Tong – Bushwick's gold-flecked kitchen of fearless Thai heat

Tong occupies a modest storefront on Starr Street in Bushwick, between Cypress and St Nicholas Avenues, serving some of Brooklyn's most unapologetically spicy Thai food in a close-set, industrial-chic room built around small plates and drink. The restaurant opened in August 2020, after the pandemic forced its launch back by a year, and the kitchen looks firmly toward Thailand's north-east, the Isaan region bordering Laos. Co-owner Prasneeya “Pat” Praditpoj modelled the menu on kub klaem, the punchy, shareable dishes eaten over beer, whisky or cocktails, and drew directly on her own childhood memory of chili-lime roasted squid bought from a street cart on the way home from school. Executive chef Chetkangwan “Jade” Thipruetree carries that same regional instinct into his own cooking, reaching back to his hometown of Khon Kaen for dishes like the fermented-pork rice salad Naem Khluk. Tong is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, recognition for a kitchen that treats Thailand's loudest street food with real seriousness, at a moderate spend.

01The room and the setting

Tong's dining room doesn't try to impress: a narrow, canteen-style space with close-set tables suited equally to a quick solo bowl of noodles or a loud table of ten. The better seats, when the weather allows, are outside, where the wooden structure around its partially-covered sidewalk patio is wrapped in string lights — a detail Bushwick regulars have singled out more than once.

The patio exists partly by accident of real estate. The restaurant sits directly in front of a fire hydrant, so its handful of outdoor tables actually borrow curb space from the empty storefront next door. The location itself was never meant to be loud: Starr Street sits just far enough removed from the party scene down near the Jefferson L station to stay calm on a weekend night, even as the room inside fills up.

02The chef and the kitchen

Tong began with a single memory. Growing up in Thailand, co-owner Prasneeya “Pat” Praditpoj's favourite after-school treat was chili-lime roasted squid, or Pla Muk Yang, bought from a street vendor. On Tong's menu that memory resurfaces as grilled octopus, which executive chef Chetkangwan “Jade” Thipruetree chars to an impossibly soft texture, and suffuses in a sharp, fiery sauce.

Insider tip

Book via Resy or phone; patio seating is string-lit and partially covered.

Thipruetree's own cooking draws on his hometown of the Thai city, Khon Kaen, in the country's Isaan region, reflected in dishes such as the crispy-rice, fermented-sausage salad Naem Khluk. He has shared the stoves with Sunisa “Susan” Nitmai, the talent behind the acclaimed Pata Cafe in Elmhurst, who brought her own dry-cured beef and beef-liver sausage to Bushwick alongside the wok-fried noodle dish Pad Mhee Ko Rad.

03The cooking

The format is kub klaem — small, intensely seasoned plates meant for sharing over drinks — split on Tong's own menu from the heartier kub khao entrées. Signatures include Goi Neu, an Isaan-style spicy beef tartare dressed with toasted rice, and Gai Tod, the shatteringly crisp fried chicken thighs under crispy shallots that are a specialty of the southern city of Hat Yai. Som Tum comes two ways on the menu: the familiar green papaya salad, or a punchier version built on fermented anchovy paste, Thai eggplant and salted crab.

Among the bigger plates, Kang Tai Pla pushes branzino, pumpkin, bamboo shoot and roasted cashew through a fisherman's curry the menu itself flags as fiery, while Massaman Brisket settles into something gentler — beef braised with potato, fried shallot and peanut. Crab Curry takes a southern turn, a turmeric coconut curry built on jumbo crab meat, shrimp paste and betel leaf.

04What to order

Start with the Gai Tod and the grilled octopus in its chili-lime sauce, then move to Yum Naem, the crispy-rice salad with fermented pork sausage, roasted peanuts, shallot and ginger, alongside the grilled pork jowl in its spicy tamarind jaew dipping sauce. For a main course, the Crab Curry or the Massaman Brisket are the steadier choices when the table needs a break from chili. Finish, in season, with Mango Sticky Rice — sweet sticky rice with mango compote and vanilla ice cream.

05Wine and drinks

House cocktails lean tropical and spiced: the Bangkok Highball mixes Japanese whisky with soda, cola and lime; Relic From The Sun pairs chili-infused tequila with lychee, cointreau and aperol; The Bucket is built on cucumber-and-mint vodka with ginger beer. Thai lagers Singha and Chang sit alongside a short, mostly European wine list by the glass — a Provençal rosé, an Austrian Grüner Veltliner, a French Côtes du Rhône — and a sake, Kikusui Funaguchi Nama Genshu, for something colder and drier against the heat.

06The neighbourhood and booking

from Arel Capital, marking the firm's first New York acquisition. The same building — sold once before, in 2015 — is shared with a MetroRock climbing gym, with Tong remaining its best-known tenant.

The restaurant is a short walk from the Jefferson Street stop on the L train, close enough for convenience without sitting inside Bushwick's noisiest strip. Tong takes reservations through Resy or by phone; in October 2026 its own site listed hours as Friday and Saturday, noon to 11pm, and Sunday through Thursday, noon to 10pm.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.