Emerald II Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Federal Way

It's always very unfortunate to write a low review for a place but I must be honest with my recent visit to Emerald II Thai Cuisine, especially as someone who loves Thai food. I have had Emerald II Thai Cuisine on my bookmarks for quite some time which is when it was under a different owner but we just never had the chance to try it as we had closer Thai options. However, after we watched a movie and we were thinking of what to eat, I wanted to try out Emerald II Thai Cuisine as I saw that they uploaded their menu and were under new management.

When we arrived, it was only us around 2pm and we were greeted by our server who let us pick where we wanted to sit. Now here is where one of the red flags came up: there were ants on our table. I know we picked the table but I find it highly concerning that ants were on the table and when I killed one in a napkin then put it to the side, and when the waitress came back to take our order she had asked what that was. When I told her that it was an ant, she looked completely unfazed and more confused then anything. After I saw the second ant, we asked to move to a different table which she allowed us to do so. We ordered the pad kee mao lunch special with Sprite while my boyfriend got the fried pork belly lunch special with Thai iced coffee ($3 more).

The other red flag is the waitress we had who looked young was kind of awkward and definitely was either new or had trouble being a waitress. She gave no real service and when we asked her questions, she didn't really answer the question well. When she did check up on us, it was very awkward and like she was forced to do it? She even walks away very stiffly too. Now it seems I'm being harsh but she was just fine talking to her co-worker in Thai the whole time we were there. But it doesn't seem like she has a language barrier either.

Now for the food which also was a red flag. My boyfriend's pork belly dish only came with a few pieces of pork belly while most of the plate was covered but vegetables, which we didn't know it had. Now I had pad kee mao the other day and their pad kee mao was SO salty that I had to keep sipping my drink. I do not like my food super salty and this had to be the most Americanized Thai food that I had ever had in my life as it was just salt. I asked for it to be 4 stars spicy but I feel like it was 4x salty. It wasn't spicy at all, just extremely salty. I also noticed some poorly or lazily cut vegetables throughout my meal, which was weird as I have never seen this type of cuts in my life.

The final red flag and the one that irked me was that they charge you a $1 for a refill of your soda for lunch. Now, that's fine and I finished my drink at the end of the meal as I didn't want a refill. The waitress comes to drop off our check and asks if I wanted a refill. I told her no as we were going to be leaving anyways and she looked shocked when I said that. I was confused by her reaction but just figured she was expecting me to ask for a refill. However, when we saw our check, they did charge us for a refill which is ridiculous. Unfortunately, my boyfriend did not check the check and once we finished paying, I saw the $1 additional charge as we drove away. It's just a $1 so it wasn't worth driving back to dispute it over but just a heads up to always check your receipts before paying as you never know what businesses will do. Extremely disappointed by these shady business practices and we will not be returning.

I feel as though the people working here are new to the restaurant industry and I sincerely hope that they make improvements as this was one of the worst Thai dine in experiences I have ever had. I feel that they are genuinely trying but ensuring their restaurant is clean, employees are professional, and food should be tasted and prepared well before handing it...

We recently celebrated a birthday here. The restaurant is very clean with an ambient atmosphere. They have a very extensive Thai menu with many common Thai dishes along with many Thai dishes I have not seen elsewhere. I was boring and went for the tried and true Phad Thai with shrimp spring rolls. The Phad Thai was some of the best I have had. Lots of chicken and noodles, a large portion of crushed peanuts and bean sprouts. I mixed it all together and savored every bite while cleaning my plate. The shrimp spring rolls were also great. My wife had peppered chicken with vegetables in a light but rich sauce. Every main dish was garnished with a beautiful flower made from a carrot! This restaurant is family run and the service was impeccable. They gave us a complimentary mini choclate lava cake and a sweet sticky rice with a rich sweet sauce. It was garnished with sliced mango. It was an excellent dinner and all the prices were less than you would find anywhere else. This restaurant is highly recommended and I will...

Oh my godddd. Best. Chicken. Pad. Thai. EVER. We discovered this place about 12 years ago - my father in law introduced us to it, and I will be forever grateful! Their food is delicious! It's a nice little place if you want to eat in the restaurant, we've done that a few times, but typically we just order take out. Their portions are good sized, and reasonably priced, and the owners are so incredibly nice!

What I love most about them, though, is that they usually are so fast! Unless there's a big order in front of ours, they have our food ready in 10 minutes or less! And, seriously, their chicken pad Thai is LIFE. I love it and have been ordering it for years, and now my 11 year old daughter is obsessed with it too lol. We just picked some up yesterday and together we devoured the whole thing in 15...