Lantern Thai

Great curry chicken. This place is amazing. I will defy be back

I totally judged this book by it’s cover. The front of this place features floor to ceiling windows, so you can see literally everything that is happening inside. This is how we knew, on a Sat night, in prime dining time, there was literally only other couple in the place… which left us wondering if we were even at the right spot. Also, there was a bumping bar downstairs which seemed like a hell of a lot more fun.
Lantern’s interior is a wide open space with modular tables that can easily become communal dining for large group. I was a big fan of the tile wall that go from small near the floor to large at the ceiling. The back wall features a captivating night time photo of some beautifully lit up tents.
The physical menu and drink list need a touch of class. They are those horribly dated, plastic covers with fabric around the edges and gold protectors at the corners. It does not gel with Lantern’s sleek interior, nor is it indicative of the delectable fare they serve. Although many in my party opted for the Bento Box dinner (soup, an app, entrée and ice cream for $ 21), I went ala carte and ordered the red curry with chicken ($ 9), extra spicy. The large portion of curry was fresh, fragrant and heavy-​handed with the spices and there was no additional charge for brown rice. If I lived nearby, this would probably be my go to delivery spot. As for specialty cocktails they were serving up fru-​fru sugary overkill. I opted for a glass of wine, which was a decent pour.
The service was ho-​hum, with a very dressed down server and a few dropped items here and there. Thankfully they were accommodating when it came to splitting the check.

I’m really surprised this place only has a 3 star rating. The food isn’t exactly gourmet, but it tastes really good and I’ve never had a bad meal there. It’s also not expensive at all (I went there last night and paid $ 35 w/​tip for 1 app 2 pad thais and 2 sodas). Overall, good bank for your buck; a nice little place with friendly staff and solid food.
The one thing I will say though, is that if you want to get food from here, actually go there. When it’s delivered the food is way sub par compared to when you order it there.

I ordered delivery from here because I felt like trying a new Thai restaurant — and I’m never ordering from here again. I really liked its 2^nd ave. counterpart, so I had relatively high expectations for this place — and I was really, really disappointed.
I ordered the Pad se-​ew and cheese rangoons for an appetizer. Firstly, what type of Thai restaurant actually offers cheese rangoons and not tom kha as a lunch appetizer? Cheese rangoons are for the ABC-​restaurant/​wannabe-​Chinese restaurants, not proper authentic Thai restaurants. The pad se-​ew was also really dry and salty — not the best I’ve ever had. Definitely avoiding this restaurant from now on.

We went this weekend with a small group. The food was great, 5 stars. But the service was appalling, 0 stars. It took almost 3 hours for the 4 of us to make it from sitting down to paying the check, which is unacceptable. especially considering the restaurant was never even more than half full.
That said, the food really was delicious. The pad see ew was really good, and the crusted chicken yellow curry was unique and tasty. The papaya salad was another stand out. Unfortunately, I’m not sure any of it was worth the hassle.

We we able to book through Open Table a table for 10. We get to the Restaurant an hour late for our reservation and we had no problem getting seated. (1^st sign of a bad restaurant; It’s in an acceptable part of Manhattan and it’s not even slightly crowded.)
The servers brought our water right away and laid out the menus.
We placed our orders (pros: the were able to do separate checks for a lot of us).
Then the service became horrible. We ordered 6 appetizers. They came with two, when we started eating they came over and told us we had taken the wrong order at which point I pointed out that they brought it to us and since we had ordered the same thing it wasn’t as if we were trying to get one over on them.
Friends were mediocre, the bar was under stock. The beef on one of our appetizers was raw and the two of us who even took a bite ended up sick.
The jasmine tea was cold and not steeped properly and one of the persons at the table ordered fried fish and it was broiled and flavorless. The fried rices all had too much vegetables and the only redeeming food I liked was the Volcanic ice-​cream and that was the only thing I could order because one by one they took my order for everything else and it wasn’t available.
Final straw; Me and my friend as the only two cash payers got stuck with the gratuity of the entire table. And when my friend forgot to write in the tip they came back to the table asking what was wrong why they got no tip. There isn’t anything wrong with asking if you went wrong with the service but to put the bill back on the table with a pen and point to it is a bit much.
Save the time don’t go here.

