Similan Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Solana Beach

Beautiful restaurant. Decorated the old-style way of Thailand. A nice menu with easy understandable English descriptions of the food along with good pictures, always a help especially when unfamiliar with a particular exotic dish.

The Thai Singha beers (pronounced “Beer Sing”) are 7 dollars each, served in a can along with a tall cold glass and brought to your table, however you must open and pour it yourself. It felt a little casual considering the beautiful restaurant environment. Lol.

We noticed a lot of take-out food that the staff were bringing to the front of the restaurant for customers to pick up. The restaurant prepares the packaging well, in nice reusable plastic rectangular containers, stacked in a sturdy paper bag.

Food:

I try not to leave negative reviews. I want every establishment to thrive, do well, my reviews are not meant to be unkind. This is my opinion of what we experienced. Having lived full time in Thailand for many years, perhaps my standards are different, yet that should not be an excuse. Good food, even if not authentic, is still "good food" and deserves to be celebrated. There are good Thai restaurants in San Diego that serve near authentic Thai cuisine. My wife is (from Chiang Mai) we enjoy seeking new Asian places to eat. Similan's food didn't work for us. At least on this night it wasn't what we expected. The drunken noodles (a favorite of mine) were soggy cut in tiny pieces, as if stir fried roughly, the sauce the noodles were cooked in tasted the same as the ผัดกะเพราหมู Padt Gapow Moo, “stir fried pork.” I ordered a fried egg (common practice) to go on top, the staff acknowledged my order but didn't bring it. There was something odd about the meat in all the dishes, we were not sure exactly about the texture and taste, but the meat was rubbery and identical in taste to each other . The pork and chicken were indistinguishable from one another. I did not want to eat the meat in any of the dishes, that's saying a lot because I love meat. The green curry แกงเขียวหวาน was okay but not as flavorful as one would expect. One couldn’t help but notice a taste similarity in our three dishes, is it the same sauce?  This may not be important: it's something unusual I noticed. As a cultural rule, Thai people pride their country on having the best rice in the world, called "Cow Hom Mali" ข้าวหอมมะลิ “Fragrant Jasmine Rice.” The rice we were served (sorry) didn't taste like Thai Rice. It was dry and not the same quality, as if scooped from the the bottom of a rice maker that was left on for a long time. There wasn't the sense of pride one expects when being served the 'staple food' as important as Thailand grown rice.

To be fair, this restaurant is busy with take out, and for a Monday night, there were 4 tables with customers that were enjoying their food. I did not see any Thai people here, always a good indication of authenticity, but it may not have been a good night for dining out either.

That they are busy with the dining room and take out, makes this review counter to reality, yet I had to be truthful of what we experienced. Go see...

This was my first visit to this place I ordered take out and paid for it ahead of time. The online menu did not have any information about what is in the food or size/quantity. It does however allow you to choose spice and make additions after adding to the cart. The food was supposed to be ready in 55 or 60 minutes and when I arrived to pick up it was ready. The parking lot is easy to miss and the place inside was tiny with a few tables and appeared casual and very clean. I ordered a light meal of of Tom Kha, one order of sticky rice and one spring rolls.Everything was packed well and nothing leaked before arriving home. My Family loves Tom Kha but this wasn't even close to that wonderful creamy coconut and lemon grass soup we were craving, this stuff was a thin salty brine with cabbage.The sticky rice was a bit overly sweetened for me but one of us liked it alright. This place has received stellar reviews so maybe this was a one off , It was edible not totally gross, We liked the lettuce rolls, but I don't think we will return to try any of their specialty dishes. I wouldn't say the best value- Two quarts of Thom Kha, 1 order of mango sticky rice (about 1 cup of rice on top half of a mango) and 1 order of lettuce tofu rolls (I got 4rolls) and a few ounces of dipping...

This place was delicious. So nice, so delish. We got two entrees. The yellow curry was delicious. Cameron says that its the best curry she's ever tried. And i have tried so many curries i would have to say it's def top 3.

The waitress i definetly forgot to ask her name but she was extremely nice and so kind.

The music they played was soft covers of popular pop punk rock alternative sounds. It was so good and so funny. We didn't finish the food and took some home. Cameron had it for breakfast today.

Would 100% recommend and will most def come back. Its a nice area close to the beach too. looks like an older community lives here and it's in close proximity to breweries and shopping places. I think there is shrimp close by

Romantic place for sure too, seeing your lover with the backdrop of this place is definetly...