J&T Thai Street Food — Restaurant in San Diego

J&T Thai Street Food is a worthwhile counter-service operation in the Linda Vista neighborhood serving Thai "street food" and beer. Despite a few flaws across multiple visits, I recommend this place.

I've ordered the "Pad Kee Mao" (aka "Drunken Noodles") with Beef - and although I enjoyed the flavors of the dish overall, the chewy squares of shaved beef had the consistency of cardboard. I'm willing to own this problem, as I should know better than to order beef in a dish like this. However, I am used to having scrambled egg in this dish, and there is none in J&T's rendition. Also, they went a wee overboard with the white pepper. But honestly, this is food for drunks, as implied by the name, and although I can nit-pick at it due to my love for this type of food, most diners won't notice some of what I consider to be deficiencies in J&T's "Drunken Noodles." It was mostly alright. The smokiness in the dish brought upon by the phenomenon of the rice noodle flakes being "wok-charred" is very nice.

This brings me to the "Steamed Chicken Rice," which was the reason for my initial visit to J&T. This is a popular dish in Asia consisting of rice cooked in chicken broth and rendered chicken fat, covered with slices of poached chicken, with a cup of broth spiked with fish sauce served on the side. This dish is actually named "Khao Man Gai" in Thailand and "Hainanese Chicken" in Singapore, the latter being this country's national dish. As such, there is a lot of pride associated with the Singapore version of the dish and, outside of Thailand where "Khao Man Gai" is mere worker's food served out of street carts, the Thai version is looked upon as an inferior copy-cat.

I will defend Thailand's "Khao Man Gai" as being the superior plate of food between the two, as it is prepared exactly the same way as Singapore's "Hainanese Chicken," but with one exception: rather than a side of dark soy sauce to drizzle on the chicken, the Thai "Khao Man Gai" version is always accompanied by a very spicy, funky, pungent sauce made of fermented yellow soy beans, Thai bird's eye chilies, garlic, ginger, cilantro, and vinegar. In the words of Sweet Baby Ray: "The Sauce is the Boss!" It is this unique sauce that makes the dish more appetizing than just eating boring boiled chicken with fatty rice.

Here at J&T, I found their rice a tad dry and lacking in the intense chicken flavor I've come to expect from "Khao Man Gai," but that is easily remedied by scooping the broth on top of it. Thankfully the broth here is excellent. The sauce's consistency is too thin to be legit, and I doubt they use the pulverized fermented beans that are normally used (they likely replaced with straight-up soy sauce), but the flavor is mostly there. The chicken itself was cooked fine, which one would argue is the most important part to not get wrong - given that it is served plain and there is nothing to mask mistakes with, it is easy to screw up. I give J&T's rendition of "Khao Man Gai" a solid 'B'. As a filling entrée sold for $8, there's not a lot to complain about.

Be forewarned that, although J&T accepts credit cards on their iPad-based Point-of-Sale device, AMEX is not accepted. Also, Parking is a challenge here, with tiny spaces and all kinds of signs threatening towing if you're parked too long or in the wrong stall or whatever. That's redeemed somewhat by the appealing clean, modern, industrial ambience of the space.

If you come here expecting fully-realized and ultra-refined Thai cuisine, you'll be disappointed. If you take J&T at their word, that they are serving up humble Thai street food meant for workers, you will hopefully enjoy this restaurant as...

This is a great, casual, cheap place for someone looking for a quick bite. The food ranges from good to great, and they have some of the best Thai Iced Tea in town. The steamed chicken over rice is probably the best dish here--it's essentially a Hainan chicken rice. The chicken is steamed and eaten with a garlic soy dipping sauce, and the rice is cooked with the chicken au jus. The execution on this dish is just about perfect, especially with boneless chicken, and you can't go wrong with the price. One thing that you can also do that's not on the menu is you can add their fried chicken to this dish for just 3 dollars extra!

Another dish that I have also enjoyed here is stewed pork leg over rice. The pork leg is tender, and the sauce is sweet and slightly tangy. Like other Thai places you can substitute white rice with brown rice if you want to be extra healthy! Most of the noodle dishes are decent as well. Perhaps one that stands out to me is the Spicy Noodle Soup, which has great flavors of lime juice. The Pad Thai and Pad See Ew have great flavors, but unfortunately the noodles do tend to stick together.

If you're ever looking for a place to grab some quick Asian food with magnificent Thai iced tea for cheap prices, this is definitely the...

Edit on December 15 2024. Three years since my initial review of this restaurant and my wife and I came in for lunch. It's as good or better than we remember; better yet, it doesn't seem as if it's changed much at all - it's like the perfect restaurant! I love this place more every time I come back. My wife is a first generation Vietnamese immigrant and a very serious foodie, and she loves this place because it's actually authentic and everything tastes the way it should taste, i.e., the way it would taste in Thailand. I had the lettuce wraps and my wife had the drunken noodles and it was absolutely heaven. If you like eating food and you live on Earth you need to come try this place RITE NAO

Had rib appetizer and a nice chicken entree. Everything tasted fresh. I have to come back to try more things. I got a very good impression of the place. Service was excellent, food was great, place was clean. The people there seemed to care about the place on a way that made me think it was a family-owned restaurant. Will repeat - that's just about everything I could ask for in a casual restaurant. I wish every restaurant...