Worst service I've ever experienced in my life. Never said anything to us when we walked in the door, when we sat down, or in general. When the food was finally brought out the silverware took another 15 minutes to come. So rude! Also the food tasted like salt and the portions were all over the place. Ordered a veggie pad Thai and it came with no vegetables. Never going here ever again.
(1)
The Little Curious T.
Great pad tai medium hot with Chicken. Arrived seated immediately ... Yes the booth was well worn but everything reminded me of actual Thai restaurants I've been too .... Food was very good hot and quick... Only one Thai beer but not a deal killer .... I love family places and really good food I'd post a photo but I ate it all too quickly! Wife had fried rice with shrimp really good ...if she is picky she'd have less onions but she really liked it. Read other reviews .. Just not our experience.... Ps we are here on Friday evening. Try it!
(4)
Eric M.
I saw that this place was rated a three-star restaurant, but I really wanted Thai within walking distance from my hotel. The spring rolls and soup were very tasty, but I give my meal a 5-star rating on the basis of the Red Curry with Tofu main dish. I have eaten a lot of Thai food, including plenty in Thailand. This was an amazing dish. The veggies were perfectly cooked and the red curry was beyond words. Be careful on the heat that you order. I ordered medium hot, and it was plenty hot, even for my southwestern palate!
(5)
Joe E.
Great meal, beat up/dirty menus, dead flies in window, doesn't take Amex. Probably won't go back.
(2)
Suzanne P.
Went on a kinda weird date made only weirder by our experience at dinner. We arrived at 8:00 (well, I did, my date was late...) and were whisked right away to a table. We were told that we needed to order and eat quickly because they closed at 9. I asked our server if we should even place an order? He said yes, left but came back within minutes asking us impatiently to put our order into the kitchen when we hadn't had enough time to look over their long, kind of confusing menu. I don't even remember the food - it wasn't even slightly memorable. But the terrible service left a baaaaad taste in my mouth. It's too bad! Downtown doesn't have many Thai restaurants. Word to the wise: head Uptown; you'll be glad that you did.
(2)
Rick J.
Amazing Phad Thai. Amazing. Nice atmosphere. Extensive menu. Reasonably priced. Service is a little slow, so don't come here if you are in a hurry.
(4)
Betsy K.
I ordered delivery via Bite Squad tonight and was more than surprised when I opened the box of Vegetarian Red Curry and discovered the box only half full. $10.50 worth of veggies and tofu should fill the takeout box, this is unacceptable. Also, half the sauce had leaked out of the box and into the Bite Squad bag. I won't be ordering again.
(1)
Thao P.
Great location; Delicious food; Slow service; less than appealing atmosphere I came here with my partner during Pride Weekend in Minneapolis. I was craving some Thai food like no other. The interior decor resembles most Thai restaurants, so it wasn't too unique. When we were seated, I noticed that the service wasn't spectacular because we waited a while for both our water and food. It took us an extra effort to get our waitress's attention. It didn't seem like too many people were at the restaurant or watching over it. I ordered the Pad See Ew and my partner got Pad Thai. They were both pretty good dishes. My partner's sister ordered laab (Thai Ground Meat Salad) and liked it too. We also got Spring rolls as appetizers and those weren't bad. Overall, this place was just okay to me. The service is the major detraction from this venue, but it's ultimately a great location. I probably wouldn't go here again as my first pick.
(3)
Katrina O.
Went here for date night with hubby last night. A pretty small area with seating very close together, however we never felt crowded. Hubby was super hungry and ordered egg rolls and spring rolls (both regular) and they were meh. They weren't bad but they certainly weren't great! For our main course, hubby had their pad thai, level 4 spicy which was pretty good but a little too sweet for me and not at all spicy. I had the rad na with level 7 spicy (the highest spicy level) and it was really tasty and had a nice kick to it! I would definitely go back for more of the rad na but pass on the egg rolls and spring rolls.
(3)
Marysol V.
I saw all these reviews of slow service and yes at first for them to actually to take our order it was but once they did our food cam within 10 minutes, and dang was it delicious. I got the house special curry with chicken, and it was sooooo tasty. And I urge anyone and EVERYONE to order the thai iced tea, it is so good, but you have to like sweet things to enjoy it. Very delicious, small quaint restaurant.
(5)
Michael M.
Awful awful awful service. Put in order before a show at the target center and waited over 40 minutes to be told that the appetizer that we ordered was sold out. We saw them bring out at least two of the same appetizer prior to ours to parties that ordered after us. Ridiculous. Wish I would have read reviews prior to coming. Awful.
(1)
Mark J.
If there was a zero star rating, this is what it would get. Service is horrible. 20 minutes to even take our order and over an hour to get food, when asking the waiter how long it will be, just said they didnt know. Will never be back. Stay away.
(1)
MaiKa V.
I came here a while ago and got a very Long Stand of hair in our food and I told the waiter and her went to management. The only thing they could do for us was just pay for a beer we had.... WOW... Never coming back here again. Good luck to whoever goes there for food.
(1)
Jegadesh K.
Waitress toooo much attitude. Chicken wings - good Veg spring roll - good Sriraja fried rice - nice Thai fried rice - good Wong ton soup - bad Over all, never go there again
(2)
Greg M.
Food is exceptional!! We ordered fresh spring rolls and cream puffs and loved them both. Entrees were cooked perfectly to our spice preference. Very good food.
(5)
Eva D.
Excessively salty, some parts of the food were burned (egg rolls and tofu) and there were major issues with the kitchen in terms of speed and lack of inventory. A bummer as the other two locations are quite excellent and definitely worth trying. To avoid disappointment, I would recommend going elsewhere.
(1)
Netra V.
Wow amazing as ever .... Try the pad thai guys it's awesome .... One of the best pad thai I have had in months ..... However the egg rolls where not all that great but that would make up for the amazing pad thai from this place ... Got to try the other curries next time I am sure it's going to taste yummy ..would definitely come back ...
(4)
Joann S.
Is this a center for ants? Is this a center for seriously horrible "Thai" food?? Um, no for the first question. And yes for the second question. I've never had such horrible Thai food before. The curry was bland, the portions were off, the staff didn't know anything about Thai food, and the jasmine rice was deffffffffffffff-initely not cook through (think: still hard, and slopping wet.) Yucky...
(1)
Janna C.
I'm just in Minneapolis for a conference and had a hankering for Thai. This place was located close to my hotel so I thought, why not? I placed a take out order at 6:30pm and I'm still waiting for my food at 7:10pm. The gentleman who took my order seemed very nice, but extremely stressed out. He apologized for the wait and said, "when this happens we can just take the tip off that you left us." Apparently, this happens all the time. I can see that they're understaffed and having a hard time taking care of the customers in the restaurant (the place is half full). Based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend that people come here until they've figured out their staffing issues. UPDATE: When I finally received my food I was BLOWN AWAY by how DELICIOUS it was. This was hands down the best pad thai I've ever had. This literally tasted like my friend's Thai grandmother cooked it. Wow, just wow. The food was completely worth the wait.
(4)
Dennis A.
Three of us went for lunch on a Tuesday afternoon after the business crowd was gone. The menu looked enticing. The prices reasonable. However, we waited 40 minutes for our food and finally got up and left when the wait person said it would take a few more minutes before our order was ready. I'm sorry, but if you want to stay in business you cannot expect your patrons to sit at the table with nothing but a marathon glass of water for that amount of time, and not even check in with them once. Oh, did I mention, we were not even asked if we wanted a beverage? Go at your own risk. The food may be great but that kind of wait is inexcusable in today's world.
(1)
David C.
Kind of run down. Food was mediocre at best. One one occasion I had the lemongrass chicken soup and they really skimped on the portions of chicken. I also had the chicken wonton soup on another occasion. The wontons were so overcooked that the skin fell off. Service was lackluster and it usually took us around forty minutes or so to get our food. They seemed a bit shorthanded as well. I'd like to give this place a better rating since the Asian selections in downtown are quite limited, but this place just wasn't up to par.
(2)
Theresa L.
Had I read the reviews I would not have come here, but I had a great experience! Good pad Thai, nice flavor, not drowned in sauce, fresh mung bean sprouts, and they accommodated my "no onions" order. Service was prompt and friendly, and my server refilled my drink 4 times. Will be back!
(4)
Ryan M.
Very disappointed with my experience at Taste of Thailand. I had seen the restaurant earlier in the week and was very excited to try it since it was only a block from my hotel. Sign clearly posted that they close at 9 pm during the week and 10 pm on the weekend. I step inside from the bitter 7 degree weather at exactly 8:27 pm Wednesday evening. I stood there as employees were talking in the bar area until finally one of them acknowledged my existence and decided to walk over. At first I thought he was going to tell me that there was a limited menu because it was late or even take out only but instead he turned me away, saying they were closed. So I didn't get a taste of this Thailand in Minneapolis, just a bad experience in customer service.
(1)
Jason K.
I went to the Taste of Thailand with three coworkers and we were seated quickly. Our server brought us water quickly and I ordered the number 42. Chicken with a ton of vegetables. The dish was fantastic, I ordered medium hot and it was just the right amount of heat. The vegetables were crispy and awesome! They supplied a lot of chicken, kind of sliced chunks. The side dish of rice was a perfect filler to add with the dish. My friend got the deep fried tofu and spring rolls, which looked awesome. The 46 was a beef dish that looked great and my friend seemed to love it. The only thing that sucked is that it took about 20 minutes to get our check and cash out. The service was great, but the time to check out was unacceptable.
(4)
Jodee D.
Egg rolls were amazing. The Pad Thai was terrible. The burnt smell was awful and the entire dish tasted like charcoal and not in a good way. I didn't eat any of it. I would NOT recommend the Pad Thai. I'm so disappointed.
(1)
Tiago P.
Food is OK, but definitely on the too-sweet side. Atmosphere is OK but a little dingy Service is not good. Not good at all. Not as a result of the wait-staff, but the kitchen needs to step up their game. I went with a group of 5 people for lunch. The first dish that came out took about 40 minutes. Each new dish that came out was in 5 minute intervals. The final dish never came out because we had to cancel the order because our colleague had to go back for a meeting. It shouldn't take 1 hour for 5 dishes to be made. The management and staff need to understand that there IS a problem and something needs to be fixed. If not, this restaurant will go under. For sure. Here's a start to fix the problem regarding service. Have 1 menu for dinner (which can be more extensive) and 1 menu for lunch (which is a truncated version of your dinner menu). The lunch menu can have about 20 items, which are easily prepared (noodles, stir fry, curry). Even with 1 cook, you can easily crank out about 1 dish every 2 minutes. Another (more obvious) solution is to hire another cook.
(1)
Kedar D.
The menu here is misleading, as it uses the word "vegetarian" but does not disclose that every dish has either fish/oyster sauce or shrimp paste. That said, with the exception of the curries, all the dishes can be made vegan. Taste of Thailand is probably the best Thai restaurant downtown (and one of the only ones, for that matter), and probably one of the better ones in Minneapolis. It slightly edges out Amazing Thailand in Uptown, in my opinion. We asked lots of questions and had a wonderfully friendly and helpful waitress who checked with the chef about ingredients. First, as stated earlier, none of the curries are vegan or vegetarian, and cannot be modified (the curry pastes all contain shrimp paste). Even the so-called "vegetarian red curry" is not, in fact, vegetarian. Also, all of the stir-frys have oyster sauce, but at least these dishes can be modified to be completely vegan. We had a Pad Bai Kra Prao (basil stir-fry) with mock chicken and no oyster sauce ($10.50). I found the dish to be nicely seasoned and spicy; it felt like there was some authenticity and heft to this dish, which can easily be made bland by a lesser restaurant. The mock chicken was cooked well, though it looked and tasted exactly like mock duck to me. We also had a Pad Thai with tofu, and no egg or oyster sauce ($10.50). I liked the Pad Thai quite a bit, as it had an array of flavors and tastes, spanning the range from sweet to spicy to sour, which once again suggested authenticity. Pad Thai can easily be made poorly, but this place managed to get the tricky balance of flavors just perfect. The tofu could have been marinated or seasoned more, but that's a minor quibble. In the end, this is a good Thai restaurant, but make sure to insist on no fish/oyster sauce in the non-curry dishes. Avoid the curries all together if you are vegan or vegetarian and don't wish to eat shrimp paste.
(3)
Jocelyn L.
OK Seriously people. 3-4* for this joint? The noodles are completely inauthentic and tasted horrible! The service was great; very nice and attentive The vegetables on the Rad Na was great- crunchy, fresh The noodles- were plastic-ky! I've never had noodles like this...hard, super, unnaturally, shiny, HARD and just not fresh or well-cooked! If you know anything about Radna- the noodles ARE the main dish...so i pretty much had a horrible lunch The 2* are for service and the crunchy, generous portion of...vegetables on the Rad Na I hope this is not representative of Thai food in MN...
(2)
Kate B.
Short story: Get take-out. Yum food. Long story: I'm super-bummed people have had bad experiences here because I love this place! Maybe's it's because I usually get take out. Granted, I'm pretty non-experimental once I find something I like (my usual- chicken curry and cheese wontons). I go to restaurants all over the city, but usually order that ONE THING at said restaurant that I really like. I say, "Chicken curry? Two thumbs up." As a foil to my boring order, my husband likes to change things up and he's always loved his food, too. They remodeled the place not too long ago and it was definitely a step up, but this is not a place you go for the ambience. Is it possible to be a dive Thai place? That word makes me think greasy spoon diners or cheap, cold beer, but let's apply it here. So, like my first suggestion: call ahead, order some chow, and head down to the river bluffs for a picnic, or back home for some take-out and TV.
(4)
Michael L.
Went again, and I still like this place. They were out of Thai Iced Tea, but it was below 0F so perhaps that makes sense. Pad Prik King still very good. Portions are not huge like in places outside of downtown - you probably won't have leftovers. So, it's not cheap, but in this location I would not expect it to be. They have many Asian bottled beers - Thai, Lao, Chinese, etc. but nothing on draft I don't think. Service was also very good and friendly. One important note: they claim that they mean it when they say spicy, and they do! So much so that even "mild" can mean "very spicy!" So, if you can't handle significant spice, be sure to ask for "no spice."
(4)
Alex K.
We went to this Thai restaurant because it was walking distance to Target Center. The restaurant was pretty empty but the service was still slow. The restaurant charged additional $1.00 ($1.00 x 2) for the bill total and we only realized it after we received our credit card statement. Shady business practice, wouldn't recommend.
(2)
Dan M.
How does this place only have 3 stars? Maybe I got the only good things on the menu. First up tom kha soup. I thought it was on the better end of most tom kha soups in Minneapolis. Next was the massaman curry which was absolutely delicious. I can't vouch for any other menu items though.
(4)
Justin G.
The restaurant is a dump, I would have turned around and walked out if I had gone there alone but I was with work people. The booths are in very poor shape with some of them with large tears. The menus were gross and also in very poor shape, the one I had was stained and literally falling apart. The restaurant was empty when we got there and it took nearly an hour to get our food. When we did get our food it was really not very good, it was pretty much all onion and water chestnuts. I'll never go back.
(1)
Eddie R.
Ordered some takeout tonight from my hotel. The service was quick - it took just about as long to walk there as it took to make. The restaurant was completely empty when I got there, but it could have just been early. I had shrimp wontons and shrimp pad Thai. The wontons were bland, other than the dipping sauce. The pad Thai had a decent flavor, but wasn't really anything too exciting. I ordered medium spice, and that was pretty accurately delivered. If I had my car, there are definitely other places in town I'd have gone instead (any of the Sawatdee locations, for one), but in town for the week and relying on mass transit, it was a passable Thai meal.
(3)
Joanna T.
This is the worst serviced restaurant I have ever been to. We asked for a "Thai tea" as advertised and they were out. I asked for a diet coke, they stated they were out of all soda drinks (yes all... Weird to anyone else??) how do you run a restaurant without your drinks being stocked??. They had a bar and could serve cocktails, but you better not want a mixer. The food was decent but half way through our communal bowl of rice we find a black hair in the rice (FYI none of us have black hair). We notified the server and asked for a new bowl of rice. Without an apology she took it away and then rang us up for an extra bowl of rice (which yes, showed up on our bill). Lastly, they then added a mandatory tip for our party of five. Very tacky and VERY undeserved. Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
(1)
Dawn G.
