Soothr – the East Village noodle counter that out-grew its own takeout window

On a quiet stretch of East 13th Street in the East Village, Soothr opened in May 2020 as a takeout noodle counter, one of the few restaurants bold enough to launch during the depths of the pandemic. Three friends, each raised in a different region of Thailand, built the menu around the family noodle recipes of their childhoods and named the place Soothr, properly pronounced "sood", the Thai word for "recipe". What began as noodles packed for delivery grew quickly into one of the East Village's most booked dining rooms. It is Selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a distinction the restaurant has now held every year from 2021 to 2025, and in September 2021 Pete Wells of The New York Times devoted a review to its noodle soups, under the headline "A Far-Ranging Thai Menu That Started With a Slurp". Condé Nast Traveler later named it to its Best New Restaurants in the World Hot List.

01The room and the setting

Soothr's East Village room reads warm and lived-in. The interior reads warm and lived-in: weathered wood beams, tufted red leather booths, lanterns, a back garden that pulls its weight in the warmer months. There is also a bar fitted with an antique telephone, a detail that signals the room has a personality.

Outside, the restaurant gives little away. Outside the green shuttered-windows, dates line up, and groups of friends wait for their tables, though once inside, Soothr rewards the patience with prompt service.

02The chef

The head chef is Nate Lingwan, formerly of Fish Cheeks on Bond Street, who runs the kitchen on foundations laid by the three founders. Chidensee Wattanawongwat, who grew up in Udon Thani in northeast Thailand, opened Soothr with co-owners Kitiya Mokkarrat and Supatta Banklouy, both raised in Sukhothai, Thailand's former capital city.

Insider tip

Reservations recommended for dinner; weekday lunch specials run 12–3:45pm with a complimentary side.

Together the three lead a restaurant group that also operates Sappe in the West Village and Soothr LIC in Long Island City, which opened in September 2025.

03The cooking

The kitchen specialises in family noodle recipes from throughout Thailand, each tied to a specific region the founders knew growing up, built for the comfort of a home table rather than a showcase plate. The energy borrows deliberately from Bangkok's Yaowarat Road, the narrow night-market strip where friends and family gather over the city's street food.

The founding dish, a Sukhothai-style tom yum noodle soup, found good grounding with diners, and the buzzy restaurant has become a local and national favourite, earning a nod from the MICHELIN Guide. The rest of the menu has grown around it: Northern-style khao soi curries, Isan hotpots and a run of wok-fired entrées that range far beyond a single province.

04What to order

Start with the Tom Zaab Hotpot, a spicy Isan-style pot of braised pork leg, Thai herbs, mushroom and chilli, or the Ka Moo Noodle Soup, a five-spice rice-noodle broth with the same braised pork and crispy garlic. The Karee Pu Noodles pair jumbo lump crab meat in egg curry sauce over yellow noodles; the Khao Soi Sai Ua sets Northern-style curry noodles against spicy Northern Thai pork sausage and pickled radish.

For something sharper, the Si-Krong Pad Ped wok-tosses spicy braised spare ribs with kaffir lime leaf, and the Yum Pla Tod sends out a whole fried branzino under a spicy mango salad. Finish with the Mango Sundae — sticky rice, mango compote and homemade mango gelato under a tuile.

05Wine and drinks

The cocktail list runs to nine signature drinks the menu calls its "gems". Bussarakam mixes two Thai golden rums, MaeKhong and Phraya, with bitters, smoked cinnamon and star anise; Fah-Kram is a brighter vodka, pineapple and blue curaçao build with lemon zest and Cointreau; Gomane leans savoury, built on Thai herb-infused vodka, dry vermouth and cranberry juice.

06The neighbourhood

Soothr sits just east of Third Avenue, on a residential run of 13th Street that gives no hint of the queue that forms most evenings. The same three founders have since carried the restaurant's Bangkok energy across the city: on Tuesday, September 24, 2025, Soothr opened its second location in Long Island City, Queens, a room channelling the energy of Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown, resembling a Hong Kong-style cha chaan teng diner with checkered floors, terrazzo tables and a mahjong-style jade bar.

The same group has since signed a 10-year lease for a new Vietnamese restaurant, Annam Tan, at 33 E. 33rd St. in Murray Hill — a sign of how far the East Village noodle counter's ambitions have travelled since 2020.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.