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Food guide

How to find good Thai food

Thai food is built on a balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet. The version that travelled abroad tends to have the sweet dial turned up and the other three turned down, which is why so much of it tastes broadly the same.

What separates a good one from a bad one

  • Sour and salty as loud as the sweet — Fish sauce, lime, tamarind and chilli all present and assertive. A dish that is mostly sweet with a little heat has been adjusted.
  • Curry paste pounded in the kitchen — Fresh paste smells of galangal, lemongrass and lime leaf. Jarred paste is flatter and more uniform, and it is what most curries are made from.
  • A regional label — Isaan, Northern, Southern. Isaan in particular — the food of the northeast — is a distinct cuisine with som tam, larb, grilled meats and sticky rice.
  • Heat that is real when asked for — A kitchen that will actually cook Thai-hot rather than adding chilli flakes at the end. Reviews from Thai customers are the best evidence of this.
  • A second menu — As with Chinese restaurants, plenty of Thai kitchens run a separate menu. Asking is worth it.

What to order

  • Som tam — Green papaya salad, pounded to order. The single best test of an Isaan kitchen — it should be fiercely hot, sour and funky.
  • Larb — Minced meat with toasted rice powder, lime, chilli and herbs. Should be dry and sharp, not saucy.
  • Khao soi — Northern Thai coconut curry noodle soup with crisp noodles on top. One of the great noodle dishes and still uncommon.
  • Boat noodles — Dark, intense, spiced beef or pork noodle soup. Small bowls, ordered several at a time.
  • Southern curries — Gaeng som, gaeng tai pla. The hottest food in Thailand and rarely found abroad.
  • Pad thai, knowingly — A genuine dish and a good one, and also the dish most likely to have been sweetened into candy. Judge a kitchen by anything else first.

Where to find Thai food

Open listings put 10,627 Thai restaurants across the US. These are the cities and campuses with the most of them.

Cities with the most

New York, NY 335 Los Angeles, CA 210 Portland, OR 175 Seattle, WA 161 San Francisco, CA 154 Chicago, IL 146 Las Vegas, NV 130 San Diego, CA 106 Sacramento, CA 58 Houston, TX 58 Washington, DC 57 San Antonio, TX 55

Campuses with the most within a mile

NYU 107 The New School 104 CUNY Graduate Center 86 Baruch 86 FIT 83 Touro University 80 John Jay 42 Pace University 32 Hunter 31 Seattle U 30

A few to start with

Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.

Thai food near campus

How Savor Scout looks for it

Thai searches read for regional terms and for specific dishes rather than ranking by rating, because the highest-rated Thai restaurant in a given area is often the one most adjusted to a general palate. Reviews mentioning real heat, Isaan dishes, or a separate menu push a place up substantially.

Find Thai food near you →

Looking in a particular city?

Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.

All 1,000 cities →

Shellfish allergy at the table? Where shellfish hides on a menu, and what to ask before you order.

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