Clifton Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Clifton

UPDATE - Oct 18, 2024

North Jersey restaurants, especially present, have many cuisine varieties, mixing ethnicities, food regions, and cultures. Clifton can brag on a number of delicious Asian restaurants offering everything from traditional staples to contemporary fusion.

Located on a busy Parker Avenue, I’ve been coming to Clifton Thai for years and stopped today for lunch. The vibe was welcoming and relaxed. It was a special treat to see both owners and their daughter after 2 years. Greeted by Tony of the husband/wife duo team, who takes the time to get to know the regular customers, I was seated immediately by the window.

With the brisk temperatures, I started out with the chicken dumpling soup consommé, which consisted of a Clear Broth Soup, Cellophane Noodles, Scallions, and Napa. My main meal was Pad See-Ew with Tofu from their lunch menu with a soda. During my meal, the other owner, Jib (pronounced: yeep), dropped by with their 10-month-old daughter to catch up.

The food has the perfect texture, which remains tastefully delicious and authentic using the freshest ingredients. The service was spot on and the price very reasonable. One can't go wrong here if you want to try good Thai food, which I continue to recommend. ———————— UPDATE - Jul 5, 2023 This establishment is easily the best Thai food I've ever had in Clifton. Located off of Parker Avenue, Clifton Thai is a small, cozy restaurant tucked between other stores, but the food inside is top-notch, which is why I came for lunch. It is run by a husband-and-wife team. Upon entering, the interior was decked out for a gender reveal party, which the owners are expecting in December. Congrats, Tony and Jib (pronounced: yeep). Their menu offered all sorts of Thai items that would delight vegans and vegetarians, which they customized based on your preferences. My server was Juan, who was friendly and accommodating. I ordered off of their lunch menu and got the Pad See-Ew (Sauteed Flat Rice noodles with Thai Broccoli and Egg In Sweet Soy Sauce) with Thai ice tea. The flavors are bold, and the ingredients are fresh! The quality of the food is consistent, with good-sized portions at a very reasonable price. The staff is very friendly and accommodating. Overall, I am still very satisfied and will go back and recommend it to others to try. ————————————— Today’s lunch brings us to my favorite family owned Thai 🇹🇭 establishment outside of Bergen county. I’ve been coming to Clifton Thai located on Parker Avenue for many years and didn’t disappoint. Upon arrival after two years for inside dining at this cozy restaurant, I was greeted and welcomed by one of the owners, Jib. Reservation is highly recommended for dinner and on weekends. The menu features a wide range of Thai dishes with meat or vegetarian options. My server was Juan who’s friendly. As an appetizer, I wanted to try out their Thai Empanadas (potato, chicken, onion , curry powder) with a house dipping sauce. For the main dish, I ordered the lunch special Chicken Pad See-Ew (Sautéed Flat Rice Noodles Thai Broccoli & Egg In Sweet Soy Sauce) included a soda. The empanadas came out hot and amazingly tasty as the curry wasn’t too strong. The Pad See-Ew was flavorful and the right serve portion. Although the place is small, they make it up on the tasty food remaining consistent with the excellent customer service and ambiance. I continue to...

Decided to order pick up on the way home one Tuesday night at around 6:30, since we hadn’t had Thai food in a while, and this place had great reviews.

Here is everything we ordered:

Fish cake - I really liked the flavor of the fish cake but if you don’t like lemongrass, you won’t like this. There is a TON of lemongrass in there. I also wasn’t a fan of the texture. I feel like it was over-fried, so the consistency was very spongy

Chicken satay - chicken was a bit dry because they use chicken breast instead of thigh. The peanut dipping sauce might have helped but unfortunately, it did not survive the 30 minute car ride back since it spilled all over everything. I was looking for a beef satay, but they didn’t have that on the menu

Drunken Noodles - I loved this. I like how you can select your spice level (1 not spicy to 10 very spicy). I did a 3 just to be safe but it was too mild. I think they just use Thai chili flakes as the spicy flavor, instead of chili peppers - which I would have preferred. But not a deal breaker. The noodles were perfect, even after a stint in the microwave. I also like how there were so many proteins to choose from instead of the typical chicken, beef, and shrimp. I went with meatballs. I was hoping they’d be Thai pork meatballs, or something along those lines but I’m pretty sure they were just frozen meatballs from BJ’s (which I actually like, by the way but it was just an odd combo here)

Land Thai Fried Rice - this had egg, pork, chicken and Thai sausage. I thought it would be more like Isaan sausage, but they tasted more like lop churng. We got a spice level 6 for this one, which definitely had a bit more of a kick than the noodles, but it was still pretty mild to me. Overall, it was good but I don’t know if it was $15 good

For drinks, we couldn’t choose since there were so many options so we went with the Thai iced tea, green tea Thai iced tea, and butterfly pea tea w/condensed milk. Thai iced tea was too sweet, as was the green tea. The green tea tasted pretty similar to the butterfly pea tea, which wasn’t as strong/sweet so we ended up mixing the two together and it turned out great.

I would probably come back just for the drinks and the noodles. Need to try the pad...

i ordered via doordash If you’re thinking of thai food for din tonight, stop your search now because youve found the BEST in the area! 🖤 service, food, special requests, packaging of the food correctly (if you order takeout/delivery), this place was a home run. Im a 1st time customer, I never write reviews but I was so beyond impressed with my entire 1st experience that I felt compelled to review —

To start, my order arrived from doordash super late (to no fault of the restaurant), yet when I opened up the food everything was fresh and still steaming hot which was so nice :) I ordered level-7-spicy Vegetable Drunken Noodles [which came double-wrapped to avoid spillage - thank you!] it was totally spicy but not insane, the vegetables were fresh and delicious, and the price was absolutely reasonable, the portion was big. overall, i’m still raving… it was so f’in good :,) Also ordered steamed chicken dumplings that came with garlic soy sauce — 5 dumplings came in the order, but they were quiet large! definitely bigger than ‘standard’, (they look like maybe the size if you put 2 small dumplings together). the sauce was delicious (tangy and sweet a bit — the filling was i thiiink minced chicken, minced seasoned veggies, and garlic and the dumplings themselves were topped with what i believe was toasted garlic which was yum and a nice / different textural experience when you think of eating dumplings. AND HERES WHAT SOLD ME: in my note on doordash i asked the restaurant for an extra side cup of chili saw and THEY DID and put the sauce in a plastic baggie to avoid spilling. i’m so used to 1) terrible doordash orders, and 2) the food being cold, incorrect, or disappointing but i was blown away. truly blown away. wish i took photos! everything was amazing, can’t wait to stop into the restaurant in person to have dinner. Thank you guys! Now that’s how you land a new...