Esanation

Great atmosphere. Sexy vibe. Funky design and cool music playing in the background. Food was authentic and very delicious. There are quite a few dishes you never see at the typical Thai restaurant in NYC. Mock duck dishes were amazing. Loved this place and will surely be back!

I recommend this place. This is my favorite Thai restaurant in New York City. The service is the best. Good food and good service

A good Thai option in Hell Kitchen area. They have your typical Pad Thai and fried rice dishes. The street food menu section is a bit lost on me since most items seem fairly normal and found in most typical Thai menus in the city.
The food is good both their noodles in and out of soup. The whole Cornish hen is nice if you’re into Cornish hens. The whole red snapper was pretty huge. An entire fish fried and served with rice and some veggies. It’s a good dinner choice if you’re not adverse to seeing the head of the fish pointed at you as you dine on the meat.
Place looks nice and new. I went in thinking that the neon lights by the door would bother me throughout my meal but it wasn’t really visible from the inside, so it wasn’t a problem. Friendly staff and not a very loud sort of crowd.

Went here after work late one Friday (around 9) with a few coworkers. They didn’t have their liquor license yet but they offered that we BYOB from a local liquor store. We chose to just have water but looked as though most people brought in their own wine. The décor of the restaurant was really modern (cue giant pink entrance lighting) and everything seemed clean as well. The waiter was super prompt and efficient with our order. I had the pad see ew and it was excellent and the perfect portion (not too big not too small). The prices were pretty standard for the area. I will definitely be back or order take out for lunch.

SOLID THAI FOOD. Hip environment but they don’t have their alcohol license yet; however, I can foresee this establishment becoming a popular joint very soon.
Food was amazing! The pad see yew and the the sweet and sour pork belly were on point (not completely authentic) but reallllly good Thai food nonetheless. The interior is swanky with cool purple lights everywhere. The servers and hostesses are extremely friendly as well! Great new addition to the west side and I’ll definitely be back to try their other menu options.

Esanation opened over the past year. I know what you may be thinking — does the neighborhood really need yet another Thai restaurant? In this instance, yes, yes it does.
The swanky place is beautifully decorated like other nearby establishments (At Nine, Room Service, and Qi), and is perfect for dates/​parties. Aside from the bright-​purple-​lit doorway, none of the decorations are over-​the-​top like the sometimes aforementioned places can be. (If you end up sitting at a center table, I hope it’s not uncomfortable to be facing the light the whole time…)
I ordered the crab & roasted pork noodle. Oh boy, the egg noodles were the best I had in recent memory — there a bit sweet, salty, and savory («well-​rounded» as my date put it). The (real) crab and roasted pork were good, but not as well seasoned as the noodles — the pork in particular went best with the broth that comes on the side. It’s surprising that the noodles were the highlight of the dish as opposed to the protein, as opposed to the other way around, but I’ll take it!
I’ll definitely be coming back here in the future!

This restaurant had recently opened and I went in for lunch between the matinée and evening shows one Saturday. The space is richly decorated and I was seated immediately. I got my drink and ordered the drunken noodle dish-[pad kee mao] It was very good and I ordered it with shrimp which were large and there were 6 of them. The shrimp, however were 2 $ extra but worth it. The bathroom was all black with black fixtures and a large neon display on one wall. [a woman’s hand with her finger to her lips] The food was good, the staff accommodating and I would recommend and return.

this place is pretty tasty. the menu was a bit different from what i usually see at thai places, i.e. there were no curries but that was ok as there were still a TON of other choices between noodles, salads rice etc.
so tried to order some alcohol, but it doesn’t appear this place has its liquor license, no bar. but it was also not advertised as a BYOB… so a bit confused on how to address this if i want to come back and have some kind of adult beverage with my meal… onto the food.
per Unilocal highlights we ordered the grilled pork neck for an appetizer. this was quite tasty with great seasoning and grill taste served with a spicy chili dipping sauce.
for entrees we shared pad thai with chicken and crispy pork belly in spicy basil sauce that had sliced bell peppers and onions served with a side of sticky rice. these were both really good. the pad thai noodles were a bit different than what i’ve had before they were more like angel hair than the typical flat noodle. the dish was still very flavorful and a generous portion with lots of chicken. the crispy pork belly entrée was also nice, just have a small complaint as there were some pieces of pork belly that were so CRISP they literally crumbled into dust when you attempted to eat it.
i’d feel comfortable ordering delivery from here, so that i can eat it with some wine in the comfort of my home.

I went there last night with my friends. We was scouting for a new place for dinner on 9ave and we were lured by their luminescence entrance. The place is pack with good amount of people, just nice crowd. One fun fact, all the servers wearing big gorgeous accessories which you’ll never find it somewhere else.
Atmosphere: ⁴⁄₅
Trendy new restaurant with black and yellow (gold). I can say it really nice trendy place for Thai food. This place remind me of other classic Thai place we love to go in Hell Kitchen. (VIV, Room Service, Qi) We had a table with comfy yellow booth on one side and a wooden chair on the other side. I also like their playlist which is lounge music. I felt like being in an upscale lounge with affordable budget.
Service: ⁵⁄₅
We were so happy with our lady server. She seem like know all of the menu by heart. We didn’t know it is a regional Thai cuisine that specialize in Papaya Salad. Most of the menu are out of our knowledge but thanks to our server for giving us a great recommendation. (Thank you!)
Food: ⁵⁄₅
It seem like we are a cheerleader for this place but honestly all the choices we had are excellent. (Perhaps because we just following her recommendations) The «Papaya Salad with Thai Style Ceviche» is amazing if you like flavorful spicy food. «Fried Cornish Hen» serve with sweet chili sauce also very nice item to start with. I was also impressed with their «Coconut Infused Sticky Rice». If you had enough experience of Thai food, sticky rice is something that make the different.
Price: ⁵⁄₅
Thai place is always a wise choice when talking about budget. We spend like lunch at French restaurant but getting the whole dinner with drinks! So big thumb up!

