Thai Bistro

I love Thai food in Davis!
I would recommend:
Thai tea, Sate Gai (appetizer), Pad See Ew, Pad Kee Mao, & Pad Thai
The serving compared to Thai Canteen is a little bit smaller. The price is higher than Thai Canteen. Thai Bistro has a nice relaxing ambience. You can either sit inside or outside. I love eating outside because sometimes the trees are lit up with lights and it looks very romantic. The service is great; I have no complaints. I never tried their lunch specials, but I heard it’s cheaper. I usually come here during dinner time.
If you like a nice & cozy dinner with a special someone, this could be a nice dinner for 2.

Lunch date with some friends here.
Food:
Generous portions and flavors were pretty nice. Ordered the pad se ew, pad thai, and also the green curry. All of which is part of their lunch specials. I was pleased with how much they give you, probably makes up for how slow the food comes out.
Price:
Decent if you order off the lunch menu.
Service:
Friendly enough, but there’s only one girl working. She does everything by herself! Cooking, serving, cashiering, etc. I don’t know how she does it, which is why I’m more forgiving as to how long it takes. She’s super nice though and tries the best she can, so if you eat here and there are other tables… just expect t be waiting for a while.

This is a review for AFTER the change in ownership… I had frequented Thai Bistro since 2007, but in 2010, the old Thai owner himself told me he had transferred ownership to another couple. Sad to say I was very distraught since Thai Bistro was always a homely experience for me. I had gotten to know their previous staff well, and to my speculations, I think I saw some of the workers at Taste of Thai.
Anyway…
Food: C
When I came there, the food was being cooked by the new female co-​owner. She was by herself and the other male co-​owner was just helping her out. It did not seem there was anyone else working during the lunchtime. The Thai fried rice came out and it was mediocre and definitely different tasting. Just not the same.
Location/​Ambiance: B
The location is in Davis downtown and parking is horrendous as usual. The ambiance was fine, since the place stayed mostly the same with a few differences. It’s still a nice, quiet little restaurant with great patio seating.
Service: C
Although the new couple co-​owners were new at the time, there is no excuse for bad or slow service. They seemed to be struggling and were so busy trying to cook the food that there was not much interaction or customer service. They could be improved now however.
Prices: C+
For the prices of the food for the quality of it? Forget it. I used to come to this place 2 – 3 times a week paying $ 10 in total for the Thai fried rice and Thai ice tea and I was completely okay with it. But now with the Thai competition in Davis heating up, the overpriced meals are not worth it anymore for Thai Bistro. Expect to pay $ 10++
TL;DR? Thai Bistro had CHANGED OWNERS since about 2010. Quality of Food and Service are DIFFERENT! Unless they up their game, Recommend eating at the other 7 – 8 Thai Places!

I’ve come here multiple times, and I’m still iffy about it.
The service is always just barely adequate. The service is super slow, but the same girl always smiles apologetically as she sets our food down, which makes me feel bad for her.
The duck curry here is alright. They always serve a ton of it, but it’s more expensive than it is at other places. The water, however, is delicious. They flavor it with lime and mint, I think.
I suppose if you want to take someone on a date, this is a good place, because it’s extremely quiet, and there’s rarely anyone in there. But for friends, I would try somewhere else.

Had planned on visiting one of the sushi places but they were packed. So this place showed up less than a block away and figured I couldn’t go wrong with Thai.
Well, let’s just say that this place wasn’t busy and the service was still horrible. There was only two other tables that were being serviced while my mom and I were here and we were ignored after we received our food.
Another issue I had was the fact that they weren’t able to offer two dishes that we wanted. They didn’t have the noodles for Pad See Eew. WTF?! Majorily disappointed. I ended up getting the Pad Thai and it had a weird flavor to it and extra veggies that don’t normally come in most Pad Thai’s that I’ve had.
Glad I don’t live in Davis, so I won’t have to go here again.

