Similan Thai Restaurant

Wow what an amazing hole in the wall. Marianna runs the place and does an amazing job. All the staff are so friendly and polite, the place is quiet enough to run business meetings. And the atmosphere is amazing for a date.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Was incredible came here cause of some TikToks I saw and it was amazing loved it! Great customer service too ❤️❤️

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Been on a multi year journey to find the best tasting Thai food in San Diego, AND THIS IS IT!!!

We had the Pad Kee Mao with beef(drunken noodles) and Panang Curry with chicken and every single bite was absolutely delicious. It was the kind of Thai food that you can’t stop eating and loving every second of it haha.

I already can’t wait to go back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Fabulous food. Easy parking and great staff.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

All the food was so so good, workers were really nice and helpful, and the place is cute inside. 10/10 for everythingg

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Pad See EW, Papaya Salad, Soup

Food was good. Service was bad. The server act like you’re not welcome at the place. Really weird.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Yellow Curry

Waited over a half hour for a pickup order after I was told it would be ready, and not a single person working in the restaurant ever came to the front. Half a dozen other people were also waiting on their food and never got helped. I canceled my order and left. The food might be good, but I have no way of knowing.

Service: 1

This is one of the best local restaurants I visit when I want authentic Thai food. It is a cozy place, has a reasonable price, and the portion is plentiful. The meals are prepared fresh and hot. The waiters and waitresses are friendly and helpful. The parking is tricky to get to, but it's worthwhile. I genuinely enjoy eating my lunches or dinners there. This place is somewhat of a hidden gem. The food is that good.

Parking: Parking is a little tricky to get into and out of...not that bad. You just need to expect that, depending on the direction you're coming into the parking area.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Papaya Salad, Sliced Beef Filet, Green Curry, Sauteed Eggplant, Soup, Tom Yum

Chicken pad Thai gave me food poisoning

Food: 1

Excellent quality, consistent neighborhood Thai. Staff are friendly, ambience is low-key and food is always good. Nothing is oversalted or excessively sweet, and the curries have great depth of flavor.

We eat here twice a month at least and have never had a bad meal, which is more than I can say of Solana Beach’s other Thai restaurant. There is no comparison. Hats off to the team at Similan.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Red Curry, Cashew Nuts Shrimp, Green Curry, Tom Kha, Tom Yum, Yellow Curry

Ordered pad Thai for take out and it’s the best place we’ve had in SD thus far. Healthy portions, includes tofu in it (pleasant surprise), and nice friendly staff. Will def go again

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The food was very good and reasonably priced. The lunch special meal was $15 and it came with a large portion as well as soup and salad. The waiter was also very nice and everything came out quickly. The dining area and the bathrooms were also very clean. I really enjoyed eating here and I would definitely come again ☺️

Parking: The restaurant had its own parking and you did not need to park on the street which is a rarity for the area

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Mango Sticky Rice

Great little Thai food place. Really tasty and all the people working there are extremely happy. I recommend their cashew nuts and fried rice. I order almost every week to my house. They also have an amazing - well portioned lunch special that I go every other week.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Spicy Fried Rice, Green Curry, Tom Kha

Excellent and authentic Thai food. Some of the best I’ve had outside of Thailand.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 3

Recommended dishes: Pad See EW

Beautiful restaurant. Decorated the old-style way of Thailand. A nice menu with easy understandable English descriptions of the food along with good pictures, always a help especially when unfamiliar with a particular exotic dish.

The Thai Singha beers (pronounced “Beer Sing”) are 7 dollars each, served in a can along with a tall cold glass and brought to your table, however you must open and pour it yourself. It felt a little casual considering the beautiful restaurant environment. Lol.

We noticed a lot of take-out food that the staff were bringing to the front of the restaurant for customers to pick up. The restaurant prepares the packaging well, in nice reusable plastic rectangular containers, stacked in a sturdy paper bag.

Food:

I try not to leave negative reviews. I want every establishment to thrive, do well, my reviews are not meant to be unkind. This is my opinion of what we experienced. Having lived full time in Thailand for many years, perhaps my standards are different, yet that should not be an excuse. Good food, even if not authentic, is still "good food" and deserves to be celebrated. There are good Thai restaurants in San Diego that serve near authentic Thai cuisine. My wife is (from Chiang Mai) we enjoy seeking new Asian places to eat. Similan's food didn't work for us. At least on this night it wasn't what we expected. The drunken noodles (a favorite of mine) were soggy cut in tiny pieces, as if stir fried roughly, the sauce the noodles were cooked in tasted the same as the ผัดกะเพราหมู Padt Gapow Moo, “stir fried pork.” I ordered a fried egg (common practice) to go on top, the staff acknowledged my order but didn't bring it. There was something odd about the meat in all the dishes, we were not sure exactly about the texture and taste, but the meat was rubbery and identical in taste to each other . The pork and chicken were indistinguishable from one another. I did not want to eat the meat in any of the dishes, that's saying a lot because I love meat. The green curry แกงเขียวหวาน was okay but not as flavorful as one would expect. One couldn’t help but notice a taste similarity in our three dishes, is it the same sauce?  This may not be important: it's something unusual I noticed. As a cultural rule, Thai people pride their country on having the best rice in the world, called "Cow Hom Mali" ข้าวหอมมะลิ “Fragrant Jasmine Rice.” The rice we were served (sorry) didn't taste like Thai Rice. It was dry and not the same quality, as if scooped from the the bottom of a rice maker that was left on for a long time. There wasn't the sense of pride one expects when being served the 'staple food' as important as Thailand grown rice.

To be fair, this restaurant is busy with take out, and for a Monday night, there were 4 tables with customers that were enjoying their food. I did not see any Thai people here, always a good indication of authenticity, but it may not have been a good night for dining out either.

That they are busy with the dining room and take out, makes this review counter to reality, yet I had to be truthful of what we experienced. Go see for yourself.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Green Curry