’s impossible to forget one’s first taste of pig leg with special sauce, squid salad, chicken larb, or the unforgettable bar snack moo yang — grilled strips of pork with a sweet glaze, served with fresh herbs.

An orange awning with green lettering over a tiny storefront.
Early Isan restaurant Chao Thai has a famously pink interior.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pranakhon

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What a surprise when this massive Thai restaurant set down just south of Union Square, decorated like a Bangkok outdoor market with a lottery ticket window, fake electrical poles and pigeons, and all sorts of dining spaces on two levels. The cooks are from southern Thailand, and several dishes originated there, including khao yum, a refreshing salad that will knock your eyes out with its colorful ingredients. In line with the over-the-top decor, Bangkok street food can also be found.

Three dishes in bowls plus rice and a salad.
A spread at Pranakhon.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

This East Village heavy hitter boasts a pair of specialties, including multiple noodle varieties from Sukhothai in Central Thailand, and soups and other culinary highlights of Udon Thani in northern Thailand, via owners Chidensee Watthanawongwat, Kittiya Mokkarat, and Supatta Banklouy. The menu also has some Thai Chinese dishes from Bangkok, including koong karee — shrimp in egg sauce.

Shrimp in a thick yellow sauce.
Koong karee at Soothr.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Somtum Der

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While its sister restaurant Kiin Thai disappeared during the pandemic, Somtum Der forges ahead making several versions of its eponymous green papaya salad, plus a more general menu that focuses on the food of Isan, the region that bulges in Thailand’s northeast. Yes, some very fiery food is available, but you must request the heat. Don’t miss the larbs, either.

A heap of shredded green papaya with a haystack of dried fish shavings on top.
One of eight green papaya salads at Somtum Der.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Terra Thai

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Opened two years ago by Karuna Wiwattanakantang and Norawat Margsiri, who previously ran a Thai restaurant of the same name in Boulder, Colorado, Terra Thai specializes in complete Thai meals at bargain prices. Their focus is the street food of Bangkok, and one wonderful meal includes basil chicken, chewy and pungent, served with rice, pumpkin, and a poached egg. A vegetarian version of pad Thai is another good choice.

A mince of chicken in a black pastic tray with rice, poached egg, and pumpkin.
Basil chicken in a takeout container.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

If you want to try the food of southern Thailand’s Malay Peninsula, check out the East Village’s MayRee. On a darkened block, the premises is similarly subdued in its lighting scheme, and jars of spirits infused with Thai flavorings line up on a bar at the rear. Roti nam keang, a pair of flaky flatbreads served with a bowl of peanutty chicken curry, is similar to the roti canai found in area’s Malaysian restaurants. 

Two brown circular breads below a bowl of peanut chicken curry.
Roti nam keang at MayRee.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Amarin Cafe

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Thai Café was the first restaurant of its type to open in north Brooklyn, and now there are at least a dozen, of which Amarin seems to be the best. Don’t expect a wide range of regional dishes, but a solid list of old favorites that includes a full roster of curries and stir-fries, plus a pleasingly diverse list of appetizers. Among them is a wonderful quartet of fish cakes red with chili paste.

Three reddish discs with salad on the side.
Red curry fish cakes at Greenpoint’s Amarin.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Lan Larb

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Legendary Thai chef Ratchanee Sumpatboon (Chao Thai, Poodam, Zabb Elee, and Larb Ubol) was the founding chef here, and much of her menu remains though she has since left the restaurant. Watch the soups, in particular: Kui teiw ped is the best duck soup you’ve ever tasted. In the last couple of years, the restaurant has increasingly emphasized the food of Chiang Mai, which includes whole fish with chiles wrapped in a banana leaf, braised pork belly in herb sauce served with sticky rice, and a variety of distinctive curries.

