Fish Cheeks, NYC

Update Review, August 2024 Visit

Another August visit to NY, and another chance to get to eat some great Thai food.  First on my agenda was Fish Cheeks, which I had enjoyed previously.  Sadly, this order was not a success.

Grilled Cuttlefish. $23.

"Marinated grilled cuttlefish sliced with hand crush nam jim seafood. Extra spicy."

This ... was just not very good.  It made me extremely sad, as I read good reviews of it, I was really craving something like this, and I had liked Fish Cheeks previously.  But alas.

The cuttlefish pieces lacked any actual grill marks or char.  I really was hoping for some of that great grill flavor.  The pieces were also fairly chewy, in a spongy way.  The texture just wasn't enjoyable.  The pieces were also marinated in some kind of spicing that I mostly didn't care for.  I'm not quite sure what aspect of the marinade I didn't care for was, as I couldn't identify the flavors exactly.  So really, quite a letdown.  * maybe ...

The sauce on the side though, now THAT was something.  When they say "extra spicy", yes, they mean it.  It stuff had some serious heat.  It also just had great depth of flavor, acidity, heat, everything.  A tiny bit went a loooong way, but really a powerhouse that I enjoyed experiencing.  **** sauce.

Original Review, September 2023

I wasn't particularly craving, nor seeking out, Thai food, when I learned about Fish Cheeks, a Thai restaurant in New York.  I was actually drooling over epic pastries, eying more sushi, and pondering classic NY pizza, but, Fish Cheeks kept leaping to the top of my list in Door Dash one day when I was looking for an easy delivery option near my office where I was working late.  The menu *did* sound appealing, and, wow, the online reviews are all pretty glowing.

Fish Cheeks is not a generic Thai restaurant, and that much was clear the moment I started looking at the menu.  It is higher end, seafood focused, modern, innovative Thai food.  If you are looking for papaya salad, pad thai, and mango sticky rice, look elsewhere.  But if you can stand a little heat, enjoy a variety of seafoods, and want to try something different, this really is a gem.

And thus, fairly randomly, I deemed it Thai food night, and ordered from Fish Cheeks.  My order was prepared quickly, but didn't get assigned a Dasher for a long time, and then my Dasher went to the wrong place, etc, etc, so it took quite a while to reach me, and the food was certainly no longer the appropriate temperature.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

I haven't visited in person, so I can't comment on the restaurant itself.

Food

Fish Cheeks specializes in seafood (no wonder the menu kept jumping out!), and is all served family style, or, as their menu says "We recommend sharing for a better dining experience."  The menu is broken down into 3 areas: "plates to snack", "plates to share", and sides.  All are marked with the appropriate number of chili peppers to indicate spice.

Since I was alone, and getting takeout, I opted for just the snacks and sides, although the larger plates to share make up the majority of the menu.  If I was ordering with others, I likely would have gotten the well regarded coconut crab curry, and if I was dining in, any of the whole seafood preparations, or the skate wing, definitely would have been my top choice.  

Kiin Len - Plates to Snack

The "Plates to Snack" are mostly dishes that would traditionally be called appetizers, some chilled dishes, salads, and others.  Setting Fish Cheeks apart from your standard Thai restaurant is the fact that the first item on the menu is oysters.  The rest of the lineup continues mostly down the seafood route, although wings and pork cheeks round out the menu.

Corn Salad. $12.

"Steamed corn, cherry tomato, long beans, fish sauce, garlic, lime, Thai bird's eye chili. Moderately spicy."

My first pick was a corn salad.  Yes, a corn salad.  Because, summer corn is amazing at its peak, and at its peak it was that week in August.

I was thrilled to see this on the menu.  Even more thrilled when I opened my box to see how fresh and vibrant the corn was, and the unique preparation of served cut off the cob in big pieces.  

The corn was very good.  Fresh, seasonal corn, allowed to shine.  The long beans were lightly crisp, and fairly tasty too.  The tomato however was a letdown.  While they were bright red and juicy, they weren't particularly flavorful, and were a touch mealy.  Very average cherry tomatoes, like you'd find in any garden salad in the middle of winter.  

Then, the dressing, a key element.  I appreciated that it came on the side, so as not to soggy the salad, but also, so one could add as much or little spice as they wanted.  It was moderately spicy as advertised, and so full of complex flavors.  Funkiness from the fish sauce, acid and sour notes from the lime, spice (obviously) from the Thai bird's eye chilis.  All balanced by the natural sweetness in the fresh corn.  Definitely a skilled culinary team behind this seemingly simple dish.

This was very good, and, save the mediocre tomatoes, ****.

Crispy Rice Salad. $15.

"Crushed crispy rice tossed with shredded coconut meat, sour pork, mint, chili, saw leaves, lime and ginger. Served with peanuts. Moderately spicy."

Last year, at Mumu in Sydney, I had my first crispy rice salad.  I really loved it, and have been wanting something similar ever since.  Now, that version was considerably different, with jellyfish rather than pork, and served entirely cold, and without anything like the wedge of cabbage, but, still, it inspired me to order this (as did all the rave reviews).

Because of the snafu with my delivery, when this finally made its way to me, it was cold, or, I guess, room temperature.  It is served hot at the restaurant (besides the cabbage), so, clearly not ideal.  Luckily, I had a toaster oven, and could heat it up, and crisp it back up a bit.  But it definitely didn't have quite the crispy element it likely does in the restaurant.

Anyway, it was very good.  The base is clumps of fried rice, loaded with lots of herbs, with a very flavorful sauce that was really infused throughout.  It was complex in all the right ways - sweet, sour, spicy ... very authentic Thai.  I'm not usually a rice girl, but, this was really good rice (particularly when crispy!).

The pork was little bits of Thai pork sausage.  Flavorful on its own, but it added an additional flavorful element to the overall dish.  Great crunch from all the peanuts too.  Lightly spicy, although it did have full red chilis in it, so, if you accidentally bit into one of those, it was very spicy.  The wedge of cabbage added more crunch, freshness, and a cooling element.  

Basically, great textures, incredible flavor, and fun to eat.  Overall, very good, although I think to really evaluate it, I'd want to try it fresh in the restaurant.  Not a great choice for takeout, but, I still am glad I had it.  ***+.

Sides

The sides portion of the menu is only 4 items: rice, sauteed cabbage, fried morning glory, or shrimp chips.  I got the chips so I'd have a snack to nibble on later that evening.

Shrimp Chips. $5.

"Fried shrimp chips served with chili paste."

The shrimp chips were pretty standard, several colors, fresh, airy, crunchy, some fishy flavor to them.  Not too greasy.  They were a fairly big size, and none came crushed, which made them excellent for scooping some of the rice salad into as well.  Would be great to much on before a meal while waiting for your food too.  ****.

The chile paste was thick, essentially like sambal, and nicely spicy and funky.  Certainly good to spread a little on the chips, but my meal had so much other flavor, it wasn't needed.  I gladly saved it for future use.  ****.

Overall, a nice starter/side, reasonable portion for the price.