Jackson Heights Life

Chopsticks and Marrow features a new Thai restaurant in Elmhurst called Plant Love House.   It sounds great.  Di Stefano writes that "Woodside and Elmhurst have blossomed into a Little Bangkok," and I think he's absolutely right.  At this point, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the number of new Thai places I haven't been able to try yet.  As the first step in my therapy, I thought I'd try to make a list:

Arunee Thai, 78-23 37th Avenue., Jackson Heights (Yelp)
Ayada Thai,77-08 Woodside Ave., Elmhurst (Yelp)
Black Thai, 81-16 Northern Blvd., Jackson Heights (Yelp)
Boon Chu Thai Place, 83-18 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
Chao Thai, 85-03 Whitney Ave., Elmhurst (Yelp)
Coco South East Asian Cuisine, 82-69 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
Dee Thai, 46-17 Queens Blvd. Sunnyside (Yelp)
Eim Khao Mun Kai, 81-32 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
I Am Thai, 49-08 43rd Ave., Woodside (Yelp)
Khao Kang, 76-20 Woodside Ave., Elmhurst (Yelp)
Kitchen 79, 37-70 79th St., Jackson Heights (Yelp)
Nusara Thai Kitchen, 82-80 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
Paet Rio, 81-10 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
Plant Love House, 86-08 Whitney Ave., Elmhurst (Yelp)
Playground Authentic Thai Cuisine, 71-30 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights (Yelp)
Ploy Thai, 81-40 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
Sabay Thai Restaurant, 75-19 Broadway, Elmhurst (Yelp)
Sila Thai, 57-17 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside (Yelp)
Spicy Shallot, 77-01 Woodside Ave., Elmhurst (Yelp)
Sripraphai, 64-13 39th Ave., Woodside (Yelp)
Suki Thai Shabu, 60-15 Woodside Ave., Woodside (Yelp)
Sweet Basil, 39-28 61st St., Woodside (Yelp)
Zabb Elee, 71-28 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside (Yelp)

That list seems to dwarf our famous neighborhood's "Little India" offerings.  Did I miss any?

Which are your favorites?   And who's going to try them all first?

I've also only tried 4, and ranked in order that I liked:
Sripraphai
Arunee
Kitchen 79
Black Thai

The last 2 will deliver to me, so I get from Kitchen 79 the most. It's serviceable, but Sripraphai is the one that really stands out.

wowww, that is crazy. I think Elmhurst is the core, with the ones in sunnyside and woodside also-rans. but...


You can add some that aren't proper restaurants:
ThaiThai Grocery (next to that bar, read ahead)
Thai Grocery
Thai liqour store next to ayada (though the thai selection is very limited)
That bar across the street from khao kang
that coffee shop across the street from that bar


Restaurants:
Thailand Center Point (sentimental favorite)

Every one I've been to knocks even the highest regarded manhattan places out of the water. The 4 or so times I've had thai in Manhattan, I just thought it was the most ridiculous thing. Like I was cheating on Kathy Ireland with Kathy Bates.

I hate to have to choose between Ayada and Zabb Elee (though I make that choice at least once a week and choose differently each time).  Both are amazing and--I agree with Jeff and his Kathy conundrum--better than anything I've had in Manhattan.  Oh, and that Thai bar--it's called Pata Paplean--is fantastic.  Stunning and freaky decor, potent exotic drinks, nice staff and actually pretty good food. 

I have tried almost all on the list but some in Sunnyside and Woodside. I think you also miss Chao Thai Too which specializes in Thai sukiyaki.

I agree that this area serves the best Thai food in the whole NYC area and probably second in the country only to Thai town in Los Angeles (where good Thai restaurants are more spread out) and second in some specialties, say Khao Man Kai to Portland. My personal favorites are Zabb Elee, Khao Kang, and Ploy Thai (not sure about the new renovation though). My Thai friends go to Playground and Sabay a lot for karaoke after (restaurant) work and their drinking food is not bad. Many think food at Ayada is sweet but it's kind of similar to food in Central Thailand.

Personally I like this development, especially if new places focus on different things like Tea Cup Cafe (that corner cafe on Woodside Ave), Khao Kang, or a few new chicken and rice joints. However, I feel strange that many Thai restaurants inside and outside of this area are actually managed by the same team like Zabb and Spice (very bad in my view). And some seem to have strong connections like Spice and Khao Kang or Zabb and Larb Ubol.

likewise been to about a dozen or so, and found some really, really great ones and only one or two duds. CoCo doesn't seem a fit to me (self-described Southeast Asian, it seems more Malaysian to me). we're very lucky to have this bounty -- and i have friends who come from all over the city to eat at quite a few.

Puri, are you saying it is bad when the owners have a second location, when one location is not personally supervised by them?

To me, it is just very surprising that a good Thai place and a (very) bad one like Zabb Elee and Spice can have the same management. It's like they intentionally dumb the food down in Manhattan, not because they don't have expertise or cannot find ingredients. Maybe I was a bit naive.

just saw this today; lots of restaurants frequently discussed on this board:
http://www.grubstreet.com/2015/07/9-thai-restaurants-elmhurst.html