Thai seafood soup with shrimp and squid in a very dark broth.
Seafood soup with glass noodles.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Noree Thai Bazaar

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Who would’ve thought a Korean fried chicken chain would spawn such a good Thai restaurant? But Bonchon Chicken has done just that. Noree Thai Bazaar, owned by Andy C. Lau, seeks to resemble a night market, with drinks and snacks an important part of the formula. There’s an enhanced emphasis on satays, with choices running to shrimp, chicken, pork, and a host of vegetables, whether marinated in lemongrass, dunked in peanut sauce, or rubbed with cumin. Lots of curries, salads, and noodles, too.

Meat impaled on side by side sticks with a peanutty dipping sauce.
Pork and chicken satays are street food staples.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Eat Gai

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This is one of a small crop of restaurants specializing in khao man gai, the Thai spin on Hainanese chicken rice. Eat Gai was originally founded in the East Village in 2018, and still under chef Mukda Sakulclanuwat, it moved to a new space in Essex Market and added Thai fried chicken to its menu, along with other dishes on a daily basis. Consult the overhead chalkboard before you order.

A black plastic tray with poached chicken and cucumbers on a very dark background, a plastic container of soup on the side.
Khai man gai (Thai Hainanese chicken) at Essex Market.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Noods N’ Chill

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Like the name says, this Williamsburg Thai restaurant specializes in noodles, the last of the great Plant Love House empire remaining. It offers Isaan, southern Thai, and occasional Chinese Thai dishes from Bangkok, as conceived by owners Benjaporn Chua, Preawpun Sutipayakul, and Jirawat Sutipayakul. Everyday dishes run to duck, blood boat noodles, and spicy chicken wings with a sweet dipping sauce.

In the foreground a bowl of white rice soup flanked by two bigger and more colorful side dishes.
Congee with side dishes.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Under owner Prasneeya Praditpoj and chefs Chetkangwan Thipruetree and Sunisa Nitmai, Tong (“gold”) was one of those brave pandemic debuts when it opened three years ago in what looks like an ex-garage near the border of Bushwick and Ridgewood. It specializes in kub klaem — small drinking snacks, including grilled pork jowl with a tamarind-chile glaze, green papaya salad heaped with a lattice of dried catfish, and smoked eggplant with a boiled egg and coconut jam on top.

A blue bowl beneath out of focus, eggplant and sliced boiled egg inside.
Smoked eggplant with boiled egg and coconut jam
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Nuaa Table

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Located right on hopping Vanderbilt Avenue, where a dining area in the middle of the street often banishes cars, Nuaa Table offers the familiar cuisine with lots of colorful bistro flourishes, along with inventive dishes and a section of street food, including lots of noodles. A Bangkok stir fry of pork chunklets and basil comes topped with a runny deep-fried egg, while a banana blossom salad packs a good deal of heat and sourness, served with greens and herbs for wrapping bites.

A dark oblong bowl with a jumble of julienne ingredients sided with boiled quail eggs and greens.
Banana blossom salad in Prospect Heights.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Ugly Baby

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There’s nothing ugly about this baby from chef Sirichai Sreparplarn, who has raised the bar further where Brooklyn’s Thai food is concerned. The menu is frequently revamped and now reservations are available on Tock. It’s one of the best Thai spots in town, with epic heat available in some dishes, like the laab ped udon, a duck salad so fiery it will have you reaching for your mango-flavored beer.

A hand holds a small cup of red fluid, as if to dump it in a colorful bowl with sliced brisket in it.
Beautiful beef soup at Ugly Baby.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Bangkok Degree

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This hidden gem is the best Thai restaurant Park Slope has yet fielded, though the neighborhood has long had many agreeable places with uninspiring menus. Bangkok Degree is presided over by Chusak Srithongsul and Wirot Sirimatrasit: The first ran a restaurant in Thailand showcasing grandmother recipes, while the second is a veteran of the Elmhurst Thai scene. The result is a menu with street food from Bangkok, regional recipes from around the country, and invented dishes.