Excruciatingly slow service and blah food. I went to Taste of Thailand for lunch a while back and experienced really slow service, despite our being one of only three tables of customers. It took close to an hour for our entrees to arrive and we ended up being late back to work. In addition to the food coming out slow, our server disappeared for most of the time we were there. We didn't receive refills of water or have anyone stop by to apologize for the wait. At one point we realized we hadn't seen a staff member in the dining area in over 20 minutes and started to wonder if they had forgotten we were there. Getting our check required our hunting someone down. Ugh. Remembering that experience, I suggested take-out when a co-worked wanted to eat there this last week. We were quoted 20 minutes and the food was surprisingly ready on time. But that's where the good news stops. Our Miang Kham (lettuce wrap) appetizer was laughable. Each ingredient was placed separately in the takeout container and it was nothing like what you would expect a lettuce wrap to be. The taste was so bad that we threw it away after one bite (see posted pictures). Our entrees weren't bad but were just meh. Next time I want Thai food I'll plan ahead and order from a good restaurant further away.
(2)
Irina R.
When I walked in, there was a sign on the counter that said something like "Top Rated by Yelp." Umm, I'm really not sure why. The food was average. Service was slow and the waitress didn't seem to know what she was doing. Booths were very cramped; you couldn't even cross your legs without brushing against the other person. Be careful if you are on a date, the other person might think it's intentional (unless you want it to be). Overall, I was not impressed.
(3)
Jen K.
What kind of Thai restaurant runs out of Thai iced tea at 6PM? And not only that doesn't have green curry on the menu. Was in a mad rush on an early Sunday evening and had started off with 2 hours to spare to less than an hour to catch dinner and then head out to MSP. This was one of the few restaurants in Downtown Minneapolis that was open on Sunday evening. Many of the places we were hoping to go were closed. Weak. Weak. While browsing over the menu, I noticed some Vietnamese items such as egg rolls and banh xeo, which they spelled bank xeo. They also had some Chinese American dishes, ala cream cheese wontons. According to their website, it's done by a Hmong biz so the folks behind it might be Hmong. To gage we ordered the basics, pad thai, crab fried rice, masman curry and a vegetable dish. The food was sufficient but nothing I would rave over, especially since I come from LA, which has a plethora of Thai joints. If I had more time and the service was a little bit faster, I would have tried their custards. Perhaps next time.
(2)
Yingxia W.
A friend and I came here an hour before a Minneapolis Orchestra concert and were delighted by the fast service; our two dishes came out in less than ten minutes. The waitress was friendly and attentive. The dishes were very nicely presented for prices that won't put a load on your wallet. One thing to watch out for - the spiciness of the foods. The medium spicy pad thai was a little more than what I am used to.
(4)
Chuck T.
You get what you pay for. You. Can eat for $10. Of course you can at McDonald's as well. Not much difference in the taste or quality. I've eaten here 3-4 times for dinner and every time the place is empty. The wait staff seems more interested in cleaning than waiting. The food is bland, the serving sizes skimpy. Tonight I ordered the Tom kha and the chicken was like the chicken version of steakums. The only reason give them a 2 is because McDonald's is a 1. The only redeeming quality is happy hour $5 apps and $2.50 beers
(2)
Jeffrey O.
The s....e....r....v....i...c...e.....is s.....l......o.......w.........really! Food was pretty good though.
(2)
David M.
Wow, rolled in at 9:30 for to go food, place was empty and 35 min wait to get our order. SUPER insulting. Manager guy was busy apologizing to another to go customer and explaining why the bar was so poorly stocked. When I kindly asked for a refund our food was up, help was kind an apologetic but this seems the norm there. Good news is they have a captive client base from the nearby hotels so maybe they don't care about service. Funny part is food wasn't half bad. Too many good joints in the area, avoid at all costs!
(1)
Jillian C.
I got take out here last week when I could not think of anywhere new to try for lunch...felt like some spicy thai food so I googled and found this place. Not too shabby! $11 is a little steep for lunch in my opinion, but it fed me both Thursday and Friday. Two meals are better than one! I'll probably go back a few times over the winter, it's close and I liked that they weren't shy with the spice. But I would not go downtown on a non-work day specifically just to dine here. Definitely a lunch destination!
(3)
Sarah G.
This place is so close to work it's hard not to stop by each day. They do a great lunch business so be sure to get there early. I really like the happy hour - $1.00 off beers, 1/2 appetizers. You can make a whole meal off of the specials. The staff is very friendly and seems to be the same 3 people in the restaurant all the time. They know the menu very well and did not mind answering all of my questions that I had. This is a good place if you are a bit price conscious. They offer good Thai food at a great price. Delish!
(4)
Lori G.
A group of us tried different things for lunch, including buffet and other entrees. The taste is...well....bad... Moreover, there is no veggie at all in veggie Phad Thai... And the speed is REALLY slow. Not only the time it takes for the food to come to the table, but the whole service...I will never go there again...
(1)
Aroune S.
The sticky rice and jerky always makes me feel like im at home. This place did a good job with that!
(4)
Keith M.
There are many other MUCH better Thai restaurants than this. The whole experience was less than mediocre. There were only two women working the front when we got there, it took 25 minutes to bring out drinks (Mai Tais that tasted more like sour rum sours). They were out of pineapple so there were 4 or 5 items on the menu they couldn't make. I had the Pad Bai Kra Prao. Very bland with rubbery chicken. We also ordered the Shrimp Pad Thai, the rice noodles were good and the flavor was decent, but the shrimp were so over cooked they were pasty... ruined it. Really... look elsewhere... Sawatdee is much better.
(2)
amy z.
A coworker and I went here for lunch. We were quickly seated and served. The food was very good. Probably the best lunch time Thai food. I had a chicken spinach peanut curry. The chicken was a little dry but the curry sauce was amazing. I think the next time I will try it with tofu. It is more than I like to pay for lunch but it hits the spot when you are craving Thai food.
(3)
Miki A.
Their Massaman curry is absolutely amazing...I've had it brought to me in Chicago before--can't get enough! I've been going to this place for 4 years and it's always been amazing. Servers are awesome, then again I used to be there ALL the time. I've gone on lunch breaks before and usually the service can be slow because they don't have a lot of staff, but as long as you're up front about how much time you have they can usually accommodate
(5)
Al M.
Worst food ever. The curry stinks. The service is slow. This place is a shame to all of Thailand.
(1)
Marc B.
As a frequent patron of the Selby location, I admit I was overjoyed when they opened a branch in downtown. My first time, they were out of the two dishes I wanted (duck red curry and pork steamed buns) and out of duck in general. Fine, I'll have the pad thai, a decision that served me well in the past. Unfortunately this pad thai did not live up to it's Selby cousin's reputation and came out tasting spiceless and somewhat bland. Location will always trump first experience jitters and I went back a second time, hoping that things would have improved. They had the duck curry and it was exceptional. The only problem? It took them 45 minutes to bring it out and another 15 to bring the check once I had finished eating. Now on a Friday or Saturday evening, I have no problem with this, but in the middle of a work day it poses serious scheduling issues and effectively eliminates this as a serious downtown lunch contender, despite the variably good food. If you can make the drive, the Selby location will knock your socks off.
(3)
Dan K.
I recently spent a number of days in Minneapolis of which a number of dinners were spent at this restaurant. The service isnt bad, but depends who you get. I have been here at least 5 times (hotel was so close and it was so cold outside), and I dont think I had the same person twice. The servers ran from incredibly helpful, to not so great (took forever to get to us). However, the not so great guy was only there once, leaving 1 night of great service and 3 nights of good. Most nights I would start off with the Spring Roll or the Tofu soup. The Tofu soup was nice and basic (water, veggies and tofu), while the spring rolls were enjoyable. For entrees I usually got the Red or Yellow Curry - both of which were excellent and which I highly recommend. I once got Pad-Thai which wasnt so great, dry noodles and not alot of anything besides noodles (no spring onion, peanuts etc.) I would have given this restaurant 4 stars if not for the last night we ate here which literally left a bad taste in my mouth. Not only was the service slow, but my food was burnt. Not so tasty. Will I go back here if I travel to Minneapolis. Most definetly, as Id like to think that the one bad night was an abberation.
(3)
James E.
Had a good meal here. I had the duck curry, which was quite tasty I must say. The Thai Ice Teas, however, were kind of blah. I've definitely had better. The atmosphere in this restaurant was just fine and the serving staff was friendly. Seems like a good place to go, but there's not enough there there to draw me back repeatedly.
(3)
Michael B.
Nice and hot.
(4)
Corey P.
One of the best Thai meals I have enjoyed. Ask for Thai hot, you get Thai hot! All of the dishes were fresh, delivered to our table quickly, the waiter was very friendly and quick to serve our needs, but not annoying. We had reservations for Seven Sushi Ultralounge but they made us wait for nearly an hour with no apologies. Redirecting our dinner plans and walking across the street to Taste of Thailand was a really good decision. Will definitely go here again. We were there on a Saturday evening around 8:30. Immediate seating and a nice, quiet, warm place to eat.
(5)
Mermodfreres F.
The food that we ate -- fresh springrolls, tom yum soup and pad that were very good. I had hoped for a buffet to get a sampling but we hit it on the wrong day -- it's now only done on Fridays. My only issues with the restaurant were: 1. Parking -- very expensive ($9/hour) and 2. Price. A meal for 2 with tip (we only drank water) was $38! But, as I said, the food was quite good.
(4)
Erin W.
This place is the WORST! I went here for lunch today with 2 of my coworkers. We arrived at 11:40 and the first thing we noticed was that the place had a funky (not good) smell. Anyway, we were seated right away and the waiter brought us waters and took our order. We then proceeded to sit there until 12:30 with no food, and the waitstaff didn't come over once to check on us, or thank us for being patient, or assure us that our food would be ready soon. The place wasn't even busy! Most of the people were eating the buffet! We left and told the waitress on the way out that we've been waiting for 45 minutes and we were leaving....she looked at us and said "OK!" and then turned back to her work. WORST SERVICE EVER! Don't go here! I'll never stray from Tum Rup again.
(1)
Carol J.
I was pleasantly surprised with the taste and quality of the food here. I ordered red curry duck and shrimp wonton soup for dinner to go. The curry was really creamy and sweet, overall very tasty to go with the rice. They also give you duck meat in chucks. I kinda wished that there were more veggies in the duck curry though. The shrimp wonton soup was really good too. I think the taste of both dishes were just right and that there were no msg.
(4)
Darren D.
I have been to many Thai restaurants, and I must say that this restaurant is the worst. Based on the poor service, overly priced salty, and the decor, I would not recommend this restaurant.
(1)
Mojo M.
+ The food is generally okay. - Dining in or getting take out, you will wait forever for your food even when they are not busy. - Portions are on the smaller side. edit, 4/21/2010 - The last take out order made both my friend and I sick.
(2)
Patrick W.
Number 38 was awesome. Chic with spinach and peanut sauce. INCREDIBLE.
(5)
Paul B.
We both had very good meals at reasonable prices. Good service.
(4)
Karman L.
Good restaurant...next to my hotel...so it was very convenient... I like the stuff chicken wings, thai iced tea, and the sticky rice w/ mango... I didn't like the stuffed young bamboo shoot thing... Service is a bit slow for the whole night...
(3)
K J.
Food was great; service was incredibly slow. The place was nearly empty, so even if there was only one cook and one waitress, service still should have been much, much quicker. I was with a group of eight, and some of us had already finished eating before others of us got served (and we all ordered together). Lesson: Go in dyads and schedule plenty of time to eat. Or place a to-go order.
(3)
Genevieve R.
Pro: quick lunch and tasty pad thai. Cons: dark and dingy. Good for a quick lunch.
(3)
Stephanie E.
This is where I go for my Pad Thai. It is delicious, and my favorite in the cities. People are right- it is slow service. So I order to go only. I haven't tried much else on their menu besides some of their buffet items on Fridays.
(4)
Mariel L.
I like the star description that pops up in Yelp! because it aptly describes my opinion of Taste of Thailand: A-OK. In a city replete of this type of cuisine, it doesn't necessarily stand out, neither in portion or taste (maybe for good service...on a slow Saturday night). It's in the middle of downtown, which makes it super convenient when I have a serious craving for Pad Thai or Pad See Ew. Other than that, the rest of the menu reads like any other Thai restaurant menu, and there's nothing wrong with that. Prices are reasonable, and they have a full bar for the inevitable happy hour and drinking crowd. I've only had a sit-down dinner here once (earlier actually, before watching Iron Man 2 @ Kerasotes). As I've mentioned, the service was very nice and prompt; our server was knowledgeable of the menu. I think it's kind of a turn-off that they ran out of some of their "house specialties" on a Saturday night; I mean, seriously? I was excited to try their Roasted Duck curry, before they broke my heart and said they were out. So, I go to a can't-fail dish, Pineapple fried rice. I think the dish was alright, a little too sweet in my opinion, like they used a lot of the juice that canned pineapple comes in. My friend got something with sticky rice, but it didn't look sticky enough from my POV. The fried tofu for appetizers were disappointingly bland; I like my fried tofu from a restaurant to have some heat and flavoring. The battered vegetables were light and tasty, though. It's OK enough to get my repeat business, but if there's a serious contender out there in the immediate DT area, then yes, no, maybe so.
(3)
Chris M.
I wanted to walk over from my hotel and sit down and have a really good lunch. I got a so-so lunch. Pad Thai was..........decent at best. However I decided to order something that I have never eaten before so I went through the menu and decided the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancake). I ordered it with pork (you have a few choices). This was delicious. I should have ordered three of these (it's an appetizer). They do not accept AMEX.
(3)
Guillermo H.
I went to Taste of Thailand with a group, and was pretty pleased with the food. Ordered the egg rolls and the deep fried meatballs. The egg rolls were really good, with not too many rice noodles (which I think can ruin a good non-chinese egg roll). The meatballs weren't as heartclogging as they sound, and were actually quite tasty. The only downside is that they are very rich, and it is definitely a dish to share (after two of them, I couldn't eat anymore). My only real complaint is that the beers seem a bit over-priced, and my first selection of beer, a Thai beer, was out. That would be like an Applebee's running out of Budweiser.
(4)
Sanjay T.
#47 with mock chicken pineapple fries rice. Rice plate was huge. Food was very tasteful. Ordered extra spicy and didn't even seem to be hot. But the hot sauce did the trick. Svc was good. 2 people running the show in the front but it was half full for a wed night. Good experience overall.
(4)
Jim P.
The service was very good, the food was very good and the location from my hotel was VERY convenient. I read some of the reviews about the service but was there for a late lunch and wasn't in a hurry. There were only 3 tables of diners at the time and my meal was delivered to my table in 10-15 minutes so I had no issues. I'd never had red Thai tea before this visit and I'm now a fan. I was even in Bangkok a couple of months ago and hadn't come across it. The table next to me was raving about it too. I don't know how "authentic" it is for Thailand but it's delicious nonetheless. I'm a big fan of Tom Yum Gai so I had it and it was good. The bowl was HUGE (and the waitress warned me so) and chock full of chicken, spicy peppers and other vegetables. I ordered medium hot and I'm just thankful that I didn't order HOT as it was smokin' hot. I also ordered a dish (the name escapes me...probably because it's 4 words long) with chunks of chicken in a spicy peanut sauce on top of spinach. AMAZING! The flavors were outstanding. I will be back.
(4)
Chad K.
The food is OK, but there were other issues with my visit. 1. Some of us ordered the buffet around 11:15, and it was at least 11:30 before all of the items were in place. 2. They automatically include a tip for themselves for groups of five or more. I've never heard of auto-tips for groups smaller than eight! Do good service like clearing my plate in a timely fashion (which didn't happen), and the tips will come. Very tacky policy!
(2)
Dan G.
I have news for those who have slammed the service at this great restaurant. The reason the service is slow is because the food is made to order and fresh. I had a wonderful dinner with friendly service. Highly recommended.
(5)
Eddie R.