When I first came to Davis, this place was the thai place to go. But my recent trip here was a disappointment. I took it Togo when it was completely empty.
Got the hot and sour soup: decent.
Got some green curry that had egg plant in it: oily, had maybe two spoon of it and threw the rest away.
Got pineapple fried rice: had to use soy sauce to give it flavor (which I had it here before and it was delicious) & found a hair in it! Come on it wasn’t even busy! Can’t be making that kind of mistakes!
I think they changed ownership or something because it was all new faces and of course different gears in taste but who knows!

There’s a bunch of Thai places in the small town Davis.
This is the best Thai restaurant in my opinion (And I’ve worked at one of them in Davis –_​-​). Always came here for birthdays, get togethers, random outings. Though small, the atmosphere is quite nice and really good for small groups and dates.
They put apples in your water, and service is always great. The Pad Thai tastes perfect and the Pad Kee Mao is the best I’ve ever had! It’s so delicious, I order it to go sometime when I crave Thai food.
Plus, it’s right next to Baskin Robbins so you know what that means! Tuesday dollar scoops!

This was my favorite Thai restaurant while I was still a student at Davis. My all time favorite dish here is the Kao Soi. Since leaving Davis, I have searched high and low… near and far… for another Kao Soi on par with Thai Bistro’s. Sadly, I have yet to find one. None other have achieved the creamy curry yumminess that Thai Bistro’s has. I make excuses to come back to Davis partially to eat here. No joke! Even the creepy grandpa waiter does not detract from my 5-​star rating.

Not the best Thai place in Davis.
I enjoyed the pad-​thai and the sour soup (I forgot what it was called) because they were both extremely tasty. It was the yellow curry that was a bit disappointing to me. It lacked body and flavor. It was very basic with the potato, onion, and chicken. The curry was watery and lifeless.
Also, my pet peeve is… WHO charges for rice?! Especially when you order curry. Rice should come with curry!!!
BUT I love their thai tea and thai coffee, so cheap too!

I’m surprised by the lack of higher star reviews here! I’m a huge fan of Thai Bistro. With the plethora of poor quality Thai restaurants in Davis, this place stands out to me.
I really only like one thing at Thai restaurants, and that is Pad Kee Mao. Thai Bistro has one of my favorite Pad Kee Maos. It comes in a huge portion, is always fresh and tasty, and seasoned just right with just the right amount of veggies to noodle ratio. I’m also a fan of the owner and he makes me like this place even more.

This was the first Thai restaurant I went to in Davis. I liked it a lot. Then I went to the other Thai restaurants (Thai Nakorn, Ket Mo ree). And I didn’t like this place as much anymore.
The thing with Thai Bistro is that you truly want to like it. They have a real Thai cooks and authentic wait staff and ambiance that give it a very comfortable and homey feel. Thing is, the quality of their food is inconsistent and the flavors can get pretty extreme. My seafood special curry tasted like dessert because it was so sweet. My friend’s rice couldn’t be eaten without being drenched completely in curry sauce because it was so dry. Another time, my green curry was pretty salty and just too creamy to eat too much at a time.
I’ve had better luck with the noodles here. Their pad thai is really flavorful and abundant in a lot of ingredients. I also like their pad see yew when I want something different (wide noodles stir fried with basil, onion and egg).
This place seems to be one of mix-​reviews so I would encourage you to try here if you are curious but not to have too high of expectations.