A conical pile of salad with dark tea leaves and shredded raw beet and carrot on top.
Thai tea leaf salad at Bangkok Degree.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thai Hot Box

Hot Box is a closet of a space on the Upper East Side with exceptional Thai food at bargain prices, specializing in Bangkok, Phuket, and Chiang Mai. From the first category comes a splendid krapow kai daow, which might qualify as the Thai dish of the year in New York City, featuring a mound of chile-laced pork in a sweet dark sauce, fluffy rice, and a runny fried egg, incendiary and delicious.

Fried egg, very yellow, white rice, brown ground meat.
Krapow kai daow at Hot Box.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Lum Lum

Replacing the well-regarded Pam Real Thai Food, Lum Lum (“delicious” in Thai) is the work of Sommy and Mo Hensawang, who hail from the Ayutthaya province north of Bangkok. Some of the recipes are their mother’s, including an arresting squid soup thickened with ink. Fresh herbs are heaped upon the plates and made spectacular use of in rice casseroles, salads, and noodles, and the spice level is in the 90th percentile unless you request otherwise.

A black broth with squid rings, scallions, and red chiles on top.
Squid-ink soup at Lum Lum.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thonglor

The Thonglor neighborhood is the East Village of Bangkok, a hopping area known for its art galleries, Japanese restaurants, spas, and hot dog stands. Astoria’s Thonglor changed its name from Red Basil Thai not long ago, upping its food game to include lots of crispy duck and whole fish dishes, of which red snapper is king. Got the picture? A somewhat upscale place where your money is well spent on premium ingredients, with the setting nothing special for a Thai restaurant.

A duck leg points skyward.
Duck panang curry at Thonglor.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Mitr Thai Restaurant

Hidden in plain sight just south of Rockefeller Center, newcomer Mitr Thai may be the city’s glitziest Thai restaurant, with gold trimmings and fancy woodwork. A luxury restaurant specializing in street food, it offers dishes from all over the country, including lots from Bangkok. The shrimp-and-betel fritter is a beachside snack from southern Thailand, a crunchy fried patty with subtle herbal flavors served with a sweet dipping sauce and a pair of fresh betel leaves.

A round brown fritter on green leaves.
Shrimp and betel fritter at Mitr Thai.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Thai Nara Halal

The food at this Woodside gem hails from southernmost Thailand adjacent to Malaysia. That means creamy coconut milk curries presented as soups that feature egg noodles instead of rice, and a Thai-leaning version of roti canai, possessing a chunkier, more vegetable-filled dipping sauce, with a rare beef version available. Lots of seafood on the menu, and all meat is halal at this institution representing the cuisine of the southern region’s Muslim minority.

Beef roti, the bread wadded, the dark  curry in a bowl.
Beef roti at Thai Nara.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Sripraphai

It’s been more than 30 years since a modest Thai bakery in Woodside started by Sripraphai Tipmanee morphed into this full-blown restaurant. The lengthy menu is all over the place, listing Isan sour sausage, mango sticky rice, and umpteen curry and noodle choices, nearly all of which are good. Sit in the leafy rear garden, and admire the cascades of flowers.

Sripraphai’s flower bedecked garden
In the summer, the backyard garden is the place to sit.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Tea Cup Cafe

There’s no Thai restaurant quite like this one. Located on the fabled Thai strip of Woodside Avenue, it’s like a cross between a coffee bar and mom’s kitchen, where a talented cook whips up ramen in various permutations, hot pots, and intestine soups. Snacks and main courses change constantly on a chalkboard and various handwritten menus. Or just drop by for a cup of tea or coffee on a cold day.

A bowl with clear broth and flounder filets.
Tea Cup’s fish soup.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Hug Esan

There’s no stinting on the fish sauce and other sharp flavors at the affectionately named Hug Esan, from owners Chiraporn Sornphoom and Jariya Charoenwong and chef Jintana Khamphaiboon. The fascinating, delicious, and frequently fiery Isan menu runs to chicken with jeaw sauce, toasted rice salad dotted with sour sausage, crab omelet served over rice, whole fish, plus the usual larbs and papaya salads.

