Some of the best Thai food I've had in a long time. 5 stars for the vegan options, but 4 stars overall for serving meat. Super friendly and knowledgeable staff. Very impressive vegan section. Everything my group ordered was delicious and very flavorful. On their scale of 0 to 5 for spice, we ordered "1" and found it to have a bit of a kick. Order "0" if you don't like much spice.
K'ren
Love their sugarcane juice! Will come back next time for food
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
maria rojas
Bad service, waited over 10 minutes to get service after being seated. Asked for 2 sauces and got 1. I had to go ask for napkins because none were brought. Very bad service, the food was great but I wont be going back due to the bad service.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 1
Michaela Zimmerman
so saap is divine decadence! would eat this any and every day if i could<3
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
J Flower
Amazing yellow curry and good service
NicoleParks
impressive vegan options!! i got the spring rolls with vegan shrimp and the chu chi vegan fish that came in a panang curry sauce with a side of rice. so so good!!
Ray Cerna
Waited almost 2 hours to get all of our food. And they didn’t even bring out everything we originally ordered. :(
Mira A.S.
The food is delicious and beautifully served. I do want this place to succeed. They obviously try and want it to look good but they have a few kinks to iron out.
First off the lighting. It's way too bright and the bulbs don't match. Simply swapping all bulbs for 40W warm white ones will transform this place into a much nicer restaurant.
(I mean there are also TV screens playing sports with ads that don't belong to a nice restaurant and the bars on the front door that indicate the place is rough, but just fixing the lighting will do so much!)
Another weird thing is you might sit right next to the area where drivers pick up food and there's this constant in and out motion that's very distracting. Again, something that's easily fixed by installing a room divider. I hope they do!
The service is not awesome. But they do seem like nice people that care so I believe they will fix that too! We were waiting at every stage, had to ask to be seated, then to be moved because the lights were so bright they were giving me a headache, had to ask if some of our food was still coming, finally got up to pay. Before that last thing I wanted to just write a private email to their manager about the things they could improve but the service upset me enough to write a public review.
Again, the food is great, I'll be back to try their Thai dishes as takeout. But I'll wait till they've at least fixed the lighting to bring a party there.
Amy
I've never dine-in the restaurant before but I have ordered their food through Door dash and Uber eats and I would like to say their food is so good it makes me misses my mom's cooking. I will definitely order from here again every single time whenever I crave Lao/Thai food just please, don't go out of business.
Carolina Reaper
Waaaaa SOOO GOOD holy crap. The stir Fried entrees are amazing, and everyone’s food passing by looks insane!
The rice was a little hard but overall no complaints Presentation, taste, and atmosphere is A+!
I've been rooting for this place since it just started in a small space with only 4 tables--but now that they've moved to a bigger space, it feels like they've lost what made them great.
The biggest disappointment was that it took almost 1 hour for us to get our food. We ordered a Khao Piak noodle, chicken laab, and thum Khao poon. I received my noodles within the first 15 minutes and 30 minutes later we got our next dish. I had to ask our server if we were getting the last one and she seemed confused. Finally we received our last dish 20 minutes later. By that time they were already closing up and my boyfriend was pretty upset. We ended up getting our food Togo right away.
The food was great, but the portion for the Khao Piak was really disappointing. There were barely any noodles or meat--just a big bowl mostly filled with broth. I finished it in under 10 bites. For $15, I expect a much more filling portion, especially for a noodle soup.
If you look at their recent Google and Yelp reviews it's very inconsistent. You have 1 stars and then 5 stars and then 1 stars again. As someone who has worked in restaurants there is clearly a huge operations issue. Either they do just fine on their slow days but they can't handle it when they're slammed. The restaurant was full when we came in and they only had two servers. There were a ton of people coming in for to-gos and everywhere I looked was just people waiting...and waiting...that was the theme of tonight. I don't know what the issue was. Was there only two chefs? One chef? Did the server forget to fire the orders? I don't know but I wish they would have told us. We would have appreciated at least an apology for having to wait so long to eat. But the servers didn't express that. I think they should retrain their staff to better handle these type of situations.
