Hawkers, located between 2nd and 3rd Avenues on 14th Street in Manhattan, is a restaurant that serves Southeast Asian food. I’ve passed by this place almost every day for over a year, but I’ve never gone in because I assumed it was just a bar, and judging from the layout, serving alcohol is its primary function.
The restaurant seating is laid out as one long bar that covers the center of the space from front to back. It’s simple, but functional. The layout maximizes space, but sacrifices comfort. The seats aren’t exactly something you’d want to spend a lot of time sitting on, so don’t plan on spending a lot of time enjoying your meal.
The food itself is excellent.
The satay tasted authentic. The peanut dip was a little off from what I remember, though it could just be a difference between recipes. The only satay I have to compare this to was satay my wife and I ate in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I’d go back to Hawkers just for this, if nothing else. It’s simple, but satisfyingly tasty.
The green curry was really, really spicy and completely awesome!
The popiah was ok, but not something I’d order again.
My wife cleaned her plate, so I guess the grilled eggplant “lunchbox” must have been delicious!
The bill for what you see in the photos (including a gratuity they helpfully add to your bill for you) added up to about 74 dollars. That’s a little on the high side for me for a two person meal, though it was quite a bit of food. In fact, it was too much food for two people. The only reason we went with this option was because of a Groupon deal. When we go back, we’re going to stick to the lunch menu, or whatever they have for smaller portions.
The last two things I’d like to mention about this place is that its empty in the photos because we went early on a Monday afternoon, and the service was really great. The girl that served us is from Thailand and we chatted with her about our trip to Phuket, Thailand in 2008 I think it was.
Bradley Farless 
I'll read through these a bit later tonight. =)
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Yeah, I understand. Well, if you get to try any place I'm sure you'll post it so I'll look forward to that. My sister and I try to do at least one every time it's on. Last year we did Brasserie and Hatsuhana both in Midtown. I thought Hatsuhana was pretty good and Brasserie was not bad either. Check out my write ups if you want to:http://hochies.blogspot.com/2011/02/adventures-in-restaurant-week-part-1-i.htmlhttp://hochies.blogspot.com/2011/02/back-to-hatsuhana.html#morehttp://hochies.blogspot.com/2011/02/adventures-in-restaurant-week-part-2_06.htmlThough I know you've a paper to write!
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Thanks for the tip. I'll take a closer look at that later and maybe book a few meals. I'm trying to cut back on how much money I'm spending though. I have some furniture that needs buying. =)
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Check out the listing of participating restaurants here:http://www.nycgo.com/restaurantweekIt runs Monday through Friday at various restaurants where you can get a three course meal at lunch for about $24.00 per person and $35 per person for dinner. Not all the restaurants do both lunch and dinner and not everyone has their menu posted online for viewing.
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Restaurant Week? What's that?
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Interesting… I might have to check it out one day. The curry looks awesome and really packs a lot of stuff in there.Are you guys going to try to do any Restaurant Week options? It's running through February 10th!
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