Illusions Thai Cafe

Worst Thai food I have ever eaten. If I ever want green curry flavored water or a nice helping of vinegar and fish sauce masquerading as Tom (Not So) Yum Soup, I’ll know where to go!

The restaurant looks nice, the waiters are friendly. But the food not so good. I had vegetarian pad thai and vegetarian curry and I was disappointed by both. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t too good either. Maybe I’ll try more dishes here. I don’t know.
Also the people at the bar can be pretty loud. Not sure what rating to give this place yet, I might give it another chance.

I have been going here for years. The staff is friendly and the food is good. I love the Basil Chicken. They also have a new item called KhaoMunGai it’s very good. I am not really sure how to describe it but you have to check it out.

This place is just meh. It reminds me of fast food Chinese food, but Thai. Ordered the crispy basil chicken and it was just fried breading on romaine. The pad zee ew was very sweet, and the beef was low quality. Hardly had any vegetables. It is nice that they deliver. Wouldn’t order here again.

Love the the Drunken Noodles with gravy! Experience there was nice everyone was polite and we weren’t rushed out (Blizzard 2016.)

Illusions is my favorite Thai restaurant in the VA/​DC/​MD area! This little restaurant is located in the Mark Center, next to Global Food. They have an extensive menu, offering items such as salads, soups, appetizers (spring rolls, fried tofu, wings, etc.), noodles/​fried rice entrees, chicken/​beef/​seafood entrees, vegetarian options, and a bar (which serves up drinks and HH specials). The hubs and I always get the Lunch/​Dinner Bento Tower, as it allows you to sample a variety of dishes — this actually comes out in stackable metal containers, clasped up — the server then unclasps and splits each container for you, sets it on the table, and takes the clasp contraption away. You get to choose 2 out of the 8 options they have — I always get the Panang Chicken (thick and creamy peanut-​y sauce with a generous amount of chicken) and the Pad Woon Sen (stir-​fried thin cellophane noodles with shrimp and chicken); the hubs always gets double orders of the Ka Prow Gai Sup (chopped chicken in a lovely garlic basil sauce that has a nice kick). Rice is included, and it is great just putting the sauces on the rice! You can end the meal with sticky mango rice or the vanilla ice cream with fudge — both yummy: D Everything always comes out super hot and fresh, and, while it may look a little small in terms of portions, it will fill you up! The staff here are super friendly and kind, and they check up on you to make sure that everything is great. Be sure to check out this little gem out! :D Side note: they have a foosball table: O
+Lunch/​Dinner Bento Tower — 2 dishes and rice!
+Panang Chicken: D
+Ka Prow Gai Sup: D
+Pad Woon Sen: D
+super friendly staff! :D
+located in the Mark Center, next to Global Food
+plenty of parking in the plaza lot

I was really excited to find a Thai place so close to my new apartment — and unfortunately, I was disappointed.
The first time I went in, I sat at the bar by myself and ordered the salmon dinner box. Although the salad and sushi rolls were good, the salmon and rice were absolutely drenched in a sweet sauce. But I washed it all down with a Blue Moon and it was good enough experience. I noticed the bar was a little loud, but I attributed that to whatever game was on that night. Service was decent enough, I never ran out of water, but I noticed the waitresses were pretty friendly with their patrons. I also noticed half the customer at the bar were sweating bullets, slurring their speech, and tossing back drinks very quickly.
The next time I went in, I did two carryout orders of Chicken Pad Thai with my boyfriend. We ordered the dumplings to share. I enjoyed the food, don’t get me wrong, but I still felt like it was greasy. Our service was fast, and since it was a Sunday, the game was on and of course the bar was packed, so I appreciated it.
Anyway, I decided to swing by with my roommate for dinner last night. I had been craving sushi and talked her into it as well.
We walked in and were greeted by the waitresses, and a few patrons who, from their rambling may have had a few too many. (On a Tuesday. Geez.)
But apparently they don’t serve sushi on Tuesdays and Saturdays? Just wish our waitress would have said something before we had to ask. I then asked why California rolls would be included in the dinner special if they’re not available every day, and she replied that it would be substituted with a fried spring roll. Not one for greasy meals, I asked if summer rolls were avilable. She said they were, but that they couldn’t substitute it. What?!
Another thing we noticed is that as she was getting our glasses of water, she coughed without covering her mouth… into my roommate’s glass. Ugh.
I really wanted to like this place, I really did. But between the drunks hanging out at the bar every night of the week and the poor service, it’s just not worth the illusion.

