8thai restaurant — Restaurant in Cranford

I rarely write negative or even lukewarm reviews, but I'm writing this so that hopefully it reaches the owner and/or cooks at 8Thai. Thai food has become my favorite cuisine in recent years, so I definitely have solid basis for my opinions, though I have never been to Thailand (at least not yet).

Having grown up in Cranford, I was very excited to try this place, but I was unimpressed, to say the least. I ordered the Rama Jumbo Shrimp, which was prepared nicely, only it included a mere (4) shrimp, which seemed outrageous for a $21.95 entrée. More importantly, the flavor was beyond bland. The red curry peanut sauce was hardly present, like literally maybe only a tablespoon-full or two, max, spread out over both the shrimp and the vegetables. The sauce had almost no flavor, but there was so little of it that I really couldn't say for sure. Certainly not enough to spread over any rice. Come on, 8Thai! This is supposed to be a curry dish, and it should be swamped in the curry peanut sauce, not lightly drizzled with it. Giving 2/5 stars for this dish would be generous.

I also had the Tri Mushroom Soup, which I admit was tasty, but my overall experience made me wonder whether the chicken broth wasn't just some boxed or canned stuff. My sister and mother had the Tom Yum soup, however, and my sister was straight pisssssed that there literally was not one iota of spice to it, not only shred or hot pepper, nothing. To be fair, I requested one soup to be spicey (for my sister) and one to be mild (for my mother) and maybe the cook botched those instructions, but hey, that's why I'm writing this review. Tom Yum should be spicey!

Lastly, I split the Country Stir Fried Noodles with my father, and we were both unimpressed. The noodles were not cooked with very much care, which could be seen in the fact that many were still stuck together and were straight white when pulled apart, with no sauce or flavoring having penetrated them. Moreover, and this is extremely important... stir fried noodles should have a nice bit of char on the noodles which immeasurably adds to the flavors, but not so here, not at all, not one little bit. Again, just blah. And that's not something one should ever say about Thai food.

More shrimp! More sauce! More spice! And, most...

It's our first time to eat here and we came in early. There was ample seating and the staff sat us against the side wall next to what looks like a table set for a large party which has not arrived yet. The atmosphere was nice but a little dim. We instantly noticed the bright neon pink sign on the wall with a somewhat funny phrase. And it looks like someone already posted a picture of it. We chatted and perused through the multi-page menu. The wait staff came by and asked if we were ready. We asked for a few minutes since we were busy catching up. But not long, the wait staff came by again to ask if we were ready. I had to politely say "no" and to give us 2 more minutes.

Upon the wait staff's return, we ordered 2 appetizers, the mummy shrimps (3 pieces only) and the crispy spring rolls (6 pieces). We noticed that the price of the appetizers were a bit on the high side and the portions were small compared to what they cost. As for taste & flavor, I guess without the accompanying sauces, they were a bit bland.

For the main course, we ordered 3 noodle dishes: chicken pad Thai, Pad See Ew, and the beef Pad Woosen. The portions were fitting for their prices. I started with the beef Pad Woosen. The flavor was nice and had plenty of veggies to complement the dish. But the beef was a bit overcooked and hard to chew. And the glass noodles were undercooked and were chewy. Next was the Pad See Ew. It was good. So was the Pad Thai.

For dessert, we shared a fried banana with ice cream. It was nice.

After dinner, we walked around the area.

We will come back again to sample the other...

8Thai was good when it first opened. However, I came back multiple times afterwards and decided I will not be ordering again since there is a better Thai restaurant in town that gives more for your money and is more authentic. The only upside about this restaurant is that it looks nice.

The pad thai was dry and not flavorful. I was so disappointed because I was craving pad Thai all day and it was one of the worst pad Thais I’ve ever eaten when I ordered. You’d expect the pad Thai from a Thai restaurant to be better than a Chinese takeout restaurant, but it is not. In the summer time I remember it being good, but since then, it is subpar.

I ordered again another time, trying something else. The pad see ew unfortunately was not better. The sauce is tastes like fake maple syrup mixed with soy sauce. This is not restaurant level food. It tastes like I tried to make the sauce at home with La Choy and Aunt Jemima. Very inauthentic ingredients.

Lastly, it’s expensive. For example, you will only get 3 curry puffs instead of 4 for 10 dollars.

The restaurant looks nice and it’s BYOB, but the food is not really good. Anyone who reviewed recently and said the food was good must not know what good Thai is or got a different chef. I can only speak for noodles. Maybe they make pickup orders at a lower quality than if you sit in. Not sure, but I won’t be...