Restaurant Review: Exceptional Thai Food at UnTable | The New Yorker

"On a sleepy block of Carroll Gardens, this exceptional Thai spot opened in September from thirty-nine-year-old chef Aun Kampimarn welcomes me into a charming tin-ceilinged room with cheerful, unpretentious vibes while serving elegant, modern takes on classic Thai combinations. Its earnest spirit shows in the name—"Un," a nod to Aun’s unconventional approach—and in a poem by co-owner Meen Srisopa that links the cricket sounds of Kampimarn’s Udon Thani childhood to a Chilean sea bass with a tomato sauce reminiscent of his grandmother’s. After years in the U.S. and a stint at the highly praised Somtum Der, Kampimarn honed recipes as pre-service family meals that became the menu here: Yum Samgler, a refreshing cold salad of cherry tomato, grapes, fig, strawberry, and avocado, sings with a bright lime dressing of cilantro, garlic, and black pepper, its "three friends" idea also nodding to the restaurant’s three original partners. Goong Lui Saun turns a shrimp starter into a pulse-quickener: four shell-on poached tiger shrimp in a zippy lime-and-fish-sauce dressing strewn with thick coins of fresh lemongrass, big chunks of raw garlic and ginger, Thai chili, whole fried cashews, lime triangles with peel, and micro-cilantro—hot, sweet, bitter, and, with all that raw garlic, a thrilling shock. A December-special Tom Kha chowder, lush with seared scallops and enoki mushrooms, is built from a paste of galangal, lime leaves, and lemongrass slow-cooked with coconut milk. Crab croquettes, under a wig of frizzled lemongrass and lime leaf, make a lovely prelude to the E-San Style Chilean sea bass, lavish with moons of kabocha squash. For the spice-curious, the must-order is the WHAT THE HELL!! fried rice (twelve chili-pepper warning): servers urged us to taste the already-charged center first before folding in more chilies, rolled egg, fried onion, sweet sautéed pork, mango, and green beans; without the extra chilies it’s more "What the Heck," so increase the heat at your own risk. The sole dessert, a vivacious yuzu-basil sorbet, neatly sums up Kampimarn’s cooking—bracing and comforting at once. (Dishes $14-$38.)" - S, h, a, u, n, a, , L, y, o, n