I went yesterday for lunch and I am still sick today. YUCK! I ordered the beef salad at lunch and it had some white crunchy unchewable, unidentifiable things sprinkled on top. I am not sure exactly what made me sick but I know for sure that I will not be back. I don’t recommend this place. So disappointed.

Gross… I ordered lunch special pad thai. My plate was dirty as was the restaurant. I left once I saw a roach crawling by my table. The layer of dust and spider webs on the window were also very off putting.
Then to put cherry on top of my experience the service was not good. I asked for my check and after waiting got up to get it and just found the two employees just chatting at the bar. Unfortunate!

This was easily the worst Thai takeaway I’ve had in a very long while. I had the Pad Zee-​U and it was awful. We called ahead and had it delivered.
As soon as I opened the box it smelled incredibly burnt. The oil tasted old, as if it had not be changed in a very long time. It, and I am not kidding you, left gray and black streaks of grease on my plate. I thought it only smelled bad, and my boyfriend tried telling me it was «charred», but my stomach is so unhappy right now and I am not looking forward to tomorrow. Don’t do it.
I can’t comment on the dine-​in experience, but I probably won’t go there any time soon. No illusions. Just disappointments.

The lunch specials r amazing and the bar is stocked I like the stir fry chicken rice or noodles,

Okay this place is super weird. Went in for pad Thai and got the weirdest food – super, super rubbery and utterly tasteless.
They listed their special outside and when we sat down inside were told it no longer applied. Okay… take your sign down then. False advertising.
Décor is like… dance club meets preschool meets beach theme. Super weird, but whatever.
No way I’m going back.

They have now surpassed my dinning expectations. I enjoy very much the ambience, the centric location and specials for lunch and dinner. The staff is friendly and serviceable.
The food is very good and portions are just right.

Since my last visit, I have returned once again for a work lunch. I have to say, this time around, my experience was much better. If I could, I would provide them with 3.5 stars total.
We came in fairly early for lunch (11:30 am) and the place was empty. We expected that we could be in and out. We were way wrong. So I suggest that if you only have limited time for lunch to do carry out, or call ahead and order before arriving. We ordered and waited at least 30 minutes for our food.
The service was okay. The owner that I had recognized from before was great and attentive. The server we had that day was a little frantic, messed up our order twice and brought us the wrong check. While I’d understand if it was busy, it was pretty slow.
We ordered the shrimp pad Thai and vegetable green curry.
The shrimp pad Thai was good, but lacking shrimp. The noodles were the perfect texture flavors were just right. The pad Thai was dry which I love. Some places make it too watery so they were on point with this. While this isn’t the best pad Thai, it’s definitely good.
The green curry was delicious. It wasn’t thick like your usual curry, it was actually lighter but had great flavor. It had a good amount of vegetables and tofu. The tofu was firm and fried — so good. And they have the best rice — hands down. They use a good quality long grain — Mmmmm perfect with the curry!
Glad I gave them another chance, because this time around was worth it.
I’d definitely come back during a work lunch!
The prices are good. They have $ 1 Thai teas for lunch.
Parking is easy.

