Wanglang Thai is trending

The restaurant people keep passing around right now is Wanglang, a new Thai spot at 49 West 24th Street in Flatiron that was added to The Infatuation’s new-openings coverage on March 25, 2026. The same writeup says it comes from the team behind Tha Phraya on the Upper East Side. (theinfatuation.com) Wanglang is not a random name pulled from a branding meeting. The restaurant’s own site says it is named after Wang Lang, an old riverside town on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok known for a busy food market and home-style Thai cooking. (wanglangnyc.com) That background explains the pitch of the menu. Wanglang says it is focused on homestyle Thai cooking with a more polished finish, and its executive chef is Rattana Suntanalukn, who the restaurant says was born and raised in Bangkok and comes from a family of restaurateurs. (wanglangnyc.com) The address matters too. West 24th Street puts it in Flatiron, a Manhattan dining zone where a new place can go from “soft open” to impossible reservation in a few viral posts because it sits between office traffic, Madison Square Park foot traffic, and downtown dinner crowds. (theinfatuation.com) The early menu is built for photos and for people who already know a few Thai dishes but want something less standard than pad thai. Uber Eats listings show dishes like grilled pork cheek for $18, whole grilled squid for $18, papaya salad for $17, duck larb for $26, and whole branzino preparations at $47. (ubereats.com) A lot of the dishes lean toward regional Thai flavors that read differently from basic takeout menus. The delivery listing includes som tum pu plara, a papaya salad seasoned with fermented fish sauce, and yum naem khao tod, a crispy rice salad mixed with fermented pork and herbs. (ubereats.com) The restaurant is also pushing a lower-friction entry point than a full splurge dinner. The Infatuation flagged a happy hour with $7 beers, $12 wine, and $12 snacks, which is exactly the kind of pricing that gets people in once and turns a curiosity visit into repeat traffic. (theinfatuation.com) If you are seeing Wanglang all over your feed, the timing lines up with how New York restaurant buzz usually forms. A new Manhattan opening gets listed by discovery sites, the room and plates start circulating in short-form video, and then the first wave of diners tests whether the place is only pretty or actually worth booking. (theinfatuation.com) (tiktok.com) Right now, the hard facts are still early-stage facts: new opening, Flatiron address, Bangkok-inspired identity, chef from Bangkok, and a menu that mixes familiar grilled meats with more specific Thai salads and seafood. The Infatuation’s review page explicitly says they had not eaten there yet as of March 25, 2026, so the story at this point is momentum, not a settled critical verdict. (theinfatuation.com) The practical part is simple. Wanglang has its own reservations page, lists group bookings for parties of five or more by email, and is already live on delivery platforms, which is usually a sign a new spot is trying to capture both the reservation crowd and the “send me the menu now” crowd at the same time. (wanglangnyc.com 1) (wanglangnyc.com 2) (ubereats.com)