Esan Zap Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Washington

I'm not having great luck here with restaurants and quality of service. Recently moved into the area, tried a pizza place two nights ago that was terrible and now this. I'll start with the positive. I ordered once before from this place with no issues. However it was a very simple order (2 pad thai's). Flavor was great. Decided to order again this past weekend. We ordered over $73 worth of food so that we could try more dishes. When I arrived at the restaurant to pick up my order I paid, tipped, and then glanced at the order slip as I was about to leave and saw that there was a "mango paradise" on my order when it should have been mango fried rice. The hostess confirmed the mistake with the kitchen and said they would make the correct item and asked if I could wait. I agreed as the family member who ordered that dish didn't want to try mango paradise. The hostess then tried to open my packaged bag of food to take the incorrect item out but couldn't get the bag open. So she took the entire bag of food back to the kitchen. I started feeling uneasy knowing someone was in the kitchen digging through my food. Now I am not cheap and not looking for freebies, but why wouldn't they just leave my already packaged bag "as is" and give the incorrect item for free?!? I thought restaurants weren't supposed to take anything back that was still going to be eaten (the correct dishes)?!? I know even Dairy Queen says they can't take anything back through the window after it's been handed to a customer. Not sure? I need to check with the health department. Anyways....15 minutes later I'm still waiting so I ask the hostess if my correct dishes were now going to be cold while waiting for the correction of the wrong dish. I was getting frustrated. She didn't have any answers. I waited anyways because I had already paid and had hungry people at home. Here's the best part...when I got home the mango fried rice which was what had to be re-made due to their error, WAS STILL INCORRECT! It was pineapple fried rice. My family member who ordered this specifically ordered it because they didn't want pineapple. And needless to say...the rest of the food was not hot. I live 7 minutes from the restaurant. The food that we had to reheat and then did eat was flavorful. So tough decision if we will order again. Too...

May 2023 Ordered lunch online from here, and the food was all pretty good. Though I would have appreciated more rice for the curry. The online ordering process was easy and straightforward. I do want to caution that even their mild spiciness is still spicy, so the 1.5 spicy level may be a bit much for those that prefer less spicy.

The restaurant itself is pretty cozy, and it seems they have a front and a back, separated by a door. In the front is the bar with some small tables. The glimpse I got of the back looked like it had more tables for dining in. The front was dimly lit, those still decently bright in the afternoon due to the large windows. My online order was sitting on the bar top, and a staff member was quick to greet me when I entered and hand me my order.

All of the food was good, though again, I do wish there was more rice for the curries. The Jade curry was delicious, not oily, and with a good amount of veggies and meat. The My Woman Curry was surprisingly sweet (and still spicy), but also very good with a decent amount of veggies and meat. The Boat Noodles too were good, but needed more noodles. The Pad Thai was also delicious and had a decent amount of meat.

Overall, would come again, but definitely need...

Okay, so we've eaten here 3 times now so I feel like I can give a fair review. First time, everything was WAY too spicy. We ordered all our dishes at a 2 star (where a 1 is no spice) and it was almost inedible. Second time we got the spice level right (1.5 for us), and the dishes tasted amazing, but honestly for the price there was very little veggies and meat. I mean, come on, $16 for dish that was pretty much all noodles is kind of outrageous. Third time our favorite dish from our first 2 visits (Rama Noodles) was awesome. The noodle to veggie/meat ratio was right on, finally. This time it was rainy and cold outside, so I decided to try my favorite Thai staple, Tom Yum. What a mistake. I have tried Tom Yum at literally every Thai restaurant in the area, and this was one of the worst. The shrimp was overcooked to the point of tasting like rubber, and the broth was so. very. salty. I was so disappointed. Will we eat here again? Yes. Because they are pretty much it in this town if you want Thai food on Sunday. Other than that though, I think I'll stick with somewhere that can do justice...