Thai Thai Cafe — Restaurant in San Marcos

First I need to start this review by explaining that I have been eating at Thai Thai Cafe for over ten years. Before I moved and lived in San Marcos myself, my best friend lived there and I visited her multiple times in a month and ate at Thai Thai cafe between three to five times in that month (there and Rivendell which is now closed -sad face-). I remember when it was only the tiny store front and they did not have the extended dining area they have now. When I moved away from San Marcos my best friend still did not and I have continued to eat there in the years past. It has been about a year since I have been there and I am sad that today will be my last day to ever eat here.

Today I took my fiance there for his first visit and I was appalled and embarrassed by the experience. We all ordered tea, two orders of fresh spring rolls for the table, and we all ordered chicken pad thai for our entrees. Very simple and something we have had numerous times over the years. The spring rolls came out and the sauce has red chilies in it. Now I love spicy food, but my mom cannot eat it (even Pace Picante sauce is hot to her). So she went to the front and asked the server (who had already been quite curt with us) if he had any other sauce she could have to dip her spring rolls in (duck sauce, sweet and sour, peanut sauce, etc.). The man told her that was the only sauce they had and that is always the sauce it comes with. My mother explained she understood it was the sauce it came with, she just can't eat spicy food and to her it was spicy. He retorted by telling her very rudely that it was not spicy at all and she could eat it. My mother literally had an entire argument with teh man because he wouldn't listen to anything she said. Finally she told him that he could take the second order of spring rolls back because she would not eat it with the spicy sauce.

Only after she threatened to do this did he go to the kitchen very exasperated and bring back peanut sauce which was not spicy at all. Then afterwards he went back into the kitchen and you could hear them all laughing and talking about my mom as if she was being unreasonable. The kitchen staff even kept coming out and peeking around the corner to look at my mom and go back to make comments. This went on for the rest of our meal. After this he did not come back to the table except when we asked him for two large to-go boxes for our left overs. My mother had quite a bit and my fiance and I were going to combine our plates (I had as much as my mom did and he had half a plate himself). The man comes back with one big to-go box and one small to-go box. I asked politely may I please have a large box and he looked at my food and said very rudely "It'll fit in that box." I explained I was putting mine and his in the same box, which he just motioned to the little box and said "Yeah it will fit." Then he walked away with out another word, dismissing me completely.

This of course upset my fiance and so I put mine in the small box and we had to put his into my mother's container because it wouldn't fit. I also did not mention that when my mother refused the spicy sauce he took the container and threw it (literally tossed that container) into the bus tub as he stomped off to the kitchen. Basically this is the worst customer service I have EVER experienced. I have never had anyone argue with me with such a rude demeanor before, or experienced them telling my mom that it wasn't hot and she couldn't have any other sauce until she threatened to send the food back. It was completely ridiculous. Since I have been a loyal patron I give this a two because the food was still delicious, but we will NEVER return to this...

I would like to preface this by saying I have never left a review for any restaurant ever and am only doing so because of how bad this experience was. I called them to place an order for pick up, and was asked to wait a second as a customer needed to be dealt with. I heard the whole conversation and a lady informed the restaurant that their was a problem with the amount of change she received back from her purchase. Not a big deal but I should’ve seen it as a red flag. I ordered the pad see ewe which they have for sale around $12. I went to the restaurant to pick up my order, and received a bill for $24. I asked to confirm if it was my order and was told it was. I left a $5 tip as appropriate for a bill of that amount. I left and instantly checked online to see if the pad see ewe was actually that expensive, then walked right back in to ask for my money back. The host was already by the door waiting to correct my order, but didn’t even come out to tell me he made a mistake. They then went to refund me but could only return cash and never told me the amount it actually should cost. They just gave me a $10 bill which was less than the difference should have been. They gave me the “correct” plate that I ordered and I went home to find out it was the complete wrong order. On top of that, the food looked disgusting and was such a small portion compared to pictures I’ve seen. I went back to ask for my money and never got to see any of the bills, and was handed back another $13. They kept my tip money and wasted my time. I can’t recommend this place to ANYONE. Such a hassle and I lost money to them...

Wholeheartedly do not recommend Thai Thai. We went with high expectations due to the previous reviewers. The establishment was a typical outdated Chinese restaurant, which we don’t mind at all, sometimes you find gems like that. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. We ordered two orders of tofu spring rolls. They weren’t totally bad, but they were warmed on the inside, like they’d just been microwaved. The “thick Thai peanut sauce” the previous reviewer mentioned was simply Mae Ploy sweet chili sauce with some crumbled peanuts in it, and maybe a tiny bit of fish sauce. I got an order of tofu pad Thai and my husband got a beef pad Thai ($2 extra for beef). My pad Thai was okay, it but didn’t have that signature pad Thai flavor. I noticed my pad Thai-loving husband was kind of toying with his beef and noodles and not eating. He then said to me “something’s not right with this beef”. The beef had a pinkish hue and a bouncy texture. I tried a piece. Nothing about it tasted or felt like a piece of beef. It was chewy, bouncy, and tasted sour. We were too nice to say anything but he couldn’t eat it. We left the restaurant wondering if they’d just served us a different type of meat. Seriously, we were googling it, and it’s quite disturbing the similarities we found to “alternative” meats. All I know is that it did not taste nor feel like beef. And for the benefit of the doubt, if it WAS beef, what part of the cow was it?! And it was definitely spoiled....