Untable – Isan fire behind a Carroll Gardens tin ceiling

Untable arrived on a quiet stretch of Henry Street in Carroll Gardens in September 2023, opened by four friends who had all worked together at Somtum Der, the Isan restaurant in Red Hook. The kitchen belongs to chef Rachanon Kampimarn, known to everyone as Un or Aun, who has never had formal culinary training, having learned his craft on the job in that Red Hook kitchen and from his own family. He runs the floor with three former Somtum Der servers, and together the team represents four different corners of Thailand: Kampimarn from the northeast, one partner from the north, one from Bangkok and one from the south. The restaurant trades on a simple idea — that Isan flavours can be served without looking rustic — and it holds a Bib Gourmand distinction in the MICHELIN Guide, added in 2024 and renewed again for 2025.

01The room and the setting

The dining room sits behind a deep front window, its tin ceiling original to the building, on a block the founders first noticed while biking home from a shift. There is room for twenty-six guests at two- and four-tops, with another ten seats kept for dining at the bar, and the soundtrack running mostly to Motown. For much of its early life groups gathered outside hoping for a table even on quiet weeknights, since the address took no reservations at all; the restaurant's own site now lets diners book directly, though arriving ready to wait a little remains the safer plan.

Time Out rated the room a full five stars on opening, singling out the unconventional Thai cooking paired with a genuinely good cocktail list — a rare combination, in the critic's view, for a newcomer this size.

02The chef

Kampimarn grew up in Udon Thani, in Thailand's northeastern Isan region, and the menu still carries that childhood with him: a poem by co-owner Meen Srisopa links the cricket sounds of his Udon Thani upbringing to a Chilean sea bass dressed in a tomato sauce that recalls his grandmother's own cooking. That dish, listed on the menu as Untable E-San Style, arrives as a thick slab of sea bass surrounded by vibrant steamed vegetables and topped with something charred and crisp, the fish itself exploding with flavour thanks to the pool of fiery tomato sauce beneath it.

Insider tip

Closed Wednesdays; walk-ins have long been the norm, though the restaurant's own site now also takes bookings.

He is, by his own account, self-taught — everything he knows about food came from watching his mother, father and grandmother cook, and from years spent in New York's Thai kititchens before opening his own.

03The cooking

The name plays on 'Un' and 'table', and the kitchen is careful to explain what 'unconventional' actually means here: nothing experimental or fusion-y is happening with the flavours themselves, only with how the plate looks. The khao soi is a case in point — a deconstructed version of the classic egg-noodle dish, served with its pickles and onions set to one side and no broth at all, arranged in loose piles of ingredients so each diner can build their own bite rather than eating it pre-assembled.

The kitchen's most famous dish very nearly ran the restaurant out of chillies. The crispy chilli used in the What The Hell!! fried rice comes from a small town in northern Thailand, produced only on a small scale, and when Untable sold out of it within its first fortnight, one co-owner's parents travelled to the town in person to persuade the producers to ship more to Brooklyn.

04What to order

The dish that put Untable on the map is the What The Hell!! fried rice, served as a small mound of chilli-flecked grains topped with a shrimp and ringed with raw onion, fried shallots and ribbons of fried egg, marked on the menu with twelve chilli-pepper icons as fair warning. Just as worth ordering are the crab croquettes, set in a pool of tom yum puree alongside a tom kha chowder; the soupless khao soi tossed with beef in a Chiang Mai-style curry; and a green curry paired with a tender grilled chicken thigh and a bowl of purple rice berry.

Among the specials, a fried branzino with fried garlic and chilli sauce, served bone-in, draws particular praise, and for dessert regulars single out a basil yuzu dish for special mention.

05Wine and drinks

The cocktail list leans on the same pantry as the kitchen. The smoothly citrusy, vodka-based Ma-Krut acts as something of a signature, pairing well with almost everything on the menu, while the tequila, lime and bitters Sexy Fig is the house's fruitier answer. Thai sugarcane spirit, carried over from Thailand, sits alongside a Thai iced tea brewed in-house — a good non-alcoholic match for the spicier plates.

06When to go and booking

Untable is closed on Wednesdays. On the days it is open the kitchen runs lunch from noon to 3pm and dinner from 5pm, finishing at 9:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and running to 10pm on Friday and Saturday. Henry Street sits right on the seam between Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, close enough to Bar Bruno across the street that a wait for a table can comfortably be spent over a glass of rosé there first.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.