Had a groupon that included 2 appetizers 2 entrees & 2 glasses of wine… took the bf for his birthday food was DELICIOUS… but service sucked! …& they are a bit stingey with the wine

I love Thai food, but I love excellent customer service even more. I reserved a section for 25 people on a Wednesday night here for my birthday. Lantern took really good care of my party and even accommodated some early arrivals by seating and serving them drinks immediately. Our waiter gave me free dessert and wished me happy birthday at the end. I ordered the Drunken Noodle and loved it. Great food, great drinks, affordable prices, and cozy space. My friends have gone back plenty of times since then.

What a huge bummer. We love the 2^nd Avenue location, but we will NEVER go back to this one. The food is good, but it is not worth the terrible customer service. There are plenty of other great Thai restaurants to visit, and they will surely appreciate your business more than the East Village Lantern Thai!
We were with a couple who had purchased a Groupon. My husband and I wanted to order their dinner box (which is the equivalent of a Prix Fixe). Because we were sitting with the couple using their Groupon, they would not allow us to order any dinner boxes – something on their regular evening menu. We were not trying to use 2 Groupons! We didn’t try to combine coupons. We just wanted to order something that is on their regular menu. The waitress was incredibly rude and said there was no manager around. If we had separated the tables and/​or checks, we could have ordered what we wanted off the menu. What an illogical system! Usually, a business partners with Groupon to grow or refresh their business. Whoops!
No wonder it was empty. I assume it will stay that way until something changes. :(

This place is mediocre at best. I went here on a sunny Saturday in the late afternoon hours and I was the ONLY customer there. That should’ve been a clue that I was wasting my time here but I stayed. The food was decent. I’ve definitely had better Thai. But customer service was LACKING. The staff sat at a table near the back of the restaurant giggling and eating their own food. When I wanted to get the waitress’ attention, I literally had to wave my arms in the air for her to even look in my direction. Again, I was the ONLY person there. I would never come back to this place.

The first time I tried lantern it was my best Thai food experience. HOWEVER I don’t think it was at this location. The wait staff and staff here are absolutely horrible. They arbitrarily select dishes that the groupon doesn’t apply to but they DONT TELL YOU UNTIL AFTER YOU EAT!!! Reading previous comments, this seems to be a trend. I cannot express how disappointed I was going to this restaurant after such a good first experience at another lantern. I even went here 3 times thinking the first 2 times were a misunderstanding. They weren’t. :(Awful place. Customer service isn’t on the list of priorities and the food is mediocre.

Came here through Groupon coupon. Keep in mind, it doesn’t apply to the fish dish (which was the only reason why I bought the coupon).
Mediocre place. The only thing that stood out was the Drunken Noodle dish.
Lychee drink was too sweet. Appetizers were cold. Service was awk. Dish service time was way too long (took 30 mins for our dish to come and it was a Saturday afternoon; only 3 tables were occupied!)
If you have your coupon on your phone, be prepared to be hijack for a bit (they actually take your phone away… it may take up to 5 mins for them to return it)

Been here twice with groupon deals. Tried many of their appetizers, best was definitely the curry chicken puff follow by lanterns angel (shrimp wrapped in fried noodle), duck tortilla wrap and satay chicken skewers were average/​below average.
Shrimp with basil was awesome. Basil chili is my absolutely favorite Thai dish and they made it great here the sauce wasn’t too sweet nor spicy. Portion was decent as well. Chicken breast with fried noodles was good also, portion was generous, chicken pieces were too thick made me felt sick biting int such a huge piece of chicken. but flavor was good for noodle. Mango salad with salmon was okay. The salmon was kind of rare but the outside part where it’s slightly burnt was good. Mango salad tasted a bit weird with the salmon.
Place was dimmed and very relax and chilled, will come back in the future if I have more deals

