Duangrat’s Thai Restaurant

One of the best Thai restaurants we’ve visited in DC area. Loved the assortment of small plates offered during lunch hours on weekends. The atmosphere was delightful and service was spot on. Definitely plan to return!

As someone who use to live in Thailand and got accustom to eating great Thai food on a regular basis, I had almost given up hope of finding a Thai restaurant in the NOVA/​DC area that could come close to the real Thai food experience. Luckily we found Duangrat Restaurant and all is good in my world. While admittedly its not the same as a top Thai restaurant in the motherland, it is about as close as you will come in the US to a real Thai food experience/​Thai service.
The weekend sampler/​small plates are highly recommended and allow the patron an opportunity to experiment with the various Thai dishes without breaking the bank. This option is available from 11 am — 3 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
We thoroughly enjoyed eating the papaya salad, green curry chicken, cod fillet, panang curry chicken, chicken pad thai and Issan sampler. All dishes were equally good and not overly spices, however, I am sure this restaurant would have sufficient ingredients to «spice» it up if needed.
Additionally, the service at the restaurant and décor makes one feel pretty much like they are back in Thailand.
The cost is reasonable. For anyone wanting to try a real good Thai restaurant, I highly recommend Duangrat.

Great experience and great service. Food was awesome as always. We even got to sit on the patio and enjoy dinner outside.

Fuck yes. Some places just deserve a simple and direct review. Try the crab fried rice. Great service as well. Will def come out here for it again.

What a pleasant surprise! The interior, waitstaff and menu is impressive given the neighborhood.
The servings are generous, excellent service, and the food is delicious.

Amazing Thai food! I had been here once before years ago, so I brought a friend recently. It was just as delicious as I remembered. The local is in a bit of an awkward place but once you find it its fine. The interior of the restaurant gives of a wonderful elegant vibe, lovely for a nice dinner. As for the food, the chicken Pad Thai is by far the best in the area. Definitely go for it! Some other really good options are the pork spring rolls and the chicken with cashews. I’ll definitely be back.

This is a solid solid Thai restaurant!
Atmosphere: Much fancier than your local hole in the wall thai place. This place has glittery chandeliers and fancy plates and bowls.
Food:
CHICKEN PAD THAI. Different from any other I have had. I know this is a «very common dish» but trust me, this place makes it SO SO WELL. I seriously wanted to eat my boyfriend’s entire bowl. I had to hold myself back.
The other dishes were all pretty good too from the Pad See Ew to the more meaty dishes. Everything was very tasty.
Desserts — a lot of variety of desserts were offered. I recommend the coconut ice cream and banana fritters. You can substitute different ice cream from what’s suggested.
Prices were very decent, esp. for the amount and quality of food you got. I was impressed.
Service:
Excellent. People were friendly and accommodating. Food came out quickly and our glasses were filled. A great time was had.
Again, I highly recommend the Chicken Pad Thai!!! Otherwise, I recommend this place overall as well.

Went here with a friend the other night based on a recommendation. A little hard to find at first, but it’s right off Route 7, near the shopping center with Trader Joe’s and Best Buy and all. We didn’t have any problem finding a parking space which was nice. When we went inside, we were quickly greeted and led to a table in a nice booth setting. The interior of the restaurant is really quite beautiful, and captures a lot of the Thai culture.
We ordered tea to share and spring rolls to start with. The spring rolls were small, but really delicious — not to heavy or oily. My friend got a crispy chicken noodle dish which he said we good. I ordered the chicken drunken noodles. While the prices are a bit high, they give you massive serving size. My dish was really good, and I ate the entire thing. The only element lacking in the experience was that our waiter was no where to be found after we ordered. We probably worked with three different people throughout the meal in order to get drink refills and such. However I would still highly recommend the restaurant.

Great ambience, excellent food! Menu is different than typical Thai places. Lychee dumplings, pork chiangmai and crispy nest noodles all excellent!
Best Thai is Nova so far!

