Rom Mai Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Seattle

Summary: above-average/excellent Thai food with Seattle/Cap Hill prices and convenient location (near light rail; parking is not impossible -- going north toward Volunteer Park)

I am Southeast Asian with Thai people in my family (and visited Thailand with them) and having grown up in Los Angeles, I had a hard time with Seattle's plentiful yet forgettable Thai options. They're all pretty good for a meal but not good enough that I would want to come back. I have lived near this Thai spot for a number of years, but I finally decided to drop in because my favorite Thai spot on Cap Hill closed (RIP Wedgewood Thai II - vegetarian Thai spot). Over the few months of my exploration, I will say that Rom Mai Thai is among the top contenders for new favorite neighborhood Thai spot.

I usually order takeout (cook my own rice) and almost always a curry, a noodle dish, and a veggie (som tum or eggplant tofu) to compare restaurants. First, the spice level was nice. 2/5 was Asian 2/5 (American 3/5), which is great. The curry had a nice herbal sweetness to it with high quality coconut milk. The noodles had great smoky flavor -- excellent wok hei technique! This time, we got eggplant tofu rather than som tum. Finally, I can't 100% remember the eggplant tofu but I liked the sauce and the tofu texture was good. While not as generous as Wedgewood Thai II, the portions were definitely appropriate to price -- after dinner for two, there were enough for leftovers the following day.

The only thing that I'm still looking for is my favorite pad kee mao. Here, it is spicy dry and flavorful, but not 100% what I'm looking for. I haven't found a place in Seattle that makes pad kee mao with the dry herbal spicy flavor like my favorite Thai spot in LA (strangely, the only other place I've found that outside of Thailand was in Berlin, Germany -- Thaiweisse where Thai grandmas cook noodles out on a field, but I think the city shut it down because of food safety license concerns).

Recommended! I...

Good Food, but Menu Clarity and Execution Need Work

The food was solid—so good I didn’t even stop to take a picture before digging in! But a few things kept this from being a five-star experience.

First, there was an overwhelming amount of sprouts in my Pad Thai. I enjoy sprouts, but this was way too much—more of a topping than a balanced part of the dish. Secondly, I ordered spring rolls, expecting fresh rice-paper rolls, but I was given Thai spring rolls (which are crispy and fried). I didn’t realize the menu had both Thai Spring Rolls and Thai Fresh Rolls, so I didn’t catch the difference when ordering.

Now, I take some responsibility for not reading the menu carefully, but a menu should be designed for instant clarity, not require a second look to catch key differences. If a customer still gets confused despite the description being there, it means the labeling could be improved. I’ve also seen at least one other place do this, so maybe it’s a trend—but it’s still confusing.

Another issue: the bag was stapled shut, which meant I couldn’t check my food before leaving. I get that it’s meant for security, but it also assumes everything inside is correct—when in this case, it wasn’t.

On top of that, the dish itself lacked seasoning, which I suspect was because I asked for no spice. I understand removing chili, but it felt like they didn’t adjust the other flavors to compensate. I had to add my own salt, pepper, and seasonings just to bring out some taste.

Finally, my friend ordered cashew chicken and noticed there wasn’t much protein in the dish. The portion could have been better balanced.

Overall, the food has potential, but they need to improve menu clarity, order accuracy, seasoning adjustments, and portion balance. Fix these details, and this could easily be a...

It’s my first time getting Thai food in awhile now. My wife and I decided to go out with my mom and her husband, they love Thai so we found Rom Mai Thai on Broadway and thought we should give it a try. The staff is friendly and the vibe of the restaurant is great. The decorations are appealing and it felt like an all around good family place to dine. It was pretty cold in the building though…

We ordered drinks and a spring roll appetizer(the one thing I didn’t take a picture of, man I was so hungry). The drinks and app arrived quickly and at the same time. My wife’s Thai tea was absolutely delicious! I had a classic Singha beer which I would recommend to anyone that has not had it. If you are getting Thai food you must try a Singha along with your order.

I’ll be honest our main dishes did take a long time, longer than I normally would like. There was a lot of orders for pick up and many door dashers picking up. I think because of this the cooks were slammed and the service was slightly slower. This is the reason for the 4/5 star review. When the food did come it was very fresh and tasted great! I ordered Spicy Duck Curry and woooooooooh it was amazing.

If you are looking for a classic Thai restaurant give this place a try, I don’t think you will be disappointed. Also, according to covid laws they take it pretty seriously and the building is very...