Esan Thai

I have probably been to E-​San Thai at least 40 times over the past 2 years, and it has been consistently good and reliable each and every time.
There’s a bit more upscale/​romantic/​trendy Ruay Thai just 3 stores down, but for a more relaxed easy-​going feel, try E-​san. They have an awesome happy hour that usually lasts from 4pm to 9pm (woo!) with $ 4 glasses of wine and $ 3 appetizers. YUM. I’ve tried nearly all the appetizers by now and definitely recommend the curry puffs or the summer rolls — you will scarf both down in an instant.
I tend to be a curry lover and so I’ve tried all the curries on the menu. The yellow and massaman curries are similar and both are excellent. However, the single reason I keep frequenting E-​san time and time again is the PUMPKIN CURRY. Mm’mm mm’mm! There are actual chunks of pumpkin in the curry and it is so hearty and delicious!
Overall, I give E-​San 5 stars because it has good reliable food, super friendly service, and the PUMPKIN curry which I absolutely love. :)

I would NOT recommend getting your meal delivered from here. I placed an order at lunch and my estimated arrival was 45 minutes. 45 minutes rolled around and I didn’t hear anything, I waited for another 15 minutes and shot them a call to check up on my order. The lady who answered my call didn’t ask me what my order number was and just said the food was on it’s way and hung up. Gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited. Another 30 minutes rolled by and called them back, again I was told my order was already out. When I raised told the man that I was told that when I previously called he said it was in my neighborhood and that they were busy. I understand businesses get busy during lunch time but they are only 15 blocks from my workplace I have a hard time figuring out how and why it takes over an hour to deliver. If I had known… I could have just as easily walked there and eaten my food in the time I waited.
The only saving grace for this place was that the food was delicious. I ordered a vegetable pad see eww. It was very flavorful and the sweet soy sauce was not overpowering. The lunch special comes with a side of your choice and I got the salad with the peanut dressing. It was a good mix of sweet peanuty flavor with a slight spicy kick to it. I enjoyed this meal but wish I didn’t have to wait an hour and a half to get it.
I won’t be ordering from here again. But perhaps Ill just make the 15 block trek next time.

My boyfriend and I find ourselves ordering take-​out and sitting in at least once a week. Esan is a bit divey, but still our favorite local thai place… excellent curry, great everything else… The service is friendly and inviting
if you spend a lot of time in Murray Hill Esan is definitely worth checking out

While looking for a place to eat dinner in a snowstorm, I was glad to find this place. My friend was reluctant to go in since there were no one eating inside. I looked on Unilocal and saw the wonderful reviews, so we went in to eat Drunken Noodles as many reviews had recommended We had a fragrant Yum soup and the recommended Drunken Noodles plus Thai tea. For dessert we had another bowl of the Yum soup! Be sure to visit the restrooms with the elegant décor! We were fortified enough to brave the storm and go to our destination!

I eat at or order from Esan Thai at least once a week. I work in midtown so I’ve had lots of Thai food (all over Hells Kitchen) and I must say Esan is probably one of the best (if not the best) Thai I’ve had in the area. The restaurant usually does not have a wait so it’s my go to dinner spot most Friday and Saturday nights. I really dig the multicolor haphazardly striped walls but some of you may my agree.
My usual dining partner is vegetarian so we always get the vegetarian protein, which is is delicious, especially the veggie duck.
The Drunken Noodles are always delicious as are the curries. Try the veggie duck, you’ll never know that it’s not real meat :)
I recently had the mango sticky rice. Definitely hits the spot.

Food was mmmmmm… *licks lips*. I had the basil fried rice. Try the lychee drink, it was amazing. It was empty when I came here, but I was okay with that. Me n my boo got a cute lil table by the window, so no complaints!

I am all about Esan thai because of the mango sticky rice. I’ve had mango sticky rice at several places, but this one is the best. It is sticky rice, with a sweet coconut sauce, served with tangy mangos that make this dish a treat for your tastebuds
Besides this amazing dessert, the veggie dumplings, the veggie spring rolls, and the drunken noodles are also great. If you have some extra room in your belly after all of this, you can even order the donuts (not as good as the mango sticky rice, but still pretty amazing!)

