Hit and Miss at Gaw Gai

By Eso Romero

Located at Jackson and 23rd Street, Gaw Gai is a small Thai restaurant that caters more to the take out crowd. My first time at Gaw Gai was on a cold Friday evening. It’s simply decorated with only 4 tables and counter seating at the window. Customer flow was slow that night with most people sitting at the tables waiting for their to-go order; it’s likely that their peak business is during lunch hours. The menu offers the standard Thai dishes: various curries, noodle dishes and soups and salads (but sadly, no desserts!). One of the immediate drawbacks is that it is a cash-only establishment. While they do take credit card orders through Seamless, orders are only taken during specific windows of time, from 11:00-11:45 am and 5:00-8:45 pm.

All orders are taken at the front counter. I ordered massaman beef curry, chicken pad see ew, crispy tofu triangles and a Thai iced tea. The positive: everything was prepared fairly quickly and rice was included with the curry. No need to pay an extra few dollars for some rice! The downside: everything came out on plastic plates/bowls. In hindsight, I would’ve much rather taken the food to-go and eaten on real plates at home.

Now, the food. The massaman curry was richly flavored with coconut milk, peanuts, carrots, potatoes, onions and beef. My ten-year-old daughter devoured it eagerly, withstanding the spice level quite easily. I found the curry a bit too rich with a pungent aftertaste I didn’t care for. Though the meat was tender, the potatoes were undercooked. This was a sure miss in my book. Next time I’d rather order the green curry. 

The chicken pad see  ew was the hit of the night. Perfectly seasoned without being overly greasy. This savory and sweet noodle dish was perfect for my 7-year-old daughter, who has a strong aversion to any spicy foods. And as a parent, I always welcome a one dish meal of proteins, veggies and carbs. Both girls enjoyed the crisp tofu triangles, but they seemed to prefer their entrees. According to my 7-year-old budding foodie, “the tofu is a little dry.” In all fairness, the tofu comes with a dipping sauce to alleviate the dryness, but she had no interest due to the spice.

We were seated at the counter overlooking the window to the street, savoring bites of the Thai food. These were pleasant moments at Gaw Gai. With my two companions with their noses in their books as they ate, I looked out the window sipping my Thai iced tea. Jazz music softly played as I looked out at the Court Square Diner lighting up the street, the 7 train thundering above and employees yammering in Thai. A quintessential NYC kind of moment.

Overall, Gaw Gai offers straightforward Thai comfort food, ideally taken out to enjoy at home. If you’re solo, however, it’s a decent place to sit at the window counter, eat your meal, and do some LIC people-watching.