Thai Chai-Yo

Business CLOSED.
After receiving a Grade C what was a steady favourite for 2 years has shut down.
Sad with a C it was never going to work.
R.I.P. Thai Chai-​Yo
To be fair the food here was getting worse and worse. Such a shame!

I mean idk what average is but I’m very familiar with thai food. I went on the weekends for lunch and it was so empty. Food was tasteless and the shumai appetizer tasted like it was just out in the microwave. Low amount of meat given in a dish. I would not come back but the staff are super nice so I gave it 2 stars. Just improve on the food quality. I rarely cook but I’m sure I can make better fried rice than them.

If you’ve ever eaten Thai food and said «oh man, what this needs is more sugar and oil» then this is the place for you. If you’ve ever had Pad Thai and thought, «you know, there is way too much meat in this» then this is the place for you. If you’ve ever eaten a salad and thought «boy I wish this dressing was a sugary syrup like I would put on pancakes or a desert» then you will like this place. At least it is very inexpensive– although after factoring in your insulin costs maybe not.

We had the larb gai, appetizer dried pork pieces, pad kee Mao, Tom yum chicken, and soft shell crab with spicy basil sauce. All was very good and relatively authentic. I would’ve given five stars had it not been for the soft shell crab, which was curiously stinky and most likely old. The sauce was good but probably done to draw out the lack of freshness. They wait staff was nice after we mentioned it and gave us fried bananas (which was good) on the house.

I like this place. Food is pretty good & staff is pretty nice. I’ve been here about 5 or 6 times on my lunch break and I haven’t been let down yet.

This thai place is fantastic — fresh, healthy and oh so tasty. I love the chicken basil stir-​fry, the Tom yum soup is delectable and the salads are perfectly balanced in flavor. The servings are also generous and you can’t beat the lunch special — $ 8.95 for an appetizer, small salad, main course & a soda! It’s handy for a quick meal to go & it’s cool inside if you want to dine in. Final plus — the staff are really friendly!

Went here for drinks… awesome! They were sweet and stiff! The happy hour goes for a while and is good all weekend. We snagged a table near the sidewalk… which has an unobstructed view of the empire state building. awesome Don’t know about the food yet… but I’m coming back to knock down some more drinks and soak it up with some thai food. to be continued.

We were headed to the theater and pressed for time. Service was fantastic, food delicious, and affordable. Will be back when we have time to enjoy it more — I hope.

This restaurant is economical and should have higher rating! We loved the drunken noodles!

My favorite Thai spot! I haven’t had a bad dish here yet. Their meat is nice and lean, which is HUGE — nothing worse than fatty chicken and pork. The flavors of their sauces are just amazing. Some dishes are a bit spicy, but it’s to be expected. Cool off with a Thai iced tea!
I usually come here for take-​out, but the dining area is nice too, very quaint. Love it!

I’ve ordered from here a lot as I work a few blocks away, and it is extremely hit or miss. They do have a decent lunch special, and I appreciate that they have a clear vegetarian section of their menu (rather than the vague and misleading «vegetable» or «healthy» sections many restaurants use). They have great Thai iced tea. The employees I’ve interacted with have been friendly.
The quality of the food is great about 50% of the time. However, there have been a number of times where my food has a distinct chemical and/​or soapy aftertaste, or has been entirely tasteless. They had a B health rating for a while, which has since gone up to an A, but the chemical flavored food leaves me wondering.

I came here with Jessica H and Christopher C. I just forgot to review until now. As soon as we sat down the Waitress informed us of the current happy hour specials. 3 of us ordered Thai beers and we also got some Sangria for the table. Now that I think of it… why were we ordering Sangria at a Thai spot? Probably just because it was part of Happy Hour. All the drinks were good. It was downhill from there as far as drinking goes. I read a study where it said men know if they are going to get drunk after their first sip of beer. I got drunk.
I ordered the Drunken Noodles with as much spice as possible. I could have handled more spice, but I did find my noodles to be very well prepared overall. Prices were very reasonable and I can’t think of any reason I wouldn’t return. Boom.

Walked into this place on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. They had a great lunch special price of 8.95 which caught my eye. This included one appetizer a salad and entrée. I ordered the curry puffs and pad Thai. The curry puffs were delicious and I wish I ordered just that. The pad Thai was one of the worst pad Thai’s I have ever had. I generally don’t leave bad reviews but the noodles tasted as if they were boiled and placed on to the place. No flavor at all and very dry, took few bites before I had to throw out the dish. Maybe the chef was having a bad day, I’d like to have shared the same experience as the other reviewers.

By far my favorite Thai restaurant, been here a few times and takeout one time. The lunch special is a great deal.
I always come with my boyfriend and enjoy the lunch special. We have been cutting down on soda, so we replaced the included fountain drink with a Thai Tea, it’s worth very penny spend there. I’ve always (every time) ordered the Drunk Man noodle. YUMMMMMM it’s was delicious. Spicy the way I love it!!! Reasonable prices, especially the lunch special. All came up total about $ 26 for 2 lunch specials & 2 Thai iceT.
Def will be back for more !!!

