Wanglang
There’s been a recent boom in Thai restaurants opening in NYC. This one has an interesting name and is located in the Flatiron area. It is based on an old riverside town by the Chao Phraya river where there’s a food market serving authentic Thai home-style and street food. I took a look at their menu, and it looked smaller than other Thai restaurants, so I am hoping the flavors are less predictable and more refined. I easily made a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM.
From the website:
Wanglang is an old riverside town by the Chao Phraya river where a lively food market serves authentic Thai home-style and street food, alongside the sophisticated of the “Rear Palaces,” reflecting simplicity, warmth, and timeless sense of tradition
At WANGLANG, we focus on homestyle cooking, elevated with a unique and refined touch drawn from our chef’s experience.
Executive Chef : Chef Rattana Suntanalukn
Chef Rattana was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. She grew up in a family of restaurateurs. She has a deep passion for Thai cooking, utilizing generations of recipes to bring authentic homestyle flavors taking you on a culinary journey to the heart of Thailand.
Ambiance & Service
When we arrived, the restaurant was fairly empty, but fast forward about 30 minutes, the restaurant began to fill out very quickly. There were a ton of wait staff standing by, and as in most Thai restaurants, they are quick to rotate plates and tables.
The music is not too loud, but you are close to other tables, so the noise level can be on the higher side.
The service as I mentioned previously was typical Thai restaurant-like. We were in and out within 60 minutes, and my partner is an extremely slow eater. One thing to be aware of is the receipt comes with the tip calculated post-tax, and their electronic kiosks will show you the highest percentage first.
Food
The Thai Iced Tea ($7) tasted like most other Thai places, so there was nothing exquisite.
The glass of Lioco Pinot Noir ($18) came from Mendocino, CA. This was a light bodied pinot with cherry and earthy notes. The pour on this was rather light.
The Tod Mun Goong (Happy Hour $12, regular $18) came with their signature crispy doughnut shrimp cake made of shrimp and ground pork, garlic, and served with homemade plum sauce. The shrimp cake was actually pretty good. The meat was dense, but I would have to say if you bought this at the normal price, it can feel a bit expensive.
The Larb Spring Rolls (Happy Hour $12, regular $16) came with minced chicken, roasted rice, chili powder, red onion, scallion, cilantro, mint, and Thai herbs. The flavor of this was quite aromatic with all those herbal flavors. The spring rolls were delicately crisp, but also very thin.
The Jor Sai-ua ($18) was tofu skin stuffed with pork sausage and Thai herbs. My partner really loved this one, as they are a fan of tofu skin. I thought flavor wise it was sweet but good, but it’s certainly not the best I’ve had in the city.
The Crab Fried Rice Mor-Din ($30) came with jasmine rice stir-fried with sweet jumbo lump crab meat, egg, garlic, and scallions. Every time I order this, I’m always expecting lots of fresh, pungent crab flavors. Unfortunately, it usually misses the mark, and this is no different. This really is just fried rice with crab in it. My partner always likes this, but I’ve always found this to be on the basic side. Regardless, it did come hot, and you can taste the scallions and garlic in the rice.
The Pla Nueng Ma-now ($45) came with steamed whole branzino, fresh lime juice, garlic, chili, and fragrant herbs. We asked for the bold and tangy Thai sauce to be mild in heat, and they also served some of it off to the side. The branzino was mostly deboned. There were some bones around the tricky areas, so definitely be careful when eating this. Otherwise, the flavor of the sauce was quintessential Thai, so it was very aromatic with all the garlic, chili, and herbs. The fish itself seemed pretty fresh, and the meat was not overcooked. It was easy to take their provided spoon and break down most of the fish. The head was a bit tricky to get through, but everything else seemed fairly straight forward.
Overall Impression
Wanglang was a pretty good Thai restaurant. The one thing that I was somewhat disappointed in was that the value was not good. For Thai food, this was quite expensive, and its food wasn’t all that inventive. In the city, this was good, but I think for the value, there are much better places.
Yelp & Google Jabs
First off I’m Thai and I normally don’t like going to Thai restaurants when I can cook it myself but this place did not disappoint… This is not Americanized Thai, true authentic flavors. We were impressed.
There are many Thai restaurants in the city offering a similar menu, and the flavor profiles are quite similar. Because this Yelper hasn’t eaten at sufficient Thai restaurants, so they may be out of the loop that these flavors are quite common nowadays in these new Thai rush of restaurants.
The flavors are bold, fresh, and very true to Thailand—especially Pla Nueng, the steamed fish with chili lime sauce, which was perfectly balanced and full of flavor.
The steamed branzino had a lot of garlicky flavors surrounding it, so if you soak the side of jasmine rice in the broth, it was quite delicious. If I were to try this again next time, I think I’d opt for the fried branzino instead since it will have some texture in addition to flavor.
Revisions
- Apr 24, 2026 - Initial revision.