White Elephant Asian Kitchen — Restaurant in San Diego

We are very confused with the high/positive ratings of this restaurant. We ordered the Thai basil with beef and yellow curry with chicken. The beef was ground up; the green beans in the dish were chopped into tiny pieces and the meal was not a desirable texture. The flavor was diluted and spice levels were not met at all (we ordered 7-8 spice level for both dishes). The yellow curry was extremely diluted and tasted like water; very little chicken provided. Jasmine rice was mush and awful in texture. Didn't finish both meals as they were awful. The restaurant is also a little more expensive than its competitors, although the food at the competitors taste much better. Would not recommend if you enjoy and appreciate real/authentic Thai food.

UPDATE: in response to the owner's response, I have actually been to Thailand and know what good Thai food tastes like. The food (both dishes) lacked flavor/tasted diluted, which were the main disappointments as addressed in the original review. It appears as though the owner can't take constructive criticism, which is a shame as this feedback should help business owners improve their products. We are Asian and our taste buds are different; so again, we are very familiar with authentic Thai...

We love going to White Elephant. My top favorite is their White Elephant noodle soup. It comes with house-made knife cut noodles that’s super chewy, and the broth is full of chicken flavor infused with garlic oil. The white pepper adds perfect amount of spicy kick to it. I get cravings for this soup all the time but especially when it’s chilly. Haven’t found any other Thai restaurants that make noodle in-house! IMO, this is definitely their specialty.

The Lao sausage comes with the dipping sauce and they are so good together. Love that bursting lemongrass flavor and chunks of meat inside the sausages. The sauce is mildly spicy and so delicious.

The garlic pepper chicken is prepared differently from what we’re used to. It’s deep fried in crispy light batter and covered in their house special garlic sauce with red peppers. Mildly spicy and crispy, it’s also full of flavor.

We weren’t a fan of the mango chicken dish despite its fame, mostly because we prefer our food savory rather than sweet. All in all, the batter was perfectly crispy and the idea of using mango was refreshing.

Hope other people will find their favorite dishes at this lovely restaurant run by the hard working, passionate,...

Absolutely terrible service. When we arrived, they made us sit and wait 20 minutes because we could not have a table inside. Once we were seated before we got our food they tried to move us twice because now they got a large party and they try to move us back inside. Once we asked if we could sit on our table, they said it was not an option and they literally made us move. Horrible service and once we asked if they could do something, they said we can leave if we want. We were literally told to get up and move, or leave!

What’s worse is when I spoke to the server and the gentleman at the door they had zero empathy and the guy literally waved us out of the restaurant like he couldn’t care less. As we walked out we found out they kicked out another couple because they got a “larger party”

Kicking out customers for other customers. Is it discrimination or just stupid management. You decide.

EDIT: you can clearly see from their response they don’t deny it and they don’t even apologize. They clearly admit kicking out two tables of 2 who were seated and ordered, so they can take a larger party!

I’ve been in restaurant business 20+ years. NEVER seen this. Pure greed. ...