Dressed up like a street market, this Manhattan Valley Thai spot specializes in a menu with Bangkok flair and is a great place for those who crave Thai curries. Green is the spiciest, closely followed by Panang. Filled with minced shrimp, the Thai market crepe is another high point. A lunch special packs the place in the early afternoon hours.

Flavored with lime and fish sauce, and on the sweet side as a result of its pineapple component, the duck salad distinguishes itself with twice-fried morsels of duck, which are crunchy and a bit smoky, too. The menu covers an amazing amount of territory given the small size of the kitchen, but everything I’ve tried has been good, especially a shredded-beef Massamun curry served with a flaky roti rather than with rice.

This neighborhood Thai restaurant concentrates on the food of Bangkok, including all the crowd pleasers we’re accustomed to. There are soups in small and large sizes, with coconut milk and without; salads of green papaya, ground meat, and steak strips can be ordered at your desired level of hotness; basil stir fries and curries in a variety of shades; and a host of small savory dishes that include curry puffs, Malaysian-style roti canai, edamame, and the pastry wrapped “shrimp blanket.”

“Pye” refers to the oars used to propel boats along the canals of the Thai capital. Pye Boat Noodle, tricked out like a Quonset hut to make you feel like you are on the edge of a canal in Bangkok, serves noodles akin to those served by boat vendors. “Boat noodles with pork” are authentically thickened with pig blood, but for the squeamish, there are a dozen other choices, including yen ta fo, featuring an assortment of seafood, the broth rendered pink with fermented bean paste; and bamee phoo moo dang hang — dry egg noodles with pork belly, a very rich dish.

The food at this Woodside gem hails from the southernmost part of Thailand, adjacent to Malaysia. That means creamy coconut milk curries presented as soups that feature egg noodles instead of rice, and Thai-leaning versions of things like 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 region’s Muslim minority.

There’s no stinting on the fish sauce and other sharp flavors at the affectionately named Hug Esan, via owners (and sisters) 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, and the expected larbs and papaya salads.

This Elmhurst restaurant founded by Duangja (Kitty) Thammasat is often cited as a favorite Thai restaurant in town. The menu has lots of dishes you’d find in Bangkok, some of it introduced to New York City for the first time. One such dish is a raw shrimp salad with a marinade of fish sauce, garlic, and chiles, said to be inspired by Japanese cuisine, while curries and whole-fish preparations are additional strong points. There’s an additional (and very good) branch in Chelsea Market.

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, it’s 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 the same broth, a dark consomme, and a few slices of cucumber.

This old-timer and 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.

This East Village newcomer 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 (see Noods N’ Chill for more), including koong karee — shrimp in egg sauce.

This sibling of an older restaurant on Sullivan Street is one of a growing number of halal Thai restaurants in the city, which means among other things, no pork. And this proves to be not the slightest impediment to a distinguished Thai menu, under chef Supachai Voradirek. The northern Thai khao soi chicken soup, with two kinds of noodles, is star of the show, and there’s also a fine spicy duck salad and whole red snapper with a variety of sauces (try sour curry sauce).

Opened in May 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 for around $10. 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.

Thai Café was the first restaurant of its type to open on Brooklyn’s North Side, and now there are at least 20, of which Amarin is 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 appetizers list. Among them is an quartet of fish cakes red with chili paste.

Legendary Thai chef Ratchanee Sumpatboon (Chao Thai, Poodam, Zabb Elee, and Larb Ubol) was the founding chef at Lan Larb, and much of her menu remains though she has left the restaurant. Watch the soups, in particular: Lao chicken soup is a revelation, an interplay of Laotian and Thai culinary ideals, while kui teiw ped will likely be the best duck soup you’ve ever tasted, but also consider seafood soup, tart with tamarind.

Wayla is a stylish, semi-subterranean, labyrinthine Thai restaurant on the Lower East Side, helmed by chef Tom Naumsuwan. Among the novel dishes, and tweaked takes on more familiar ones, moo sarong is a favorite: savory pork meatballs carefully wrapped like tiny baseballs with noodles, and furnished with a sweet dipping sauce, making one of the best apps, especially if you intend to go in a curry direction, rather than noodles, for your main course.

Who would’ve thought a Korean fried chicken chain would spawn such a good Thai restaurant? But Bonchon Chicken has done just that at Noree Thai Bazaar, which seeks to resemble a Thai night market. There’s an enhanced emphasis on satays, exploiting their compatibility with mixed drinks and other alcohol. Each brochette is perfectly grilled, and choices run to shrimp, chicken, pork, and a host of vegetables, whether marinated in lemongrass, dunked in peanut sauce, or rubbed with cumin, Xinjiang style. Lots of good curries, salads, and noodles, too.

Like the name says, this Williamsburg Thai restaurant specializes in noodles, but also offers a subspecialty in the Chinese immigrant cooking of Bangkok, as conceived by Benjaporn Chua, Preawpun Sutipayakul, and Jirawat Sutipayakul. That means a weekend brunch centered on congee with a number of add ins, and everyday dishes that run to duck, blood boat noodles, and spicy chicken wings with a sweet dipping sauce. Truly, there’s something for everyone, from adventuresome souls to the timid of tongue.

Under owner Prasneeya Praditpoj and chefs Chetkangwan Thipruetree and Sunisa Nitmai, Tong (“gold”) was one of those brave pandemic debuts when it opened late last August in what looks like an ex-garage near the border of Bushwick and Ridgewood. It specializes in kub klaem — small plates, at least partly intended as 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.

Krok represents a formidable addition to Brooklyn’s Thai scene. A project of married couple Jeerathinan Ranthom and Krit Ploysomboon, formerly of Upper West Side Thai hotspot Land Thai, the restaurant occupies Pok Pok’s old space, and has retained some of its predecessor’s best dishes on a menu that emphasizes Isan. Go for any of the multiple permutations of green papaya salad, including a party size version; whole fish pla raad prik, smothered in aromatic herbs; or the fish sauce chicken wings.

There’s nothing ugly about this baby, via chef Sirichai Sreparplarn, who has raised the bar further where Brooklyn’s Thai food is concerned. The menu is totally revamped since the restaurant’s pandemic pause, and now reservations must be made via Instagram, and orders for one menu placed 24 hours in advance, though another menu allows spontaneous dish selection. Still, it’s one of the best Thai restaurants in town, with epic heat available in some dishes.

Mondayoff is the whimsically named Kensington offshoot of the Plant Love House empire, and while I don’t usually list more than one branch of a restaurant chain, this one is so different from Noods N’ Chill — and so good on its own — I feel compelled to include it. Recommended dishes run to sour Isan sausage served bar-snack style, simmered pork knuckle with greens, crab meat fried rice, and boat noodles thickened with pork blood. FYI: the restaurant is closed on Tuesdays.