When it comes to Thai restaurants, Davis seems to open one as often as a froyo place. I guess it’s nice to have choices. The fave go-​to Thai place for most undergrads is Sophia’s. I used to follow the hype… before my stomach decided to rebel it – let’s say my tummy did not think Sophia’s food was all that and a bag of chips.
I like Thai Bistro because it’s never too busy. I’m not a big fan of the wait at Sophia’s OR the dark/​poorly lit vibe. I think one time I read my menu with the backlight of my cell phone. I also think it’s refreshing to not have a college student be my waiter or waitress. The older employees of Thai Bistro may be a tad slow but they’re super friendly and are really good with refilling your water glass — that’s always a +1 in my book.
I will admit that the food here is not AS flavorful or spicy compared to other Thai joints in town, but the portions and prices are fair. I like to order pad kee mao sometimes as opposed to my usual pad thai, and Thai Bistro cooks it just right. I made the mistake of ordering it at Sophia’s one time — that stuff was so soggy, it was almost inedible but I ate it anyway… because gosh darn it, I was paying for it! My only peeve with pad kee mao at Thai Bistro is that it isn’t very spicy, although it says «spicy» in the description.
If you’re a fan of pad thai, but not familiar with the «bean cake» texture common in a lot of Asian dishes (my exposure has mostly been with Chinese dishes), you might be turned off by Thai Bistro’s pad thai — many seem to find it difficult to chew, pretty much inedible and should not be considered food. Plus, it only comes with shrimp, though I’ve never tried asking if they can substitute it with chicken or add chicken to it… oops lol :)
THE OC’S FINAL THOUGHTS: The cucumber salad here is simple but refreshing. The chicken satay is decent, but nothing special. My fave spicy dish (that’s actually been spicy for me every time), is the panang nuer — it’s a sliced beef curry dish and absolutely delicious… even the next day!

Thai Bistro is my favorite Thai restaurant!
The restaurant is pretty cramped, but definitely worth it. Get the pad thai! In my opinion, Thai Bistro serves the best pad thai in Davis! It has a perfect balance of flavors, and comes in a VERY generous portion. Their spicy curry has a flavorful punch on your taste palate in every bite you take, too.
However, be prepared, broke college students — they charge you for rice without telling you. And try not to sit by the window/​door because there are a ton of bugs. Well, I guess that’s a given because even the bugs can tell Thai Bistro is ridiculously tasty!

My co-​worker and I decided to have lunch on Friday 4−9−10. She wanted to eat at Thai Bistro and since I never been, I decided to try it out.
We both ordered Pad Thai and she ordered a Thai ice coffee. A little salad was served before the entrée came out. I actually like the salad dressing they used. The pad thai was just OKAY, it wasn’t like an explosion of flavors like other pad thai from other restaurants. I had better. The portion of pad thai given was good. I only ate half and had to take the rest home, since I don’t like to waste food. The Thai ice coffee was good, it wasn’t bitter or too sweet, just perfect.
Since it was just OK for me, I might not return to this Thai restaurant in Davis. There are so many other Thai places in Davis. However, I know this is my friend’s favorite, maybe they don’t make good pad thai, but other dishes could be yummy.

If you’re ever in UC Davis, hit up downtown so that you can have a variety of good restaurants to pick from! I’m actually pretty jealous that UC Davis has a downtown whereas UCI doesn’t have one within biking distance — rather we have restaurants within business plazas that are not really populated with college students, but instead with older, middle class Asians.
Anyways! About Thai Bistro, it has a really cute setting, and I felt very comfortable and at ease sitting here. I really like how restaurants in Davis make good use of their space! My cousin and I were quickly seated by the friendly waitress, and we asked for her opinion on what to order. We ended up ordering this curry that she said was popular with most people (darn it’s, I forgot the name!), and a fried banana for dessert. The main dish came out in no longer than five or six minutes, and my cousin and I were very pleased with the prompt and attentive service — just for this, we tipped the waitress more. She always made sure our glass was full and kept checking in if we liked the food or if there anything she could get us.
But oh man, the curry was SO delicious! It wasn’t filled with too much aroma, but just right. You know, a lot of curries nowadays tend to smell a bit too strong, but I fell in love with this one. One order of this curry was enough to feed two people with white rice. I think this place charges $ 1 per person for white rice, but that’s not bad. The bill came out to be $ 18, and in my opinion, very affordable for college students.
I’d definitely come here again if I’m craving Thai food!

