Top Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Castro Valley

Visited here for lunch the other day. You have to remember they open at 1130am (not 11am), like most restaurants do. Small, narrow seating with two sides open. I had their lunch special Pad Thai w/chicken ($11.50). It was served in a huge (high-sided) bowl. I could not finish it and I have a healthy appetite. Noodles were good/well cooked, lots of chicken pieces & tofu and although I asked for it hot, it was not that hot. Waitress gave me a hot chili tray, which you spice to taste. Most of the chilis in the tray were just OK, they didn't seem that fresh. The dish tasted above average and it was served piping hot (right out of the wok). Waitress was very friendly/nice, even though I had to ask her to fill my water glass 2x. I was the only one eating.

I gave 4 stars instead of 5 because this place is really just OK, nothing special. Decent, for Castro Valley (we have 2 Thai places). This place is about the same as the other one. Although, the other Thai place gives you/free, a salad and an iced tea as part of your meal (and they are slightly less expensive/by .50 cents per plate). You can't go wrong eating at either place.

I rate Thai places compared to "Sala Thai" in Fremont (which is my favorite, although my last visit there was "disappointing"). This place (like the other one in CV) is about a star below that location for the food and about the same for service. Try them both and see which one you prefer. It's a...

I’m going to echo the many bad reviews. I hate doing this to a small business but they seriously have to step it up.

The get 1 star because the lady that serves us was very sweet. I wish we would choose to go back just for that. But no.

We walked in with no hello or I’ll be there in a moment, nothing. Weird but ok. Then we finally get seated and the other lady just threw the menus on the table and left. No water or a greeting. Again strange. But if the reviews looked great then why not try. We really did try to like this place but their food had no taste like they forgot to add seasoning to everything we ordered. To be fair the pictures looked good so we assumed we’d be eating some flavorful thai food. Nope, a huge disappointment starting with the super dry and cheap jasmine rice. It’s not quality white rice. Yukk! Then the tasteless fried trout. What’s up with the no salt and pepper at the least! Then some watery or soup like sauce was offered with it which also had very minimal taste almost without salt too! The basil chicken with super rubbery chicken and again not seasoned enough. Like no soy sauce or anything salty. The pumpkin curry I requested with softer pumpkin but they just didn’t listen and served some hard pumpkin anyway. That was ok cause it was sweet. Then the noodles had giant unchopped Bokchoy and giant...

Definitely I'll come back for the coconut lemongrass soup, Tom Kha with shrimp. Been to so many places in Hayward and Castro Valley that just can't get this soup right , but Top Thai is DELICIOUS...super flavorful. It's on the thicker side not too thin just like I like it, creamy and yummy. Also the Pad See Ew, absolutely delicious. Oh my gosh the noodles are soft & chewy and yummy! sauce is amazing the beef was a tad chewy. I do have one complaint and that is the Pumpkin Curry was so thin it was more like soup and the Pumpkin itself was not cooked enough it also felt like it wasn't ripe enough it didn't have that slightly sweet flavor was more hard & chalky. It was also really small portion and the chicken was hard. Basically, we threw out the chicken. I saw that someone else complained about the chicken being tough. I'd say tenderize it in some way or used dark meat because it was not good. The shrimp were amazing the beef was okay I would get anything but chicken. But overall it was great in the atmosphere is really good the people are so sweet. Maybe they have an off day with that...