At peak times, tiny Hug Esan is often filled up.
The convivial scene inside Hug Esan.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Zaab Zaab

While the city has enjoyed a rich collection of Isan restaurants from the northeastern section of Thailand bordering the Mekong River, Zaab Zaab plunges deeper with novel dishes and organ meats galore. Located amidst Elmhurst’s thriving Thai Town in a small, colorful space, Zaab Zaab’s menu from chef Aniwat Khotsopa runs to duck larb, tilapia roasted with salt, and tom hang — a steamed assortment of cow tripe, spleen, and intestine with two dipping sauces. A new branch in Williamsburg concentrates on fish.

A whole fish, white rice noodles, and thicket of herbs and lettuce.
Roast tilapia, Isan fashion at Zaab Zaab.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Eim Khao Mun Kai

It’s a tribute to Elmhurst as a Thai neighborhood that the large population of restaurants includes a couple that specialize in only one dish. In this case, that dish is Hainanese-style chicken from China’s southernmost region, offered from a Thai perspective. The bargain set meal includes a quarter chicken poached in an aromatic broth, rice cooked in broth, a dark consomme, and a few slices of cucumber. Chicken is halal.

Slice skinless chicken with rice and broth on the side.
Hainanese chicken with all the fixins.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Chao Thai

This tiny pink palace of Thai food was once a twosome, but the more ambitious branch south of the LIRR overpass is now history. The neighborhood is left with an Elmhurst original that was one of the first to excite us with Isan regional fare. It’s impossible to forget one’s first taste of pig leg with special sauce, squid salad, chicken larb, or the unforgettable bar snack moo yang — grilled strips of pork with a sweet glaze, served with fresh herbs.

An orange awning with green lettering over a tiny storefront.
Early Isan restaurant Chao Thai has a famously pink interior.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Pranakhon

What a surprise when this massive Thai restaurant set down just south of Union Square, decorated like a Bangkok outdoor market with a lottery ticket window, fake electrical poles and pigeons, and all sorts of dining spaces on two levels. The cooks are from southern Thailand, and several dishes originated there, including khao yum, a refreshing salad that will knock your eyes out with its colorful ingredients. In line with the over-the-top decor, Bangkok street food can also be found.

Three dishes in bowls plus rice and a salad.
A spread at Pranakhon.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Soothr

This East Village heavy hitter boasts a pair of specialties, including multiple noodle varieties from Sukhothai in Central Thailand, and soups and other culinary highlights of Udon Thani in northern Thailand, via owners Chidensee Watthanawongwat, Kittiya Mokkarat, and Supatta Banklouy. The menu also has some Thai Chinese dishes from Bangkok, including koong karee — shrimp in egg sauce.

Shrimp in a thick yellow sauce.
Koong karee at Soothr.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Somtum Der

While its sister restaurant Kiin Thai disappeared during the pandemic, Somtum Der forges ahead making several versions of its eponymous green papaya salad, plus a more general menu that focuses on the food of Isan, the region that bulges in Thailand’s northeast. Yes, some very fiery food is available, but you must request the heat. Don’t miss the larbs, either.

A heap of shredded green papaya with a haystack of dried fish shavings on top.
One of eight green papaya salads at Somtum Der.
Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Terra Thai

Opened two years ago by Karuna Wiwattanakantang and Norawat Margsiri, who previously ran a Thai restaurant of the same name in Boulder, Colorado, Terra Thai specializes in complete Thai meals at bargain prices. Their focus is the street food of Bangkok, and one wonderful meal includes basil chicken, chewy and pungent, served with rice, pumpkin, and a poached egg. A vegetarian version of pad Thai is another good choice.