Restaurant in New York City, United States
Fiery Isan cooking, $$ prices, bring friends.
Zaab Zaab in Elmhurst is one of New York City's most credible Isan-style Thai kitchens, earning a Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) and back-to-back Opinionated About Dining Casual North America rankings at a $$ price point. Come with a group, order the larb ped udon and papaya salad with fermented pla ra, and expect cooking that challenges rather than comforts.
Zaab Zaab is the right answer if you want serious Isan-style Thai cooking at a price point that makes the outer-borough trip an easy call. A Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) and back-to-back rankings on Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list (#253 in 2024, #255 in 2025) confirm what regulars in Elmhurst already know: this is one of the most credible Thai kitchens in New York City, and it costs a fraction of what you'd pay for comparable precision in Manhattan. Book it for a group meal, a casual special occasion, or any night you want food that actually challenges you.
The dining room at Zaab Zaab on Woodside Avenue is colorful in a way that undersells what comes out of the kitchen. The cooking is Isan in spirit — the northeastern Thai tradition that leans hard on fermented fish sauces, dried shrimp, fresh chiles, and lime — and it arrives with an intensity that rewards diners who come prepared. The smell from the kitchen, all roasted garlic, fish sauce, and charred dried chiles, signals immediately that this is not the kind of Thai food designed to comfort first and challenge second. It is the inverse.
The larb ped udon is the dish most frequently cited in the venue's critical coverage: duck breast and duck liver with fried duck skin, mint, lime, and fried garlic. The liver is not softened or disguised. If offal puts you off, the papaya salad made with house-fermented pla ra is a more accessible but equally uncompromising alternative, oceanic and funky in a way that most Thai restaurants in New York do not attempt. Beef kapow with holy basil, whole fried fish, and rotisserie chicken marinated in coriander and lemongrass round out a menu that is designed to be shared across multiple dishes. The award notes specifically flag the fried whole fish and hot pots as high-return orders alongside the headline larb.
This is a $$ restaurant, which in practice means most diners will leave well-fed for under $40 per head. That price-to-award ratio is hard to argue with: Bib Gourmand recognition from Michelin explicitly identifies good food at moderate prices, and the OAD casual list ranking puts Zaab Zaab in rare company for a Queens neighborhood restaurant. Zaab Zaab now operates outposts in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but the Elmhurst original is the reference point, and the one worth visiting if you have the option.
Zaab Zaab is not a counter-dining destination in the omakase or chef's-table sense, but the informal, open format of the room means seating near the kitchen action is part of what makes the experience work. For solo diners or pairs, positioning close to the kitchen gives you proximity to the kitchen's output , the hot pots arriving tableside, the whole fish coming out of the fryer , and it sets the pace of the meal better than a corner table. If you are dining alone, the bar or counter-adjacent seating is the practical move: the menu is designed for roaming across multiple dishes, and the energy of watching the kitchen operate helps orient a solo diner through what is otherwise a group-format menu.
Zaab Zaab works for a casual celebration with the right group. The dining room is not a white-tablecloth environment, and the noise level is consistent with a busy Queens neighborhood restaurant, so manage expectations accordingly. What it delivers for a special occasion is a meal that people remember: the food is aggressive enough to generate conversation, the price is low enough that ordering broadly does not create anxiety, and the Bib Gourmand credential gives it legitimacy for guests who need a reason to make the trip. For a birthday dinner with heat-tolerant friends or a group that knows Thai food, it is a better call than a mid-range Manhattan restaurant at twice the price. It is not the venue for a business dinner requiring a quiet room or formal service.
For Isan-style cooking in Queens, Ayada is the other name that comes up consistently, and the comparison is worth making: Ayada is broader in regional Thai coverage while Zaab Zaab goes deeper on Isan heat and seafood. Fish Cheeks in Manhattan covers Thai seafood from a different angle , more accessible, more downtown, and easier to book for groups that don't want to travel to Queens. Bangkok Supper Club, Chalong, and Eim Khao Mun Kai fill out New York's Thai options across different formats and neighborhoods. For context on how Zaab Zaab's Isan focus compares to the source, Nahm in Bangkok and Samrub Samrub Thai represent the benchmark in Thailand itself.
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| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zaab Zaab | Opinionated About Dining Casual in North America Ranked #255 (2025); In an explosively colorful dining room that looks more like a children’s ice cream shop, find cooking that is equally vibrant in nature. Elmhurst is rich with talented Thai kitchens, but this one stands out for its fiery Isan-style cooking and prowess with seafood. It would be a mistake to show up without friends – or at least a very serious appetite. Dried shrimp and electric fish sauces are used with abandon on a menu that demands roaming. The house special larb ped udon pulls no punches with duck breast and fried duck skin jolted with fried lime leaves, mint, fried garlic and lime juice. Fried whole fish and bubbling hot pots tempt alongside excellent mainstays like prawn pad Thai and rotisserie chicken marinated in coriander and lemongrass.; ★★★ Elmhurst’s Zaab Zaab (now with outposts in Brooklyn and Manhattan) stands out for its fiery Isan-style Thai cooking, with a focus on seafood. Come with a group of heat-seekers to explore the menu, whose fiery chiles, dried shrimp and intense fish sauces are used the way an arsonist applies gasoline. The signature dish is arguably the larb ped udon, a punchy mix of duck breast and liver accented with crispy bits of fried duck skin. But if you’re not a liver lover, you might go for the intensely oceanic papaya salad enhanced with house-fermented pla ra. Flexitarians should order both, along with the stellar version of beef kapow, topped with fistfuls of fragrant holy basil. Elmhurst, Queens; Opinionated About Dining Casual in North America Ranked #253 (2024); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | $$ | — |
| Le Bernardin | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
| Atomix | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
| Per Se | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
| Masa | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
| Eleven Madison Park | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Zaab Zaab is not a bar-dining destination in the traditional sense. The room is casual and informal, so seating options are flexible, but this is a table-focused restaurant built for group eating. If you're solo, the open format works fine — you're not locked into a counter experience.
It works, but solo dining here means missing out. The OAD-ranked menu is built for roaming across multiple dishes — the larb ped udon, fried whole fish, and hot pots make most sense when shared across at least two or three people. If you go alone, pick two dishes and accept you're leaving things on the table.
The menu relies heavily on dried shrimp, fermented fish sauces, and shellfish — core Isan building blocks that are difficult to omit without changing the dish. Vegetarian or shellfish-free diners will find the menu significantly narrowed. The database does not confirm specific accommodation policies, so check the venue's official channels if restrictions are a factor.
Yes, if the occasion calls for a casual, high-energy group dinner rather than a formal celebration. The dining room is colorful and loud, not white-tablecloth. At $$ per head with a Michelin Bib Gourmand and an OAD Top 255 ranking, it's an easy call for a birthday or group night out — just don't expect quiet conversation.
At $$ per head, this is one of the stronger value cases in NYC Thai. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and back-to-back Opinionated About Dining rankings (#253 in 2024, #255 in 2025) back that up. The outer-borough trip to Elmhurst adds a few minutes, but not enough to change the math.
Ayada in Woodside is the closest peer for Isan-style cooking in Queens — broader regional coverage, slightly less heat-forward. For Manhattan convenience over authenticity, options exist but none match Zaab Zaab's OAD standing at this price. If the Elmhurst location is sold out, Zaab Zaab now has Brooklyn and Manhattan outposts.
Zaab Zaab does not operate a tasting menu format. The kitchen is best approached as a large shared-plates experience: order four to six dishes across a group, let the menu roam, and let the kitchen's Isan intensity build across courses. A fixed tasting structure would actually undercut how the food works.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