Yay, another Groupon user! Yes, the bf and I came here after purchasing a great Groupon deal. We came on a Saturday night around 6:30pm, there were only 2 other tables. We were greeted immediately and told to sit anywhere we wanted by the host, score. But it took about 10 minutes for a waitress to come over and take our order or questions. We each got a glass of wine and ordered the Crying Tiger Sushi and the Duck Tortilla Wrap as apps. The duck dish was really good– the sweet, tangy, spicy sauce made it a winner. The Crying Tiger dish consists of pieces of steak atop sticky rice, which was just okay.
For our mains we got the pad see ew with vegetarian duck and the duck in curry and pineapple. The noodles were great but I wasn’t a fan of the veg duck. It was different than other veg duck I’ve tried in the past. Flimsy and bland. The noodles had a nice taste and consistency, but only had a 3 – 4 small pieces of Chinese broccoli which was stated as part of the dish. The curry dish was very spicy but the bf enjoyed it. It came with a bowl of rice.
They have happy hour specials from 5−7pm. We took advantage of the buy 1 get 1 free, so I ordered another glass of wine and the bf got a free glass. Yay.
Service was pretty attentive after we ordered, but around 7:30−8pm the place started packing up and we didn’t see our waitress the rest of the night. It was another two people that would come over if we needed something, but they kept having to ask our original waitress anyway, so it was like having 2 middle men.
The Groupon didn’t mention that tax wasn’t included, which I think is usually stated, but they charged tax FYI.
Good place for a date because it’s dim but not too dim, and they have nice seating for two against the wall. In the middle they have a few communal tables as well if you’re going with a large group.
All in all, a great deal because of the coupon, service was attentive but exponentially dwindled as the night went on, and there seem to be a few winning dishes (duck tortilla wrap! And the noodles were yummy even if they did skimp on the broccoli). I might come back for dinner during their happy hour deal, but otherwise there are other restaurants I’d try first before going out of my way to stop here.

A friend recommended this place, so we decided to come here for another friend’s birthday dinner.
First thing, it was kind of dark inside the restaurant, but it had a cool, chic atmosphere. And even though there was a good amount of people, both seated at tables as well as the bar, the six of us were seated relatively quickly (very quick for a Friday night).
I ordered the pineapple fried rice with beef and it was fantastic! It was pretty fresh, the chunks of beef were huge, and the cashews gave it a nice scent. My only problem with it was they didn’t give a lot of pineapple (I mean, it IS a pineapple fried rice, right?). But otherwise, it was pretty good. It came with a slice of tomato and cucumber, as a palate cleanser? But I thought the crunch of the cucumber went well with the rice.
Another time, my friends and I tried the chicken curry puff appetizer. We were kind of hesitant because we didn’t know what to expect and didn’t want our image of Lantern Thai to be shattered (Haha). But it was great! It came out super hot, it’s a flaky outer shell with a minced chicken mixture inside. It’s a little on the sweeter side though.
Hope this helped!

YAY Groupon! ha. But even without a Groupon, you can get a great dinner and a great deal. They have a deal for $ 20 you get an appetizer, entrée, ice cream and drink!
I am very skeptical of Groupon Deals because often they suck and the place tries to rip you off. NOT LATERN THAI!
I could not believe the great service and delicious food that I got with a groupon!
We had the duck roll and spring roll for appetizers. Both were delicious. Entrees Basil Curry and a drunken noodle type dish. Also equally good.
And the portions were so large! I was so full after, definitely should not have finished everything on my place, but it was so good, I couldnt help myself. Food was a little greasy, but what do you expect at a thai place?
They have a great saki list and a few good beer taps. Good deals on drinks too.
Thanks Latern Thai, for renewing my faith in Groupon!