Ordered some takeout tonight from my hotel. The service was quick - it took just about as long to walk there as it took to make. The restaurant was completely empty when I got there, but it could have just been early. I had shrimp wontons and shrimp pad Thai. The wontons were bland, other than the dipping sauce. The pad Thai had a decent flavor, but wasn't really anything too exciting. I ordered medium spice, and that was pretty accurately delivered. If I had my car, there are definitely other places in town I'd have gone instead (any of the Sawatdee locations, for one), but in town for the week and relying on mass transit, it was a passable Thai meal.
(3)
Joanna T.
This is the worst serviced restaurant I have ever been to. We asked for a "Thai tea" as advertised and they were out. I asked for a diet coke, they stated they were out of all soda drinks (yes all... Weird to anyone else??) how do you run a restaurant without your drinks being stocked??. They had a bar and could serve cocktails, but you better not want a mixer. The food was decent but half way through our communal bowl of rice we find a black hair in the rice (FYI none of us have black hair). We notified the server and asked for a new bowl of rice. Without an apology she took it away and then rang us up for an extra bowl of rice (which yes, showed up on our bill). Lastly, they then added a mandatory tip for our party of five. Very tacky and VERY undeserved. Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
(1)
Dawn G.
Excruciatingly slow service and blah food. I went to Taste of Thailand for lunch a while back and experienced really slow service, despite our being one of only three tables of customers. It took close to an hour for our entrees to arrive and we ended up being late back to work. In addition to the food coming out slow, our server disappeared for most of the time we were there. We didn't receive refills of water or have anyone stop by to apologize for the wait. At one point we realized we hadn't seen a staff member in the dining area in over 20 minutes and started to wonder if they had forgotten we were there. Getting our check required our hunting someone down. Ugh. Remembering that experience, I suggested take-out when a co-worked wanted to eat there this last week. We were quoted 20 minutes and the food was surprisingly ready on time. But that's where the good news stops. Our Miang Kham (lettuce wrap) appetizer was laughable. Each ingredient was placed separately in the takeout container and it was nothing like what you would expect a lettuce wrap to be. The taste was so bad that we threw it away after one bite (see posted pictures). Our entrees weren't bad but were just meh. Next time I want Thai food I'll plan ahead and order from a good restaurant further away.
(2)
Michael L.
Went again, and I still like this place. They were out of Thai Iced Tea, but it was below 0F so perhaps that makes sense. Pad Prik King still very good. Portions are not huge like in places outside of downtown - you probably won't have leftovers. So, it's not cheap, but in this location I would not expect it to be. They have many Asian bottled beers - Thai, Lao, Chinese, etc. but nothing on draft I don't think. Service was also very good and friendly. One important note: they claim that they mean it when they say spicy, and they do! So much so that even "mild" can mean "very spicy!" So, if you can't handle significant spice, be sure to ask for "no spice."
(4)
Alexandra M.
Worst service I've ever experienced in my life. Never said anything to us when we walked in the door, when we sat down, or in general. When the food was finally brought out the silverware took another 15 minutes to come. So rude! Also the food tasted like salt and the portions were all over the place. Ordered a veggie pad Thai and it came with no vegetables. Never going here ever again.
(1)
The Little Curious T.
Great pad tai medium hot with Chicken. Arrived seated immediately ... Yes the booth was well worn but everything reminded me of actual Thai restaurants I've been too .... Food was very good hot and quick... Only one Thai beer but not a deal killer .... I love family places and really good food I'd post a photo but I ate it all too quickly! Wife had fried rice with shrimp really good ...if she is picky she'd have less onions but she really liked it. Read other reviews .. Just not our experience.... Ps we are here on Friday evening. Try it!
(4)
Eric M.
I saw that this place was rated a three-star restaurant, but I really wanted Thai within walking distance from my hotel. The spring rolls and soup were very tasty, but I give my meal a 5-star rating on the basis of the Red Curry with Tofu main dish. I have eaten a lot of Thai food, including plenty in Thailand. This was an amazing dish. The veggies were perfectly cooked and the red curry was beyond words. Be careful on the heat that you order. I ordered medium hot, and it was plenty hot, even for my southwestern palate!
(5)
Joe E.
Great meal, beat up/dirty menus, dead flies in window, doesn't take Amex. Probably won't go back.
(2)
Suzanne P.
Went on a kinda weird date made only weirder by our experience at dinner. We arrived at 8:00 (well, I did, my date was late...) and were whisked right away to a table. We were told that we needed to order and eat quickly because they closed at 9. I asked our server if we should even place an order? He said yes, left but came back within minutes asking us impatiently to put our order into the kitchen when we hadn't had enough time to look over their long, kind of confusing menu. I don't even remember the food - it wasn't even slightly memorable. But the terrible service left a baaaaad taste in my mouth. It's too bad! Downtown doesn't have many Thai restaurants. Word to the wise: head Uptown; you'll be glad that you did.
(2)
Rick J.
Amazing Phad Thai. Amazing. Nice atmosphere. Extensive menu. Reasonably priced. Service is a little slow, so don't come here if you are in a hurry.
(4)
Betsy K.
I ordered delivery via Bite Squad tonight and was more than surprised when I opened the box of Vegetarian Red Curry and discovered the box only half full. $10.50 worth of veggies and tofu should fill the takeout box, this is unacceptable. Also, half the sauce had leaked out of the box and into the Bite Squad bag. I won't be ordering again.
(1)
Greg M.
Food is exceptional!! We ordered fresh spring rolls and cream puffs and loved them both. Entrees were cooked perfectly to our spice preference. Very good food.
(5)
Eva D.
Excessively salty, some parts of the food were burned (egg rolls and tofu) and there were major issues with the kitchen in terms of speed and lack of inventory. A bummer as the other two locations are quite excellent and definitely worth trying. To avoid disappointment, I would recommend going elsewhere.
(1)
Thao P.
Great location; Delicious food; Slow service; less than appealing atmosphere I came here with my partner during Pride Weekend in Minneapolis. I was craving some Thai food like no other. The interior decor resembles most Thai restaurants, so it wasn't too unique. When we were seated, I noticed that the service wasn't spectacular because we waited a while for both our water and food. It took us an extra effort to get our waitress's attention. It didn't seem like too many people were at the restaurant or watching over it. I ordered the Pad See Ew and my partner got Pad Thai. They were both pretty good dishes. My partner's sister ordered laab (Thai Ground Meat Salad) and liked it too. We also got Spring rolls as appetizers and those weren't bad. Overall, this place was just okay to me. The service is the major detraction from this venue, but it's ultimately a great location. I probably wouldn't go here again as my first pick.
(3)
Katrina O.
Went here for date night with hubby last night. A pretty small area with seating very close together, however we never felt crowded. Hubby was super hungry and ordered egg rolls and spring rolls (both regular) and they were meh. They weren't bad but they certainly weren't great! For our main course, hubby had their pad thai, level 4 spicy which was pretty good but a little too sweet for me and not at all spicy. I had the rad na with level 7 spicy (the highest spicy level) and it was really tasty and had a nice kick to it! I would definitely go back for more of the rad na but pass on the egg rolls and spring rolls.
(3)
Marysol V.
I saw all these reviews of slow service and yes at first for them to actually to take our order it was but once they did our food cam within 10 minutes, and dang was it delicious. I got the house special curry with chicken, and it was sooooo tasty. And I urge anyone and EVERYONE to order the thai iced tea, it is so good, but you have to like sweet things to enjoy it. Very delicious, small quaint restaurant.
(5)
Michael M.
Awful awful awful service. Put in order before a show at the target center and waited over 40 minutes to be told that the appetizer that we ordered was sold out. We saw them bring out at least two of the same appetizer prior to ours to parties that ordered after us. Ridiculous. Wish I would have read reviews prior to coming. Awful.
(1)
Mark J.
If there was a zero star rating, this is what it would get. Service is horrible. 20 minutes to even take our order and over an hour to get food, when asking the waiter how long it will be, just said they didnt know. Will never be back. Stay away.
(1)
MaiKa V.
I came here a while ago and got a very Long Stand of hair in our food and I told the waiter and her went to management. The only thing they could do for us was just pay for a beer we had.... WOW... Never coming back here again. Good luck to whoever goes there for food.
(1)
Jegadesh K.
Waitress toooo much attitude. Chicken wings - good Veg spring roll - good Sriraja fried rice - nice Thai fried rice - good Wong ton soup - bad Over all, never go there again
(2)
Netra V.
Wow amazing as ever .... Try the pad thai guys it's awesome .... One of the best pad thai I have had in months ..... However the egg rolls where not all that great but that would make up for the amazing pad thai from this place ... Got to try the other curries next time I am sure it's going to taste yummy ..would definitely come back ...
(4)
Joann S.
Is this a center for ants? Is this a center for seriously horrible "Thai" food?? Um, no for the first question. And yes for the second question. I've never had such horrible Thai food before. The curry was bland, the portions were off, the staff didn't know anything about Thai food, and the jasmine rice was deffffffffffffff-initely not cook through (think: still hard, and slopping wet.) Yucky...
(1)
Janna C.
I'm just in Minneapolis for a conference and had a hankering for Thai. This place was located close to my hotel so I thought, why not? I placed a take out order at 6:30pm and I'm still waiting for my food at 7:10pm. The gentleman who took my order seemed very nice, but extremely stressed out. He apologized for the wait and said, "when this happens we can just take the tip off that you left us." Apparently, this happens all the time. I can see that they're understaffed and having a hard time taking care of the customers in the restaurant (the place is half full). Based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend that people come here until they've figured out their staffing issues. UPDATE: When I finally received my food I was BLOWN AWAY by how DELICIOUS it was. This was hands down the best pad thai I've ever had. This literally tasted like my friend's Thai grandmother cooked it. Wow, just wow. The food was completely worth the wait.
(4)
Dennis A.
Three of us went for lunch on a Tuesday afternoon after the business crowd was gone. The menu looked enticing. The prices reasonable. However, we waited 40 minutes for our food and finally got up and left when the wait person said it would take a few more minutes before our order was ready. I'm sorry, but if you want to stay in business you cannot expect your patrons to sit at the table with nothing but a marathon glass of water for that amount of time, and not even check in with them once. Oh, did I mention, we were not even asked if we wanted a beverage? Go at your own risk. The food may be great but that kind of wait is inexcusable in today's world.
(1)
David C.
Kind of run down. Food was mediocre at best. One one occasion I had the lemongrass chicken soup and they really skimped on the portions of chicken. I also had the chicken wonton soup on another occasion. The wontons were so overcooked that the skin fell off. Service was lackluster and it usually took us around forty minutes or so to get our food. They seemed a bit shorthanded as well. I'd like to give this place a better rating since the Asian selections in downtown are quite limited, but this place just wasn't up to par.
(2)
Theresa L.
Had I read the reviews I would not have come here, but I had a great experience! Good pad Thai, nice flavor, not drowned in sauce, fresh mung bean sprouts, and they accommodated my "no onions" order. Service was prompt and friendly, and my server refilled my drink 4 times. Will be back!
(4)
Ryan M.
Very disappointed with my experience at Taste of Thailand. I had seen the restaurant earlier in the week and was very excited to try it since it was only a block from my hotel. Sign clearly posted that they close at 9 pm during the week and 10 pm on the weekend. I step inside from the bitter 7 degree weather at exactly 8:27 pm Wednesday evening. I stood there as employees were talking in the bar area until finally one of them acknowledged my existence and decided to walk over. At first I thought he was going to tell me that there was a limited menu because it was late or even take out only but instead he turned me away, saying they were closed. So I didn't get a taste of this Thailand in Minneapolis, just a bad experience in customer service.
(1)
Jason K.
I went to the Taste of Thailand with three coworkers and we were seated quickly. Our server brought us water quickly and I ordered the number 42. Chicken with a ton of vegetables. The dish was fantastic, I ordered medium hot and it was just the right amount of heat. The vegetables were crispy and awesome! They supplied a lot of chicken, kind of sliced chunks. The side dish of rice was a perfect filler to add with the dish. My friend got the deep fried tofu and spring rolls, which looked awesome. The 46 was a beef dish that looked great and my friend seemed to love it. The only thing that sucked is that it took about 20 minutes to get our check and cash out. The service was great, but the time to check out was unacceptable.
(4)
Jodee D.
Egg rolls were amazing. The Pad Thai was terrible. The burnt smell was awful and the entire dish tasted like charcoal and not in a good way. I didn't eat any of it. I would NOT recommend the Pad Thai. I'm so disappointed.
(1)
Tiago P.
Food is OK, but definitely on the too-sweet side. Atmosphere is OK but a little dingy Service is not good. Not good at all. Not as a result of the wait-staff, but the kitchen needs to step up their game. I went with a group of 5 people for lunch. The first dish that came out took about 40 minutes. Each new dish that came out was in 5 minute intervals. The final dish never came out because we had to cancel the order because our colleague had to go back for a meeting. It shouldn't take 1 hour for 5 dishes to be made. The management and staff need to understand that there IS a problem and something needs to be fixed. If not, this restaurant will go under. For sure. Here's a start to fix the problem regarding service. Have 1 menu for dinner (which can be more extensive) and 1 menu for lunch (which is a truncated version of your dinner menu). The lunch menu can have about 20 items, which are easily prepared (noodles, stir fry, curry). Even with 1 cook, you can easily crank out about 1 dish every 2 minutes. Another (more obvious) solution is to hire another cook.
(1)
Alex K.
We went to this Thai restaurant because it was walking distance to Target Center. The restaurant was pretty empty but the service was still slow. The restaurant charged additional $1.00 ($1.00 x 2) for the bill total and we only realized it after we received our credit card statement. Shady business practice, wouldn't recommend.
(2)
Dan M.
How does this place only have 3 stars? Maybe I got the only good things on the menu. First up tom kha soup. I thought it was on the better end of most tom kha soups in Minneapolis. Next was the massaman curry which was absolutely delicious. I can't vouch for any other menu items though.
(4)
Justin G.
The restaurant is a dump, I would have turned around and walked out if I had gone there alone but I was with work people. The booths are in very poor shape with some of them with large tears. The menus were gross and also in very poor shape, the one I had was stained and literally falling apart. The restaurant was empty when we got there and it took nearly an hour to get our food. When we did get our food it was really not very good, it was pretty much all onion and water chestnuts. I'll never go back.
(1)
Chad K.
The food is OK, but there were other issues with my visit. 1. Some of us ordered the buffet around 11:15, and it was at least 11:30 before all of the items were in place. 2. They automatically include a tip for themselves for groups of five or more. I've never heard of auto-tips for groups smaller than eight! Do good service like clearing my plate in a timely fashion (which didn't happen), and the tips will come. Very tacky policy!
(2)
Dan G.
I have news for those who have slammed the service at this great restaurant. The reason the service is slow is because the food is made to order and fresh. I had a wonderful dinner with friendly service. Highly recommended.
(5)
Yingxia W.
A friend and I came here an hour before a Minneapolis Orchestra concert and were delighted by the fast service; our two dishes came out in less than ten minutes. The waitress was friendly and attentive. The dishes were very nicely presented for prices that won't put a load on your wallet. One thing to watch out for - the spiciness of the foods. The medium spicy pad thai was a little more than what I am used to.
(4)
Chuck T.
You get what you pay for. You. Can eat for $10. Of course you can at McDonald's as well. Not much difference in the taste or quality. I've eaten here 3-4 times for dinner and every time the place is empty. The wait staff seems more interested in cleaning than waiting. The food is bland, the serving sizes skimpy. Tonight I ordered the Tom kha and the chicken was like the chicken version of steakums. The only reason give them a 2 is because McDonald's is a 1. The only redeeming quality is happy hour $5 apps and $2.50 beers
(2)
Jeffrey O.
The s....e....r....v....i...c...e.....is s.....l......o.......w.........really! Food was pretty good though.
(2)
Miki A.
Their Massaman curry is absolutely amazing...I've had it brought to me in Chicago before--can't get enough! I've been going to this place for 4 years and it's always been amazing. Servers are awesome, then again I used to be there ALL the time. I've gone on lunch breaks before and usually the service can be slow because they don't have a lot of staff, but as long as you're up front about how much time you have they can usually accommodate
(5)
Al M.