This Thai place was… okay…
I ordered the Pad Kee Mao lunch special and, while it was flavorful, the noodles seemed like they stuck together and were reheated somehow. Something about the package made it seem like it wasn’t cooked fresh. It may have had something to do with the way the sauce congealed on the food.
I want to give it another try because oftentimes restaurants put less effort into their lunch specials than their normal meals and I was told that many in Davis prefer this Thai restaurant to the others. I’ll definitely be coming back.

I went in expecting overpriced Americanized Thai food justified by glorified plating, location, and ambiance, but was proven oh so wrong.
The complimentary salad was pretty sad looking what with the few pieces of slightly discolored lettuce, but it was still crisp and the dressing they used was tasty and in the appropriate amount. Despite the minor setback, I can’t complain too much seeing that this is the first time I’ve ever received a complimentary anything other than water from a Thai restaurant. Speaking of water, though the flavoring was practically undetectable, there were huge slices of apples and lemon in the pitcher, and they were very good about keeping the glasses full. The servers (and it seems one of them might have been the owner) came out often to refill our water glass and to see how everything was, so that’s a plus.
I ordered the pad see-​ewe and my friend ordered the kao soi. The portions are big enough that you can make two meals out of each entrée, so in that sense, paying $ 8 for each is really a steal. I’ll have to come back and try their red curry (then if that goes well they’ll earn their fifth star), but for now, I can easily say Osha Thai and King of Thai in SF do not hold a candle to Thai Bistro (though the former are open late and KoT is somewhat cheaper).

a total date place where I come happily (and rebelliously) with large groups of people: D
Food is always quick, hot and oh my word delicious. I inhale this food and I can’t ever seem to get enough rice (served in a stainless steel? urn type thing. I have to resist the urge to rub it and make a wish) and yellow curry (it’s pansy curry for a giant pansy *bows*).
Our party of 8 paid $ 12 each for phuket lamb, pad thai, chicken pad see ew (delicious but had unexpected mushroom undertones, but luckily i love them), chicken mango (that mango is last-​meal worthy), yellow curry and barbecued duck. I moved back to the Bay Area after college and i’d drive up in a heartbeat to repeat this.
Also, their Thai iced tea is creamy and not too sweet.
4 stars for now — i’ll reserve the last one for the next time i go and check out the bathroom situation!

It doesn’t look much from the outside but you will be greeted with nicely placed tables with small vases of flowers.
I admit there wasn’t much to their menu but hey, «quality over quantity» and boy did they serve.
I had their pineapple seafood for lunch and it was amazing. Pineapple with squid, potatoes in a yellow curry with coconut milk with a mound of rice in the shape of a heart. These guys definitely win with presentation.
Eating it was great too. The squid is usually something I’m hesitant about because if they can’t cook it right, it would take a person a good full 5 minutes to chew the damn thing. Thai Bistro cooked that squid like a 5-​star restaurant steak. It was soft and not feisty to stay in one piece.
Price is reasonable! $ 7 for my meal. Oh and even their water is amazing. Who wants regular tap water when you can bump it up a notch with mint leaves and lime slices in the pitcher when they serve you water?! Oh yea, mint leaves.

Disclaimer: I’m only giving it 2 Stars because my sister seemed to find it «decent.»
My sister, who just started at UC Davis picked the restaurant because she was having a hankering for thai curry, and picked this place based on the reviews on Unilocal.
We ordered Yellow Curry — Chicken, Lemongrass Chicken, and Tom Yum soup. BIG dissapointment, especially for the price (quite pricey — but what Thai food isn’t?) First of all, the yellow curry, was decent, but the potatoes were hard and crumbly — they tasted as if they had been freeze dried. The lemongrass Chicken was not tasty but bland. Tom Yum soup — which we were most excited about, was SWEET! and somewhat hot and sour, but mostly Sweet, and it came first — so I had basically lost my appetite after the soup.
Major dissapointment, as with those three things, the bill was $ 40.
They do have outdoor seating.
They DO NOT take Discover Card — only Visa/​MC.