Thai Star Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Madeira Beach

Got in at 9pm and open until 10pm on a Saturday. From the moment I sat down every 3 min various server comes over pushing me to order since was told kitchen close at 930pm. From my arrival until 918 the begging me to order was relentless. Feeling rushed to not take in the entensive menu, I ordered in haste a Shrimp Fresh Roll and Seaweed Salad and Tom Kha Soup and Shrimp Pad Thai. The fresh roll arrived cut into sushi size pieces of mostly noodle filler and a tiny sliver of shrimp and touch of veggies. The seaweed salad while good presentation lacked the vinegar flavor I crave from that dish and half the dish was rice noodle filler. The soup was a better experience in flavor but of course shows up with my Pad Thai and moments behind the other dishes since by 930 I am being rushed to finish eating. The soup had a bold flavor to the broth which was nice, and the chicken was good texture. But the mushrooms diced very thin and are easily missed. So the soup was not the redemption I hoped for to improve the experience. The Pad Thai presentation was of very thin noodle with an appearance of being all stuck together in tomato sauce, which is not how I ever seen Pad Thai look before as it was very red in color. One bite and I concluded the worse Pad Thai I ever had. The consistency was more like an italian pasta dish and the texture mushy and the flavor overwhelmingly sweet, as if a quarter cup of sugar was added to a tomato baaed sauce. Just not the flavor or texture my pallet was expecting from Pad Thai. Overall. Easy to conclude. With several other Thai options in the area, I have no need to return here. Not sure how the other reviews are good here when what I was served was the worst experience I had in a long time and not even sure the items were cooked proper comparing my photos to others. But it was so bad, will not give this a second chance. A shame since...

I went with one other person who had the lunch special here during the week (they do not have the lunch special on weekends). Pros: -Tasty Thai dishes, beautifully presented. We had chicken with mixed vegetables and beef panang curry. -The kitchen was fast with our orders. -Reasonable prices, very good for weekday lunch specials -Clean and well-kept interior. Good option near Madeira Beach.

Cons (most can be easily improved) -I've had sushi at many sushi restaurants, (including Thai+sushi restaurants) throughout the Tampa area and elsewhere. The sushi here was of below average quality. I ordered the spicy tuna roll and a Miami Heat roll. The rice was simply not good. Unclear if it was improperly prepared, too old, or simply a poor choice of rice for sushi. The fish was also below average in quality. This was especially apparent with the spicy tuna roll. I ate one roll, tried a piece from the other, and gave up. They respectfully deducted the cost of one roll from the meal. -The music playlist was awful. Pop romance? And not the good kind. It was like a 13-year old pseudo-emo girl skipped goth, punk, metal, and rock and went straight for... I'm honestly not sure... it sounded like stale wonderbread tastes. -It's in a strip mall. I don't mind this at all but others might if looking for a...

I'm sure the food at Thai Star is 5 stars but unfortunately we never got to taste it. We walked 0.9 miles from our beach rental to the Thai Star for lunch one day. We arrived at 11:35 AM and their "OPEN" sign was on and their Google Business Page said they were open at 11:30 AM that day but the door was locked. After a minute or two, a man, who I am assuming was the owner or manager, unlocked the door and told us he was waiting on the cook to show up. He then locked the door back up and left us to wait outside, in the Florida heat. A few minutes later, the man came back to the door, unlocked it, stepped outside, locked the door from the outside, got in his vehicle and left the establishment without saying so much as a word to us. The whole encounter was very odd and unprofessional. We proceeded down the road to find another eatery, as it was too hot and we were too hungry to wait for the man to return. We quickly found Frabotta's Beach Kitchen another minute or two down the road, where they welcomed us inside a few minutes before they officially opened, offered great service and tasty food. I would recommend the Fish Spread...