Worst food ever. The curry stinks. The service is slow. This place is a shame to all of Thailand.
(1)
David M.
Wow, rolled in at 9:30 for to go food, place was empty and 35 min wait to get our order. SUPER insulting. Manager guy was busy apologizing to another to go customer and explaining why the bar was so poorly stocked. When I kindly asked for a refund our food was up, help was kind an apologetic but this seems the norm there. Good news is they have a captive client base from the nearby hotels so maybe they don't care about service. Funny part is food wasn't half bad. Too many good joints in the area, avoid at all costs!
(1)
amy z.
A coworker and I went here for lunch. We were quickly seated and served. The food was very good. Probably the best lunch time Thai food. I had a chicken spinach peanut curry. The chicken was a little dry but the curry sauce was amazing. I think the next time I will try it with tofu. It is more than I like to pay for lunch but it hits the spot when you are craving Thai food.
(3)
Jen K.
What kind of Thai restaurant runs out of Thai iced tea at 6PM? And not only that doesn't have green curry on the menu. Was in a mad rush on an early Sunday evening and had started off with 2 hours to spare to less than an hour to catch dinner and then head out to MSP. This was one of the few restaurants in Downtown Minneapolis that was open on Sunday evening. Many of the places we were hoping to go were closed. Weak. Weak. While browsing over the menu, I noticed some Vietnamese items such as egg rolls and banh xeo, which they spelled bank xeo. They also had some Chinese American dishes, ala cream cheese wontons. According to their website, it's done by a Hmong biz so the folks behind it might be Hmong. To gage we ordered the basics, pad thai, crab fried rice, masman curry and a vegetable dish. The food was sufficient but nothing I would rave over, especially since I come from LA, which has a plethora of Thai joints. If I had more time and the service was a little bit faster, I would have tried their custards. Perhaps next time.
(2)
Jillian C.
I got take out here last week when I could not think of anywhere new to try for lunch...felt like some spicy thai food so I googled and found this place. Not too shabby! $11 is a little steep for lunch in my opinion, but it fed me both Thursday and Friday. Two meals are better than one! I'll probably go back a few times over the winter, it's close and I liked that they weren't shy with the spice. But I would not go downtown on a non-work day specifically just to dine here. Definitely a lunch destination!
(3)
Sarah G.
This place is so close to work it's hard not to stop by each day. They do a great lunch business so be sure to get there early. I really like the happy hour - $1.00 off beers, 1/2 appetizers. You can make a whole meal off of the specials. The staff is very friendly and seems to be the same 3 people in the restaurant all the time. They know the menu very well and did not mind answering all of my questions that I had. This is a good place if you are a bit price conscious. They offer good Thai food at a great price. Delish!
(4)
Lori G.
A group of us tried different things for lunch, including buffet and other entrees. The taste is...well....bad... Moreover, there is no veggie at all in veggie Phad Thai... And the speed is REALLY slow. Not only the time it takes for the food to come to the table, but the whole service...I will never go there again...
(1)
Aroune S.
The sticky rice and jerky always makes me feel like im at home. This place did a good job with that!
(4)
Keith M.
There are many other MUCH better Thai restaurants than this. The whole experience was less than mediocre. There were only two women working the front when we got there, it took 25 minutes to bring out drinks (Mai Tais that tasted more like sour rum sours). They were out of pineapple so there were 4 or 5 items on the menu they couldn't make. I had the Pad Bai Kra Prao. Very bland with rubbery chicken. We also ordered the Shrimp Pad Thai, the rice noodles were good and the flavor was decent, but the shrimp were so over cooked they were pasty... ruined it. Really... look elsewhere... Sawatdee is much better.
(2)
Marc B.
As a frequent patron of the Selby location, I admit I was overjoyed when they opened a branch in downtown. My first time, they were out of the two dishes I wanted (duck red curry and pork steamed buns) and out of duck in general. Fine, I'll have the pad thai, a decision that served me well in the past. Unfortunately this pad thai did not live up to it's Selby cousin's reputation and came out tasting spiceless and somewhat bland. Location will always trump first experience jitters and I went back a second time, hoping that things would have improved. They had the duck curry and it was exceptional. The only problem? It took them 45 minutes to bring it out and another 15 to bring the check once I had finished eating. Now on a Friday or Saturday evening, I have no problem with this, but in the middle of a work day it poses serious scheduling issues and effectively eliminates this as a serious downtown lunch contender, despite the variably good food. If you can make the drive, the Selby location will knock your socks off.
(3)
Erin W.
This place is the WORST! I went here for lunch today with 2 of my coworkers. We arrived at 11:40 and the first thing we noticed was that the place had a funky (not good) smell. Anyway, we were seated right away and the waiter brought us waters and took our order. We then proceeded to sit there until 12:30 with no food, and the waitstaff didn't come over once to check on us, or thank us for being patient, or assure us that our food would be ready soon. The place wasn't even busy! Most of the people were eating the buffet! We left and told the waitress on the way out that we've been waiting for 45 minutes and we were leaving....she looked at us and said "OK!" and then turned back to her work. WORST SERVICE EVER! Don't go here! I'll never stray from Tum Rup again.
(1)
Carol J.
I was pleasantly surprised with the taste and quality of the food here. I ordered red curry duck and shrimp wonton soup for dinner to go. The curry was really creamy and sweet, overall very tasty to go with the rice. They also give you duck meat in chucks. I kinda wished that there were more veggies in the duck curry though. The shrimp wonton soup was really good too. I think the taste of both dishes were just right and that there were no msg.
(4)
Darren D.
I have been to many Thai restaurants, and I must say that this restaurant is the worst. Based on the poor service, overly priced salty, and the decor, I would not recommend this restaurant.
(1)
Mojo M.
+ The food is generally okay. - Dining in or getting take out, you will wait forever for your food even when they are not busy. - Portions are on the smaller side. edit, 4/21/2010 - The last take out order made both my friend and I sick.
(2)
Patrick W.
Number 38 was awesome. Chic with spinach and peanut sauce. INCREDIBLE.
(5)
Paul B.
We both had very good meals at reasonable prices. Good service.
(4)
Karman L.
Good restaurant...next to my hotel...so it was very convenient... I like the stuff chicken wings, thai iced tea, and the sticky rice w/ mango... I didn't like the stuffed young bamboo shoot thing... Service is a bit slow for the whole night...
(3)
Dan K.
I recently spent a number of days in Minneapolis of which a number of dinners were spent at this restaurant. The service isnt bad, but depends who you get. I have been here at least 5 times (hotel was so close and it was so cold outside), and I dont think I had the same person twice. The servers ran from incredibly helpful, to not so great (took forever to get to us). However, the not so great guy was only there once, leaving 1 night of great service and 3 nights of good. Most nights I would start off with the Spring Roll or the Tofu soup. The Tofu soup was nice and basic (water, veggies and tofu), while the spring rolls were enjoyable. For entrees I usually got the Red or Yellow Curry - both of which were excellent and which I highly recommend. I once got Pad-Thai which wasnt so great, dry noodles and not alot of anything besides noodles (no spring onion, peanuts etc.) I would have given this restaurant 4 stars if not for the last night we ate here which literally left a bad taste in my mouth. Not only was the service slow, but my food was burnt. Not so tasty. Will I go back here if I travel to Minneapolis. Most definetly, as Id like to think that the one bad night was an abberation.
(3)
James E.
Had a good meal here. I had the duck curry, which was quite tasty I must say. The Thai Ice Teas, however, were kind of blah. I've definitely had better. The atmosphere in this restaurant was just fine and the serving staff was friendly. Seems like a good place to go, but there's not enough there there to draw me back repeatedly.
(3)
Michael B.
Nice and hot.
(4)
Corey P.
One of the best Thai meals I have enjoyed. Ask for Thai hot, you get Thai hot! All of the dishes were fresh, delivered to our table quickly, the waiter was very friendly and quick to serve our needs, but not annoying. We had reservations for Seven Sushi Ultralounge but they made us wait for nearly an hour with no apologies. Redirecting our dinner plans and walking across the street to Taste of Thailand was a really good decision. Will definitely go here again. We were there on a Saturday evening around 8:30. Immediate seating and a nice, quiet, warm place to eat.
(5)
Mermodfreres F.
The food that we ate -- fresh springrolls, tom yum soup and pad that were very good. I had hoped for a buffet to get a sampling but we hit it on the wrong day -- it's now only done on Fridays. My only issues with the restaurant were: 1. Parking -- very expensive ($9/hour) and 2. Price. A meal for 2 with tip (we only drank water) was $38! But, as I said, the food was quite good.
(4)
Jim P.
The service was very good, the food was very good and the location from my hotel was VERY convenient. I read some of the reviews about the service but was there for a late lunch and wasn't in a hurry. There were only 3 tables of diners at the time and my meal was delivered to my table in 10-15 minutes so I had no issues. I'd never had red Thai tea before this visit and I'm now a fan. I was even in Bangkok a couple of months ago and hadn't come across it. The table next to me was raving about it too. I don't know how "authentic" it is for Thailand but it's delicious nonetheless. I'm a big fan of Tom Yum Gai so I had it and it was good. The bowl was HUGE (and the waitress warned me so) and chock full of chicken, spicy peppers and other vegetables. I ordered medium hot and I'm just thankful that I didn't order HOT as it was smokin' hot. I also ordered a dish (the name escapes me...probably because it's 4 words long) with chunks of chicken in a spicy peanut sauce on top of spinach. AMAZING! The flavors were outstanding. I will be back.
(4)
K J.
Food was great; service was incredibly slow. The place was nearly empty, so even if there was only one cook and one waitress, service still should have been much, much quicker. I was with a group of eight, and some of us had already finished eating before others of us got served (and we all ordered together). Lesson: Go in dyads and schedule plenty of time to eat. Or place a to-go order.
(3)
Genevieve R.
Pro: quick lunch and tasty pad thai. Cons: dark and dingy. Good for a quick lunch.
(3)
Irina R.
When I walked in, there was a sign on the counter that said something like "Top Rated by Yelp." Umm, I'm really not sure why. The food was average. Service was slow and the waitress didn't seem to know what she was doing. Booths were very cramped; you couldn't even cross your legs without brushing against the other person. Be careful if you are on a date, the other person might think it's intentional (unless you want it to be). Overall, I was not impressed.
(3)
Kedar D.
The menu here is misleading, as it uses the word "vegetarian" but does not disclose that every dish has either fish/oyster sauce or shrimp paste. That said, with the exception of the curries, all the dishes can be made vegan. Taste of Thailand is probably the best Thai restaurant downtown (and one of the only ones, for that matter), and probably one of the better ones in Minneapolis. It slightly edges out Amazing Thailand in Uptown, in my opinion. We asked lots of questions and had a wonderfully friendly and helpful waitress who checked with the chef about ingredients. First, as stated earlier, none of the curries are vegan or vegetarian, and cannot be modified (the curry pastes all contain shrimp paste). Even the so-called "vegetarian red curry" is not, in fact, vegetarian. Also, all of the stir-frys have oyster sauce, but at least these dishes can be modified to be completely vegan. We had a Pad Bai Kra Prao (basil stir-fry) with mock chicken and no oyster sauce ($10.50). I found the dish to be nicely seasoned and spicy; it felt like there was some authenticity and heft to this dish, which can easily be made bland by a lesser restaurant. The mock chicken was cooked well, though it looked and tasted exactly like mock duck to me. We also had a Pad Thai with tofu, and no egg or oyster sauce ($10.50). I liked the Pad Thai quite a bit, as it had an array of flavors and tastes, spanning the range from sweet to spicy to sour, which once again suggested authenticity. Pad Thai can easily be made poorly, but this place managed to get the tricky balance of flavors just perfect. The tofu could have been marinated or seasoned more, but that's a minor quibble. In the end, this is a good Thai restaurant, but make sure to insist on no fish/oyster sauce in the non-curry dishes. Avoid the curries all together if you are vegan or vegetarian and don't wish to eat shrimp paste.
(3)
Jocelyn L.
OK Seriously people. 3-4* for this joint? The noodles are completely inauthentic and tasted horrible! The service was great; very nice and attentive The vegetables on the Rad Na was great- crunchy, fresh The noodles- were plastic-ky! I've never had noodles like this...hard, super, unnaturally, shiny, HARD and just not fresh or well-cooked! If you know anything about Radna- the noodles ARE the main dish...so i pretty much had a horrible lunch The 2* are for service and the crunchy, generous portion of...vegetables on the Rad Na I hope this is not representative of Thai food in MN...
(2)
Kate B.
Short story: Get take-out. Yum food. Long story: I'm super-bummed people have had bad experiences here because I love this place! Maybe's it's because I usually get take out. Granted, I'm pretty non-experimental once I find something I like (my usual- chicken curry and cheese wontons). I go to restaurants all over the city, but usually order that ONE THING at said restaurant that I really like. I say, "Chicken curry? Two thumbs up." As a foil to my boring order, my husband likes to change things up and he's always loved his food, too. They remodeled the place not too long ago and it was definitely a step up, but this is not a place you go for the ambience. Is it possible to be a dive Thai place? That word makes me think greasy spoon diners or cheap, cold beer, but let's apply it here. So, like my first suggestion: call ahead, order some chow, and head down to the river bluffs for a picnic, or back home for some take-out and TV.
(4)
Stephanie E.
This is where I go for my Pad Thai. It is delicious, and my favorite in the cities. People are right- it is slow service. So I order to go only. I haven't tried much else on their menu besides some of their buffet items on Fridays.
(4)
Mariel L.
I like the star description that pops up in Yelp! because it aptly describes my opinion of Taste of Thailand: A-OK. In a city replete of this type of cuisine, it doesn't necessarily stand out, neither in portion or taste (maybe for good service...on a slow Saturday night). It's in the middle of downtown, which makes it super convenient when I have a serious craving for Pad Thai or Pad See Ew. Other than that, the rest of the menu reads like any other Thai restaurant menu, and there's nothing wrong with that. Prices are reasonable, and they have a full bar for the inevitable happy hour and drinking crowd. I've only had a sit-down dinner here once (earlier actually, before watching Iron Man 2 @ Kerasotes). As I've mentioned, the service was very nice and prompt; our server was knowledgeable of the menu. I think it's kind of a turn-off that they ran out of some of their "house specialties" on a Saturday night; I mean, seriously? I was excited to try their Roasted Duck curry, before they broke my heart and said they were out. So, I go to a can't-fail dish, Pineapple fried rice. I think the dish was alright, a little too sweet in my opinion, like they used a lot of the juice that canned pineapple comes in. My friend got something with sticky rice, but it didn't look sticky enough from my POV. The fried tofu for appetizers were disappointingly bland; I like my fried tofu from a restaurant to have some heat and flavoring. The battered vegetables were light and tasty, though. It's OK enough to get my repeat business, but if there's a serious contender out there in the immediate DT area, then yes, no, maybe so.
(3)
Chris M.
I wanted to walk over from my hotel and sit down and have a really good lunch. I got a so-so lunch. Pad Thai was..........decent at best. However I decided to order something that I have never eaten before so I went through the menu and decided the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancake). I ordered it with pork (you have a few choices). This was delicious. I should have ordered three of these (it's an appetizer). They do not accept AMEX.
(3)
Guillermo H.
I went to Taste of Thailand with a group, and was pretty pleased with the food. Ordered the egg rolls and the deep fried meatballs. The egg rolls were really good, with not too many rice noodles (which I think can ruin a good non-chinese egg roll). The meatballs weren't as heartclogging as they sound, and were actually quite tasty. The only downside is that they are very rich, and it is definitely a dish to share (after two of them, I couldn't eat anymore). My only real complaint is that the beers seem a bit over-priced, and my first selection of beer, a Thai beer, was out. That would be like an Applebee's running out of Budweiser.
(4)
Sanjay T.
#47 with mock chicken pineapple fries rice. Rice plate was huge. Food was very tasteful. Ordered extra spicy and didn't even seem to be hot. But the hot sauce did the trick. Svc was good. 2 people running the show in the front but it was half full for a wed night. Good experience overall.
