Ubon Thai Kitchen & Gifts - Eugene, OR — Restaurant in Eugene

Last Friday evening my wife and I arrived at the Ubon Thai restaurant ready to enjoy an insurmountably Thai feast, as the restaurant offers “the best Thai in Eugene.”

As we walked to the counter to inquire about seating, we were told we would have to wait 30 minutes for our food, as a particularly large party had already been seated before us, to which we acquiesced.

We placed our orders. Having travelled around Asia, we are no strangers to “curry”. But what I hadn’t ever tried there was a medley of Indian and SE Asian curry styles called “massaman” the flavors of which come from spices that are not frequently used in other Thai curries e.g. cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, star anise…". My wife ordered the Jungle Noodle, which is meant to present the flavors of a jungle-style curry, even though in my experience it is prepared with banana flowers and ratan. Ubon Thai, however, attempts to mimic the latter with bamboo chutes.

The dishes were brought to our table after no less than five minutes, letting us know that they took already prepared food from another place, most likely substituting similar dishes and not expecting us to notice.

What we received barely complied with what was described on the menu. They call the dish Mussamun curry apparently in order to trick people into thinking it is, but IT IS NOT. The flavor of what I received was a red-pepper spicy coconut onion curry. None of the typically Indian flavors were actually represented, the onion flavor was overpowering, and the curry was watery. The meat I ordered was beef, and the amount I got was less than what’s in a McDonald’s hamburger.

What my wife ordered we both have eaten trekking in the jungles of Laos. It’s a simple, but beautiful flavor combo. What we got from Ubon Thai was Chinesefood-style vegetable stirfry, and even that was sub-par. The broccoli wasn’t done, but the other flavors, if there were any, had been fried out of the mix so that the only thing noticeable on the palate was pineapple.

BEWARE!!! There is a huge disconnect between how these dishes are commonly prepared and how they are prepared at Ubon Thai. What is more, there is a similar disconnect between how spicy something can be, and how spicy it should be. This restaurant proposes you choose between spice levels. Without going into detail, we were told 3 was medium, 2 was mild. That would lead a logical man to believe that mild would be spicy you could sense, and medium would be pretty hot, but surely nothing compared to spicy, or even very-spicy, or the final choice: extra-spicy.

I can’t be sure why I went to the hospital. I’ve never had trouble with spicy food like this before, and as far as my health in general goes, well I haven’t been to hospital since I broke my arms as a kid. What I do know, though, is that I couldn’t finish my food. My stomach started hurting. We left, and I writhed in pain for a few hours until I had to throw up. The vomit was so spicy that it burned a scab onto my right tonsil. I thought it was over, but I had burning pains in my chest the next day. By Sunday, I had to go to the hospital. I was put on an IV and given anti-nausea medicine, and then made to drink some horrible, thick tooth-paste-like goop that had lidocaine in it in order to calm my insides.

That was almost a week ago, and today was the first day I felt well. I won’t be able to continue exercising, nor drink caffeine, alcohol, or spicy foods for at least another week. I don’t know what exactly happened because after further investigation on the internet my wife discovered this restaurant has a history of chlorine residue on dishes. The reaction I had was partially from spiciness, but my wife also became sickened to her stomach and felt generally ill for several days. When she went to tell the owner about this, he laughed in her face and called her a liar. I guess we get to foot the 45 dollar bill from Ubon Thai for food that made us sick, as well as the hospital bill for having to go to the Emergency Room...

Yesterday 10.17.21, at 5pm, my wife stated she would like to have some Thai food for dinner. We have not eaten any Thai food since Charlie and his wife sold their cart 1 1/2 years ago. So, my wife said she had heard that UBon was OK. She went online to order 3 different dishes. Price stated was $9.00 each. When she picked up the order it was $12.00 each. Hmmmmm. My order was for Pad Thai with #4. After a 10 mile drive she got home, we opened our meals, she had asked for yakisoba on each dish, no . Lets focus on my dish as thats where I got Food Poisoning. I opened my dish, it smelled good, I first tried a shrimp , the sauce tasted good, however, the shrimp was tough, I could barely chew it, I could tell the shrimp was freezer burnt. I spit it out, I tried another , (4), same thing. Things only get worse. My veggies were not even cooked. My dish was the WORST I have EVER had. I threw mine in the garbage because thats what it was. Now my wife and her friends food was OK, (it was a different dish). It only gets worse. I went to bed at 9pm. I awoke at 12pm with SEVERE stomach cramping, SEVERE diarrhea. Terrible stomach cramping bending me over at times. On and off the toilet 2-4 times an hour from 12pm until 7am. I slept until noon today and it looks like it has passed. I tried calling the restaurant but the female owner is not answering. No email contact. I will never eat there again, Bar None, and I will spread my experience to thousands of people. My wife works for the Lane County Sheriffs Dept. and she will spread the word there, BEWARE. I write opinion columns for various publications, I will spread the word to thousands, BEWARE.

10/19 update: I called the Lane County Health Dept. and spoke to a food inspector. They took my report and said they would do an inspection | Symptoms: Nausea,...

This was my first experience here. The parking is ample, the decor is wonderful, the hostess is nice, friendly and efficient. When trying a new place I usually order what is considered "street" food as every cook/chef should be able to turn out fantastic food on auto-pilot. So, I ordered chicken pad thai, chicken satay, and crisp spring rolls. I didn't wait long. The hostess served me a plate with the two sides and the quantity was ample and appearance was good. The chicken satay wasn't marinated so it lacked flavor. It also didn't appear to be cooked to completely done. The spring rolls looked over-cooked but they were good sized and hot. They were also mainly red cabbage and greasy. A heaping plate of chicken pad thai arrived and It looked to be boiled noodles in gray gravy. [Pad thai is a stir fried dish usually with tamarind which gives is a reddish color] I almost sent the dish back then, but I wanted to give it a fair tasting. A complete disappointment. Others eating there said it was the best pad thai they'd ever had. Maybe for them it was. But many in this area will remember Mekala's which excelled with all their dishes, Ring of Fire which was also very good, Manola's which became a consistent go-to fir comfort food and hosting friends, and several other places to serve the area. I think Eugene deserves great food. My quest continues but not at...