We haven’t really explored much from the middle of Central Park and up. My partner’s friends live in East Harlem, which according to Google maps, begins East 96th and goes north. They chose this neighborhood Thai restaurant, Chu Ros Thai, that they adore and highly recommend. We basically took the local 6 train northbound from the N/W junction, which took about 20 minutes to go up. For a party of 4, we were able to walk in without reservations at around 4 PM on a Saturday evening.
Ambiance & Service
The interior of the restaurant has a lot of floral decorations on the ceiling. It’s surprising how they were able to get so much to cover most, if not all, of the areas.
The service was fast and casual, and at no point did we feel rushed to finish despite it being a small space.
Food
This was the Thai Tea with Passion Fruit juice ($5). I was confused initially what this really was, but basically for the sugar they substitute the milk with juice. I didn’t know what to really expect, but I can safely say that the juice was a nice substitute. Instead of the Thai tea tasting overly sweet, you instead get some of the tartness from the passion fruit juice, and it also came out less sweet
The Crab Rangoon ($8.95 - left) came with 6 pieces. It came with fried imitation crab meat, celery, and cream cheese. The insides of the crab rangoon was quite delicious, and it tasted like “nacho cheese” sauce to me. The exterior was perfectly fried and crispy.
The Chicken & Shrimp Fritter ($9.95 - right) was basically chicken and shrimp fried dumpling served with Thai sweet chili sauce. As you can imagine, this similar to a “shu mai” dumpling, where the meat is very bouncy and dense, but also very delicious. The exterior was also perfectly crispy as well.
The Khao Man Gai ($16.95) came with steamed chicken over ginger rice, and it was served with Thai herbs ginger sauce and house clear soup. The chicken was very soft and tender. The rice was subtly seasoned with ginger. Overall, this is very similar to other steamed chicken over rice dishes, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity and quality of the food. I thought it was pretty good for the price.
The Creamy Seafood Tom Yum Noodle Soup ($20.95) came with thin rice noodle, shrimp, calamari, and mussel and served win a creamy Thai spicy coconut lemongrass soup. Although I’m not a fan of a creamy soup, I thought this was quite good. The flavor was nice with the coconut and lemongrass, and it was just mildly spicy. The noodles were cooked on the al dente side, so it had a nice crunch and wasn’t overly soft. I imagine this is the same type of noodles that comes in the other soup noodles here or even in the pad thai.
Final Verdict
Chu Ros Thai is a very lovely, local place. Unlike where we currently live, the sit down Thai places are not as local or close as this one is to folks that live in East Harlem. I think the food and price here is actually a good value, and just know that you do decide to venture out here, this is a decent value spot to have dinner.
Yelp Jabs
The pad kee mao was flavorful, should have ordered very spicy, since spicy was more like mild.
I’m always thankful that when something is “spicy” in Thai restaurants, it’s not real Thai spicy. Real Thai spicy will completely tear up your nostrils and tongue. Do not ever hesitate to ask the servers what “spicy” means on their menu. You wouldn’t want to have the wrong expectations.
Only 5 of us went to eat, but they charged 20% gratuity in the bill. We didn’t complained but it was really disappointed the fact that they included this amount of gratuity when the table doesn’t exceed 6 guests.
Sometimes, all it takes is 5, especially on square tables. The restaurant may have to move a table for 2 to accommodate the 1 person. This is also why I sometimes dislike eating at restaurants with a party larger than 4. Not only could space feel tight, but the restaurant tipping policy varies.
Revisions
- Mar 2, 2024 - Initial revision.