I guess I’ll hop on the Groupon bandwagon, too :) For the $ 25 deal price, it wasn’t a bad experience, but to be honest I wouldn’t go back, with a deal or without. It just felt really obvious that the staff at Lantern was expecting a large spike in traffic due to the Groupon, and they dealt with it in a very impersonal way that made us feel like two sheep in the flock of diners they were herding through the restaurant.
When we walked in, we were immediately asked if we were going to be using the Groupon — which I guess is fine, because we were, but I couldn’t help thinking that I’d be annoyed if we hadn’t planned on using the deal or didn’t know about it. Like, wouldn’t you feel like a bit of an idiot if everyone else at the restaurant was paying 50% less than you, and the restaurant was flaunting it in your face?
We tried the spring rolls (eh — too many noodles, too few veggies) and the steamed dumplings (ok, but a bit bland) for appetizers. I can’t remember either entrée we ordered, which, to quote Mercy A., can’t be a good sign. The waitress was sweet and attentive, but she was definitely rushing us and it was easy to tell she was more concerned with moving tables quickly than with ensuring we had a pleasant experience.
I will say this — they have an excellent plum wine (very sweet, which I enjoy) and their mango salmon is fantastic. Of course, in typical Groupon style I couldn’t order the salmon because the deal wasn’t valid for fish (despite the fact that the salmon was priced below the $ 16 entrée limit for the deal). Gotta keep those profit margins wide, people.
I’ve been to the Gramercy location as well, and I’m just not impressed. This city has many better Thai places — go to one of those.

I guess we’re going with the Groupon theme here so far!
I think that for the value of the Groupon, I cannot complain that much!
When we first arrived, there were only two other customers and so the two staff members out on the floor were very attentive. We quickly ordered two much needed glasses of wine, which were part of the Groupon. We had two appetizers, spring rolls and Lantern’s Angel (shrimp wrapped in angel hair noodles). Both appetizers were served with nice sauces and came out in a timely fashion. The spring roll was better than the shrimp. For dinner I ordered the Pad Thai, which I thought was sub par to other Pad Thai dishes I’ve had. My fiancé can’t remember what he ate. That can’t be a good sign, right?
The place got much busier as we were eating, so the attentiveness definitely dwindled and we waited a while for our check.
What I did love: No one made us feel stupid for using a Groupon.
What I didn’t love: They included the tip for us. Always find that annoying, especially since we are good tippers.
I would go back– preferably with a voucher of some sort.

I tried Lantern Thai after buying a $ 25 Groupon deal for 2 Appetizers, 2 Entrees and 2 Glasses of Wine. Our appetizers: Crispy Calamari with mild spicy honey-​mint sauce and Fried Dumplings. Our entrees: Drunken Noodle [Kee-​Mao] and Cashew Chicken. The food was quite delicious. I was hoping for more Cashews in my Cashew Chicken meal, but overall all of the food was great. The only downside to our experience was that the table was not clean when we sat down and the service was a bit slow when we arrived (we waited about 10 – 15 minutes before ordering our food). The food came fairly quickly and we were pleased with the $ 4 bill!

First visit: date night, thanks to Groupon. At 8pm on Friday, the place was buzzing… I’m guessing from the Groupon crowd, but we were seated right away. The place is somewhat cute. Not a huge fan of the picnic table/​bench, but I guess that makes it easy to seat big groups. The ambiance is pretty nice, not too loud that you can’t hold a conversation, but also not awkwardly quiet.
We waited a loooong time for our food; I’m guessing they misplaced our order. The waitress was extremely apologetic when she realized that we still hadn’t got our food, and gave us a free appetizer. The appetizers were sub-​par for the most part. The chicken satay was not grilled very well. The dumplings were bland. The cheese rangoon was okay. We didn’t have a very high expectation after the appetizers, but wait… the entrée was surprisingly tasty! My pad see ew was flavorful, just spicy enough, with the perfect combination of meat, veggies, and noodle. Price was reasonable for noodles and rice dishes, but chicken and fish dishes were pricey!
We might come back after everyone has used up their Groupon, but then again, Zabb Elee is just down the street… along with a half dozen other Thai restaurants!