Manaao - Thai Comfort Food — Restaurant in Tustin

Manaoo Thai Comfort Food is the place to go for authentic Thai food in Orange County. The food is delicious and the service is excellent. The restaurant has a modern and fresh ambiance and is perfect for a quick bite or a leisurely meal. My server was friendly, informative and helpful. His recommendations were top notch. I appreciated that he was armed with a tablet and ready to show me photos of any dishes I was unfamiliar with. I opened my meal with a Manaao Thai Iced Tea. I would describe it as a Thai Tea Arnold Palmer. It is dairy-free and perfect for my lactose sensitive butt. The fresh lime juice takes the rich and creamy thai tea and turns it into a lighter, more refreshing drink that pairs perfectly with traditional Thai cuisine. The first dish they brought me was the Papaya Salad. I love that they give you the option of having it plain, with soft shell crab or with grilled giant river prawn. I knew I had to have it with the giant river prawn. The prawn was cooked to perfection with just the right amount of smokiness. Green papaya salad is one of my favorite dishes of all time and this one did not disappoint. The lime juice and fish sauce in the recipe gave the dish the liveliest and most exuberant flavors. The second dish they brought to the table was the green curry with beef rib-eye and roti. When I say this dish was so fine. When I tell this dish was scrumpdillitious! I can never go back to thai curry with rice. Roti is clearly superior and the perfect accompaniment to the curry. It soaks up every last delicious drop. I really appreciate the crisp and chewy perfection that is Manaao’s green thai curry. My next dish was one of the most mind blowingly good things I have ever tasted. There is a non zero chance it is because of the house made sambal sauce that the dish was served. I ordered the grilled pork jowl. It was succulent and cooked to absolute perfection. Back to the sambal sauce. That was one of the greatest things I have ever tasted. It was so good I asked for a to go container. My last entree was the classic pad see eew. I absolutely love that this restaurant is authentic and didn’t go throwing in random ingredients that didn’t belong in pad see eew. It was simple, and delicious and I will definitely be back for more. Of course I couldn’t go to a delicious new restaurant and not order a dessert. I decided, after discussing options with my server, that I wanted to try the rice balls in coconut cream. It had a bouncy, chewy mochi like texture. The coconut milk makes it taste like creamy heaven. An honorable mention goes to the Tom Kha Beer. It was one of the most intriguing alcoholic beverages I’ve ever had. I took a sip of my friend because they ordered it. The light fragrance of lemongrass, bergamot leaves, galangal and coconut makes it the perfect light alcoholic beverage to pair with authentic thai cuisine. The service at Manaoo Thai Comfort Food is excellent. The staff is friendly and attentive, and they are always happy to answer questions about the menu. My only bummer was that I had heard their catfish is a must try and I happen to come in on a day they had sold out of it. Just writing this review is making my mouth water. I can’t wait to go back and order the catfish. 10 out of 10, would recommend. The cuisine is...

A friend heard about this place so a few of us decided to check it out.

They're located in a small old strip mall. Parking is pretty tight and limited, so expect to park on the street or be patient for someone to leave. The restaurant sign is up on the far right of the building, but they moved to the far left of the strip mall.

The decor is new, clean, bright and modern.

I arrived before my friends, so checked in at the ipad kyosk as soon as I arrived. I was notified that they could seat me before my party arrives, but that there is a time limit of 90 minutes once seated. 🙄 I opted to wait for my friends to arrive so that we wouldn't feel so rushed to eat. The gal at the front was very nice, courteous and helpful..

Once we sat, they seemed rushed to take our order. We ordered one of their most popular dishes, which was a yellow curry with noodles. It was very good, but my friends said it was too rich due to the coconut milk, but I thought it was perfect in every way. I'd definitely come back just for this dish.

When our food arrived, our table was missing a set of utensils and some bowls, which we kept trying to get the attention of staff to get some. At one point I got up to help myself to the bowls which were on a rack right next to our table when one if the older server ladies yelled at me not to help ourselves. I guess they just want you to sit till the food is cold and your 90 min are up. Lol.

We also order Tom Yum soup, which was severely lacking in flavor & spice. It was the one dish that I was really looking forward to, but it was a complete & utter dissapointment. Zero taste! I'm talking complete failure on all levels. It's hard to believe anyone could screw up this classic Thai dish so badly.

We ordered the Crying Tiger Beef, which was just ok. I've had better at Thai restaurants with less hype.

We also got the clams, which were also bland and nothing special at all. We barely ate any, so it was a waste.

We got some beef dish that had burnt pieces of beef and very little flavor. I could've definitely made it better at home.

Their sticky rice was not as sweet or as sticky as I had hoped. We only ate half of the small serving.

Their papaya salad was very good and we all agreed was the best dish of the night. We ordered medium spice, but it was almost unbearably spicy, and thats coming from a group of people who can handle their spice. I would've enjoyed it more if the heat from the spice didn't steal the show.

We had a traditional Thai dessert, which was very good and enjoyable. It would've been more enjoyable if the staff didn't stand starring at us as if rush us out of there, especially since we were nowhere even near the 90 minute limit.

There are several more authentic Thai restaurants closer to home for me, so I highly doubt that I would drive 30 min to ever eat here again, but I'm glad...

I get my lashes done a few doors down from Manaao, and I swear I never see this place without a long line of people waiting outside. Today, I finally got to try it. I made sure to brush up on people’s reviews and recommendations beforehand. We arrived right at 4:30 PM which I thought was early but apparently not because we were #8 on the waitlist! Lol. This place isn’t messing around, and neither are the people in line. Something tells me this isn’t their first rodeo. We waited about 10 minutes, which gave us enough time to plan out our whole order so we wouldn’t waste time once seated. Our server, Kenny, was quick, attentive, and checked in on us throughout the meal. We ordered the Chu Chee Curry with Fried Catfish Filet this dish kept popping up in the reviews, so we had to try it. This definitely lived up to the hype! Then came the Fried Crab Rice. The rice was kinda dry. There was some sauce on the side to help. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, but we hit rice overload since the Chu Chee curry already came on a giant bed of rice. Next was the Morning Glory and we loved it. Having some greens on the side is always a good idea. Lastly, my boyfriend ordered the Rib Eye Green Curry with Roti. He enjoyed the rib eye, but we both agreed that getting two curry dishes was a bit much. Everything was tasty, but next time we’ll skip the green curry and fried crab rice to try something new. I heard they just moved into this bigger space from the smaller suite next door, and judging by how busy they are, they could probably expand again to keep up with the crowds. We’ll definitely be back and next time, we’re bringing more people so we can try more dishes. This is a must try if you’re a Thai food...