I really hope they can get it together, especially since they promote the restaurant heavily on Instagram. For many people trying Lao food for the first time, this might be their first impression--and right now, it's not the best representation of the culture.
I came back expecting the same great experience as last time--but this visit was a huge letdown. If you want Lao food with no frills I would recommend to just to go to Sang Dao only a few streets down. Food is just as good and they have never let us down.
Heaven Morgan
It was good. I would go back. The lunch specials are a nice touch. It’s kind of pricey and the portions aren’t that big but that’s ok I suppose. The service was good and the food was good, but medium on the Thai Basil fried rice was very spicy to me. I wish I’d have gotten regular or no spice. Also some of my rice was on the harder side, I wasn’t a fan of that. The sauces were good and the vegan appetizer platter was good but I don’t think it really serves 3-4 people. Maybe 1 piece of appetizer each because it was only 2 spring rolls (halved), enough drums and then the potato wonton things (those were good) and the calamari was interesting, almost like ground up shrimp texture. It was cool to try. I thought it would be bigger. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of not being able to just order sides, like a side of rice or veggies. The vegan options were abundant though and that was great. The mock duck was really good and juicy. My dining companion said the pork belly was just okay. Nothing to write home about. The soup was good, and the peanut sauce for the salad was really tasty.
Elizabeth
Amazing food options for vegans. The food is full of flavor, great portions and great staff. If you like home style Loa, Cambodian Thai food this is the place. Every dish I've had is top notch! They have monthly specials too for dining in.
Joanna Verb
Recommended for those that love Thai/Lao style food. I don’t usually do Lao style som tum cause I can’t stand the taste of fermented fish, but the one from here was so tasty and it didn’t smell anything bad. Sticky rice to go with som tum is much needed! Use your finger to make a ball shape sticky rice and dip with som tum sauce. YUM!
Will def going back! Bit pricey but I guess it’s normal for San Diego. Also finding parking spot can be very challenging.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Abdiel Hernandez
Love this place. I followed them from when they were located on 47th and market
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Soups, Salad, Fish, Coconut, Beef Jerky, Chicken Wings, Basil Fried Rice With, Laos Famous Plate, Fried Spare Ribs, Fish Wrap, Spring Roll
Some of the best Thai food I've had in a long time. 5 stars for the vegan options, but 4 stars overall for serving meat. Super friendly and knowledgeable staff. Very impressive vegan section. Everything my group ordered was delicious and very flavorful. On their scale of 0 to 5 for spice, we ordered "1" and found it to have a bit of a kick. Order "0" if you don't like much spice.
Love their sugarcane juice! Will come back next time for food
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Bad service, waited over 10 minutes to get service after being seated. Asked for 2 sauces and got 1. I had to go ask for napkins because none were brought. Very bad service, the food was great but I wont be going back due to the bad service.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 1
so saap is divine decadence! would eat this any and every day if i could<3
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Amazing yellow curry and good service
impressive vegan options!! i got the spring rolls with vegan shrimp and the chu chi vegan fish that came in a panang curry sauce with a side of rice. so so good!!
Waited almost 2 hours to get all of our food. And they didn’t even bring out everything we originally ordered. :(
The food is delicious and beautifully served. I do want this place to succeed. They obviously try and want it to look good but they have a few kinks to iron out.
First off the lighting. It's way too bright and the bulbs don't match. Simply swapping all bulbs for 40W warm white ones will transform this place into a much nicer restaurant.
(I mean there are also TV screens playing sports with ads that don't belong to a nice restaurant and the bars on the front door that indicate the place is rough, but just fixing the lighting will do so much!)
Another weird thing is you might sit right next to the area where drivers pick up food and there's this constant in and out motion that's very distracting. Again, something that's easily fixed by installing a room divider. I hope they do!
The service is not awesome. But they do seem like nice people that care so I believe they will fix that too! We were waiting at every stage, had to ask to be seated, then to be moved because the lights were so bright they were giving me a headache, had to ask if some of our food was still coming, finally got up to pay. Before that last thing I wanted to just write a private email to their manager about the things they could improve but the service upset me enough to write a public review.
Again, the food is great, I'll be back to try their Thai dishes as takeout. But I'll wait till they've at least fixed the lighting to bring a party there.
