Lau Ba Thai — Restaurant in Melissa

I dined in at Lau Ba Thai. And I wish I hadn’t.

I won’t lie, I didn’t expect much. I had a gut feeling when I walked in that I needed to leave - nothing specific - just a gut feeling.

I should have listened.

I had just gotten out of the hospital earlier that afternoon. I wanted something nice after days of hospital food. Playing it safe - I ordered the Pad Thai with chicken and went with a 1* (out of 5* for spiciness) - because I wasn’t trying to overdo it. I also ordered the Calamari as an appetizer.

The service was meh - the lady who took our order was less than friendly and mumbled her way through our order and seemed like she wanted to be anywhere else on the planet than where she was - including the bottom of the ocean. I tipped because I was under the impression that we would have service at the table after we placed our order at the counter - but no - that wasn’t what happened.

Now, I’ve had Pad Thai at somewhere between 30 and 50 different Thai restaurants all over the United States. So I’ve got a pretty solid baseline for what good Pad Thai is and what isn’t good.

This Pad Thai isn’t good. They put bell peppers in it (why?) and onions…which has NEVER been in any other Pad Thai I’ve ever had - anywhere. It doesn’t add to the dish at all. Not sure why anyone would do this.

Twice while we were waiting on our food we heard the chef say “Uh oh!” loudly from the kitchen. At that point we were the only people waiting on our food so I can’t help but think he was making our food and something had gone wrong.

The Calamari was also bad. It tasted burnt and the squid did not seem the correct consistency - it seemed too chewy. It also came out at the same time as the main course - which isn’t an appetizer - that’s a side dish.

BUT - the biggest insult of this entire experience was the HORRIFIC FOOD POISONING I received as an after meal benefit.

I was bedridden for 30 hours thanks to this meal (with the exception of short sprints to the toilet) - I missed a day of work and a concert I had bought tickets for two months beforehand. All while trying to recover from spending a few days in the hospital.

Also of note - they don’t have real silverware - it is the CHEAPEST pre-packaged plasticware that is sized for a child. The fork was tiny. It even made getting a normal sized bite difficult.

They also gave us red Solo cups for our waters. When my girlfriend pointed at the larger cups with bright artwork on them and commented on how cool they were, the lady who seemed incapable of anything but mumbling came alive, loudly proclaiming they were “4.50!” Easy lady - we weren’t trying to steal your fancy cups…geez…

DO NOT RECOMMEND - 0/10

The only redeeming thing about this place was that the main wall in the dining area had some interesting artwork.

TLDR: Two people, $47, cheap plasticware, bad food, bad service, and...

TLDR; Overall, it's a nice, clean place to have a good meal but it's not authentic - not even close - though the food was good. Friendly staff, even with a lil one taking some of their attention. Food is good, fast to be prepared but lacked authenticity (see EXAMPLES below)

We plan to return to try their Sushi. For thai food, Thai Noodle Wave in McKinney is far more authentic. ** Side note, half of my family is Thai, so even though we understand many restaurants make "Thai" food poorly, some simply miss the mark all together. This place, ironically, had tasty dishes with Thai names, but they didn't resemble those Thai recipes.. at all.

PROS: Clean restaurant and restrooms (a rarity!) and friendly staff. Easy access to the location and a variety of menu items

CONS: Although the food is good, it's not authentic - anyone coming here to find Pad Thai, Drunken Noodles, Thai Curry, etc. will be very disappointed. Oddly enough, even thought he dishes didn't resemble Thai recipes, they were still good, in their own right.

EXAMPLE: We ordered a family style meal with: Chicken Pad Thai, Chicken Yellow Curry, Chicken Japanese Fried Rice, and Chicken Drunken Noodles (aka Pad Kee Mow).

The Pad Thai was, well, not Pad Thai. The sauce was more a typical Chinese stir fry.

The Yellow Curry, although good, was not even close to Thai Curry.. it was more like an Americanized Thai Dish called Pra Raam.

The Japanese Fried rice was interested.. again, very tasty, but with fried chicken covered in a salty, teriyaki-like sauce.. over stir fried rice.. not much veggies.

Lastly the Drunken Noodles (aka Pad Kee Mow).. was also tasty but was definitely not Pad Kee Mow. It was closer to a Pad See Ew - much less flavor and lacking...

I really wanted to like this place as Melissa needs a good Thai place, as well as sushi- it seemed too good to be true to have both in one place. This was our first time ordering here, and we will likely give it another shot just because of the location, but overall I was disappointed as the one dish I would order the most- Thai green curry, was very bad. It was the worst green curry I can recall having anywhere in the area. It didn't taste like green curry... it didnt taste like much at all, wasn't even green (kind of off white) and had a strange texture. No spice, no real flavor. Maybe whoever made it had never made one before? I am not one to waste food and thought I could just power through it but, couldn't do it.. ended up throwing the whole thing in the trash. My wife got sushi and said it was good, so that's something.

I read reviews that their curry was good... maybe I'll give them another shot sometime as there is no way people would be eating here if they were serving up the dish that I had tonight on a regular basis. But I probably won't be back anytime soon.

UPDATE- so it's been 9 months since my initial review and we've been back 5 or so times so I have more experience with what to expect, and they have had time to get settled in after opening. I've upgraded from 2 to 3 stars. Here's my update notes:

1. Their thai curries are not good, never as bad as the initial one but- I tried a few times and can say they are too sweet and I don't like them
2. Sushi is generally really good and I'm glad to have a good sushi place close by
3. Service has been fine, nothing unusual but compared to the fast food service we have around in...