My wife and I had dinner here on April 29, 2013. We decided to return due to our past experiences.
For starters we ordered Curry Puff @ $ 6 and shrimp in blanket @ $ 6. Very good choices! For our
main dinner, Shrimp Pad Thai @ $ 12.95 and Cashew Nuts Chicken @ $ 10.95 with brown rice. Everything was very good and served hot temperature wise. We shall return on our next visit.
They also did a great delivery on April 24, the date of our arrival in NYC. It was late and we didn’t feel like going out, so we ordered in! Everything arrived hot and good!

(And this is where my other part of my veneer fell off. Thank goodness. Refer to my Mizumi post)
So after arriving 7 hours early to work (another thing that can only happen to me), my mother decided to come here with me. She ordered here many times and approved of their food.
Reading off the lunch special, I ordered the basil rice with beef and the green papaya salad. I did enjoy the green papaya salad but I think my rice was supposed to be spicy. It wasn’t. I didn’t say anything until later. My mother had my spicy rice all along. She ordered the thai rice with shrimp. I should have known.
For the appetizer, my mother ordered the summer roll. I’m pretty sure the summer roll isn’t supposed to be fried. They gave her two pieces and we just dealt with it.
I have to say though, that waitress was really kind. She wasn’t the one who took our order. Every now and then, she would make sure to come by to check if everything was okay. I would come back to give this restaurant another try.

Sunday night we tried going to Ruay Thai but the place was way too crowded. So we headed a few doors down to this Thai place on the same block. Relatively empty but we were in the mood for Thai food. We took the chance here and were very glad we did. I’m probably being a little generous with the 4 stars but it’s definitely better than 3. I’m rounding because not only did the manager/​owner give us a very pleasant greeting on the way in but also shook our hands on the way out.
The food was good and inexpensive. For starters we had a couple of Thai Salads and a bowl of chicken and wonton soup. The broth was too hot but my wife said the wontons were among the best she has had. The Thai Salad was pretty large and could have been shared. The accompanying peanut sauce mmm mmm good.
My wife and I both had shrimp pad thais for our main course and my daughter had the yellow curry chicken which they gladly substituted out potatoes and substituted in broccoli as per her request. Kudos for that as some places won’t make that change.
The pad thai portions were a little smaller than other places but not ridiculously so. No complaints here. They both came out pretty mild but I added some chili powder and it was fine. The shrimp were cooked to perfection. I also had a Thai Iced Coffee; sweet but not overly so – letting me enjoy that coffee taste.
The menu had a lot of pictures. I like pictorial menus when I am not really familiar with the food. Next time, I will try to be a little more adventurous.
The place looks very plain but it is clean. There is a full bar too. I didn’t have anything alcoholic but the prices seemed cheap.

All the food was tasty but the portions were quite small for the lunch specials. However, it only cost 6 bucks (with
discount), so I wasn’t too disappointed. The salad was accompanied by a sweet peanut sauce that was quite good. I ordered the Red Curry lunch special with a side of jasmine rice and salad. The curry was flavorful with that lovely coconut milk aroma. It was also quite spicy, for someone who doesn’t usually handle spicy very well…
Can’t say too much for the ambiance of the restaurant, but when I picked up my order around 2pm there wasn’t a single customer in there.

I ordered lunch here and had their lunch special of 1 appetizer and 1 entrée for $ 7 I think. I ordered the spring rolls and the curry beef with white rice. The rolls were okay and the sauce was good. I was disappointed with the entrée which was more like a soup dish. I had to throw out a lot of the curry broth so I could just eat the meat and vegetables with my rice. The curry had a very different taste but I think the way the meal was presented just too much. There are some other Thai spots in the neighborhood that I prefer.

