Not the usual Thai menu (witness the beautiful salmon-sashimi salad) and not the usual middling preparation. The food at Republic is exceptionally fresh and lively, especially at these prices. We like the pad Thai and the fried wontons with pimiento-plum sauce. There are lots of vegetarian choices, of course, as well as fresh-squeezed juices. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld
Went with some friends on a Saturday night. It was really busy and we ended up waiting for about half an hour. We were finally seated and, I guess since it was super busy, it took a while for them to take our order. However the food did come quickly. I ordered the curried duck noodles. Although the flavor was good, the dish was more like a vegetable stir fry topped with a little bit of noodles and three small pieces of fatty duck meat. My friend had the Vietnamese Chicken Soup and that was actually pretty good. Overall I was really disappointed in my experience given the rave reviews I heard from my friends...and I will not be going back.
ordered the veggie curry noodle soup
noodles were hard... soup wasn't particularly tasty... but more importantly, there was a maggot in my soup. that's right, a MAGGOT.
subsequently found a website which details this restaurant's shady health inspection past:
http://nyc.everyblock.com/restaurant-inspections/