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Specialities
Takes Reservations : Yes Delivery : Yes Take-out : Yes Accepts Credit Cards : Yes Good For : Lunch, Dinner Parking : Street Bike Parking : No Wheelchair Accessible : Yes Good for Kids : Yes Good for Groups : Yes Attire : Casual Ambience : Divey Noise Level : Average Alcohol : Full Bar Outdoor Seating : No Wi-Fi : No Has TV : No Waiter Service : Yes Caters : No
Alexandra M.
Worst service I've ever experienced in my life. Never said anything to us when we walked in the door, when we sat down, or in general. When the food was finally brought out the silverware took another 15 minutes to come. So rude! Also the food tasted like salt and the portions were all over the place. Ordered a veggie pad Thai and it came with no vegetables. Never going here ever again.
(1)The Little Curious T.
Great pad tai medium hot with Chicken. Arrived seated immediately ... Yes the booth was well worn but everything reminded me of actual Thai restaurants I've been too .... Food was very good hot and quick... Only one Thai beer but not a deal killer .... I love family places and really good food I'd post a photo but I ate it all too quickly! Wife had fried rice with shrimp really good ...if she is picky she'd have less onions but she really liked it. Read other reviews .. Just not our experience.... Ps we are here on Friday evening. Try it!
(4)Eric M.
I saw that this place was rated a three-star restaurant, but I really wanted Thai within walking distance from my hotel. The spring rolls and soup were very tasty, but I give my meal a 5-star rating on the basis of the Red Curry with Tofu main dish. I have eaten a lot of Thai food, including plenty in Thailand. This was an amazing dish. The veggies were perfectly cooked and the red curry was beyond words. Be careful on the heat that you order. I ordered medium hot, and it was plenty hot, even for my southwestern palate!
(5)Joe E.
Great meal, beat up/dirty menus, dead flies in window, doesn't take Amex. Probably won't go back.
(2)Suzanne P.
Went on a kinda weird date made only weirder by our experience at dinner. We arrived at 8:00 (well, I did, my date was late...) and were whisked right away to a table. We were told that we needed to order and eat quickly because they closed at 9. I asked our server if we should even place an order? He said yes, left but came back within minutes asking us impatiently to put our order into the kitchen when we hadn't had enough time to look over their long, kind of confusing menu. I don't even remember the food - it wasn't even slightly memorable. But the terrible service left a baaaaad taste in my mouth. It's too bad! Downtown doesn't have many Thai restaurants. Word to the wise: head Uptown; you'll be glad that you did.
(2)Rick J.
Amazing Phad Thai. Amazing. Nice atmosphere. Extensive menu. Reasonably priced. Service is a little slow, so don't come here if you are in a hurry.
(4)Betsy K.
I ordered delivery via Bite Squad tonight and was more than surprised when I opened the box of Vegetarian Red Curry and discovered the box only half full. $10.50 worth of veggies and tofu should fill the takeout box, this is unacceptable. Also, half the sauce had leaked out of the box and into the Bite Squad bag. I won't be ordering again.
(1)Thao P.
Great location; Delicious food; Slow service; less than appealing atmosphere I came here with my partner during Pride Weekend in Minneapolis. I was craving some Thai food like no other. The interior decor resembles most Thai restaurants, so it wasn't too unique. When we were seated, I noticed that the service wasn't spectacular because we waited a while for both our water and food. It took us an extra effort to get our waitress's attention. It didn't seem like too many people were at the restaurant or watching over it. I ordered the Pad See Ew and my partner got Pad Thai. They were both pretty good dishes. My partner's sister ordered laab (Thai Ground Meat Salad) and liked it too. We also got Spring rolls as appetizers and those weren't bad. Overall, this place was just okay to me. The service is the major detraction from this venue, but it's ultimately a great location. I probably wouldn't go here again as my first pick.
(3)Katrina O.
Went here for date night with hubby last night. A pretty small area with seating very close together, however we never felt crowded. Hubby was super hungry and ordered egg rolls and spring rolls (both regular) and they were meh. They weren't bad but they certainly weren't great! For our main course, hubby had their pad thai, level 4 spicy which was pretty good but a little too sweet for me and not at all spicy. I had the rad na with level 7 spicy (the highest spicy level) and it was really tasty and had a nice kick to it! I would definitely go back for more of the rad na but pass on the egg rolls and spring rolls.
(3)Marysol V.
I saw all these reviews of slow service and yes at first for them to actually to take our order it was but once they did our food cam within 10 minutes, and dang was it delicious. I got the house special curry with chicken, and it was sooooo tasty. And I urge anyone and EVERYONE to order the thai iced tea, it is so good, but you have to like sweet things to enjoy it. Very delicious, small quaint restaurant.
(5)Michael M.
Awful awful awful service. Put in order before a show at the target center and waited over 40 minutes to be told that the appetizer that we ordered was sold out. We saw them bring out at least two of the same appetizer prior to ours to parties that ordered after us. Ridiculous. Wish I would have read reviews prior to coming. Awful.
(1)Mark J.
If there was a zero star rating, this is what it would get. Service is horrible. 20 minutes to even take our order and over an hour to get food, when asking the waiter how long it will be, just said they didnt know. Will never be back. Stay away.
(1)MaiKa V.
I came here a while ago and got a very Long Stand of hair in our food and I told the waiter and her went to management. The only thing they could do for us was just pay for a beer we had.... WOW... Never coming back here again. Good luck to whoever goes there for food.
(1)Jegadesh K.
Waitress toooo much attitude. Chicken wings - good Veg spring roll - good Sriraja fried rice - nice Thai fried rice - good Wong ton soup - bad Over all, never go there again
(2)Greg M.
Food is exceptional!! We ordered fresh spring rolls and cream puffs and loved them both. Entrees were cooked perfectly to our spice preference. Very good food.
(5)Eva D.
Excessively salty, some parts of the food were burned (egg rolls and tofu) and there were major issues with the kitchen in terms of speed and lack of inventory. A bummer as the other two locations are quite excellent and definitely worth trying. To avoid disappointment, I would recommend going elsewhere.
(1)Netra V.
Wow amazing as ever .... Try the pad thai guys it's awesome .... One of the best pad thai I have had in months ..... However the egg rolls where not all that great but that would make up for the amazing pad thai from this place ... Got to try the other curries next time I am sure it's going to taste yummy ..would definitely come back ...
(4)Joann S.
Is this a center for ants? Is this a center for seriously horrible "Thai" food?? Um, no for the first question. And yes for the second question. I've never had such horrible Thai food before. The curry was bland, the portions were off, the staff didn't know anything about Thai food, and the jasmine rice was deffffffffffffff-initely not cook through (think: still hard, and slopping wet.) Yucky...
(1)Janna C.
I'm just in Minneapolis for a conference and had a hankering for Thai. This place was located close to my hotel so I thought, why not? I placed a take out order at 6:30pm and I'm still waiting for my food at 7:10pm. The gentleman who took my order seemed very nice, but extremely stressed out. He apologized for the wait and said, "when this happens we can just take the tip off that you left us." Apparently, this happens all the time. I can see that they're understaffed and having a hard time taking care of the customers in the restaurant (the place is half full). Based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend that people come here until they've figured out their staffing issues. UPDATE: When I finally received my food I was BLOWN AWAY by how DELICIOUS it was. This was hands down the best pad thai I've ever had. This literally tasted like my friend's Thai grandmother cooked it. Wow, just wow. The food was completely worth the wait.
(4)Dennis A.
Three of us went for lunch on a Tuesday afternoon after the business crowd was gone. The menu looked enticing. The prices reasonable. However, we waited 40 minutes for our food and finally got up and left when the wait person said it would take a few more minutes before our order was ready. I'm sorry, but if you want to stay in business you cannot expect your patrons to sit at the table with nothing but a marathon glass of water for that amount of time, and not even check in with them once. Oh, did I mention, we were not even asked if we wanted a beverage? Go at your own risk. The food may be great but that kind of wait is inexcusable in today's world.
(1)David C.
Kind of run down. Food was mediocre at best. One one occasion I had the lemongrass chicken soup and they really skimped on the portions of chicken. I also had the chicken wonton soup on another occasion. The wontons were so overcooked that the skin fell off. Service was lackluster and it usually took us around forty minutes or so to get our food. They seemed a bit shorthanded as well. I'd like to give this place a better rating since the Asian selections in downtown are quite limited, but this place just wasn't up to par.
(2)Theresa L.
Had I read the reviews I would not have come here, but I had a great experience! Good pad Thai, nice flavor, not drowned in sauce, fresh mung bean sprouts, and they accommodated my "no onions" order. Service was prompt and friendly, and my server refilled my drink 4 times. Will be back!
(4)Ryan M.
Very disappointed with my experience at Taste of Thailand. I had seen the restaurant earlier in the week and was very excited to try it since it was only a block from my hotel. Sign clearly posted that they close at 9 pm during the week and 10 pm on the weekend. I step inside from the bitter 7 degree weather at exactly 8:27 pm Wednesday evening. I stood there as employees were talking in the bar area until finally one of them acknowledged my existence and decided to walk over. At first I thought he was going to tell me that there was a limited menu because it was late or even take out only but instead he turned me away, saying they were closed. So I didn't get a taste of this Thailand in Minneapolis, just a bad experience in customer service.
(1)Jason K.
I went to the Taste of Thailand with three coworkers and we were seated quickly. Our server brought us water quickly and I ordered the number 42. Chicken with a ton of vegetables. The dish was fantastic, I ordered medium hot and it was just the right amount of heat. The vegetables were crispy and awesome! They supplied a lot of chicken, kind of sliced chunks. The side dish of rice was a perfect filler to add with the dish. My friend got the deep fried tofu and spring rolls, which looked awesome. The 46 was a beef dish that looked great and my friend seemed to love it. The only thing that sucked is that it took about 20 minutes to get our check and cash out. The service was great, but the time to check out was unacceptable.
(4)Jodee D.
Egg rolls were amazing. The Pad Thai was terrible. The burnt smell was awful and the entire dish tasted like charcoal and not in a good way. I didn't eat any of it. I would NOT recommend the Pad Thai. I'm so disappointed.
(1)Tiago P.
Food is OK, but definitely on the too-sweet side. Atmosphere is OK but a little dingy Service is not good. Not good at all. Not as a result of the wait-staff, but the kitchen needs to step up their game. I went with a group of 5 people for lunch. The first dish that came out took about 40 minutes. Each new dish that came out was in 5 minute intervals. The final dish never came out because we had to cancel the order because our colleague had to go back for a meeting. It shouldn't take 1 hour for 5 dishes to be made. The management and staff need to understand that there IS a problem and something needs to be fixed. If not, this restaurant will go under. For sure. Here's a start to fix the problem regarding service. Have 1 menu for dinner (which can be more extensive) and 1 menu for lunch (which is a truncated version of your dinner menu). The lunch menu can have about 20 items, which are easily prepared (noodles, stir fry, curry). Even with 1 cook, you can easily crank out about 1 dish every 2 minutes. Another (more obvious) solution is to hire another cook.
(1)Kedar D.
The menu here is misleading, as it uses the word "vegetarian" but does not disclose that every dish has either fish/oyster sauce or shrimp paste. That said, with the exception of the curries, all the dishes can be made vegan. Taste of Thailand is probably the best Thai restaurant downtown (and one of the only ones, for that matter), and probably one of the better ones in Minneapolis. It slightly edges out Amazing Thailand in Uptown, in my opinion. We asked lots of questions and had a wonderfully friendly and helpful waitress who checked with the chef about ingredients. First, as stated earlier, none of the curries are vegan or vegetarian, and cannot be modified (the curry pastes all contain shrimp paste). Even the so-called "vegetarian red curry" is not, in fact, vegetarian. Also, all of the stir-frys have oyster sauce, but at least these dishes can be modified to be completely vegan. We had a Pad Bai Kra Prao (basil stir-fry) with mock chicken and no oyster sauce ($10.50). I found the dish to be nicely seasoned and spicy; it felt like there was some authenticity and heft to this dish, which can easily be made bland by a lesser restaurant. The mock chicken was cooked well, though it looked and tasted exactly like mock duck to me. We also had a Pad Thai with tofu, and no egg or oyster sauce ($10.50). I liked the Pad Thai quite a bit, as it had an array of flavors and tastes, spanning the range from sweet to spicy to sour, which once again suggested authenticity. Pad Thai can easily be made poorly, but this place managed to get the tricky balance of flavors just perfect. The tofu could have been marinated or seasoned more, but that's a minor quibble. In the end, this is a good Thai restaurant, but make sure to insist on no fish/oyster sauce in the non-curry dishes. Avoid the curries all together if you are vegan or vegetarian and don't wish to eat shrimp paste.
(3)Jocelyn L.
OK Seriously people. 3-4* for this joint? The noodles are completely inauthentic and tasted horrible! The service was great; very nice and attentive The vegetables on the Rad Na was great- crunchy, fresh The noodles- were plastic-ky! I've never had noodles like this...hard, super, unnaturally, shiny, HARD and just not fresh or well-cooked! If you know anything about Radna- the noodles ARE the main dish...so i pretty much had a horrible lunch The 2* are for service and the crunchy, generous portion of...vegetables on the Rad Na I hope this is not representative of Thai food in MN...
(2)Kate B.
Short story: Get take-out. Yum food. Long story: I'm super-bummed people have had bad experiences here because I love this place! Maybe's it's because I usually get take out. Granted, I'm pretty non-experimental once I find something I like (my usual- chicken curry and cheese wontons). I go to restaurants all over the city, but usually order that ONE THING at said restaurant that I really like. I say, "Chicken curry? Two thumbs up." As a foil to my boring order, my husband likes to change things up and he's always loved his food, too. They remodeled the place not too long ago and it was definitely a step up, but this is not a place you go for the ambience. Is it possible to be a dive Thai place? That word makes me think greasy spoon diners or cheap, cold beer, but let's apply it here. So, like my first suggestion: call ahead, order some chow, and head down to the river bluffs for a picnic, or back home for some take-out and TV.
(4)Michael L.
Went again, and I still like this place. They were out of Thai Iced Tea, but it was below 0F so perhaps that makes sense. Pad Prik King still very good. Portions are not huge like in places outside of downtown - you probably won't have leftovers. So, it's not cheap, but in this location I would not expect it to be. They have many Asian bottled beers - Thai, Lao, Chinese, etc. but nothing on draft I don't think. Service was also very good and friendly. One important note: they claim that they mean it when they say spicy, and they do! So much so that even "mild" can mean "very spicy!" So, if you can't handle significant spice, be sure to ask for "no spice."
(4)Alex K.
We went to this Thai restaurant because it was walking distance to Target Center. The restaurant was pretty empty but the service was still slow. The restaurant charged additional $1.00 ($1.00 x 2) for the bill total and we only realized it after we received our credit card statement. Shady business practice, wouldn't recommend.
(2)Dan M.
How does this place only have 3 stars? Maybe I got the only good things on the menu. First up tom kha soup. I thought it was on the better end of most tom kha soups in Minneapolis. Next was the massaman curry which was absolutely delicious. I can't vouch for any other menu items though.
(4)Justin G.
The restaurant is a dump, I would have turned around and walked out if I had gone there alone but I was with work people. The booths are in very poor shape with some of them with large tears. The menus were gross and also in very poor shape, the one I had was stained and literally falling apart. The restaurant was empty when we got there and it took nearly an hour to get our food. When we did get our food it was really not very good, it was pretty much all onion and water chestnuts. I'll never go back.
(1)Eddie R.
Ordered some takeout tonight from my hotel. The service was quick - it took just about as long to walk there as it took to make. The restaurant was completely empty when I got there, but it could have just been early. I had shrimp wontons and shrimp pad Thai. The wontons were bland, other than the dipping sauce. The pad Thai had a decent flavor, but wasn't really anything too exciting. I ordered medium spice, and that was pretty accurately delivered. If I had my car, there are definitely other places in town I'd have gone instead (any of the Sawatdee locations, for one), but in town for the week and relying on mass transit, it was a passable Thai meal.
(3)Joanna T.