Spicy, delicious, and weeknight specials of three courses for $ 19.95 makes it pretty much the best Thai deal in town!
Chili Chicken is excellent (and very spicey — and I can handle the heat but this thing makes my scalp tingle).
Very decent Massaman Curry — but a little on the sweet side.
Love the Basil Fried Rice (it’s ok with Chicken but seems better with Beef).
Good Thai Iced Tea and Thai Desserts — but a phenomenal place for delivery/​take-​out if you’re in the ‘hood!
Also, nice decent décor on the inside — pretty chic/​modern looking, considering that it’s practically located in the Mouth of the Midtown Tunnel.

Pretty good happy hour deal from 4pm-​8pm (i think). $ 3.00 beers. The prices for the meals are pretty standard except what I like about this Thai place is they don’t overdose on the sauces like most other places. To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Thai for this reason but I wouldn’t mind going to Khao Sarn again. I got the Basil Pork, which had a good ratio of vegetables to pork. My friend got a noodle dish and the same again goes for the ratio of the sauce to noodles. None of that fishing for the lone slice of pork or the secret wiping of the sauce off the noodles with the under the table napkin trick.
I think what made this place what it is though is the good service. The waiters seem to understand the meaning of «waiting» on your customers, meaning they were always aware when the glass was half full and when we needed something.

It’s never good to buy lunch when starving because I will go for anything in sight. I tried the chicken pad thai and green chicken curry. The pad thai was disappointing and tasteless. Not to mention, not much chicken was present. The curry was mediocre.

I ordered take out and this is your standard fare spot. Don’t expect crazy Thai food — it’s a staple Thai spot in Murray Hill. Lunch special is decently priced and its just around the corner for me.
They’ve got a cheap happy hour going on — but it doesn’t look too appetizing.

After allowing my hungry tummy to find a lunch spot, I ended up here… what a great choice! If you are seeking spicy Thai cuisine, this is the place! I had the $ 20 pre fixe… started out with the tofu soup and the chicken satay followed by the sauteed ginger chicken with jasmine rice.
Yummm…will be back again to try more of their dishes and their exotic cocktails… spicy Thai Margarita!!!

Ok, well I noticed that two reviews said they had food poisoning and that this place had lots of health violations. Well, I checked the Department of Health website and this place has cleaned up since then. It is now rated an «A» for cleanliness. While it was not quite an «A» for flavor for me, it is easily a «B» or «B+».
I had the Tom Kha soup first. Tom Kha is a very popular Thai soup with coconut milk, lemongrass, and galangal (a ginger like thing). I also chose to have chicken added (making this Tom Kha Gai). The soup tasted very good. It had a nice sourness to it. It had slices of red and green bell peppers in it. I would’ve preferred if they put red hot chile peppers instead, which is another way to do it. The added spiciness would’ve enhanced the soup. A plus is that there were mushrooms in it because not everyone puts that into this soup. Usually, straw mushrooms are used in this soup. Instead, they used common mushrooms. Soup was still good though.
For my main dish, I had their Woon Sen (glass noodles) with beef. It had bok choy, egg, broccoli, and tomatoes. There were a couple slivers of bell peppers as well. This place stir-​fries it very well. A very savory dish.

Good, decent, filling Thai. Dishes could have had more flavor.
Papaya salad was okay, nothing like at my fave place on 9^th avenue.
Sauteed chicken– they certainly do not skip on the meat.
I give it 3 stars because of the incredible value– a filling meal of 2 courses for just under 6 bucks. Nice atmosphere, friendly service.
For that price, would return!

I would really like to like this place. And I am willing to give it another shot. Especially since i hear the Williamsburg location is great.
But…last night we ordered drunken noodle with beef and a chicken curry. We received veggie chicken vs. regular chicken which was quite a disappointment. I enjoy vegetarian food but cannot understand why anyone would eat fake meat and I certainly did not want it for dinner. The drunken noodle was meh. The beef was kind of chewy.
All together, it was a major disappointment. I just moved into the neighborhood and am quite confused over where to eat. This option didn’t work out so well for me.