14 Best Thai Restaurants near Des Moines

“Review: Food and service was amazing! The food was tasty and the owner was super nice. I have a 4 star review because of how difficult it was to find and not having a changing table. If you have young children with diapers they didn’t have a changing table heads up!

We had two Panang curry (coconut chicken with red curry), a taro bubble tea, and mango bubble tea.

Directions: Go to walnut street and enter the public entrance of HotelKirkwood and up the stairs. Once you’re up the stairs, make a left and it’s right there! If you need handicap or stroller accessibility, enter capitol building across the street, take the elevators, and then the skywalk across to get to JJs.“

“The food here is great and the atmosphere is so fun. Currently, the seasonal menu (winter 2025) has Yo's Wontons which are in an excellent sauce. I also enjoy the bing bing wraps and drunken noodles.“

“the food here is always so good, and the staff best in the city.“

“Thank you so much for the great dinner tonight!!! Food is always amazing!!!“

“Best place we’ve eaten in Des Moines. Great serving staff. They had a sense of humor and their advice on spices and entrees was spot on. Massive portion sizes of everything. The chicken and beef dishes were super generous with the meats and the meats were fantastically tender. We had one diner who doesn’t normally go for Thai but he devoured it all. Even after stuffing ourselves we all had enough to take home for a whole second meal.“

“So freaking good!!! You should go.“

“for is really good! I will be back“

“Great service and food. Sitting in the bar is our go to when it is the two of us.“

“Cool Basil has been a long time favorite of my wife and I. We hadn’t been there in a while when we stopped in for lunch today. The atmosphere was noticeably different. They were playing a funky smooth jazz music where every song sounded the same. I liked the previous light/classic rock mix much better. The staff seems to have completely changed since we were last in. We didn’t recognize anyone, whereas we were on a first name basis with much of the previous staff. The service was noticeably slower and less friendly. The food was still very good. I ordered my usual spice level 2 and it was very, very hot. Much hotter than it used to be. I’m just wondering if they are under new ownership or management because it is a very different experience from a year ago. I still recommend Cool Basil, it’s just not the familiar place that we loved anymore.“

“for is really good! I will be back“

“5 out 5⭐️ We had the calamari, and two noodle bowls. I got the spicy siracha & my husband had a garlic pesto. It was AMAZING. Will definitely go back. We went on a Monday around 12pm and they were pretty empty (as to be expected for a Monday afternoon) but still had good, timely service. We had our baby with us and unfortunately they don’t have a changing station in the women’s restroom. But otherwise- it was great! ❤️“

“The food was fantastic. My server Yotaga was very kind and attentive.“

“My husband and I were in Altoona to get pedicures at our favorite salon spa Signatures.

While we were getting our pedicures we were talking about where we could go and eat some delicious Chinese and Altoona and we asked the people that were doing our pedicures where they would recommend.

The very first thing out of both of their mouths was to go to Thai Basil which was just down the street from the salon.

We looked it up. Got in the car. Mapped our way there and as soon as we got there we were greeted very nicely and quickly by the girl at the front desk.

We got seated and before we even got sat down, our waitress was at our table asking us what we would like to drink and bringing us the menus.

She returned with our drinks and took our order for our appetizers and while we were looking at the menus to figure out what we wanted for our entrees she brought our appetizers out.

We had the fried wontons and the fried potstickers and my husband and I both decided that they were some of the best ones that we have ever had and we have traveled many many places and had many different options.

The waitress was right on point coming back and checking on us regularly. She had a smile every time. Very very kind, very efficient and always brought what we asked. Came back to refill our drinks. She was just an excellent waitress.

I had the Mongolian beef and the beef was some of the most tender beef that I have ever had in a Chinese food dish before and my husband had the sesame chicken which was very perfectly crispy and the best sauce ever.

My husband also had a Des Moines roll that was sushi. I can tell you that the serving size is there are double wherever you're going to get them and the price is about half.

The restaurant was also very clean. It smelled good in there. Everything was set up nice. It had good Decor. I would not hesitate for a minute to go back to this place.

Highly highly recommend going here. You would not be disappointed“