If you are looking for authentic Thai dishes, a calm and relaxed atmosphere and prompt and attentive service, then look no further because illusions will allow you to search the internet on your phone for that place. While you’re searching order some spring rolls @ $ 4 for 2 the size of a half eaten snickers. You’ll have a long time to wait so feel free to get a few other apps as well. Not appetizers, phone apps. Order an entrée as well. The food is well priced for the size of the portion. I had plenty of time to level up on candy crush waiting for my check. This may have been just an off experience, but hey gotta thank them for allowing me time to do some other things. My War and Peace download is at 89%. Win win

What a pathetic experience. I took the day off from work on a Monday and thought I could come here for a good meal. I had been recommended the place, after all. It was early so we were the only people there at that time so I was certain we would receive great service.
I asked about the sushi and was told that the person was on break (he/​she never came while I was there so I never did have any). Despite the fact that we were the only ones there, we hardly had any attention from the waitress. Everything took a long time. I was enticed to order the wings from their poster located on the window. Needless to say it doesn’t look like that and it isn’t worth it. It’s very expensive for wings and ours were dry and burned. It was bad enough that we took the food home and left the wings. I won’t be returning to this place. Not even remotely acceptable service, poor food quality and terrible pricing.

The food was terrible. My cousin and I came here, got the wings which was the only good part of dinner, but super pricey. We had this chicken noodle salad dish from the appetizer– disguisting. The chicken didn’t look cooked, and we had to sent it back. They brought it back to us the second time, looked the same. The chicken also was unusually chewy in a bad way. I had this crispy spicy chicken dish– it tasted greasy and lack flavor. The pad Thai was decent. I wouldn’t come back– there are better thai restaurants that are so much better.

The signs plastered all over the outside said $ 6 lunch special, but once we were seated the waiter said they didn’t have those anymore. All of the lunch specials they did have were chicken, which we didn’t want, but the prices were so high it was no big loss. We ordered Pad Thai Pak, specifically because it has tofu, but when it came out there was no tofu in it.
Unfortunately our waiter never found this out because he let someone else drop our plates even though the place was nearly empty, and never asked us how things were. The runner asked, but when I said there was no tofu she just looked confused and walked away.
Anyway, the bottom line is that nothing was as advertised, the food we got was incorrect (and mediocre), and our waiter couldn’t have cared less about us. Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Even though it’s called a Thai Café, this is more Asian fusion than traditional Thai food. I came in on a Sunday and all the waitresses had on Redskins jerseys which was cute.
I opted for takeout instead of dining in but the lady taking my order was polite. I left with my orange chicken and was satisfied. Chicken was cooked well and the orange sauce was sweet with a nice tang to it.
All in all a decent place to grab some takeout and run, as I have friend who lives in the area, I’d come back again for another round.

I visited Illusions once, and I can say that if you have illusions of getting a spectacular meal, you’re delusional. That said, what I had was OK, but nothing special.
My friend and I started with gyoza (fried dumplings) and a bowl of tom yum goong soup. The dumplings were a little greasy, but were decent. The tom yum goong soup was too sour and lemony. Their version was also a bit unusual in that it contained largish chunks of canned tomatoes.
For my entrée I wanted to get the «duck ka prow», unfortunately they were out of duck. Instead, I settled for the «crispy chicken basil», but I asked for it really spicy. The chicken had a tempora-​style coating and fried. My chicken was a little greasy, but was decent (but it really wasn’t spicy). I was expecting some type of sauce, but my chicken came in a bowl on a bed of shredded cabbage. It was also served with steamed rice.
My friend ordered the «gang pak» (vegetarian curry). The first bowl was served with a hair in it, but our server removed the bowl as soon as we informed her. Oddly, she asked if my friend wanted another bowl… in my experience, when similar things have happened at other restaurants, the server volunteered to bring a replacement dish.
Illusion’s décor is sort of «new age» — meaning it has a funky paint job and other architectural features. They also have what appeared to be a full bar — I was there late afternoon on a Saturday in early winter and there were several people watching college football (they were rather loud).
One other noteworthy feature is the door sign on the men’s room (yes, you read that correctly). I posted a photo.