Taste of Thai — Restaurant in South Carolina

We love Thai food and have been wanting to try this place for months. Not knowing anyone who had been, we had no one to ask how good the food is. We thought that the parking lot full of cars was an indicator that the place was good.

When we got inside there were about 7 people inside. I'm not sure what all the cars were there for. None of the other businesses in the strip were open at the time. Maybe all the employees park in the front to make it look busy?

The menu reads well. It all sounds goods. I opted to do something out of the box for me and ordered the Basil Wings. At $15, they sounded expensive for wings. I asked the waitress how many wings came with it, and she didn't know the exact number, but showed me with her hands how big the plate was and said it was full of wings. The menu reads "Crispy wings, bell peppers, crispy basil in chili basil sauce". It sounded interesting, so I ordered it.

When the plate came, it was not as big as the waitress had described it. Most of the wings were half wings that looked like small ribs instead of wings. There were a couple drums tossed in. I know many Thai places do the "crispy" wings, but these were simply overcooked. Very dry and chewy. It reminded me of the Griswold turkey on Christmas Vacation. The dish was covered in basil leaves, which had no flavor due to being too crispy. There were two small strips of red bell pepper in the bottom. On a big round plate, I received a small portion of white rice to go with it. It covered maybe 1/4 of the plate. I'm guessing the extra space on the plate was for bones.

As another reviewer commented here, the portions are small for the price. I paid $15 for wings and rice and got maybe $5 worth of food. Not kidding.

My wife's dish looked better and was better prepared. I tasted it, and we both agreed it was "ok", but had way too much garlic in it.

Some of their other dishes may be better, I don't know. Unfortunately we won't be back...

We had the Ginger Stir Fried ($15 online menu; $16 at restaurant) and the Bangkok Seafood (Chef's Specialties), place is nice inside, not too busy when we arrived around 7:00pm, about 5 tables had patrons. Prices on the menu were more than the online prices (e.g., Bangkok Seafood was $18 not $15 as advertised online). Ok, no big deal right? Well, the Ginger Stir Fried turned out to be a small serving (with several small pieces of scallops) and was served lukewarm (they got the spiceness level wrong too). The dish was not very good (where was the fresh ginger?).

The Bangkok Seafood was better, with several large pieces of shrimp and a few mussels although the waitress said there were 5 different kinds of seafood. It was served in a tin foil wrap which is not the most appealing or practical way to present and eat it.

All in all, the quality and portion sizes were not worth it (although the beers at $3.50 are very reasonable). We're new to the area, maybe Greenville has better restaurants overall? There are not many ethnic restaurants in this area, maybe these places are taking advantage of that? In the NY/NJ metro area where we're from the quality and prices are definitely better, perhaps it's not a fair comparison but the last two sushi places we went to in Spartanburg were also a bust. And we're just average people, no high expectations, certainly not complainers.

I would consider coming back if the quality & portion sizes were increased to more fairly...

I was looking forward to eating here for the first time, but feel I can only rate it a 3 overall, solely based on the food. I purchased the Pad Thai tofu x2 and Tom Kha soup x2. Let me state, the soup was amazing. One of the best I’ve had. The Pad Thai on the other hand was bland and dry. I asked for a 4* heat on one, 7* on the other. It was difficult to taste the difference in heat levels between the two. I feel the cost was high too also. Higher priced than similar businesses, and the bland taste didn’t make me feel better about how much I paid. I called ahead and did takeout and was informed the food would be ready in 30 mins. I showed up at the 30 minute mark, and had to wait over an additional 35 mins. I know staffing seems to be an issue at many businesses, but to be off the mark that badly on the timing is not good. They also seemed to be staffed adequately, especially for the amount of diners they had at the time. Another gentleman was there waiting, he stated he had been waiting 45 minutes. He asked the person at the counter how much longer his food would be, I heard them state 5 minutes. I left 20 minutes after that, and he was still waiting. I don’t know that I need to go back...