This is the worst serviced restaurant I have ever been to. We asked for a "Thai tea" as advertised and they were out. I asked for a diet coke, they stated they were out of all soda drinks (yes all... Weird to anyone else??) how do you run a restaurant without your drinks being stocked??. They had a bar and could serve cocktails, but you better not want a mixer. The food was decent but half way through our communal bowl of rice we find a black hair in the rice (FYI none of us have black hair). We notified the server and asked for a new bowl of rice. Without an apology she took it away and then rang us up for an extra bowl of rice (which yes, showed up on our bill). Lastly, they then added a mandatory tip for our party of five. Very tacky and VERY undeserved. Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
(1)Dawn G.
Excruciatingly slow service and blah food. I went to Taste of Thailand for lunch a while back and experienced really slow service, despite our being one of only three tables of customers. It took close to an hour for our entrees to arrive and we ended up being late back to work. In addition to the food coming out slow, our server disappeared for most of the time we were there. We didn't receive refills of water or have anyone stop by to apologize for the wait. At one point we realized we hadn't seen a staff member in the dining area in over 20 minutes and started to wonder if they had forgotten we were there. Getting our check required our hunting someone down. Ugh. Remembering that experience, I suggested take-out when a co-worked wanted to eat there this last week. We were quoted 20 minutes and the food was surprisingly ready on time. But that's where the good news stops. Our Miang Kham (lettuce wrap) appetizer was laughable. Each ingredient was placed separately in the takeout container and it was nothing like what you would expect a lettuce wrap to be. The taste was so bad that we threw it away after one bite (see posted pictures). Our entrees weren't bad but were just meh. Next time I want Thai food I'll plan ahead and order from a good restaurant further away.
(2)Irina R.
When I walked in, there was a sign on the counter that said something like "Top Rated by Yelp." Umm, I'm really not sure why. The food was average. Service was slow and the waitress didn't seem to know what she was doing. Booths were very cramped; you couldn't even cross your legs without brushing against the other person. Be careful if you are on a date, the other person might think it's intentional (unless you want it to be). Overall, I was not impressed.
(3)Jen K.
What kind of Thai restaurant runs out of Thai iced tea at 6PM? And not only that doesn't have green curry on the menu. Was in a mad rush on an early Sunday evening and had started off with 2 hours to spare to less than an hour to catch dinner and then head out to MSP. This was one of the few restaurants in Downtown Minneapolis that was open on Sunday evening. Many of the places we were hoping to go were closed. Weak. Weak. While browsing over the menu, I noticed some Vietnamese items such as egg rolls and banh xeo, which they spelled bank xeo. They also had some Chinese American dishes, ala cream cheese wontons. According to their website, it's done by a Hmong biz so the folks behind it might be Hmong. To gage we ordered the basics, pad thai, crab fried rice, masman curry and a vegetable dish. The food was sufficient but nothing I would rave over, especially since I come from LA, which has a plethora of Thai joints. If I had more time and the service was a little bit faster, I would have tried their custards. Perhaps next time.
(2)Yingxia W.
A friend and I came here an hour before a Minneapolis Orchestra concert and were delighted by the fast service; our two dishes came out in less than ten minutes. The waitress was friendly and attentive. The dishes were very nicely presented for prices that won't put a load on your wallet. One thing to watch out for - the spiciness of the foods. The medium spicy pad thai was a little more than what I am used to.
(4)Chuck T.
You get what you pay for. You. Can eat for $10. Of course you can at McDonald's as well. Not much difference in the taste or quality. I've eaten here 3-4 times for dinner and every time the place is empty. The wait staff seems more interested in cleaning than waiting. The food is bland, the serving sizes skimpy. Tonight I ordered the Tom kha and the chicken was like the chicken version of steakums. The only reason give them a 2 is because McDonald's is a 1. The only redeeming quality is happy hour $5 apps and $2.50 beers
(2)Jeffrey O.
The s....e....r....v....i...c...e.....is s.....l......o.......w.........really! Food was pretty good though.
(2)David M.
Wow, rolled in at 9:30 for to go food, place was empty and 35 min wait to get our order. SUPER insulting. Manager guy was busy apologizing to another to go customer and explaining why the bar was so poorly stocked. When I kindly asked for a refund our food was up, help was kind an apologetic but this seems the norm there. Good news is they have a captive client base from the nearby hotels so maybe they don't care about service. Funny part is food wasn't half bad. Too many good joints in the area, avoid at all costs!
(1)Jillian C.
I got take out here last week when I could not think of anywhere new to try for lunch...felt like some spicy thai food so I googled and found this place. Not too shabby! $11 is a little steep for lunch in my opinion, but it fed me both Thursday and Friday. Two meals are better than one! I'll probably go back a few times over the winter, it's close and I liked that they weren't shy with the spice. But I would not go downtown on a non-work day specifically just to dine here. Definitely a lunch destination!
(3)Sarah G.
This place is so close to work it's hard not to stop by each day. They do a great lunch business so be sure to get there early. I really like the happy hour - $1.00 off beers, 1/2 appetizers. You can make a whole meal off of the specials. The staff is very friendly and seems to be the same 3 people in the restaurant all the time. They know the menu very well and did not mind answering all of my questions that I had. This is a good place if you are a bit price conscious. They offer good Thai food at a great price. Delish!
(4)Lori G.
A group of us tried different things for lunch, including buffet and other entrees. The taste is...well....bad... Moreover, there is no veggie at all in veggie Phad Thai... And the speed is REALLY slow. Not only the time it takes for the food to come to the table, but the whole service...I will never go there again...
(1)Aroune S.
The sticky rice and jerky always makes me feel like im at home. This place did a good job with that!
(4)Keith M.
There are many other MUCH better Thai restaurants than this. The whole experience was less than mediocre. There were only two women working the front when we got there, it took 25 minutes to bring out drinks (Mai Tais that tasted more like sour rum sours). They were out of pineapple so there were 4 or 5 items on the menu they couldn't make. I had the Pad Bai Kra Prao. Very bland with rubbery chicken. We also ordered the Shrimp Pad Thai, the rice noodles were good and the flavor was decent, but the shrimp were so over cooked they were pasty... ruined it. Really... look elsewhere... Sawatdee is much better.
(2)amy z.
A coworker and I went here for lunch. We were quickly seated and served. The food was very good. Probably the best lunch time Thai food. I had a chicken spinach peanut curry. The chicken was a little dry but the curry sauce was amazing. I think the next time I will try it with tofu. It is more than I like to pay for lunch but it hits the spot when you are craving Thai food.
(3)Miki A.
Their Massaman curry is absolutely amazing...I've had it brought to me in Chicago before--can't get enough! I've been going to this place for 4 years and it's always been amazing. Servers are awesome, then again I used to be there ALL the time. I've gone on lunch breaks before and usually the service can be slow because they don't have a lot of staff, but as long as you're up front about how much time you have they can usually accommodate
(5)Al M.
Worst food ever. The curry stinks. The service is slow. This place is a shame to all of Thailand.
(1)Marc B.
As a frequent patron of the Selby location, I admit I was overjoyed when they opened a branch in downtown. My first time, they were out of the two dishes I wanted (duck red curry and pork steamed buns) and out of duck in general. Fine, I'll have the pad thai, a decision that served me well in the past. Unfortunately this pad thai did not live up to it's Selby cousin's reputation and came out tasting spiceless and somewhat bland. Location will always trump first experience jitters and I went back a second time, hoping that things would have improved. They had the duck curry and it was exceptional. The only problem? It took them 45 minutes to bring it out and another 15 to bring the check once I had finished eating. Now on a Friday or Saturday evening, I have no problem with this, but in the middle of a work day it poses serious scheduling issues and effectively eliminates this as a serious downtown lunch contender, despite the variably good food. If you can make the drive, the Selby location will knock your socks off.
(3)Dan K.
I recently spent a number of days in Minneapolis of which a number of dinners were spent at this restaurant. The service isnt bad, but depends who you get. I have been here at least 5 times (hotel was so close and it was so cold outside), and I dont think I had the same person twice. The servers ran from incredibly helpful, to not so great (took forever to get to us). However, the not so great guy was only there once, leaving 1 night of great service and 3 nights of good. Most nights I would start off with the Spring Roll or the Tofu soup. The Tofu soup was nice and basic (water, veggies and tofu), while the spring rolls were enjoyable. For entrees I usually got the Red or Yellow Curry - both of which were excellent and which I highly recommend. I once got Pad-Thai which wasnt so great, dry noodles and not alot of anything besides noodles (no spring onion, peanuts etc.) I would have given this restaurant 4 stars if not for the last night we ate here which literally left a bad taste in my mouth. Not only was the service slow, but my food was burnt. Not so tasty. Will I go back here if I travel to Minneapolis. Most definetly, as Id like to think that the one bad night was an abberation.
(3)James E.
Had a good meal here. I had the duck curry, which was quite tasty I must say. The Thai Ice Teas, however, were kind of blah. I've definitely had better. The atmosphere in this restaurant was just fine and the serving staff was friendly. Seems like a good place to go, but there's not enough there there to draw me back repeatedly.
(3)Michael B.
Nice and hot.
(4)Corey P.
One of the best Thai meals I have enjoyed. Ask for Thai hot, you get Thai hot! All of the dishes were fresh, delivered to our table quickly, the waiter was very friendly and quick to serve our needs, but not annoying. We had reservations for Seven Sushi Ultralounge but they made us wait for nearly an hour with no apologies. Redirecting our dinner plans and walking across the street to Taste of Thailand was a really good decision. Will definitely go here again. We were there on a Saturday evening around 8:30. Immediate seating and a nice, quiet, warm place to eat.
(5)Mermodfreres F.
The food that we ate -- fresh springrolls, tom yum soup and pad that were very good. I had hoped for a buffet to get a sampling but we hit it on the wrong day -- it's now only done on Fridays. My only issues with the restaurant were: 1. Parking -- very expensive ($9/hour) and 2. Price. A meal for 2 with tip (we only drank water) was $38! But, as I said, the food was quite good.
(4)Erin W.
This place is the WORST! I went here for lunch today with 2 of my coworkers. We arrived at 11:40 and the first thing we noticed was that the place had a funky (not good) smell. Anyway, we were seated right away and the waiter brought us waters and took our order. We then proceeded to sit there until 12:30 with no food, and the waitstaff didn't come over once to check on us, or thank us for being patient, or assure us that our food would be ready soon. The place wasn't even busy! Most of the people were eating the buffet! We left and told the waitress on the way out that we've been waiting for 45 minutes and we were leaving....she looked at us and said "OK!" and then turned back to her work. WORST SERVICE EVER! Don't go here! I'll never stray from Tum Rup again.
(1)Carol J.
I was pleasantly surprised with the taste and quality of the food here. I ordered red curry duck and shrimp wonton soup for dinner to go. The curry was really creamy and sweet, overall very tasty to go with the rice. They also give you duck meat in chucks. I kinda wished that there were more veggies in the duck curry though. The shrimp wonton soup was really good too. I think the taste of both dishes were just right and that there were no msg.
(4)Darren D.
I have been to many Thai restaurants, and I must say that this restaurant is the worst. Based on the poor service, overly priced salty, and the decor, I would not recommend this restaurant.
(1)Mojo M.
+ The food is generally okay. - Dining in or getting take out, you will wait forever for your food even when they are not busy. - Portions are on the smaller side. edit, 4/21/2010 - The last take out order made both my friend and I sick.
(2)Patrick W.
Number 38 was awesome. Chic with spinach and peanut sauce. INCREDIBLE.
(5)Paul B.
We both had very good meals at reasonable prices. Good service.
(4)Karman L.
Good restaurant...next to my hotel...so it was very convenient... I like the stuff chicken wings, thai iced tea, and the sticky rice w/ mango... I didn't like the stuffed young bamboo shoot thing... Service is a bit slow for the whole night...
(3)K J.
Food was great; service was incredibly slow. The place was nearly empty, so even if there was only one cook and one waitress, service still should have been much, much quicker. I was with a group of eight, and some of us had already finished eating before others of us got served (and we all ordered together). Lesson: Go in dyads and schedule plenty of time to eat. Or place a to-go order.
(3)Genevieve R.
Pro: quick lunch and tasty pad thai. Cons: dark and dingy. Good for a quick lunch.
(3)Stephanie E.
This is where I go for my Pad Thai. It is delicious, and my favorite in the cities. People are right- it is slow service. So I order to go only. I haven't tried much else on their menu besides some of their buffet items on Fridays.
(4)Mariel L.
I like the star description that pops up in Yelp! because it aptly describes my opinion of Taste of Thailand: A-OK. In a city replete of this type of cuisine, it doesn't necessarily stand out, neither in portion or taste (maybe for good service...on a slow Saturday night). It's in the middle of downtown, which makes it super convenient when I have a serious craving for Pad Thai or Pad See Ew. Other than that, the rest of the menu reads like any other Thai restaurant menu, and there's nothing wrong with that. Prices are reasonable, and they have a full bar for the inevitable happy hour and drinking crowd. I've only had a sit-down dinner here once (earlier actually, before watching Iron Man 2 @ Kerasotes). As I've mentioned, the service was very nice and prompt; our server was knowledgeable of the menu. I think it's kind of a turn-off that they ran out of some of their "house specialties" on a Saturday night; I mean, seriously? I was excited to try their Roasted Duck curry, before they broke my heart and said they were out. So, I go to a can't-fail dish, Pineapple fried rice. I think the dish was alright, a little too sweet in my opinion, like they used a lot of the juice that canned pineapple comes in. My friend got something with sticky rice, but it didn't look sticky enough from my POV. The fried tofu for appetizers were disappointingly bland; I like my fried tofu from a restaurant to have some heat and flavoring. The battered vegetables were light and tasty, though. It's OK enough to get my repeat business, but if there's a serious contender out there in the immediate DT area, then yes, no, maybe so.
(3)Chris M.
I wanted to walk over from my hotel and sit down and have a really good lunch. I got a so-so lunch. Pad Thai was..........decent at best. However I decided to order something that I have never eaten before so I went through the menu and decided the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancake). I ordered it with pork (you have a few choices). This was delicious. I should have ordered three of these (it's an appetizer). They do not accept AMEX.
(3)Guillermo H.
I went to Taste of Thailand with a group, and was pretty pleased with the food. Ordered the egg rolls and the deep fried meatballs. The egg rolls were really good, with not too many rice noodles (which I think can ruin a good non-chinese egg roll). The meatballs weren't as heartclogging as they sound, and were actually quite tasty. The only downside is that they are very rich, and it is definitely a dish to share (after two of them, I couldn't eat anymore). My only real complaint is that the beers seem a bit over-priced, and my first selection of beer, a Thai beer, was out. That would be like an Applebee's running out of Budweiser.
(4)Sanjay T.
#47 with mock chicken pineapple fries rice. Rice plate was huge. Food was very tasteful. Ordered extra spicy and didn't even seem to be hot. But the hot sauce did the trick. Svc was good. 2 people running the show in the front but it was half full for a wed night. Good experience overall.
(4)Jim P.
The service was very good, the food was very good and the location from my hotel was VERY convenient. I read some of the reviews about the service but was there for a late lunch and wasn't in a hurry. There were only 3 tables of diners at the time and my meal was delivered to my table in 10-15 minutes so I had no issues. I'd never had red Thai tea before this visit and I'm now a fan. I was even in Bangkok a couple of months ago and hadn't come across it. The table next to me was raving about it too. I don't know how "authentic" it is for Thailand but it's delicious nonetheless. I'm a big fan of Tom Yum Gai so I had it and it was good. The bowl was HUGE (and the waitress warned me so) and chock full of chicken, spicy peppers and other vegetables. I ordered medium hot and I'm just thankful that I didn't order HOT as it was smokin' hot. I also ordered a dish (the name escapes me...probably because it's 4 words long) with chunks of chicken in a spicy peanut sauce on top of spinach. AMAZING! The flavors were outstanding. I will be back.
(4)Chad K.
The food is OK, but there were other issues with my visit. 1. Some of us ordered the buffet around 11:15, and it was at least 11:30 before all of the items were in place. 2. They automatically include a tip for themselves for groups of five or more. I've never heard of auto-tips for groups smaller than eight! Do good service like clearing my plate in a timely fashion (which didn't happen), and the tips will come. Very tacky policy!
(2)Dan G.
