For our first real dinner since returning from LA (yes, this is a bit delayed), we ordered some Thai food from Der Krung, a place in Hell's Kitchen that used to be called Thai Basil. We always intended to visit when it was Thai Basil and thought the new menu for Der Krung looked interesting, so it seemed like a good time to finally try it. Some people say that eating Thai food in LA is so good that you can't eat Thai food back in NY again. That might be true but didn't really apply to us. We love Thai food and I don't think I could go without it for that long even if it were better in LA. Plus, in LA, we only went to Jitlada, and had some southern Thai specialties there that we can't even get here if we tried. So, no overlap!
We decided to get one appetizer (dumplings), one salad (our usual larb), and two types of noodles to see what Der Krung had to offer.
Homemade Der Krung Dumpling ($7): Thai style chicken and shrimp dumpling served with homemade soy sauce.
These dumplings were pricey! For almost $2 per dumpling, I expected something large and meaty. These were definitely better than some of the others we've tried which are like dried out meatballs wrapped in wonton paper, but they weren't amazing. They looked like ground chicken and shrimp dumplings with a small piece of imitation crab on top, and didn't have any remarkable flavors. I love dumplings but am not sure we would get these again.
Larb Gai ($9): Medium hot, minced chicken salad, chili, scallions, onions, roasted ground rice with spicy lime dressing.
Larb gai is one of my favorite dishes and this one was pretty good, although quite spicy. It seems that their "spicy lime dressing" means dressing with lots of chopped up jalapenos. Otherwise this was like most larb dishes - ground chicken, carrots, red onions, scallions on a bed of lettuce. Such a healthy dish. Probably not my favorite larb ever but a good one.
Kee Mao Noodle (Drunken Noodles) ($11): Medium hot, flat rice noodles with chicken, egg, onions, bell peppers, basil and chili basil sauce.
These were pretty good, and perhaps even better on reheating the next day when the noodles had more time to soak up all the flavors. There was a decent amount of spice to it and they included plenty of basil. One of my dislikes is when a place sends you pad kee mao with no basil. What's the point if they're basil noodles? Definitely not an issue at Der Krung.
Der Krung Noodles ($11): Medium hot, angel rice noodles with chicken, bean sprouts, scallions, onions and curry powder.
The appearance of these noodles reminded us of Singapore chow mei fun, except with just chicken. I liked these more than A did. There was a nice curry flavor to the noodles, but it's not as strong or powdery as it usually is in Singapore noodles. There were lots of chopped up vegetables which also made it seem healthy.
I don't think Der Krung will replace our go-to Thai delivery places (those would probably be Qi and to a lesser extent Wondee), mostly because they are on the expensive side, but I would go there again. I would probably just skip those expensive dumplings! Maybe I'll also try out their weekday lunch special one of these days.
Der Krung is located on 9th Avenue near 56th Street.
I don't think Der Krung will replace our go-to Thai delivery places (those would probably be Qi and to a lesser extent Wondee), mostly because they are on the expensive side, but I would go there again. I would probably just skip those expensive dumplings! Maybe I'll also try out their weekday lunch special one of these days.
Der Krung is located on 9th Avenue near 56th Street.
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