Ban Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Tamuning Municipality

During a long trip in a foreign land, my wife and I will try to visit at least a Thai restaurant for dinner. Sort of like taking a break from foreign food and have something familiar.

While I was conscious that this is American Thai food (which means low expectations), I wasnt prepared how bad the food could be.

This is probably the worst thai restaurant in the US - at least compared to those we had in Milpitas, DC area, Dallas, Raleigh, NYC, St Louis etc, even a remote town in Virginia.

The only things that link this restaurant to Thailand : old photos of Thailand and background music.

It is amazing that it enjoys a brisk business - mainly tourists who were probably attracted to this place by its exterior, we think.

So back to the food :

We didnt order those big items that they promoted - the usual lobster dishes, grilled big prawns or steam fish. Instead, we go for simple dishes (and that’s how I compare). We ordered a mixed vegetables in oyster sauce, basil pork and some satay for 2 pax.

The moment they served the mix veg, I knew my dinner wasn’t going to be good - in came in a vulgar size and looked raw. I mean I would appreciate a generous serving. But this was way too much, even though I am used to the american portion. A major portion of the dish was undercooked. In fact some were still raw ! My wife had the theory that kitchen was busy as the place was crowded. Not an excuse. We could have asked for them to refry, but we decided to just eat those that are properly cooked. No point having another overfried (by then) dish.

The basil pork was also a disaster. It was just another mixed veg in oyster sauce with pork. (Ok it had an egg) So we ended up with two dishes that looked and tasted similar. Not that I would complain under normal circumstances - I love veg. But when you get two terrible dishes, it was too much to swallow (!)

The satay - the chicken wasn’t well marinated and tasted plain. It came oversoaked in coconut cream that didnt taste fresh. The satay sauce was underwelming too. The meat was hard and we had to pry it from the stick - probably it was not properly tawed before grilling.

So, it was a struggle for us to finish the dinner. We couldn’t help but kept comparing this place to the one we had (also Thai) the previous evening. It was a much modest place, a smaller menu. For those who wanted a more decent thai food, they are better off visiting Thai Noodle, just across the road not too far from this place.

We gave feedback to the waiter when we asked for the check. He took our feedback, and gave a 10% discount. Didnt bother to argue for more. Some restaurant you just wanted to leave after your meal, and vowing...

First of all, I LOVE THE WAITERS/WAITRESSES- they are very kind, humble, and very attentive. Our cups were always filled and whenever we needed something, they didnt have us wait long to receive it.

We went for the buffet today (Saturday afternoon). And the place gets packed. The buffet table is shoved in a small area so it was hard to move around. The food looked fresh and delicious but... it just wasnt as good as it looked.

There was no peppers available to add to your food. The Thai restaurants (we've ate at all around the world,) ALWAYS had peppers or pepper powder to add to our food just in case it wasnt spicy enough. The most they had as far as spice was tabasco. We love tabasco but we wanted something more "Thai". There was only a dish or two that was spicy- which I was happy about because we had our toddlers with us. BUT, it would've been nice to have the peppers for the adults to add to their food.

Everything that was fried (fried chicken & bananas) was too hard to eat. They were over-fried and dried out to the point that they hurt the top of my mouth and gums. What was especially disappointing was their fried banana which we looked forward to. SO HARD & dry- we had to add it to our milky dessert just to soften it a bit.

There was no pad-thai, which is normally a staple for Thai food. WE DID enjoy their sour soup, lumpia and curry chicken- those were perfectly delicious.

There was only one choice of dessert- a milky tapioca type of dessert. Which was really good.

If you are a foody, you probably wouldn't enjoy this place. We have eaten all around the world & our family loves cooking, so we are a bit picky.

Your...

Food lacked flavor, depth, and portion sizes. If the owner is reading this, please at least fix the papaya salad! The worst dish we had that night. Had no flavor at all. Just the taste of chopped peanuts. Other dishes we tried that were just not as good as it could be (some based on our personal preferences, we could admit) was that the Tom Yum needed to be more sour and it was a bit too salty. What is not a matter of opinion was that the prawns in there were way too overcooked. In the green curry, the vegetables perhaps needed to be cooked a bit more in the sauce. Some of the veg came out a bit rubbery (specifically, the eggplant) and not cooked enough. I also ate here on another occasion and had the fresh spring rolls… the wrapper was hardened, not palatable, and indicated that they indeed were not fresh, but rather old and past their due date to be thrown out. Our server was so nice though and tended to our needs. Facility seemed pretty clean. Restrooms are available, and had soap and paper towel at least. That doesn’t weigh as much if the food doesn’t deliver, though. Overall, could be...