Thai Essence

Food was reasonable at best. However, way over priced. Spent over $50 for two people and we both left still hungry.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Love the spicy Thai basil meal. Pad ma gra or something like that. The food is amazing 🤩

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Expensive dinner menu but very good food.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

A true hidden gem! My Purdue Alumni friend couldn't wait to introduce this place to us and she lives on the East Coast now! Every dish tasted fresh and thoughtfully prepared— the Curry Pineapple Fried Rice was bright and flavorful, the Hot & Sour Noodle Soup had the perfect balance of spice and tang with so much beef and both the Moo Ping Pork Skewers and Gai Yang BBQ Chicken were tender, smoky, and perfectly grilled. The homemade ice cream sampler—especially the black sesame, ginger flavors, Melon, and Mango—was the perfect finish. Easily one of the best Thai restaurants in Indiana and worth the drive from Indianapolis!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

My friend has hyped this location up for many days prior to my visit so I was very excited to go. The first thing we noticed was the 19% menu price increase to match the tariffs, which would make this a $20-30 place now as opposed to a $10-20 per mentioned on here. We got an appetizer of shellfish and veggie roll as shown in the picture, for $10 a piece. Portion size was ok, and it tasted very well. The sauces that came with the food were very delicious. For the entree, I had red curry with beef. This was excellent. It is on the spicier side, but my indian friend says he can eat it without a sweat, so take that as you will. Everything in the dish was made very good. The beef had the perfect texture and had soaked in the curry well to give it a nice juiciness. No complaints there. Us 4 had a good time and the waitress took a picture for us. They were very friendly. Will come back again for lunch, as my friend said that lunch and dinner options and pricing were different. Portion size was big. I eat a lot but they give you rice on the side, and you can get free refills so if you portion out the curry well you can definitely make it the size of 2 to 2.5 meals. Thanks!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Impossible to come back.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 2

Service: 2

Food and service was very good & fast!
We were craving Thai food and found this place, and the staff were obliging with using vegan sauce (instead of fish sauce). The food was hot, flavorful, and filling; and staff were very kind.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great Thai food, Thai iced tea was excellent, curry pineapple fried rice was delectable.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We visit often and always enjoy our food! It is very delicious. The owners are wonderful and service is also very good.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Would not recommend.

Food is meh — there are many good and even superb Thai places across the states but this place is below average.

What’s worse is the customer service though — it’s pretty terrible. Probably not going to visit again due to terrible experience.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 1

Been here several times over the last 3 years. The quality of food has certainly gone down. Chicken pad thai smelled like rotten meat

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 2

Fast service, hot food and excellent flavors. It's our favorite in West Lafayette

First of all this place started to scam customers.

1. ridiculously pricey for a small portion. A curry dish doesn't come with rice and they charge extra for rice
2. we ordered a tea and decided to spilt for tasting. For an empty cup they are again charging the cost of another tea. such a cheap tactics for a quick money.
3. the waitress behaved with a rude attitude as if this place is offering free food

The food is acceptable. Not very delicious, but it has the Thai flavor’s. The portion seems to be acceptable. Service is not bad, but one of the servant was rude. She supposed to be friendly but she forgot how to smile. Prices seems to be expensive compared to other Thai restaurants. I don’t think that I will visit them again.

The location is very nice.
The inside is basic nothing special nothing horrible.
The service was wanting.
The servers and owner while generally professional, they were also very haughty and snobbish.

One of the dishes came out and smelled rotting meat to the point that everyone at the table’s stomach turned. When we told the server, she removed the dish only to come back and say we aren’t taking this off the bill.

The manager came out to declare they been making it for 20 years. The manager made the chef come in on his day off to defend his dish, which only proved further that the dish was old.

No one came to check on the food if we needed anything after the disagreement. We apologized for offending, paid the full bill, finished with our friends, and respectfully left.

But unfortunately we won’t be going back or recommending. $20 to lose a customer and referrals… doesn’t seem worth it.