I have news for those who have slammed the service at this great restaurant. The reason the service is slow is because the food is made to order and fresh. I had a wonderful dinner with friendly service. Highly recommended.
(5)Eddie R.
Ordered some takeout tonight from my hotel. The service was quick - it took just about as long to walk there as it took to make. The restaurant was completely empty when I got there, but it could have just been early. I had shrimp wontons and shrimp pad Thai. The wontons were bland, other than the dipping sauce. The pad Thai had a decent flavor, but wasn't really anything too exciting. I ordered medium spice, and that was pretty accurately delivered. If I had my car, there are definitely other places in town I'd have gone instead (any of the Sawatdee locations, for one), but in town for the week and relying on mass transit, it was a passable Thai meal.
(3)Joanna T.
This is the worst serviced restaurant I have ever been to. We asked for a "Thai tea" as advertised and they were out. I asked for a diet coke, they stated they were out of all soda drinks (yes all... Weird to anyone else??) how do you run a restaurant without your drinks being stocked??. They had a bar and could serve cocktails, but you better not want a mixer. The food was decent but half way through our communal bowl of rice we find a black hair in the rice (FYI none of us have black hair). We notified the server and asked for a new bowl of rice. Without an apology she took it away and then rang us up for an extra bowl of rice (which yes, showed up on our bill). Lastly, they then added a mandatory tip for our party of five. Very tacky and VERY undeserved. Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
(1)Dawn G.
Excruciatingly slow service and blah food. I went to Taste of Thailand for lunch a while back and experienced really slow service, despite our being one of only three tables of customers. It took close to an hour for our entrees to arrive and we ended up being late back to work. In addition to the food coming out slow, our server disappeared for most of the time we were there. We didn't receive refills of water or have anyone stop by to apologize for the wait. At one point we realized we hadn't seen a staff member in the dining area in over 20 minutes and started to wonder if they had forgotten we were there. Getting our check required our hunting someone down. Ugh. Remembering that experience, I suggested take-out when a co-worked wanted to eat there this last week. We were quoted 20 minutes and the food was surprisingly ready on time. But that's where the good news stops. Our Miang Kham (lettuce wrap) appetizer was laughable. Each ingredient was placed separately in the takeout container and it was nothing like what you would expect a lettuce wrap to be. The taste was so bad that we threw it away after one bite (see posted pictures). Our entrees weren't bad but were just meh. Next time I want Thai food I'll plan ahead and order from a good restaurant further away.
(2)Michael L.
Went again, and I still like this place. They were out of Thai Iced Tea, but it was below 0F so perhaps that makes sense. Pad Prik King still very good. Portions are not huge like in places outside of downtown - you probably won't have leftovers. So, it's not cheap, but in this location I would not expect it to be. They have many Asian bottled beers - Thai, Lao, Chinese, etc. but nothing on draft I don't think. Service was also very good and friendly. One important note: they claim that they mean it when they say spicy, and they do! So much so that even "mild" can mean "very spicy!" So, if you can't handle significant spice, be sure to ask for "no spice."
(4)Alexandra M.
Worst service I've ever experienced in my life. Never said anything to us when we walked in the door, when we sat down, or in general. When the food was finally brought out the silverware took another 15 minutes to come. So rude! Also the food tasted like salt and the portions were all over the place. Ordered a veggie pad Thai and it came with no vegetables. Never going here ever again.
(1)The Little Curious T.
Great pad tai medium hot with Chicken. Arrived seated immediately ... Yes the booth was well worn but everything reminded me of actual Thai restaurants I've been too .... Food was very good hot and quick... Only one Thai beer but not a deal killer .... I love family places and really good food I'd post a photo but I ate it all too quickly! Wife had fried rice with shrimp really good ...if she is picky she'd have less onions but she really liked it. Read other reviews .. Just not our experience.... Ps we are here on Friday evening. Try it!
(4)Eric M.
I saw that this place was rated a three-star restaurant, but I really wanted Thai within walking distance from my hotel. The spring rolls and soup were very tasty, but I give my meal a 5-star rating on the basis of the Red Curry with Tofu main dish. I have eaten a lot of Thai food, including plenty in Thailand. This was an amazing dish. The veggies were perfectly cooked and the red curry was beyond words. Be careful on the heat that you order. I ordered medium hot, and it was plenty hot, even for my southwestern palate!
(5)Joe E.
Great meal, beat up/dirty menus, dead flies in window, doesn't take Amex. Probably won't go back.
(2)Suzanne P.
Went on a kinda weird date made only weirder by our experience at dinner. We arrived at 8:00 (well, I did, my date was late...) and were whisked right away to a table. We were told that we needed to order and eat quickly because they closed at 9. I asked our server if we should even place an order? He said yes, left but came back within minutes asking us impatiently to put our order into the kitchen when we hadn't had enough time to look over their long, kind of confusing menu. I don't even remember the food - it wasn't even slightly memorable. But the terrible service left a baaaaad taste in my mouth. It's too bad! Downtown doesn't have many Thai restaurants. Word to the wise: head Uptown; you'll be glad that you did.
(2)Rick J.
Amazing Phad Thai. Amazing. Nice atmosphere. Extensive menu. Reasonably priced. Service is a little slow, so don't come here if you are in a hurry.
(4)Betsy K.
I ordered delivery via Bite Squad tonight and was more than surprised when I opened the box of Vegetarian Red Curry and discovered the box only half full. $10.50 worth of veggies and tofu should fill the takeout box, this is unacceptable. Also, half the sauce had leaked out of the box and into the Bite Squad bag. I won't be ordering again.
(1)Greg M.
Food is exceptional!! We ordered fresh spring rolls and cream puffs and loved them both. Entrees were cooked perfectly to our spice preference. Very good food.
(5)Eva D.
Excessively salty, some parts of the food were burned (egg rolls and tofu) and there were major issues with the kitchen in terms of speed and lack of inventory. A bummer as the other two locations are quite excellent and definitely worth trying. To avoid disappointment, I would recommend going elsewhere.
(1)Thao P.
Great location; Delicious food; Slow service; less than appealing atmosphere I came here with my partner during Pride Weekend in Minneapolis. I was craving some Thai food like no other. The interior decor resembles most Thai restaurants, so it wasn't too unique. When we were seated, I noticed that the service wasn't spectacular because we waited a while for both our water and food. It took us an extra effort to get our waitress's attention. It didn't seem like too many people were at the restaurant or watching over it. I ordered the Pad See Ew and my partner got Pad Thai. They were both pretty good dishes. My partner's sister ordered laab (Thai Ground Meat Salad) and liked it too. We also got Spring rolls as appetizers and those weren't bad. Overall, this place was just okay to me. The service is the major detraction from this venue, but it's ultimately a great location. I probably wouldn't go here again as my first pick.
(3)Katrina O.
Went here for date night with hubby last night. A pretty small area with seating very close together, however we never felt crowded. Hubby was super hungry and ordered egg rolls and spring rolls (both regular) and they were meh. They weren't bad but they certainly weren't great! For our main course, hubby had their pad thai, level 4 spicy which was pretty good but a little too sweet for me and not at all spicy. I had the rad na with level 7 spicy (the highest spicy level) and it was really tasty and had a nice kick to it! I would definitely go back for more of the rad na but pass on the egg rolls and spring rolls.
(3)Marysol V.
I saw all these reviews of slow service and yes at first for them to actually to take our order it was but once they did our food cam within 10 minutes, and dang was it delicious. I got the house special curry with chicken, and it was sooooo tasty. And I urge anyone and EVERYONE to order the thai iced tea, it is so good, but you have to like sweet things to enjoy it. Very delicious, small quaint restaurant.
(5)Michael M.
Awful awful awful service. Put in order before a show at the target center and waited over 40 minutes to be told that the appetizer that we ordered was sold out. We saw them bring out at least two of the same appetizer prior to ours to parties that ordered after us. Ridiculous. Wish I would have read reviews prior to coming. Awful.
(1)Mark J.
If there was a zero star rating, this is what it would get. Service is horrible. 20 minutes to even take our order and over an hour to get food, when asking the waiter how long it will be, just said they didnt know. Will never be back. Stay away.
(1)MaiKa V.
I came here a while ago and got a very Long Stand of hair in our food and I told the waiter and her went to management. The only thing they could do for us was just pay for a beer we had.... WOW... Never coming back here again. Good luck to whoever goes there for food.
(1)Jegadesh K.
Waitress toooo much attitude. Chicken wings - good Veg spring roll - good Sriraja fried rice - nice Thai fried rice - good Wong ton soup - bad Over all, never go there again
(2)Netra V.
Wow amazing as ever .... Try the pad thai guys it's awesome .... One of the best pad thai I have had in months ..... However the egg rolls where not all that great but that would make up for the amazing pad thai from this place ... Got to try the other curries next time I am sure it's going to taste yummy ..would definitely come back ...
(4)Joann S.
Is this a center for ants? Is this a center for seriously horrible "Thai" food?? Um, no for the first question. And yes for the second question. I've never had such horrible Thai food before. The curry was bland, the portions were off, the staff didn't know anything about Thai food, and the jasmine rice was deffffffffffffff-initely not cook through (think: still hard, and slopping wet.) Yucky...
(1)Janna C.
I'm just in Minneapolis for a conference and had a hankering for Thai. This place was located close to my hotel so I thought, why not? I placed a take out order at 6:30pm and I'm still waiting for my food at 7:10pm. The gentleman who took my order seemed very nice, but extremely stressed out. He apologized for the wait and said, "when this happens we can just take the tip off that you left us." Apparently, this happens all the time. I can see that they're understaffed and having a hard time taking care of the customers in the restaurant (the place is half full). Based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend that people come here until they've figured out their staffing issues. UPDATE: When I finally received my food I was BLOWN AWAY by how DELICIOUS it was. This was hands down the best pad thai I've ever had. This literally tasted like my friend's Thai grandmother cooked it. Wow, just wow. The food was completely worth the wait.
(4)Dennis A.
Three of us went for lunch on a Tuesday afternoon after the business crowd was gone. The menu looked enticing. The prices reasonable. However, we waited 40 minutes for our food and finally got up and left when the wait person said it would take a few more minutes before our order was ready. I'm sorry, but if you want to stay in business you cannot expect your patrons to sit at the table with nothing but a marathon glass of water for that amount of time, and not even check in with them once. Oh, did I mention, we were not even asked if we wanted a beverage? Go at your own risk. The food may be great but that kind of wait is inexcusable in today's world.
(1)David C.
Kind of run down. Food was mediocre at best. One one occasion I had the lemongrass chicken soup and they really skimped on the portions of chicken. I also had the chicken wonton soup on another occasion. The wontons were so overcooked that the skin fell off. Service was lackluster and it usually took us around forty minutes or so to get our food. They seemed a bit shorthanded as well. I'd like to give this place a better rating since the Asian selections in downtown are quite limited, but this place just wasn't up to par.
(2)Theresa L.
Had I read the reviews I would not have come here, but I had a great experience! Good pad Thai, nice flavor, not drowned in sauce, fresh mung bean sprouts, and they accommodated my "no onions" order. Service was prompt and friendly, and my server refilled my drink 4 times. Will be back!
(4)Ryan M.
Very disappointed with my experience at Taste of Thailand. I had seen the restaurant earlier in the week and was very excited to try it since it was only a block from my hotel. Sign clearly posted that they close at 9 pm during the week and 10 pm on the weekend. I step inside from the bitter 7 degree weather at exactly 8:27 pm Wednesday evening. I stood there as employees were talking in the bar area until finally one of them acknowledged my existence and decided to walk over. At first I thought he was going to tell me that there was a limited menu because it was late or even take out only but instead he turned me away, saying they were closed. So I didn't get a taste of this Thailand in Minneapolis, just a bad experience in customer service.
(1)Jason K.
I went to the Taste of Thailand with three coworkers and we were seated quickly. Our server brought us water quickly and I ordered the number 42. Chicken with a ton of vegetables. The dish was fantastic, I ordered medium hot and it was just the right amount of heat. The vegetables were crispy and awesome! They supplied a lot of chicken, kind of sliced chunks. The side dish of rice was a perfect filler to add with the dish. My friend got the deep fried tofu and spring rolls, which looked awesome. The 46 was a beef dish that looked great and my friend seemed to love it. The only thing that sucked is that it took about 20 minutes to get our check and cash out. The service was great, but the time to check out was unacceptable.
(4)Jodee D.
Egg rolls were amazing. The Pad Thai was terrible. The burnt smell was awful and the entire dish tasted like charcoal and not in a good way. I didn't eat any of it. I would NOT recommend the Pad Thai. I'm so disappointed.
(1)Tiago P.
Food is OK, but definitely on the too-sweet side. Atmosphere is OK but a little dingy Service is not good. Not good at all. Not as a result of the wait-staff, but the kitchen needs to step up their game. I went with a group of 5 people for lunch. The first dish that came out took about 40 minutes. Each new dish that came out was in 5 minute intervals. The final dish never came out because we had to cancel the order because our colleague had to go back for a meeting. It shouldn't take 1 hour for 5 dishes to be made. The management and staff need to understand that there IS a problem and something needs to be fixed. If not, this restaurant will go under. For sure. Here's a start to fix the problem regarding service. Have 1 menu for dinner (which can be more extensive) and 1 menu for lunch (which is a truncated version of your dinner menu). The lunch menu can have about 20 items, which are easily prepared (noodles, stir fry, curry). Even with 1 cook, you can easily crank out about 1 dish every 2 minutes. Another (more obvious) solution is to hire another cook.
(1)Alex K.
We went to this Thai restaurant because it was walking distance to Target Center. The restaurant was pretty empty but the service was still slow. The restaurant charged additional $1.00 ($1.00 x 2) for the bill total and we only realized it after we received our credit card statement. Shady business practice, wouldn't recommend.
(2)Dan M.
How does this place only have 3 stars? Maybe I got the only good things on the menu. First up tom kha soup. I thought it was on the better end of most tom kha soups in Minneapolis. Next was the massaman curry which was absolutely delicious. I can't vouch for any other menu items though.
(4)Justin G.
The restaurant is a dump, I would have turned around and walked out if I had gone there alone but I was with work people. The booths are in very poor shape with some of them with large tears. The menus were gross and also in very poor shape, the one I had was stained and literally falling apart. The restaurant was empty when we got there and it took nearly an hour to get our food. When we did get our food it was really not very good, it was pretty much all onion and water chestnuts. I'll never go back.
(1)Chad K.
The food is OK, but there were other issues with my visit. 1. Some of us ordered the buffet around 11:15, and it was at least 11:30 before all of the items were in place. 2. They automatically include a tip for themselves for groups of five or more. I've never heard of auto-tips for groups smaller than eight! Do good service like clearing my plate in a timely fashion (which didn't happen), and the tips will come. Very tacky policy!
(2)Dan G.
I have news for those who have slammed the service at this great restaurant. The reason the service is slow is because the food is made to order and fresh. I had a wonderful dinner with friendly service. Highly recommended.
(5)Yingxia W.
A friend and I came here an hour before a Minneapolis Orchestra concert and were delighted by the fast service; our two dishes came out in less than ten minutes. The waitress was friendly and attentive. The dishes were very nicely presented for prices that won't put a load on your wallet. One thing to watch out for - the spiciness of the foods. The medium spicy pad thai was a little more than what I am used to.
(4)Chuck T.
You get what you pay for. You. Can eat for $10. Of course you can at McDonald's as well. Not much difference in the taste or quality. I've eaten here 3-4 times for dinner and every time the place is empty. The wait staff seems more interested in cleaning than waiting. The food is bland, the serving sizes skimpy. Tonight I ordered the Tom kha and the chicken was like the chicken version of steakums. The only reason give them a 2 is because McDonald's is a 1. The only redeeming quality is happy hour $5 apps and $2.50 beers
(2)Jeffrey O.
The s....e....r....v....i...c...e.....is s.....l......o.......w.........really! Food was pretty good though.
(2)Miki A.
Their Massaman curry is absolutely amazing...I've had it brought to me in Chicago before--can't get enough! I've been going to this place for 4 years and it's always been amazing. Servers are awesome, then again I used to be there ALL the time. I've gone on lunch breaks before and usually the service can be slow because they don't have a lot of staff, but as long as you're up front about how much time you have they can usually accommodate
(5)Al M.
