Ben Thai Cafe — Restaurant in San Francisco

I ordered 2 Thai Iced teas, They didn't even fill it up to the top. It tasted watery and didn't have an amazing flavor, wasn't too good or worth almost 5 dollars for 2 small medium drinks. By 10 sips it's all gone and just ice. Should be creamier and more flavorful. I ordered the Salmon Delight, it was 2 inches worth of curry soup in there in a flat bowl. Salmon was not cooked well, it was not soft and did not melt in my mouth. It was a bit overcooked and a bad flaky, nasty!All the vegetables inside, did not at all have any flavor them. I couldn't even taste the curry, all i tasted was nothing but a spicy flavor with little spice seasoning of anything, even the pineapple was all I tasted when I bit into it. It wasn't seasoned good enough for it to taste delicious. There was no basil, so it felt lame eating this. Total SCAM FOR ITS PRICE!!!!! There was barely any curry sauce ✋🏼😭😱😔😞 My God I feel so ripped off right now. I did not have a good dinner meal eating and spending my money on this food. 23 dollars (almost 24) should be a whole bowl full of a good amount of soup. The texture in the salmon plus flavor just did not go with anything at all, so unseasoned, dry, AND IT WAS ONE LITTLE PIECE SLICE OF IT. Another order I made was the House Fried Rice. The chicken was not appetizing or tasty, it tasted like an unseasoned white chicken that felt a little dry and not good when you continue to chew it. It had so much white Onion tossed inside!!😖 Literally the only thing in this meal that paired good inside of it was the rice and egg, I didn't even feel like green onion was in there. It was just not worth almost 16 or 15 dollars, I felt miserable eating this expensive ah food. Not ever ordering here ever again unfortunately. If you feel baited by a food that looks interesting in here, DON'T GO!! Just a total and literal scam, there are way and much more better thai food restaurants to visit out here. This one was just not it at all. God I wish to get a refund so bad, all this food I just consumed makes me feel depressed, mostly with my hardly earned work money. Drinking my thai iced tea right now Tastes watery now😨😓....augh.

Please don't go here, it's seriously just not worth it with the prices that go way over!!😮‍💨🤧

Overall, friendly people inside, but sorry to say, the truth is, your food...

On a wet and rainy night, I dropped into Ben thai cafe on Polk , this is the second time I’ve eaten here. I ordered the pad me mao with prawns $16 rice noddle, broccoli, red peppers, snap peas , thai basil and spicy soy sce . Also the bbq chicken thigh marinated in lemongrass curry then bbq. All sounded great, the food came out in about 10-15mins ish which was great, service is friendly and quick in the small 25ish seated restaurant/ cafe. The chicken thighs are tasty but there is only 4 small thigh half’s on a bed of undressed lettuce with a small mixed salad garnish at the top of the plate with a squeeze of possibly Brought dressing as it was bland and mayo thickness.

Things got worse with the pad me mao which was bland and missing flavour besides the very few eg 4 broccoli pieces and a few strips of rep pepper and a couple of basil leaves in the pile of rice noddles, there was 5 prawns within.

Soon after the arrived the friendly waiter asked how my meal was. .... I told him I wasn’t very happy with the lack of ingredients in the noodle dish and the small portion of bbq chicken, he quickly said he would talk to the kitchen but never returned with an answer ,

Tonight wasn’t busy in the restaurant and the lack of flavour made the $50 for 2 mains and 2 beers over priced and I’m not likely to return,

It’s a shame as the restaurant has a warm feeling, staff are friendly just don’t be so tight on your food costings especially vegetables and flavouring...

I never had the Khao Soi noodle soup. Wow. All I could say quietly to my love was "this is so f__ng good! OMG" I understand there could be better somewhere else, I don't know, but what I do know is that I think about this dish almost every day. For me, one of the best noodle soups I've ever had regardless of cuisine.

It does have a little kick so if you can't eat spicy food you might think it's spicy. If you can at least tolerate a modest level of spice, then you're good to go. As others have mentioned they like to ask if you want duck instead of what kind of meat which I know can influence your decision. I already knew this before coming here so I was prepared.

I ordered it with tofu because I just didn't want meat. The tofu was nicely prepared and not over cooked and tough like too many places make it. That ruins a dish for me. I will probably have meat next time since I do enjoy meat.

It is a delicious balance of spice, richness from coconut milk/cream, the warmth of curries, lemongrass, lime... Oh just delightful. I want sure about the noodle choice but after the first bite, I understood.

Pad Thai is a nice balance, not too sweet, not overly rich, just to executed.

Can't wait to come here again and bring my daughter who loves Tom Kha Gai. This is similar but for me, another...