Nan Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Herndon

I have traveled to four of the seven continents (not to brag, but I did) and will only eat the local foods there. Nan Thai never fails to deliver an excellent dish! It's my first thought whenever someone says "Thai". The atmosphere is chill, with good music. The staff is excellent! They have never messed up an order of mine. I admit I've been ordering to-go more than I do sit inside, but even still every delivery has been utterly scrumptious!!! And they never forget the chili powder or peppers when I ask!

My tips if you are new to Thai/Nan Thai: *Taste the food before you start putting a lot of "extra seasoning/sauce" on it. *If you must add extra, add a little at a time, cause a little goes a long way for someone not used to the internal fire that 'Thai Spicy' can rage. My blood type is Hot Sauce, so I love a good bowl of Thai hot food! *Fish Sauce is salty. I love it, but have to be careful of the amount because of my blood pressure. Do not dump fish sauce onto your food. *Don't drink water until the end. If you have it too spicy, I recommend a Thai tea. The creamy dairy will quench that flame on your tongue. Plus Thai tea is sweet and delicious. Thai tea (or any sweet drink) will "cut" the salty flavor better than water will. Even pineapple will cut salty taste better than water. Water is for after the meal, in my opinion.

Let me explain my photos: The drink is the Butterfly Lemonade. This is a very sweet and delicious drink! I loved it and it's pretty! The second photo is Drunken Lo Mein. I usually get the Kee Mao Drunken Noodles because I adore noodles and the original are wide and flat. However, using the lo mein noodles doesn't take away from the deliciousness. I felt like I had even more noodles than ever! It was a Noodle-plosion! Now that last picture will be the end of me. I love soft shell crabs more than anything I've ever eaten. While I love the Korean mayak crab more, Nan Thai's softshell crab is my buddy. I just wish they came in King Crab size!

Thank you, Nan Thai! I have always...

This place used to be our favorite Thai place in Fairfax but after our last visit, it quickly became somewhere we will never visit again. After enjoying our delicious pad thai and cashew pork we asked for the check and we're surprised by the total. A 20% tip had been added without our prior knowledge and upon consulting the menu we only noticed a mandatory gratuity for parties larger than 6. We asked our waitress why a 20% tip was added and she explained that because after our last visit we did not tip she added it for us. I told her that a tip is not a requirement at any restaurant and it was a reflection of our opinion of the service. I then asked for the manager and when she came she told us the same thing. I explained the same point about a tip never being required and told her that I would have tipped had they not pulled this on us. She said that she would then remove it if we tipped and I informed her that I would not tip after this happened but she still needed to remove the tip they added. She then told me how they only pay the waiters $3/hrs and the tips were how they made money. I informed her that a tip is never required and that it is not my responsibility to pay the employees. I told her if she didn't remove the tip I would contact the police and she told me to go ahead. Upon contacting the non emergency line she immediately provided a check without the added tip and I informed the police I no longer needed their assistance. She then proceeded to sarcastically say have a wonderful day. At the end of the day I strongly recommend nobody give their business to this location because of this...

Another Nova Thai flop for the books:

It was a beautiful day for a date with my wife. It's like unwinding after a long week at work. This restaurant is conveniently located near an AMC theater, making it a nice choice for a quick snack before or after a movie. That's exactly what we did.

My personal experience with Thai food in Northern Virginia has been mediocre at best. And this eatery did not disappoint us. All of the dishes we ordered seemed to have a lot of brown sugar or teriyaki sauce in them. We requested level 4 of their spicy scale, which ranged from 1 to 5, with 5 being the hottest. Our dinner was as sugary as McDonald's soft serve ice cream.

If that's one of their hottest items, I can't imagine what their mild food tastes like. I'm not sure why they bother asking what level of spice I want if they're just going to smother the food in sugar. Isn't it normal to ask for spicy and get it?

We split the zebb wings and basil bomb. Wings were not bad. However, Basil Bomb was a huge letdown. We didn't like the combination of chewy squid, dry-ish shrimp, and strange sauce. It was supposed to come with fish, but none were found. On the plate, our fishing method was unsuccessful!

There was a lot of Basil leaf, as the name suggests, but for some strange reason, we didn't smell it much. You should be able to smell it from miles away based on the amount of Basil leaf on the item, but sitting 1 ft away from it, we failed; or rather, the item failed us.

Perhaps the food is suitable for Caucasian tongues, but not for those from Eastern Asia. Another flop...