Pattaya Thai - San Diego

I recently moved to Carmel Mountain Ranch and was on the lookout for a Thai restaurant. I'm so glad I discovered Pattaya Thai—it's the best Thai food I've ever had! Be sure to try their satay chicken and yellow curry. I’ll definitely be coming back!

We are in town for the weekend for my sons 2nd bday celebration so we came to Yelp to see what was popular around our hotel! We came here expecting just a normal tai food experience but we got something amazing! We ordered the Chicken pad tai, the popular curry and also an order of chicken fried rice. Everything was amazing but let me say the pad tai was AMAZING and spot on! We had a little hiccup with the first pad tai but they made another one and it was even better. The restaurant is very clean and the wait staff and owner (I 'm assuming) it was the lady that helped us, were very nice and stayed on top of our refills which is awesome! The flavors were right on and I like that they let you order how spicy you want your food. We didn 't get anything spicy but my son ate a lot of pad tai and rice so we were excited about that. Overall the 5 stars comes from:FAST SERVICE, FAST HOT FOOD, THEY CELEBRATED AND SANG TO MY SON FOR HIS 2nd BIRTHDAY AND OVERALL THE PRICING WASN 'T OUTRAGEOUS HIGHLY RECOMMEND COMING IF YOUR BIG ON TAI FOOD!!!

The food here is good to very good, but the service varies. This time we had the standard thai papaya salad (gluten free green papaya, tomato, green bean, peanut). We were going to try the Lao papaya salad but the waitress advised us that this version would be stinky which signaled us that it was only for true Thai food aficionados, so we went for the usual. This salad was very fresh and tasty, sauce was just right in terms of spiciness and tartness. We also had a tom yum seafood soup and the three flavored sole fish (deep fried battered sole fish filet, bell pepper, onion, carrot topped with three flavor sauce). The tom yum soup was perhaps a little too salty and the deep friend sole filet just a tad too dense, but still both were good. The food and the spice rack we requested were served relatively quickly. In all, the food would probably be four stars among Thai restaurants. But the service this time anyway was at best two stars. The place was fairly busy (Saturday early evening), but not overly crowded. We had to ask repeatedly for water or extra napkins. During the time that we were struggling to get water (we had to ask three times before it was brought over), we noticed take out food customers arrive and get their orders quickly, which seemed to indicate that take out received preference to dine in as far as speed of service (somewhat like in a drive through restaurant, where the fast food place hustles to make sure the line of cars keeps moving, sometimes at the expense of walk in customers waiting for their orders inside). Water especially is essential at anyplace where spicy food is being consumed, and the servers at Pattaya really should keep an eye out for empty water glasses at tables and fill them without being asked. In all, a good experience, just needs to step up the level of service.

I know what I'll be having for lunch today, leftovers from Pattaya Thai. Yesterday we spent the entire day in San Diego visiting in-laws, then it was off to a last family stop in Highland. But first we had to do a Yelp search to find someplace to eat for dinner. Pattaya Thai Restaurant suited us both and was less than a mile and a half from where we were. After stepping inside and a short wait to be seated, we were then warmly greeted and given a choice of a table or booth, we chose a booth. Paula was our server; very friendly and very helpful when we were making our menu choices. Like spicy levels, 1-10. After hearing our past experiences she recommended 3 but still left that option to us. We selected the Bangkok Street Fried Rice, Bliss Vegetables, and the ground chicken Kha Pao. All with level 3 spicy. Separate bowls of Steamed rice also came with the orders of Bliss Vegetables and Kha Pao, so we both had our own extra rice to add to our plates. Thai iced tea completed our order. As our food started to arrive and on sampling some of each, we both enjoyed the fresh flavors but my wife commented that we could have gone up a bit more on the heat levels. And at our request, Paula obliged us with the extra condiments you usually find already provided on each table at most other Thai restaurants, but were noticeably missing here. Everything pretty much met our approval, although I thought the chicken that came with our Bangkok Street Fried Rice was a tad bit on the dry side. But the mixture of everything else, especially the Kha Pao, a first time try for us, made it all come together nicely. And with a bit of those extra spicy condiments drizzled over it all, the spicy level of my plate must have risen from a 3 to an 8! Thank God for my glasses of tea and water. We'd definitely consider Pattaya Thai as a return option, if ever in need of a meal when in the San Diego area again. Total before tip, $47.25.

It's my second review on Pattaya and nothing really changed. We came here on January 2, 2020 for a nice dinner with the family and were NOT disappointed. The usual friendly service and good Thai food. I had the Spicy Basil dish with chicken and their great Tom Yum soup. The family each had their own dishes and everyone commented on the good quality.