Ponsawan Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Thornton

We tried Ponsawan while staying at a nearby hotel. It was one of the only non-chain restaurants open for dinner close to us that had good reviews, so we were excited and hopeful. Unfortunately, our experience was only so-so.

The restaurant was about half-full on a Friday evening, which worked out for us as we didn't want to be jammed inside with a bunch of other people and they don't seem to have outside seating. We were seated immediately. The restaurant is comfortable and nicely decorated and everything looked clean.

Service was also great, definitely the shining star of the experience. Our food came out really quickly but still seemed like it was prepared fresh. Our waitress was also maybe the owner, I think -- she was excited to share with us the restaurant had just been open over a year. Impressive in a pandemic! She was sweet and kept on top of whether we wanted or needed anything.

Unfortunately, the food didn't really wow. Not sure if they were having an off night or we ordered the wrong thing or what. My parents aren't super familiar with Thai food so I ordered for them - got beef pad see ewe for my mom and beef cashew nut for my dad. I got chicken pad see ewe and a Thai tea, while my fiancé got beef pad prik king. We also had some fried wontons for an appetizer.

The fried wontons were supposed to be filled with chicken, and I guess they were, but they were mostly wrapping, each with maybe less than a postage stamp of filling inside them. What we got tasted good, but we were expecting some more filling. My Thai tea wasn't as sweet as I typically prefer it, but it was beautiful and I still enjoyed it well enough.

The pad prik king was probably the best thing, or at least fiancé enjoyed it more than everyone else enjoyed their food. He said it was good but he ordered it medium spicy and he was really struggling towards the end, haha. He is typically quite tolerant of spice. So be careful with the spice level; they're serious about it!

The pad see ewe was okay, but not great. It had good flavor, the meat was cooked well, and I enjoyed the presence of both the Chinese broccoli and the more typically American broccoli. However, the noodles weren't that good -- they were over cooked or something, as they were super soft and gummy.

Lastly, my dad really didn't enjoy the beef cashew nut. He felt it tasted very shrimpy. The rest of it tasted it and we all agreed that it did have a shrimp flavor, though it bothered me least of all. Maybe too much shrimp paste or even fish sauce? I'm honestly not sure, but he barely touched his dinner.

Overall, very nice people in a comfortable, clean restaurant. The food disappointed but perhaps we were just...

I tried the food today and it was good, surprisingly for Colorado! I had not found any Thai restaurant that has Thai authentic cuisine. I would give this restaurant a 3.5 stars.

I like the Thai tea. It has original Thai tea flavor. I forgot to tell them not put milk in it. I would like see if they can improve by just having shaved ice and no milk. No milk is customer choice. Their ice tea with shaved ice would taste great on a hot day.

I also tried pad Thai. It was ok. I would like to see if they can add a little wok fire flavor to the rice noodles.

I tried the Tom Yum soup and I like the soup very much. It has all the Thai herbs flavor. I can’t wait to try their coconut curry soup next time.

Now the papaya salad was very good, it has original Thai flavor. I just wished that they packed my cold salad with the cold desert. The salad and deserts were packed with hot food so they all warm when I got home. I had sweet rice mango topped with coconut milk. Sweet rice is over cook so they all mushed together. I like my sweet rice just cooked that you still can tell the grain not mushed like mash potato. The mango so sweet and ripe that made up for the mushed sweet rice.

I would want to come back to THAI CUISINE and try other dishes from them. This is the most authentic Thai food for the past twenty years that I live here.

Please don’t go to Thai Basil. They have multiple franchises and their food is not...

Had an okay dining experience here the other day. Firstly, the service was great- friendly and quick to take our orders and take notice if we needed someone. The dining area was nice enough as well. But I was surprised by the meal I ate. I tried the marinated bbq chicken and it was not so great. The dish consisted of seasoned bbq chicken, papaya salad, rice... the rice was nice and sticky but quality was a bit on the cheap end. I felt the rice dry and harden pretty quickly into my meal and the flavor was lacking the sweet/ nuttiness found in high quality brands. The chicken had a velveted texture, but this isn't usually a feature of Thai cooking so the only thing I could assume was that it was more slimy than part of the technique, which threw me off and made the food not so delectable. Finally, the papaya salad was of a variety I have not had before. It was served in a walled dish floating in its usual lime, fish sauce, sugary sauce... but there was an extreme amount, the dish was half filled and the salad was dripping. Now the flavor here was fine, but its meant to be a subtle touch in my experience. It overpowered the dish's flavors. Overall, not the best...