I've never dine-in the restaurant before but I have ordered their food through Door dash and Uber eats and I would like to say their food is so good it makes me misses my mom's cooking. I will definitely order from here again every single time whenever I crave Lao/Thai food just please, don't go out of business.
Waaaaa SOOO GOOD holy crap. The stir
Fried entrees are amazing, and everyone’s food passing by looks insane!
The rice was a little hard but overall no complaints
Presentation, taste, and atmosphere is A+!
Restaurantji Recommends
I've been rooting for this place since it just started in a small space with only 4 tables--but now that they've moved to a bigger space, it feels like they've lost what made them great.
The biggest disappointment was that it took almost 1 hour for us to get our food. We ordered a Khao Piak noodle, chicken laab, and thum Khao poon. I received my noodles within the first 15 minutes and 30 minutes later we got our next dish. I had to ask our server if we were getting the last one and she seemed confused. Finally we received our last dish 20 minutes later. By that time they were already closing up and my boyfriend was pretty upset. We ended up getting our food Togo right away.
The food was great, but the portion for the Khao Piak was really disappointing. There were barely any noodles or meat--just a big bowl mostly filled with broth. I finished it in under 10 bites. For $15, I expect a much more filling portion, especially for a noodle soup.
If you look at their recent Google and Yelp reviews it's very inconsistent. You have 1 stars and then 5 stars and then 1 stars again. As someone who has worked in restaurants there is clearly a huge operations issue. Either they do just fine on their slow days but they can't handle it when they're slammed. The restaurant was full when we came in and they only had two servers. There were a ton of people coming in for to-gos and everywhere I looked was just people waiting...and waiting...that was the theme of tonight. I don't know what the issue was. Was there only two chefs? One chef? Did the server forget to fire the orders? I don't know but I wish they would have told us. We would have appreciated at least an apology for having to wait so long to eat. But the servers didn't express that. I think they should retrain their staff to better handle these type of situations.
I really hope they can get it together, especially since they promote the restaurant heavily on Instagram. For many people trying Lao food for the first time, this might be their first impression--and right now, it's not the best representation of the culture.
I came back expecting the same great experience as last time--but this visit was a huge letdown. If you want Lao food with no frills I would recommend to just to go to Sang Dao only a few streets down. Food is just as good and they have never let us down.
It was good. I would go back. The lunch specials are a nice touch. It’s kind of pricey and the portions aren’t that big but that’s ok I suppose. The service was good and the food was good, but medium on the Thai Basil fried rice was very spicy to me. I wish I’d have gotten regular or no spice. Also some of my rice was on the harder side, I wasn’t a fan of that. The sauces were good and the vegan appetizer platter was good but I don’t think it really serves 3-4 people. Maybe 1 piece of appetizer each because it was only 2 spring rolls (halved), enough drums and then the potato wonton things (those were good) and the calamari was interesting, almost like ground up shrimp texture. It was cool to try. I thought it would be bigger. I also wasn’t the biggest fan of not being able to just order sides, like a side of rice or veggies. The vegan options were abundant though and that was great. The mock duck was really good and juicy. My dining companion said the pork belly was just okay. Nothing to write home about. The soup was good, and the peanut sauce for the salad was really tasty.
Amazing food options for vegans. The food is full of flavor, great portions and great staff. If you like home style Loa, Cambodian Thai food this is the place. Every dish I've had is top notch! They have monthly specials too for dining in.
Recommended for those that love Thai/Lao style food. I don’t usually do Lao style som tum cause I can’t stand the taste of fermented fish, but the one from here was so tasty and it didn’t smell anything bad. Sticky rice to go with som tum is much needed! Use your finger to make a ball shape sticky rice and dip with som tum sauce. YUM!
Will def going back! Bit pricey but I guess it’s normal for San Diego. Also finding parking spot can be very challenging.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Love this place.
I followed them from when they were located on 47th and market
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Soups, Salad, Fish, Coconut, Beef Jerky, Chicken Wings, Basil Fried Rice With, Laos Famous Plate, Fried Spare Ribs, Fish Wrap, Spring Roll
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