Paula's Thai Kitchen — Restaurant in Lake View Township

As a Thai, I think this place is underrated. I kind of understand that their food can be too strange of you never try local Thai dishes besides pad thai before.

I brought korean and dutch friends there. We ordered papaya salad with crispy pork, tom yam hotpot seafood, grilled squid, and blue crab spicy salad. The korean was very happy because our cuisines are similar. The dutch was confused even he was in thailand before because he was only at tourist spots and ordered only padthai. So no wonders why the score is lower than it supposed to be.

I love every dishes we ordered. The blue crab spicy salad is difficult to find in Europe ( I moved to the Netherlands), so I was so happy when I saw it in the menu and they nailed it 5/5. Papaya salad was delicious; my dutch friend loved it 5/5. Tom yam seafood is more like poh tak(โป๊ะแตก) that put holy basil in it, good for cold days 5/5. The squid is a bit chewy tho, perhaps we should have eat it right away when served 4/5. Btw, it can be very spicy that you need to specify the level of your spicy tolerant. I asked two chillies for papaya salad and normal level for tom yam and blue crab salad. It turned out spiciness of papaya salad was right for me and the rest were a bit too spicy (I’m weak in this as a Thai, lol).

The ambience was also awesome. It reminded me of Thai street food that its charm is from little details in decorations and lights. It was not as perfect as 5-stars hotel but it gave a homy atmosphere in which I love it very much 5/5.

Service is very friendly and helpful. The staff kept checking on us. They gave us only forks as well even though they knew I’m thai. So, don’t get offended if they give you only fork. If you want chopsticks or spoon, you can ask them.

I would recommend this place if you love authentic thai food, especially thai or asian people who miss their home. We commuted from the city center, it was like 15 min driving, and it was so worth it.

Thank you very much for your food...

I'm very excited that no one else has reviewed this "restaurant" so that I can become the voice of reason should anyone luckily choose to check the reviews before making the drunk mistake I did. A wonderful night at a nearby blues club unfortunately placed me in the path of this soon to be forcefully removed eatery. All I can say is, DONT EAT ANYTHING. Be careful to even breathe the air. Seriously, where do I begin? We ordered to basil leaf chicken and sesame chicken, and I was hit with regret before my butt even hit the uncomfortable chair I waited in. The entire establishment smells like wet dog. I watched a "dine in" customer walk through the kitchen to use the bathroom. When we finally got our food I was so eager to breathe fresh air that I didn't even notice we were overcharged. And honestly, regardless of what the menu says, one dollar would be overcharged for anything. I am a stingy man. I'm not proud to admit it, but I brought my business back to my local late night Chinese place after they got a 46 on their health exam, because you just can't beat 3 pounds of food laced in MSG for 8 bucks. Even so, I swear to you, based on smell and appearance alone I made the executive decision on behalf of my body to throw Paula's entire order away. That was the best decision I made all night. Please do yourself a favor and eat anything else. Or just give the money to a homeless person. But please tell them not to spend...

*Disclaimer: I am Thai, and I will no longer bring my business to the restaurant

I have been a frequent customer (at least 2 times a week) at Paula's Thai Kitchen for approximately 1 year. I have recommended and spoken highly about the place to all my friends. Many of them are also now frequent customers. Recently, the quality of service at Paula's has been dropping significantly, especially around the weekend. I have had to spend over 2.5 to 3 hours every time I visit due to "a large number of customers". However, during my latest visits, I witnessed other customers come in and out while I had to ask the waitresses for every single service (water, check, food, etc.). Additionally, the attitude of the waitresses over the weekend could not be worse.

On top of that, during my last visit, the waitresses sneaked a 40% tip onto ~$100 bill without informing us. Having not experienced this level of unethical behaviors before, we were caught off guard. My friend, who wanted to give the waitresses the benefit of the doubt because they were busy, ended up tipping an additional 20% on top of the bill. During the payment process, they pretended to "apologize" about the level of care we received, to distract us from the additional tip sneaked in.

Please see the review by "Gabriella Rocha" for the picture...