Land Northeast Thai (CLOSED)

Excellent place to eat, anytime. Lunch special is cheap at only $8 bucks, and diner is also excellent. Try the veggie dumplings or the red snapper!

Land is the best you'll find. It's very authentic, so hot means hot, but this is preferable to the americanized thai cuisine found elsewhere in this town. The curries are great, the basil chicken is fantastic (and lacks the added chinese style veggies that kills this dish elsewhere). Great for delivery, awesome satay sampler. If you're ordering in, don't over think this...

There is absolutely nothing going on in Thai-food-land on the U-UES/E. Harlem since the demise of the very hit-or-miss Thai Milano a few months back, so short of opening my own place, I had to start venturing further downtown. I had a bland experience with Sala Thai about 9 years ago, and used to order weekly from another branch of the Lemongrass Grill chain when I worked in midtown, but it seemed to be very MSG-laden and wasn't very "traditional" Thai, so they were both out. I decided to try Land - a good 25 block walk away (I am 3 blocks outside of their delivery area), but with a nice looking website and interesting reviews here. I was particularly fascinated by the spice controversy as I love spicy food and wanted to taste for myself. First time out was definitely a success – I ordered the Beef Salad and Drunken Noodles with Tofu, both medium spicy. The beef was very tender and juicy, but I was almost worried it wasn’t spicy enough at first – I expected to have to pick out a bunch of peppers from the dish but there were maybe only one or two. What was lovely though is that the heat started to come on slowly about a third of the way in, and reached a point of what I can only describe as a nice surface warmth in the front and middle of my mouth. Another nice touch was the julienned green apple in the salad, as opposed to using a more neutral ingredient jicama for example, which was a nice contrast to the salt and spice. The sauce in the drunken noodles was a bit bolder than the salad, but the heat never went down my throat or up my nose, and certainly didn’t feel it was overpowering. I did get take out this time so my judgment of the atmosphere and service is only based on a brief interaction – both were pleasant, and the staff seemed to get a kick out of my gigantic dog waiting outside. We’ll be back soon to try some other items!

I preface this review by saying, I love to eat spicy food and really think I have a high tolerance for eating it, so when I explain that the druken chicken noodles where so spicy they barely where inedible for me, I hope you read this before you order them. I still was able to eat my dinner with sips of water in between and also put soy sauce on to lighten it up a touch. You have been warned! BUT, I will say that the veggie dumpling as stated before are great- note:since it does not state this on the menu, they do have peanuts crushed on top and inside. I will order again from this place, I think it overall has good and authetic thai food, but will definitely try something else.

The vegetable dumplings are the most amazing hidden treasure at Land Thai. I'm not a fan of the rest of the food, but these are definitely worth a try.

I have been here a couple times and I have ordered in and I absolutely love this place. Highly recommend it for a great UES Thai restaraunt. Love the Laab lettuce wraps, and shrimp with ginger entree.

I ordered the Green Papaya Salad and the Drunken Noodle w/Chicken and both were so incredibly spicy I could barely eat it, let alone enjoy it, and I'm Korean! It's a good value, but next time, I'm going to steer clear of the spicy dishes. Way too spicy, can't enjoy the food.