Thai Diner

Disco Fries at the Diner

4 of 5

Take the idea of an American diner, fly it to Chiang Mai in your head, then let a kitchen with real taste execute it. That is Thai Diner on Mott Street. It comes from the team behind Uncle Boons, now shuttered, and it has the same refusal to dumb anything down.

The menu mixes heritage dishes with new inventions and nearly all of it lands. The Disco Fries are crinkle-cut fries under massaman curry, peanuts and coconut cream, and they are the right kind of ridiculous. The egg sandwich puts sai oua sausage and an egg crepe with American cheese on roti, which is breakfast for people who like being surprised. There is a banana blossom and rotisserie chicken salad for balance, a proper khao soi for the cold months, and a coconut sundae to finish that borrows from the Uncle Boons days.

It is perpetually mobbed. Book on Resy when you can, and if you cannot, go early and be patient. Prices land mid-range, which for this much flavor in Nolita is a small miracle. Bring someone who will share the fries and does not count the bites. Plan to share, because the menu rewards a table that orders widely. A solo visit means missing half the reason to come, so drag a friend along and split everything down the middle.

Order this: Thai Disco Fries, The egg sandwich with sai oua sausage on roti, Khao soi, The coconut sundae
The damage: $$
Go: Early on a weekday, before the crowd
Find it: 186 Mott St, New York, NY 10012