So this is now my favorite thai restaurant! Me & my boyfriend is suppose to go to a italian restaurant close to this spot but then were on the waiting list for 1 hour so we dicided to walk along the area and randomly saw this place so we look at there menu and dicided to give it a try since I’m really hungry. We got seated pretty quick. We ordered papaya salad for appetizer & it was a huge bowl of papaya salad and It was so good that we finish the whole thing! For dinner we ordered bpork belly bbq with this spicy dipping sauce, gang om catfish soup, and a whole fish with some sweet sauce. Everything is delicious but most food is spicy so if your into spicy then good for you, but if not be sure to tell them to less the spicyness of the food. They do reservation for 5 or more people. I went here twice already & for sure coming back for more!

For 10 bucks, the lunch special is outstanding. The spicy ground chicken salad appetizer was delicious, and the sukiyaki noodles were even more so. How lovely that this place is right around the corner!

The previous reviews are correct. This place is beyond tasty. We ordered way too much food. Oh well.
For the appetizer, we ordered the sun-​dried pork with a sweet siracha sauce. Yum.
The husband ordered a sliced pork dish.
I ordered the whole red snapper with a sweet garlic siracha sauce. Yes, I enjoy siracha.
And we did dessert. Two scoops of coconut ice cream with jackfruit and peanuts on some sort of bun. Very different, but tasty.

Everything we had were salty, especially fresh crab papaya salad, Som Tum Lao with fresh Crab $ 12.95.
Pad Kee Mao (drunken noodles) with chicken and Khao Kha Moo (pork) were sadly below average and very salty and not have a punch of flavors that I expect from Thai food.
My friend from Chiang Mai said the same thing: «salty!»

Absolutely loved my experience at Esanation, not one bad thing to say about it. I came here on a Friday evening around 7pm to catch up with some friends. It’s BYOB, so we each brought a bottle of wine. One person in our group was arriving late, so we expressed to our waiter that we’d like to wait for her before ordering – he never pressured us or rushed us into ordering something (although we did end up ordering spring rolls for an app — on point!).
For my entrée, I got some of the best pad thai I’ve ever had. Service was great, and the atmosphere was pretty cool as well – dimly lit with soft blue and purple lighting. Most tables are lined up against a cushioned bench on the right side of the wall, and we made friends with the table sitting next to us. We had an awesome time here and I highly recommend!

I’ve been here 3 times since it’s open the last 3 months. Lol
Recommend Som-​tam– Mua– Kod. But you should not go there on Sat if you are really want Som-​tam. The chef who does it soooooooo good has no shift on Sat. Just FYI

The atmosphere and foods were awesome!
I will definitely go again next time!

I thought the atmosphere and service was fine. The food came out at a timely matter. The only issue I had was with the food.
We were a party of 6 and we ordered a lot of food for variety. The pad Thai was super bland, there was just no taste to it at all. The chicken wings were also flavorless. They put coconut milk in the sticky rice which is not the authentic way. This is just to name a few. The only thing that I liked were the beef balls on the skewer and the pad see yu.
With all the Thai/​Esarn options out there, don’t think I will be going back.

The best Authentic Esan Thai Food in NYC. I went last night for the party of 7 people. The restaurant is packed but we got the table right away without a reservation. The service was fast, The staff was very friendly, The Food was delicious and Thai dessert «Coconut Ice Cream» is the BOMB! This dessert reminds me a lot of a street ice cream cart in Bangkok that add sticky rices, jackfruits, and peanuts on top of the ice cream.
Tips, They have 5 level of spicy so please do yourself a favor. Tell your server what your level is before you paste an order. A must try Papaya Salad, Chicken Liver, Tilapia Gang Om Soup with a sticky rice. Absolutely, WOW Experience… Everyone must try!!!
I am Thai and for the BEST Thai food in New York City! I highly recommend this place.

New place in town. Definitely not the place to bring kids. No high chairs and no kids menu. Very slow service. Dishes are not coming in any order. Perhaps some of the negative service review is due to them still figuring out the business. There is no Thai beer! For a place that calls itself authentic Thai, not having Thai beer is a big negative. Food was good but nothing out of this world.
One thing for sure, this place is over priced.
So if you are looking for good (nothing special just good) food and have no kids, looking to overpay, this place is for you. Not for me.

I am Thai and I have been trying Thai papaya salad many thai restaurants in NYC, but couldn’t find any place that taste right for me until I found this place.
Their papaya salad taste just like what I have been craving for!!! I can’t handle spicy and asked the server to make my dishes very mild with 1 chili… Yayyy they made it right for me. my papaya salad tasted wonderful and their ingredients make the dishes taste authentic. I just cant describe how much i love their papaya salad, WORTH every bite!!!
There are so many choices of papaya salad here, my favorite are Thai papaya salad, krapi salad, and mua sua salad. Also, their grilled marinated pork is a must! (Writing this review makes me so hungry.)
Don’t forget to try your dish with their sticky rice. I LOVE their sticky rice!!! They put the rice in banana leaf that leave the smell in the rice, and that make your dish even more delicious!
The décor is so beautiful and modern. The service is excellent, friendly and very helpful.
Highly recommend and I will definitely come back!