Thai Elephant — Restaurant in Kennewick

A friend invited me here for lunch. I've driven by here many, many times never even noticing it. What a shame that was because for the first time I tried Thai iced coffee. I'm in love. It is the best thing I've ever drank. I wish I could drink a few daily until I'm sick of them lol. WOW! WOW! WOW! The food we ordered doesn't even register with my taste buds after tasting the coffee. But here it goes. We ordered and shared the eggplant lovers stir fry and the pad Thai, started off with "egg rolls", which I say is wrong. They were more like spring rolls. Looked nothing like an egg roll. Even tasted more like a spring rolls. BUT. They were the second best thing with the coffee first. When I see "Lovers" at the end of a menu item, like "Meat Lovers" I assume that means there's a lot of whatever the "Lovers" is right, don't you as well? So we get the "Eggplant LOVERS" stir fry. We had to actively look to see if there was even a few slices of eggplant, far, FAR from LOVER status. Disappointing and misleading. The pad Thai was not very memorable. Bland and lacked vegetables , mostly ...hardly nothing. The taste and even the color was not traditional Pad Thai. White rice was dry with hard pieces. I let my friend take home what was left which was enough for two more meals. Once I got home I was very thirsty and drank a lot of water which tells me the food has MSG and too much salt. I eat one meal a day and am disappointed todays one meal was here. I will stop by for the Thai iced coffee tho. My friend btw enjoyed her meal and loved the black rice pudding. The servers were very courteous and efficient and the restaurant looked clean. I would recommend for those who are easy to feed. I am on the picky side. I would not turn down another invite to dine here but I'd be sure to tell them to hold the salt and msg and I'd spend more time looking at the food choices. I am willing to try again because they do have a lot of...

See the picture? I dug out nearly all meat. THAT is all we got! ALL 5 dishes we ordered were the same. Hopefully you didn't work out before eating, needing some protein! Boooooooooo.

This review is for THIS visit. Never reviewed them before. We have eaten takeout from here at least 50+ times in the last 5 years. We order from them probably once a month. The reason for the 2 stars? This place is WILDLY inconsistent.

The Pros?

The flavors and spice are ALWAYS delicious and on-point. Owner is always nice, friendly. For people who are not big on curry or spices, the yakisoba is delicious and a winner. And the curries are mouth-watering. Especially the red curry with 2 or 3 star spice... it has some kick!

The Cons?

One week you go there and your takeout box is absolutely filled and plentiful, with yakisoba to the brim. The next week or month, you get home and go, "WTH??" Because you're getting half the amount you did last trip.

EVERY dish is the same way. Yakisoba is always a coin-toss... we have gotten it loaded with cabbage and veggies, then next time ordered it was almost just noodles.

Example... Last time we ordered a few weeks ago? Perfection. Then on the flip side, yesterday my wife picked up, and when she got home I loaded up my plate. The curry we ordered yesterday was delicious in terms of sauce and seasoning. However, I was astonished at how small an amount of steak was in one dish and chicken in the other! I felt completely ripped off.

They served it like there was a national meat shortage. They charge WAY too much for this type of inconsistency. If they could just get consistency issues worked out, they would be 1 of the best places in the Tricities. As for us?

We' are going to start trying new Thai places for the 1st time. We just can't justify this as our go-to Thai place any more, when we don't know if we're getting "Good That Elephant" or "Bad...

December 27, 2021 Update We returned!!! You know I love a Thai place’s noodles when I order an entire dish of it. Tried the Drunken Noodles with Fried Tofu and absolutely loved it. Noodles and fried tofu are fantastic here. Also, I like that their dishes have huga bit of veggies s. And the overall price is really good compared to others we visited during our WA-OR-CA road trip.

(Google is tripping out. Will have to correct some words when I get home. Huga = quite.)

December 7, 2021 Update I had Tom Yum at a Thai restaurant in California and I had to update this review that between the two, Thai Elephant nailed it on the fried tofu in my soup.

December 6, 2021 Perfect lunch spot stop on our winter road trip. Friendly staff. Nice ambiance to the restaurant. Clean bathrooms. And the food was delicious!

We started with a pot sticker appetizer. Excellent decision. Devoured it. I had Tom Yum soup with tofu at a level 2 spicy and apparently I’ve become a wuss over the years cause 2 was plenty spicy for me (4 is max here). I liked the mushrooms and tomatoes and the fried tofu was perfect. Husband had the Pad See Ew with chicken and also received thumbs up. Noodles, I tried and they were yummy.

Definitely would be back here again on our future trips...