Chinese & Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Payson

My family an I are avid Thai Food fanatics. It is by far our favorite food and we have been eating it for years since my mother introduced us to it in the early 2000's (she grew up with neighbors from Bangkok so we know what good Thai food tastes like). Due to a rather nomadic lifestyle that only military life can provide at times we have saddly been deprived of our favored food catharsis.

On a wim we gave this tiny hole in the wall a try after coming up to Pason for a long overdue family reunion. While small family owned restaurants like this one tend to have the best food, due to them also serving Chinese I was very skeptical to say the least. Fusion food restaurants don't typically have good food of either variety so my level of excitement going into it was less than stellar.

Upon getting through the threshold however my fears were laid to rest. The interior of this establishment was clean and cozy. Not big enough for heavy metropolitan dinner rushes but just right for a smaller town. The decor featured a myriad of indicators that this place was the real deal, from an elephant tapestry, to pictures of the Thai royal family, and of course The Buddha.

The service was fantastic as the waiter very promptly introduced himself and took our orders. He was attentive the entire time not just for us but for the other two tables that were filled with customers at the time. The wait time for the seven different dishes that we ordered (green curry, ginger chicken, chicken fried rice, drunken noodle, pad kapao, pad si ew, pad thai) was brought in a very reasonable twenty minutes.

All of the food tasted excellent and held up to the traditional Thai flavors that I have come to know and love over the years. My one critique in this regard would be that the pad kapao or basil chicken traditionally has a fried egg placed on top of the bed of meat and vegetables which was sadly absent from this rendition. The rest of the flavors in the dish were right on point so it wasn't a deal breaker, it's just something that would be nice to see in the future.

The owner came out from the back to greet our family twice during the meal to see how we were doing and visit with us a little. She was very kind to us even going as far as to give the Littles a free order of wontons with dipping sauce to tide them over until we received our food.

Overall this place has a very nice family friendly atmosphere with great service and even greater food. Whether you're looking to dip your toes into the ocean of Thai Food for the first time or are an avid swimmer of the waters therof I can't recommend many places better...

This was a strange night that made me do that symbolic clink, clink of my eyes in bewilderment.

I don't live here bit when traveling through as I do several times a year, I will be marking this place off. Why? Intolerant narrow-minded. For most of the night it was fine enough until the end and the waitress started talking negatively about humans and I get it. Humanity is becoming meaner and sowe let her bash humanity. It wasn't us, she was just talking about how it had been a long day and people were vampires. She said something we misunderstood. We thought she said she wanted to nest. Once we figured out what she really said, we laughed as she said some negative things able having children and being too old and I said jokingly, there are women who have had children late in life such as Sarah and Abraham. Didn't say Bible or God but then it got creepy and scary as she went on from giggling and laughing to anger about biblical religions and talking about her body, her choice and she'd never follow a biblical religion. So we just sat there until she quit and just left after paying. Nothing we were talking about was really about God or faith and she is the one who started the conversation about hating people and even going into the children topic deeply. Yeah, she was negative but I didn't care. I am friendly and figured she was mostly joking hating humans, but I guess not. She said she wasn't human. Again. Thought she was joking but she is definitely hostile to people of faith. Glad I didn't actually try to say something biblical or say something benign like...

The menu is a mix of traditional thai (pad thai, curries etc) and chinese dishes (beef and broccoli, sweet and sour chicken etc), not too extensive but with enough choices to satisfy your cravings. The beef in the dishes is sliced thin and tender, and the chicken is white meat cut into small pieces and when fried the batter is light and not greasy. The veggies taste crunchy and fresh. If you like your thai food to be spicy, you need to ask for it. Even the food that is labeled spicy on the menu, is in my opinion, pretty mild. The owners are from Thailand, they are friendly and personable. The service isn't always the best, but they are a new place and they don't have employees yet, it's just a husband/wife team (he cooks and she serves), but you usually don't have to wait long for.your food, unless you go there at the busiest times (1130-1230 and 530-630) of the day. The interior of the restaurant is basic with no frills, but as I said, it's a fairly new place. There are only 3 or 4 small tables, so I wouldn't book for a big party unless you speak to the owner first, they may be able to accommodate you. Take out seems to be the best choice for now. An unusual but kind of fun feature: on the wall in the dining area, there's a TV that is constantly playing a thai cooking show, where the host (thai-american) travels all over Thailand sampling and reviewing the delicious local food. I have ordered take out from here 5 or 6 times, and have not been disappointed. I really liked the beef soup with flat rice noodles and the pad...