With Fish Cheeks named one of the absolute best Thai restaurants in NY by New York Magazine and included in Eater’s 38 essential restaurants in NY, I had to try it. The restaurant had a modern approach to traditional Thai dishes.

Loved that their happy hour included cocktails at lunch for $11. We sampled their spicy mango made with tequila, mango and lime and garnished with a bird’s eye chili and the very-Thai flavored “Thank You Ka” with white rum, coconut galangal, ginger, lemongrass and kaffir lime decorated with drops of chili oil.

 

The crispy rice salad and pork ($15) is delicious with crushed crispy rice tossed with shredded coconut meat, pork and garnished with peanuts, listed on the menu with two hot peppers indicating the heat level. They serve some of the leanest grilled pork cheeks I’ve ever sampled. They first marinate it in fish sauce and then serve it with a spicy dipping sauce ($17). It’s listed with only one pepper.

Daringly, we decided to sample their coconut crab curry listed on the menu with a three-pepper heat level ($30), with our server checking that we’d be able to handle the heat. The nicely flavored Southern-style curry was tasty yet not nearly as hot as we expected. One minor complaint: for the hefty price, it needed more crab!

After lunch, I headed north to Lincoln Center to attend SAB’s (School of American Ballet’s) Workshop Final Rehearsal, which was fabulous. I highly recommend attending any of SAB’s performances.

 

Fish Cheeks
NoHO
55 Bond Street
New York, NY 10012
212-677-2223
fishcheeksnyc.com/

The School of American Ballet
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
212-769-6600