Lunch’er Teresa Reports: New Thai Food Cart on 52nd

Remember the days when we used to beg for somebody to open a Thai food cart in Midtown? Well, now we have two! Lunch’er Teresa checked in yesterday to let us know about a new Thai food cart on 52nd and 6th Ave.

Not sure if you’ve seen, but there’s a new thai food cart on the SW corner of 52nd St and 6th Ave – located next to Gobuki (korean cart). I haven’t seen anything about this cart on the internet anywhere so thought you might want to review it. Not sure of the name, but there’s a single guy working in an old halal cart. This cart definitely gives tuktuk boy a run for its money.

I ordered the Pad Thai – $7 (the dish to set the standard) and it was HUGE. Double the size of the pad thai from TukTuk Boy. There were a lot of noodles, not too much vegetables and a good amount of chicken. Everything was well balanced. Would be nice to have more vegetables, but not sure how much vegetables pad thai should have.

In terms of flavor, its quite flavorsome (better than tuktuk boy!) with a good mix of peanuts and pickled vegetables. Would be good to get some chilli sauce/paste with it, but then again, I didn’t ask for it. I’m eating the pad thai as I write this email and my gut feel tells me I should go and try the other foods on the menu as well!

I’ve attached a pic of the cart, as well as a pic of my food. I definitely feel this place deserves more business (there was one other person when I was there and every other time I’ve walked past, there wasn’t anyone there).

Hope you enjoy it! Thanks!

Done and done. Review coming soon… in the meantime, if there are any early adopters out there who have tried this cart, let us know what you think in the comments.

5 Comments

  • I brought up this cart a week or two ago. I can’t find my comment as there’s no links to my historical comments in my profile. I didn’t say much (I didn’t go to it yet) but there was chatter on the interet, right here! :-)

  • tried to stop by at around 1, but gave up after 7 minutes, which is how long it took him to do a single batch of 4 pad thai orders. Adding to the fact that 4 others were still waiting for their meals and 2 had yet to order in front of me, I made the decision to come back later when he either hires some help or at an off-peak hour. It did smell and look awesome–everything seemed to be cooked to order.

  • The poor guy running the stand is alone and totally overwhelmed. We waited a half hour, which I would never do but the day is so gorgeous and I had a pal to talk to. It’s fun watching him boil the fresh noodles and then throw them on the grill.

    The product – everybody is ordering chicken pad thai – is mediocre, a little dry for my taste but good fish sauce and citrus notes. Generous quantity, not a bad deal for your $7. My one real bitch is that he’s putting in way too much meat, and the pieces are too big. Really in pad thai you want it to be about the noodles, with flecks of meat. Also I think he ran out of sprouts.

    This cart is a work in progress – as you can see in the photo he hasn’t even removed the old halal cart advertising behind the scrawled thai food signs. When he gets a helper and is less stressed it might be worth a return visit to check on the curries.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    apparently everyone and their mother read this post today, since the line was totally crazy at around 1:00 PM. my coworkers and i waited also around half an hour, which was really pushing the limits on my patience. the guy working his butt off in the truck. he seriously needs a helper or two in the truck to speed everything along. i think he was making fresh batches for every 4-6 orders, which, although the idea is nice, slowed everything down.

    the guy himself was very nice – he was out of pad kee mao, but offered to make me the same dish over egg fried rice, which i accepted. two of my coworkers got chicken pad thai, which was very flavorful. like more traditional pad thai, it was on the dryer side. nice big chunks of meat. huuuuuge portion sizes. citrusy.

    my pseudo pad kee mao with egg fried rice was a little short on basil for my taste, but was quite spicy. my container was not as big as the pad thai containers (we’re talking 2 inches tall vs. 4 inches tall, damn), but it was still a ton of food and I ended up only finishing half.

    my other coworker got the chicken and veggie dumplings, and she said they were worth the wait. i didn’t see anyone order the two curries (red and green), nor did I see anyone get the Chicken and basil over rice in the special “chicken peanut sauce.”

    i would go back at a later time – the line was mostly gone by 2:00 PM when we finally went back to our office – and maybe in a few weeks once he gets his rhythm down and maybe has a helper. fortunately, there was a lot of buzz in the area – schnitzel and gobuki had long lines as well. at least the weather was nice!

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I went yesterday as well and waited quite a while for my order. While the wait was a bit long I, too, felt it was worth it. The portions and taste were a great deal for $7 and it wasn’t saucey in the least. It was the most refreshing batch of pad thai I have ever tasted of and all the meat included was great.

    I do agree that he is in desperate need of an aide. Until then I will just have to make sure to get there as early as possible to beat the crowd.

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