Jasmine’s Thai Café — Restaurant in Bastrop

There aren’t a whole lot of Thai restaurants here in Bastrop. (Only two that I know of) and this is the 2nd of the two that my girlfriend and I tried.

We entered the restaurant expecting a typical Friday night crowd to be greeted by a quiet restaurant with one table of two already enjoying their food.

We quickly sat at our table and the hostess / server / cashier promptly brought us water. We ordered 2 spring rolls to start.

The spring rolls were perfectly fried on the outside, however the center of them were cool. We didn’t notify our server simply because we were so hungry. The flavor is there, just needs to be fried a bit longer. The sauce that came with them (sweet plum?) was very unique and different than the every day sweet and sour sauce you typically get at other places.

I had ordered the grilled combo ($16). 2 pieces of chicken breasts that come with the honey ginger lime sauce and lemongrass sauce.

The chicken was 1 split breast (more than enough food for 1 person). The sauces were out of this world, absolutely delicious, however, the accompaniments of steamed (or maybe boiled) broccoli and rice were just mediocre and the portion you get just wasn’t worth the $16 price tag, in my opinion.

My girlfriend ordered the pho squared. She really enjoyed the broth, but again, the value of the potion did not meet the size of the dish.

I feel like this place needs a few minor upgrades.

Some ambient music would be simple enough for starters. It almost felt as though my girlfriend and I needed to whisper.

Paper towels for napkins seem cheap and make the place seem cheap. Upgrade to better restaurant quality napkins.

Some better wall decor. I really like the Bangkok to Bastrop logo / theme. Maybe some photos of Thailand. The fans also seem somewhat cheap.

A partition between the “library” section and the restaurant. It’s a lovely idea, just an odd sight. The owner is obviously a chess fan, but that could be partitioned as well.

Lighting - the place was really bright, set the mood a little. Tea lights on the table (even electronic ones) would be a easy nice touch.

These are all pretty affordable, easily upgradable items.

In the longer run, I’d really like to see new chairs and tables.

The food is good and the place has potential, but it just seems like a cheap hole-in-the wall with upscale prices. Hope to see changes...

I was wanting to try some Thai, and I’d never been here before so I decided to try it out. I’m rating it 5-stars based on the food quality, which was outstanding. The place itself isn’t anything special.

We visited during a slow period, maybe around 3pm on a weekday. We were the only customers, which is usually a red flag for me, but I was committed to trying it out.

It’s an old building and isn’t very fancy at all. It seemed clean, if a bit outdated. The dining area also doubles as what appears to be an office for the owner who sits at a desk looking over the dining area. It’s a bit unsettling, since where we sat it seemed that the man behind the desk was looking at me the whole time. His computer screen was directly in line with me, so I’m sure that he was just watching his monitor. There are also bookshelves loaded up, so you might find something interesting to read while you dine.

We ordered two appetizers. Spring rolls and “stingrays”. It’s funny that the menu says, “fried to perfection” which usually wouldn’t mean much, but in this case, they were indeed fried to perfection. They looked and tasted amazing, perfectly fried and very crispy.

I ordered Pad Thai, and my wife ordered the Orange Coconut Shrimp. My wife also saw the Cranberry Fried Rice and wanted to try it, so we ordered that as a “side”.

My Pad Thai (with pork) was piping hot and delicious. The fried rice was some of the best fried rice that I’ve ever had. My wife was a little disappointed with the shrimp, which looked more like shrimp cakes of some type instead of a traditional fried shrimp, but she said that they tasted good.

Our original server ended their shift after we got our appetizer, so our meals were brought to us by the chef, who I assume is the wife in a husband-wife operation maybe? I hope the server got the tip we left, because they were very friendly and attentive. The gentleman behind the desk served our bill at the end of the meal and chatted with us for a bit, so he was friendly after all.

My food was so good that I’ll definitely be returning because there are other things on the menu that I...

I was wanting some sort of Asian food and that’s tough to find in Bastrop. Jasmine’s came up as “near me”. Finding anything online about Jasmine’s is tough. There was very little info and very few pictures of what the food and portions looked like. There are several different versions of the menu and everything I found came from customers or cell phone pictures. I couldn’t find a website. There was only a Facebook page which looked a little dated. I called in an order around 4pm and the gentleman that took the order was very nice. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken, orange chicken and the grill combo. My total was $35. I went to pick up my order and the restaurant was empty. The food had a good flavor. It all came with a side of steamed white rice. The meals were each hot to warm which was nice. The portions were small. Especially the grilled combo. 2 small chicken breasts with 4 pieces of steamed broccoli. The other meals were swimming in sauce. Again, the sauce and food had a great taste but the amount of sauce was a bit much. They didn’t have any take out menus to put in the bag. So I couldn’t leave the menu at work to refer them to others. I feel like if they would put some time into their brand awareness, social media and a website they could be busier. Even after eating there I still feel like I don’t know anything about their food or brand. Economically, I wouldn’t recommend Jasmine’s for a large family (it’s a bit pricey for the portion). But if you’re on a date night or lunch break - I would recommend you all try Jasmine’s at least once if you live in Bastrop. In my opinion, it’s not a must have or destination location but the food did have a...