Taste of Thaiyai — Restaurant in Apple Valley

Taste of Thaiyai is located in a small strip mall. The parking is fairly easy but quite tightly packed. Last night, Sunday April 28th, was my first time eating at this restaurant with my siblings and mother who is visiting from out of the country. After a 50 minute drive, I was very excited to eat at this restaurant after reading the positive reviews.

Atmosphere: With brightly painted yellow walls, this mom-and-pop restaurant is a homey yet busy establishment. My group was seated in the center of the restaurant- it was a bit uncomfortable because we felt like we were on display to the smaller tables surrounding us. My mother joked that she felt like she was a table centerpiece. This feeling was also elevated due to the lack of environment music to drown out our conversations as well as the other tables that were seated.

Service: We were greeted at the front desk by what appeared to be a 14 year old boy who then sat us at our table. The service of the waiting and kitchen staff was quick and efficient. The staff were not very bubbly or charismatic overall but they were straight to the point; which I appreciate. They were very attentive to our wants/needs.

Food: Since it was my first time dining at this restaurant, I decided to stick with my safe options. I ordered the pork special egg rolls, spicy chicken wings, cream cheese puffs and an order of pineapple fried rice. My favorite part of this meal was the cream cheese puffs although it tasted more like a dessert than it did a savory appetizer (the cream cheese was sweet and the dipping sauce was OVERLY sweet). The chicken wings were very bland, unseasoned and pale although they were fried to a crisp. They came with a sauce that was basically inedible because it had a strong molasses taste and texture. The portion of the pineapple fried rice was ENORMOUS; It was enough rice to feed about three people. The rice itself tasted old and semi uncooked which was disappointing because Thai food is known for its rice dishes. The flavor lacked the umami taste. The egg rolls were mediocre.

Overall, I would rate my experience at this establishment a 3/5. If you are a lover of savory, well-seasoned and fresh foods, I would not recommend eating here. A couple Thai food restaurants that I recommend and are worth a drive are Thai & More in New Brighton and, of course, Amazing Thailand in Uptown...

We've been longtime customers of this establishment (we're talking decades). It's always been good. But lately both the food and service has dropped off dramatically. We always order the squid pad Thai and cream cheese puffs. The last time we ordered, about two weeks ago, I put in an order by phone and repeated things more than once to make sure it was understood. I even gave two spiciness requests for our two pad thais. We only got one pad Thai and my boyfriend had to drive all the way back for another one. Why would I have given two different spiciness requests for only one pad Thai? I had to have said I wanted two orders at least three times. At least the take out container for both was filled and seemed like a fair amount.

Fast forward to today. My boyfriend ate inside the restaurant in the afternoon with several friends. Everyone arrived separately but ordered at the same time. My boyfriend had to wait 15 minutes after everyone got their meals for his to come out. Only it did not have any meat in it! He had to wait another 5-10 minutes to get his meal. Everyone was done eating by the time he got his food. Also they were barely checked on at all during the meal and the check was delivered without being separated and it was never offered to be separated. What restaurant does this?

My boyfriend ordered take out for me to bring home. To my chagrin, I opened the package and the take out container was barely over half full. At least two weeks ago the $16 order of pad Thai filled the container. Today it was pretty pathetic. Plus the oil tasted burnt/off and it was pretty gross. When you're paying $16 for pad Thai plus tax and tip, you expect a bit more for $20+.

Unfortunately, we won't be going back to this restaurant after they screwed up three times in a row now. This was our favorite pad Thai place in the whole twin cities and we traveled half an hour to get it regularly. I'm not sure what's happened to it but it's barely a shadow of what it used to be. So disappointing.

This trend of service workers just taking tips for granted despite doing bad jobs has to stop. We always tip well and they still got a tip but they didn't really deserve it did they? We wanted them to stay in business and are willing to tip but we've been fooled three times now and don't feel like taking a chance...

Loved this place. Since they repainted the place gray and had new staff...maybe new owner? Service was not as it used be. Messed up our order twice for pickup. The older crew double bags their takeouts and now with new staff they bagged it with a paper bag and stuffed it to the top to try to save using extra bags. The bag ripped right after I got to the exit door which was 20 min before closing time. The front staff tried to re-bag my food but it spilled out & apologized. He brought it back into their takeout station table and said, "We'll make you new ones." He used his hands and opened the Togo that has been dropped on the floor to check it. Chef came out with no face mask to look at the food and walked back in to the kitchen which was wide open. During that time I noticed the kitchen staff was not wearing any masks only the front two staff was. I'd wished they wore masks.. making my food or reboxing it but that wasn't the case. It seems like they were in a hurry to go home or maybe took off the masks & thought that I am their last customer and forgot to put back the mask on. I usually never complain but with how things are with 2020 you tend to notice more things and try to be careful as much as possible. I didn't complain to them or was upset when I was there waiting. I get it things happen and I am sure they are tired. The thing that got me to write this review was that I was disappointed that one of the Togo was the same box which was torned on the side. Also they reboxed the food and didn't make new ones as they promised. They gave me two bags now with double bag. Smh. It was my favorite Thai place and now... not so much. I gave two stars because they apologized but they glared me down like I intentionally dropped the food not the bag being ripped because it was too heavy for the paper bag. I ordered 3 soups, two pineapple fried rice with tofu, one papaya salad and sticky rice. I went home which was 25 min away and reheated the takeout just to be sure it's safe to eat. This was a loss for me because it was a place my family and I...