Best Thai in Queens
The ten best Thai restaurants in Queens for 2026 — Elmhurst's Little Thailand strip, Jackson Heights, and the Woodside original that started it all — ranked by current editorial consensus, not nostalgia.
- 01
Zaab Zaab
Elmhurst · 76-04 Woodside Ave, Elmhurst, NY 11373The Isan specialist that turned a strip of Woodside Avenue most New Yorkers had never heard of into a citywide dining destination.
It picked up three stars from Pete Wells and a Michelin Bib Gourmand, but the real tell is that longtime Elmhurst regulars still line up for a table alongside everyone who read about it.
Order Larb ped, the duck salad with crispy skin and toasted rice powder
Go on a weeknight — weekend waits can run past 45 minutes even now that the group has expanded to three locations across Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.
- 02
Sripraphai
Woodside · 64-13 39th Ave, Woodside, NY 11377The Woodside restaurant that taught New York what Thai food could be, years before khao soi or larb showed up anywhere else in the city.
Three-plus decades in, the backyard garden seating and the pork leg over rice still outperform most of what's opened since to compete with it.
Order Crispy watercress salad with pork and shrimp, or the northern-style khao soi
The garden seating out back only runs seasonally and is worth the extra wait over a table inside.
- 03
Ayada Thai
Elmhurst · 77-08 Woodside Ave, Elmhurst, NY 11373Elmhurst's reliable, oversized menu — the place that can feed six different appetites at one table without anyone settling.