Worst food ever. The curry stinks. The service is slow. This place is a shame to all of Thailand.
(1)David M.
Wow, rolled in at 9:30 for to go food, place was empty and 35 min wait to get our order. SUPER insulting. Manager guy was busy apologizing to another to go customer and explaining why the bar was so poorly stocked. When I kindly asked for a refund our food was up, help was kind an apologetic but this seems the norm there. Good news is they have a captive client base from the nearby hotels so maybe they don't care about service. Funny part is food wasn't half bad. Too many good joints in the area, avoid at all costs!
(1)amy z.
A coworker and I went here for lunch. We were quickly seated and served. The food was very good. Probably the best lunch time Thai food. I had a chicken spinach peanut curry. The chicken was a little dry but the curry sauce was amazing. I think the next time I will try it with tofu. It is more than I like to pay for lunch but it hits the spot when you are craving Thai food.
(3)Jen K.
What kind of Thai restaurant runs out of Thai iced tea at 6PM? And not only that doesn't have green curry on the menu. Was in a mad rush on an early Sunday evening and had started off with 2 hours to spare to less than an hour to catch dinner and then head out to MSP. This was one of the few restaurants in Downtown Minneapolis that was open on Sunday evening. Many of the places we were hoping to go were closed. Weak. Weak. While browsing over the menu, I noticed some Vietnamese items such as egg rolls and banh xeo, which they spelled bank xeo. They also had some Chinese American dishes, ala cream cheese wontons. According to their website, it's done by a Hmong biz so the folks behind it might be Hmong. To gage we ordered the basics, pad thai, crab fried rice, masman curry and a vegetable dish. The food was sufficient but nothing I would rave over, especially since I come from LA, which has a plethora of Thai joints. If I had more time and the service was a little bit faster, I would have tried their custards. Perhaps next time.
(2)Jillian C.
I got take out here last week when I could not think of anywhere new to try for lunch...felt like some spicy thai food so I googled and found this place. Not too shabby! $11 is a little steep for lunch in my opinion, but it fed me both Thursday and Friday. Two meals are better than one! I'll probably go back a few times over the winter, it's close and I liked that they weren't shy with the spice. But I would not go downtown on a non-work day specifically just to dine here. Definitely a lunch destination!
(3)Sarah G.
This place is so close to work it's hard not to stop by each day. They do a great lunch business so be sure to get there early. I really like the happy hour - $1.00 off beers, 1/2 appetizers. You can make a whole meal off of the specials. The staff is very friendly and seems to be the same 3 people in the restaurant all the time. They know the menu very well and did not mind answering all of my questions that I had. This is a good place if you are a bit price conscious. They offer good Thai food at a great price. Delish!
(4)Lori G.
A group of us tried different things for lunch, including buffet and other entrees. The taste is...well....bad... Moreover, there is no veggie at all in veggie Phad Thai... And the speed is REALLY slow. Not only the time it takes for the food to come to the table, but the whole service...I will never go there again...
(1)Aroune S.
The sticky rice and jerky always makes me feel like im at home. This place did a good job with that!
(4)Keith M.
There are many other MUCH better Thai restaurants than this. The whole experience was less than mediocre. There were only two women working the front when we got there, it took 25 minutes to bring out drinks (Mai Tais that tasted more like sour rum sours). They were out of pineapple so there were 4 or 5 items on the menu they couldn't make. I had the Pad Bai Kra Prao. Very bland with rubbery chicken. We also ordered the Shrimp Pad Thai, the rice noodles were good and the flavor was decent, but the shrimp were so over cooked they were pasty... ruined it. Really... look elsewhere... Sawatdee is much better.
(2)Marc B.
As a frequent patron of the Selby location, I admit I was overjoyed when they opened a branch in downtown. My first time, they were out of the two dishes I wanted (duck red curry and pork steamed buns) and out of duck in general. Fine, I'll have the pad thai, a decision that served me well in the past. Unfortunately this pad thai did not live up to it's Selby cousin's reputation and came out tasting spiceless and somewhat bland. Location will always trump first experience jitters and I went back a second time, hoping that things would have improved. They had the duck curry and it was exceptional. The only problem? It took them 45 minutes to bring it out and another 15 to bring the check once I had finished eating. Now on a Friday or Saturday evening, I have no problem with this, but in the middle of a work day it poses serious scheduling issues and effectively eliminates this as a serious downtown lunch contender, despite the variably good food. If you can make the drive, the Selby location will knock your socks off.
(3)Erin W.
This place is the WORST! I went here for lunch today with 2 of my coworkers. We arrived at 11:40 and the first thing we noticed was that the place had a funky (not good) smell. Anyway, we were seated right away and the waiter brought us waters and took our order. We then proceeded to sit there until 12:30 with no food, and the waitstaff didn't come over once to check on us, or thank us for being patient, or assure us that our food would be ready soon. The place wasn't even busy! Most of the people were eating the buffet! We left and told the waitress on the way out that we've been waiting for 45 minutes and we were leaving....she looked at us and said "OK!" and then turned back to her work. WORST SERVICE EVER! Don't go here! I'll never stray from Tum Rup again.
(1)Carol J.
I was pleasantly surprised with the taste and quality of the food here. I ordered red curry duck and shrimp wonton soup for dinner to go. The curry was really creamy and sweet, overall very tasty to go with the rice. They also give you duck meat in chucks. I kinda wished that there were more veggies in the duck curry though. The shrimp wonton soup was really good too. I think the taste of both dishes were just right and that there were no msg.
(4)Darren D.
I have been to many Thai restaurants, and I must say that this restaurant is the worst. Based on the poor service, overly priced salty, and the decor, I would not recommend this restaurant.
(1)Mojo M.
+ The food is generally okay. - Dining in or getting take out, you will wait forever for your food even when they are not busy. - Portions are on the smaller side. edit, 4/21/2010 - The last take out order made both my friend and I sick.
(2)Patrick W.
Number 38 was awesome. Chic with spinach and peanut sauce. INCREDIBLE.
(5)Paul B.
We both had very good meals at reasonable prices. Good service.
(4)Karman L.
Good restaurant...next to my hotel...so it was very convenient... I like the stuff chicken wings, thai iced tea, and the sticky rice w/ mango... I didn't like the stuffed young bamboo shoot thing... Service is a bit slow for the whole night...
(3)Dan K.
I recently spent a number of days in Minneapolis of which a number of dinners were spent at this restaurant. The service isnt bad, but depends who you get. I have been here at least 5 times (hotel was so close and it was so cold outside), and I dont think I had the same person twice. The servers ran from incredibly helpful, to not so great (took forever to get to us). However, the not so great guy was only there once, leaving 1 night of great service and 3 nights of good. Most nights I would start off with the Spring Roll or the Tofu soup. The Tofu soup was nice and basic (water, veggies and tofu), while the spring rolls were enjoyable. For entrees I usually got the Red or Yellow Curry - both of which were excellent and which I highly recommend. I once got Pad-Thai which wasnt so great, dry noodles and not alot of anything besides noodles (no spring onion, peanuts etc.) I would have given this restaurant 4 stars if not for the last night we ate here which literally left a bad taste in my mouth. Not only was the service slow, but my food was burnt. Not so tasty. Will I go back here if I travel to Minneapolis. Most definetly, as Id like to think that the one bad night was an abberation.
(3)James E.
Had a good meal here. I had the duck curry, which was quite tasty I must say. The Thai Ice Teas, however, were kind of blah. I've definitely had better. The atmosphere in this restaurant was just fine and the serving staff was friendly. Seems like a good place to go, but there's not enough there there to draw me back repeatedly.
(3)Michael B.
Nice and hot.
(4)Corey P.
One of the best Thai meals I have enjoyed. Ask for Thai hot, you get Thai hot! All of the dishes were fresh, delivered to our table quickly, the waiter was very friendly and quick to serve our needs, but not annoying. We had reservations for Seven Sushi Ultralounge but they made us wait for nearly an hour with no apologies. Redirecting our dinner plans and walking across the street to Taste of Thailand was a really good decision. Will definitely go here again. We were there on a Saturday evening around 8:30. Immediate seating and a nice, quiet, warm place to eat.
(5)Mermodfreres F.
The food that we ate -- fresh springrolls, tom yum soup and pad that were very good. I had hoped for a buffet to get a sampling but we hit it on the wrong day -- it's now only done on Fridays. My only issues with the restaurant were: 1. Parking -- very expensive ($9/hour) and 2. Price. A meal for 2 with tip (we only drank water) was $38! But, as I said, the food was quite good.
(4)Jim P.
The service was very good, the food was very good and the location from my hotel was VERY convenient. I read some of the reviews about the service but was there for a late lunch and wasn't in a hurry. There were only 3 tables of diners at the time and my meal was delivered to my table in 10-15 minutes so I had no issues. I'd never had red Thai tea before this visit and I'm now a fan. I was even in Bangkok a couple of months ago and hadn't come across it. The table next to me was raving about it too. I don't know how "authentic" it is for Thailand but it's delicious nonetheless. I'm a big fan of Tom Yum Gai so I had it and it was good. The bowl was HUGE (and the waitress warned me so) and chock full of chicken, spicy peppers and other vegetables. I ordered medium hot and I'm just thankful that I didn't order HOT as it was smokin' hot. I also ordered a dish (the name escapes me...probably because it's 4 words long) with chunks of chicken in a spicy peanut sauce on top of spinach. AMAZING! The flavors were outstanding. I will be back.
(4)K J.
Food was great; service was incredibly slow. The place was nearly empty, so even if there was only one cook and one waitress, service still should have been much, much quicker. I was with a group of eight, and some of us had already finished eating before others of us got served (and we all ordered together). Lesson: Go in dyads and schedule plenty of time to eat. Or place a to-go order.
(3)Genevieve R.
Pro: quick lunch and tasty pad thai. Cons: dark and dingy. Good for a quick lunch.
(3)Irina R.
When I walked in, there was a sign on the counter that said something like "Top Rated by Yelp." Umm, I'm really not sure why. The food was average. Service was slow and the waitress didn't seem to know what she was doing. Booths were very cramped; you couldn't even cross your legs without brushing against the other person. Be careful if you are on a date, the other person might think it's intentional (unless you want it to be). Overall, I was not impressed.
(3)Kedar D.
The menu here is misleading, as it uses the word "vegetarian" but does not disclose that every dish has either fish/oyster sauce or shrimp paste. That said, with the exception of the curries, all the dishes can be made vegan. Taste of Thailand is probably the best Thai restaurant downtown (and one of the only ones, for that matter), and probably one of the better ones in Minneapolis. It slightly edges out Amazing Thailand in Uptown, in my opinion. We asked lots of questions and had a wonderfully friendly and helpful waitress who checked with the chef about ingredients. First, as stated earlier, none of the curries are vegan or vegetarian, and cannot be modified (the curry pastes all contain shrimp paste). Even the so-called "vegetarian red curry" is not, in fact, vegetarian. Also, all of the stir-frys have oyster sauce, but at least these dishes can be modified to be completely vegan. We had a Pad Bai Kra Prao (basil stir-fry) with mock chicken and no oyster sauce ($10.50). I found the dish to be nicely seasoned and spicy; it felt like there was some authenticity and heft to this dish, which can easily be made bland by a lesser restaurant. The mock chicken was cooked well, though it looked and tasted exactly like mock duck to me. We also had a Pad Thai with tofu, and no egg or oyster sauce ($10.50). I liked the Pad Thai quite a bit, as it had an array of flavors and tastes, spanning the range from sweet to spicy to sour, which once again suggested authenticity. Pad Thai can easily be made poorly, but this place managed to get the tricky balance of flavors just perfect. The tofu could have been marinated or seasoned more, but that's a minor quibble. In the end, this is a good Thai restaurant, but make sure to insist on no fish/oyster sauce in the non-curry dishes. Avoid the curries all together if you are vegan or vegetarian and don't wish to eat shrimp paste.
(3)Jocelyn L.
OK Seriously people. 3-4* for this joint? The noodles are completely inauthentic and tasted horrible! The service was great; very nice and attentive The vegetables on the Rad Na was great- crunchy, fresh The noodles- were plastic-ky! I've never had noodles like this...hard, super, unnaturally, shiny, HARD and just not fresh or well-cooked! If you know anything about Radna- the noodles ARE the main dish...so i pretty much had a horrible lunch The 2* are for service and the crunchy, generous portion of...vegetables on the Rad Na I hope this is not representative of Thai food in MN...
(2)Kate B.
Short story: Get take-out. Yum food. Long story: I'm super-bummed people have had bad experiences here because I love this place! Maybe's it's because I usually get take out. Granted, I'm pretty non-experimental once I find something I like (my usual- chicken curry and cheese wontons). I go to restaurants all over the city, but usually order that ONE THING at said restaurant that I really like. I say, "Chicken curry? Two thumbs up." As a foil to my boring order, my husband likes to change things up and he's always loved his food, too. They remodeled the place not too long ago and it was definitely a step up, but this is not a place you go for the ambience. Is it possible to be a dive Thai place? That word makes me think greasy spoon diners or cheap, cold beer, but let's apply it here. So, like my first suggestion: call ahead, order some chow, and head down to the river bluffs for a picnic, or back home for some take-out and TV.
(4)Stephanie E.
This is where I go for my Pad Thai. It is delicious, and my favorite in the cities. People are right- it is slow service. So I order to go only. I haven't tried much else on their menu besides some of their buffet items on Fridays.
(4)Mariel L.
I like the star description that pops up in Yelp! because it aptly describes my opinion of Taste of Thailand: A-OK. In a city replete of this type of cuisine, it doesn't necessarily stand out, neither in portion or taste (maybe for good service...on a slow Saturday night). It's in the middle of downtown, which makes it super convenient when I have a serious craving for Pad Thai or Pad See Ew. Other than that, the rest of the menu reads like any other Thai restaurant menu, and there's nothing wrong with that. Prices are reasonable, and they have a full bar for the inevitable happy hour and drinking crowd. I've only had a sit-down dinner here once (earlier actually, before watching Iron Man 2 @ Kerasotes). As I've mentioned, the service was very nice and prompt; our server was knowledgeable of the menu. I think it's kind of a turn-off that they ran out of some of their "house specialties" on a Saturday night; I mean, seriously? I was excited to try their Roasted Duck curry, before they broke my heart and said they were out. So, I go to a can't-fail dish, Pineapple fried rice. I think the dish was alright, a little too sweet in my opinion, like they used a lot of the juice that canned pineapple comes in. My friend got something with sticky rice, but it didn't look sticky enough from my POV. The fried tofu for appetizers were disappointingly bland; I like my fried tofu from a restaurant to have some heat and flavoring. The battered vegetables were light and tasty, though. It's OK enough to get my repeat business, but if there's a serious contender out there in the immediate DT area, then yes, no, maybe so.
(3)Chris M.
I wanted to walk over from my hotel and sit down and have a really good lunch. I got a so-so lunch. Pad Thai was..........decent at best. However I decided to order something that I have never eaten before so I went through the menu and decided the Banh Xeo (Vietnamese Pancake). I ordered it with pork (you have a few choices). This was delicious. I should have ordered three of these (it's an appetizer). They do not accept AMEX.
(3)Guillermo H.
I went to Taste of Thailand with a group, and was pretty pleased with the food. Ordered the egg rolls and the deep fried meatballs. The egg rolls were really good, with not too many rice noodles (which I think can ruin a good non-chinese egg roll). The meatballs weren't as heartclogging as they sound, and were actually quite tasty. The only downside is that they are very rich, and it is definitely a dish to share (after two of them, I couldn't eat anymore). My only real complaint is that the beers seem a bit over-priced, and my first selection of beer, a Thai beer, was out. That would be like an Applebee's running out of Budweiser.
(4)Sanjay T.
#47 with mock chicken pineapple fries rice. Rice plate was huge. Food was very tasteful. Ordered extra spicy and didn't even seem to be hot. But the hot sauce did the trick. Svc was good. 2 people running the show in the front but it was half full for a wed night. Good experience overall.
(4)