This review is a little too late since I’ve been coming here for a year (consistently) now. Honestly, I’ve tasted a lot of what their menu has to offer but I’ve been sticking with some favorites for some time now.
Soup — Tom yum
Salad — ramen salad
Main dish — chicken basil fried rice & basil chicken
Dessert — sticky rice w/​anything (mangos are out of season right now)
To be honest the food is delicious but the service is impeccable — I always request Mai each and every time I go and she’s beyond attentive, sweet, and funny! She also makes really good recommendations based on what you tell her you’re in the mood for!
Mai Mai you’re the best!
Dungrats is the place to go — clean good food & great service

Absolutely love the interior of this restaurant, I felt like I was really in Thailand. The music, the décor, even the little details on the ceilings looked like something I would find in an authentic Thai place. I think the servers were even dressed in traditional Thai clothing? Server was nice, food was delicious, tables were clean.
Potato boyfriend and I love Thai food! I decided to take potato boyfriend here since I remember hearing about this from my mother. I tried a lunch special beef dish and potato tried the Pad Thai. The Pad Thai was delightful, I’ve tried many in the area, but this was the right flavor. Noodles were the right texture, meat was seasoned correctly, everything about this dish was just in sync! I could not even remember the beef dish because I was so in love with the Pad Thai.
Definitely will return to see if the Pad Thai still lives up to my high expectations and heard lots of good reviews about the lychee dumplings? Sounds interesting!

Wow! Hummmm outside and totally red inside. I’m sure you have no idea what I mean. If you go there, you will see!
It is the highest rated Thai restaurant in that area. I ordered their special lychee dumplings as many people think they are amazing. It was quite unique and looked too pretty. My favorite Thai food is Pat Thai. I must order one every time I go to a Thai restaurant. Theirs was just ok for me. Too sweet «, less peanuts, no cilantro, no spicy sauce set,… Lots of veggies in it tho. I was disappointed again.
Taste: Ok and unique in a good way.
Price: Ok. $ 15−30/p for dinner
Interior: Wow unique Thai red!
Staff: Polite and great smile:) Some do not speak English well and do not know about menu and ingredients well.
Parking: Free next to the building.
It was a good unique experience;q

Disappointing, and I’m pretty sure my fiancé got food poisoning from this place. He ordered take-​out for us from Duangrat’s Thai Restaurant recently — I ordered the chicken pad thai and he ordered the Bhram (cliced breast of chicken sautéed in our spicy peanut sauce, hint of fresh garlic, crispy shallots on a bed of Napa cabbage). My pad thai was REALLY BLAND. I was really shocked by how bland it was — the noodles had no flavor to them, the chicken was tough to chew, and I was tired of it after a few bites, but I soldiered on and finished it. My stomach also wasn’t feeling too well, and chicken pad thai has never upset my stomach before. My fiancé’s Bhram really upset his stomach. It tasted good, but he was not feeling too well for a few hours after that.
There are SO MANY good Thai restaurants in the DC area. I highly recommend Bangkok 54 as a good alternative!

Papaya Salad– way too much sugar. I could see the sugar crystals left on my plate!
Pad Se Ew with beef, octopus with basil, soft shell crab were all delicious. They have half off wine bottles on Wednesdays which is a great deal. The food is overall good but not as good as Bangkok Golden. However, I would be back to eat if I was in the area.
Mango sticky rice was perfectly ripe and sweet. My fav!

Some solid Thai food here. I came for a work lunch and had very prompt service. We ordered the beef satay and lychee dumplings to start. The satay beef was surprisingly a nice medium and the peanut sauce was standard yum. The lychee dumplings were different and fun — served cold, the beef and cilantro site well with the sweet lychee.
For mains, I ordered drunken noodle thai hot. It wasn’t thai hot, but it was still respectably spicy. The dish would do better with some vegtables, it was noodles, chicken, basil and those sprout bean guys.
We ordered a pad thai for the table which was sweet and served with a generous amount of egg. I’d like to try some of the other non-​standard dishes if they follow suit of the lychee dumplings!

This is a definitely a hole in the wall! I’ve driven by this place so many times but didn’t pay much attention to it. The interior is something you totally don’t expect from the outside view. Decent size restaurant, white table cloth, and overall nice décor.
Service — the staff is extremely nice from start to end.
Food:
*Lychee Dumplings — this is a must-​try! Delightful appetizer. Light, fresh, and just a different take on dumplings.
*Chicken Satay — typical but flavorful. Their peanut sauce is decent. I don’t understand the bread part but maybe they tried to cater it to American folks? Peanut butter and bread, lol?
*Drunken Noodles w/​Duck — I’m not that great when it comes to eating extremely spicy food. So I requested medium level of spice, which turned out fine for me. If you have a fiery tongue, then I’d suggest you order it as is. Yum! Duck was cooked perfectly. You can taste and smell the basil in this dish.
*Tofu Panang Curry — highly recommend this for a vegetarian dish. The curry has bold and delicious flavors with a nice kick to it.
Returning! Plenty of other items on the menu that stood out that I would like to try.

