Fish Cheeks

About

Fish Cheeks opened in 2016 at 55 Bond Street as a seafood-forward Thai restaurant from brothers Ohm and Chat Suansilphong with partners Jenn Saesue and Pranwalai Kittirattanawiwat. The name nods to fish cheek meat as a prized cut. The kitchen draws on coastal Thai cooking rather than pad Thai standards: family-style plates, bird’s-eye chili heat, and signatures such as coconut crab curry with housemade paste, zabb chicken wings, po tak seafood soup, crab fried rice, and whole fish. Ohm previously cooked at Nahm in Bangkok; Chat trained at the CIA and worked in New York kitchens. Pete Wells gave the restaurant one New York Times star in 2016 for vivid, intense cooking; The Infatuation, New York Magazine, and Eater have kept it on essential Thai lists. A Williamsburg location opened in May 2025 at 661 Driggs Avenue; this page is the Bond Street original. Resy books ahead; walk-ins and peak waits remain common.

Menu highlights

• Coconut crab curry
• Zabb chicken wings
• Po tak seafood soup; crab fried rice
• Whole steamed or fried fish with Thai herbs / nam jim

Diners say

Public reviews on Resy, Yelp, and Google Maps repeatedly praise the coconut crab curry, spice level, seafood focus, colorful room, and shareable format. Recurring friction is wait time without a reservation, noise, heat that can overwhelm mild-spice diners, and a check that climbs once several family-style plates are ordered. A smaller thread finds individual dishes inconsistent or prefers the newer Williamsburg room. Groups who book ahead usually fare better than spontaneous peak Friday nights.

Review synthesis as of 2026-07-31. Synthesis of recurring themes in public Resy, Yelp, and Google Maps reviews sampled July 2026; not a rating or ranking. Cross-checked against fishcheeksnyc.com, Pete Wells’s one-star New York Times review (2016), Eater, The Infatuation, Gothamist, and coverage of the May 2025 Williamsburg opening.