Thai Chai-​Yo has a good lunch special price $ 7.95 for a select entrée including fountain soda, salad, and an appetizer. The salad was delicious with peanut dressing and I selected the curry puff for my appetizer which didn’t disappoint. However, the pad thai was completely different from the appetizer. I got the chicken pad thai and the chicken was very dry and unfortunately so was the noodles. I have high expectation when it comes to pad thai and I do prefer mine spicy than sweet. However, I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like the pad thai. I came with a friend during a lunch break and unfortunately I wouldn’t come back here for the pad thai.
But like I said, the curry puff was delicious, maybe they have other entrees that taste better.

On a Saturday afternoon in Chelsea, our group of 5 decided they wanted to hit up a Thai place. With tons of Thai places on 9^th ave, we used Unilocal as our guide and went to Thai Chai-​Yo– Great decision!
It was pretty empty when we arrived around 4:30, but really picked up around 6. Our very friendly waitress took our orders and mentioned that there was a half off happy hour, which we promptly took advantage of– Sangria pitchers for $ 9.50 (it says «Sangria for 4», but we definitely got 8 – 9 decent sized servings from it) as well as $ 3 Singhas (Thai beer).
I ordered the Green Curry Noodles with Chicken, my friend ordered the same but with vegetables. Others ordered the chicken fried rice, drunken noodles and a fried duck entrée. The food came out incredibly fast. I really enjoyed my entrée– the Somen noodles were light and really absorbed the flavor of the coconut curry. There was moderate heat going on, but overall a good flavor (I really stepped out of my «pad thai box» by ordering this, and I’m glad I did!). The only gripes from the rest of the table were the lack of spiciness to one dish and too much spiciness of another. My friend highly recommends the duck.
The staff was very friendly and let us sit and drink as long as we wanted (we really took advantage of those specials!) I did notice that the waitresses and cooks sit and eat in the tables towards the back. Not everyone likes that, but we all have to eat– right?
Good food, great drink deals– I will be back if I’m in the area.

Thai Chai YO!
Standard, run of the mill NYC Thai food. with a decent 10 $ lunch special.
3.5 stars sounds about right.

I had the pleasure of frequenting this place a few nights ago with my girlfriend where we wanted to grab a cheap bite to eat near the High Line and we weren’t disappointed.
The service here was really great, the servers we had were attentive without being over bearing. There also wasn’t any communication break downs which, when it happens, isn’t all that bad but it definitely can lead to some confusion and problems with ordering.
The food was good and cheap, Pad Thai for 10 bucks! I inhaled my Pad Thai with squid and gulped down my Thai Iced Tea as well, which was something I had never had before and was delicious! I suggest you try it! My girlfriend had pineapple rice with sweet and sour chicken, which she enjoyed but not as much as my meal. This is where the four stars are given rather then the five.
For some reason, the sweet and sour chicken was served spicy, which didn’t make it bad, but gave it a very unusual and unexpected taste. I have never had this before and when one orders sweet and sour chicken, which the establishment said they made, one expects a certain kind of flavor.
Despite this, we really enjoyed ourselves. We got a good amount of tasty food for cheap, which is exactly what I love. Also, the bathrooms were cool and such a good use of space. If you are in the area, check this place out because you won’t be disappointed. It is a steal!

Best lunch deal ever!
A house salad, an appetizer AND a fountain soda with your lunch special entrée…for $ 8.95?! I was originally going to order from another menu but after I saw that I could get two other extra things, I ended up getting something from the lunch special menu.
I didn’t mean to be a busybody but I overheard a very frugal woman not wanting to pay extra for pineapple fried rice (that wasn’t on the lunch menu) ask for a better price. The waitress said she will include a free house salad, just for her. «Just take it.» would’ve been my advice to her, but she kept asking for other things instead. I couldn’t help but think how compassionate and agreeable the waitress working that section was. The customer got everything she asked for!
Kind of a bummer that Thai Chai-​Yo is a little out of the way from my workplace.
Also, this place sells the cheapest (I’ve seen, by far!) Thai Iced Coffee/​Tea at only $ 2.50! They usually go for about $ 4 at most places.

Although offering no heat and garlic flavors of this Lunch special for $ 7.95 comes with appetizer, main and drink. It’s definitely a great deal even in Chinatown.
I got exactly what Joan R. got from Lunch Special and she described very much what I had experienced.
Generous portion of grilled pork chop was fine but I’ve never seen the inside cooked pork to be grey and I was very skeptical to put the grey meat in my mouth… but it was okay and flavorful. The watery and light sauce with a hint of heat from fine powder red chili (Cayenne?) and sweetness worked with the bite size sliced pork. I wish there was some charred grilled mark on would made this pork taste much better Ample side dish, Green Papaya, was good enough to satisfying my craving for papaya salad. This place is one of few restaurants, including Pinto, offers Papaya Salad as a side from lunch specials.
Only negative was that we were served by this waiter having a lack of knowledge of what is to be in a service business was not pleasant to deal with but another waiter (guy) waiter was very nice. When I wanted something, I waved him instead.