Longtime fan of Duangrat’s! The food is traditionally Thai (no fusion), consistently fresh and served hot direct from the kitchen. Great wait staff! (All Con’s listed are more to the surrounding location and NOT the food or staff.)
Pro’s:
— Great for large and small (table for two) groups
— Traditional Thai recipes
— Long tradition of accolades and awards (since 1980’s)
— Most of the wait staff are Thai (adds to the authentic feel)
— The dining room makes you feel like you are transported to Thailand
— Clean (whoever dusts the objects behind the cutout glass windows — kudos)
— Lots of options (vegetarian diet)
Con’s
— The Bailey’s Crossroads/​7 Corners areas along Leesburg Pike are all under appreciated due to the ramshackle façade.
— The parking lot is «semi paved» and is more suited to dumpsters than patrons (park on the side if you can)
— They have outdoor seating but it doesn’t always seem to be open (hit and miss even in nice weather and may be based on time of day)
— There is a «louge» upstairs or at least indicating there is something up there, but I’ve never seen it used or anyone go up there

After reading so many great reviews, I decided to finally try this place since I was craving Thai food. The décor inside is interesting. We were seated immediately and there were about 5 other tables dining at the time. Once our water was poured, we waited for 10 minutes to have someone come over and take our order. The food all came out at different times and we had to ask twice for the spice rack.
The menu had a lot on it and everything sounded delicious but we went with the spicy seafood soup in lemongrass broth, the lychee dumplings, the Chiangmai spicy pork and the pad see ew.
Soup was delicious and the seafood in it was cooked perfectly. The lychee dumplings were interesting, sweet and salty but more on the sweet side. They were good, but not life changing. The Chiangmai spicy pork had good flavor but lacked the crispy crunch that was described and was a little greasy. The pad see ew was really greasy and needed more soy sauce.
Overall, food was okay and the staff was friendly but slow. They all need better time management. Will likely come back if a friend wanted to try it and I would try other things on the menu but there are other Thai restaurants in the area that are better.

The more I go to this place, the more I love it.
Very interesting and elaborate décor. Servers are all in traditional garb and are very friendly and polite. There has been no wait the two times I’ve been here and the service is pretty quick. They have a decent wine and beer selection too.
Appetizers:
Loved the shrimp chips with pork dip. Very interesting mix of flavors.
tempura calamari — OKAY… It felt a little over cooked because it was a little hard, but the batter was super tasty and crispy.
Peking duck roll — Amazing. Get this. A little greasy, but tastes amazing.
Mains:
Eggplant green curry: amazing. This place has some amazing curry. I think about them all the time.
Provincial Chicken with a Coconut Sauce Over Two noodles — the sauce was awesome, there were wayyy too many noodles, but I liked the variety.
Chicken and calamari with wide noodles — Eghhhh… the noodles felt soggy and overcooked, not one of their best dishes. I usually love ordering Pad See Ew, too… their wide noodles here are a no-​go.
Desserts:
Plantain fritters with French vanilla ice cream
Overall – I like their décor, atmosphere, service, and food (get the curry!!). One of my go-​to places for Thai food definitely.

I had high expectations heading here with all of the 5 stars going. And while I had a glimpse of that, I can’t make it there. The people there were very nice/​friendly, the space seems like a great place to have a meal, and so all I needed to do was order…
I started with the chicken galangal soup and no complaints there. It was very tasty and had the right amount of spice. But what I did want to do without is the 15 minute wait to get my order in. And then once I was done with the soup, another 10 minute wait for the chicken pad thai which isn’t hard to make. When the pad thai did arrive, it was also good. The portion size was more than adequate, and rarely do I get to taste real tamarind in pad thai, but they are doing it right.
In the end, yes they were busy, but this is a busy place that is used to such turnover. Maybe it was just a bad night. But others were having the same mismatch of wait times so maybe it’s not unusual. So while I can’t go 4 stars, it was still good and glad I made it there.