Buddha Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Jacksonville Beach

Buddha’s Belly A few weeks ago, my wife and I drove down 3rd St. in Jacksonville Beach looking for a late evening snack. We drove from Beach Blvd. to Atlantic Blvd. before turning around and coming back down 3rd St. Nothing really struck our fancy. On the way back down 3rd St., we saw a red sign on a building. My wife said, “I think that was a restaurant.” We made a U-turn and pulled into the parking lot of what we now know was Buddha’s Belly. It takes a keen eye to spot this little gem unless you use GPS. We arrived about 9:30 pm. We asked our waitress for recommendations and she suggested lettuce wraps. Lettuce wraps hold a special place in our heart, as we had them on one of our first dates almost 20 years ago. The lettuce wraps at Buddha’s were amazing. The other place was a chain, and we always enjoyed the lettuce wraps, but we’ll never go to that chain for them again. The peanut sauce at Buddha’s would make me consider taking on a second wife! We have since been back a number of times. I have to tell you, Buddha’s is always spotless, the lighting is low and nice music plays in the background. Sound does not echo through the restaurant like in some places, the staff all move like ghosts, and they are attentive and polite. The bathrooms are always clean and have a fresh scent. Hand towels and TP are both stocked. The doors in the men’s room are light and easy to move, even if you need a wheel chair or walker to get around I think this review shows how much we like Buddha’s Belly as a place, but let’s be real. You want to know about the food. We had a waitress named Noom twice now. Her knowledge of the food there is incredible. Not having had Thai food very often before, we had a lot of questions. Noom brought out sauces to taste, asked what we liked, noted my wife allergies, and went to the kitchen to make certain nothing would cause my wife trouble. The food KNOCKS MY SOCKS OFF! My wife had a yellow curry that was not too spicy, not too sweet, and had great texture. A week later, she is still talking about it. Their crab Rangoons are some of the best we’ve ever had. I’ve had a dish called Drunken Noodles three times now, once with shrimp, once with beef, and the last time with the seafood combo. I wouldn’t do the combo again, as I’m not a fan of squid //BLECH!//, but the dish was better than most Asian food I’ve had. I would give Buddha’s Belly 3 thumbs up if I had...

The Buddha Thai Bistro restaurant is near the back of a shopping center and would be easy to miss. The exterior is not ostentatious or even eye catching. But, for anyone who wants to experience a good Thai restaurant, taking the time to locate it is worth the trouble.

Of course, there are statues of the Buddha (see photos). That adds to the charm of the decor.

The tables are what one might expect in a restaurant that is in the business of providing good food more than an upscale dining experience.

On this occasion, I ordered a lunch special from the menu page entitled "Thai Lunch Box". I like Pad Thai very much and ordered this dish with duck. There was an extra $5.00 charge but the duck addition was unique. I had never seen it before in a number of places that serve pad thai.

The pad thai with the duck was good but I would probably opt for shrimp or chicken or a combination. The duck had fat on each piece that I sliced off and ended up with a fairly large pile of that on my plate. The effort was worth it as the duck was tasty but would not go to that trouble in the future.

The seafood stuffed salmon croquette was also very tasty. It is not like a regular piece of salmon served in a restaurant (hence, the name "croquette") so that may impact a decision to order this particular dish. The taste, with the variety of seafood included, also varies from a traditional American salmon dish.

There is an extensive menu available so there is something that will appeal to anyone that likes Thai food. The servings at dinner are more extensive and often more complex dishes.

There are also tea selections available and the hot green tea was very good.

Service was friendly and prompt.

Overall, this was a very favorable experience and, when in Jacksonville again, I would definitely consider returning—perhaps to try some of the other dishes such as the ribs on the dinner menu which...

My trip to Jacksonville was brought to you by Buddha Belly... I guess it's actually called Buddha Thai Bistro, but it will always be known as Buddha Belly to me.

We ordered takeout from here on July 3rd to gear up for the 4th festivities, as you got to go into the 4th with a full belly. The one regret was that we only ordered 1 of the drunken noodles and 1 Shu Mai Thai dumpling appetizer. I guess that's 2 regrets, but whatever.

The next day while sitting at Lemon Bar, 3 too many High Noons deep and a couple of Zyns tucked high and tight, I was fighting for my life. My big bro had his spidey senses tingle and said "should order Buddha Belly again and ride the bikes back to the house so it gets there at the same time…?"

This idea was up there with fighting a war for our Independence over a 3% stamp tax 248 years ago. What better to celebrate our independence from Tyranny? Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

He proceeds to order $220 worth of Buddha Belly, and it gets there 2 minutes after we finished the bike ride home. God is the perfect planner.

In total, we got 5 orders of Chicken Curry Puffs, 4 orders of Shu Mai Dumplings, 2 Pad Thais, 2 Drunken Noodles, and a Curry. All of that for 5 people lol. We learned from our mistakes. Fool me once...

The Drunken noodles were head and shoulders the MVP. It seems Pad Thai gets more love than Drunken Noodles in general, and I don't know why. It's oddly similar to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

We WAY over-ordered, but ended up having the leftovers for lunch the next day. So in total, I had 3 Buddha belly meals in a 2 day span and I wasn't even mad...

Ig @jnov_ Tiktok...