Thai Spice at the Square

First time there. Not a single asian working there to make sure the food tastes Thai.
I ordered the chicken satay. Does not look like the advertised picture. Chicken was overcooked, and since it was very thin slices, it was tasteless and rubbery.
terrible food for $ 10.

Love their Dynamite Wings and Pad See-​Ewe!!! Hold baby corn though.

Thai spice is now closed.
UPDATE! — Thai Spice has now opened back up on Mc Arthur right between the 55 and main. YAY

We used to eat here weekly. Best thai Food for the price !!
They closed this location are moving to another location closeby and will open in September sometime — Can’t wait. I miss my FIRE !!!
I always order the «Spicy Beef with Basil». On their level of spice, I always get the «Fire». My wife and son like the «Spicy Chicken with Basil» with medium spice. On occasion, I’ve ordered the Pad Thai too.
The food is FANTASTIC !!

Would love to give this place an «A» for effort, because I think the employees are so nice. However, they just fall so short on quality. Everything is so laden with grease that I can’t enjoy it.
I must be a glutton for punishment, because I came back again on Friday evening. Wanted to give the place a second chance.
My order:
— Tom Yum AKA ‘spicy shrimp soup’ Doesn’t taste anything like Tom Yum soup i’ve had at other Thai places and the very few shrimp were obviously not fresh.
— #29 noodle dish… decent flavor, but very greasy and came with wide egg noodles, which i’m not a fan of.
— Beef with broccoli… decent flavor, but full of grease.
I can’t bring myself to come back here again.

1^st Star — for the asian guy who looks like he would have broken english when you hear him speak, but speaks perfectly, no accent, whatsoever.
2^nd Star — for the decent presentation of the establishment. Seemed pretty clean for a fast food joint.
What we Ordered — Thai Chicken basil, Chicken fried rice, Fried wontons and 2 drinks, for 2 people = twenty two dollars and some change. A bit pricey for a fast food joint if you ask me.
Food — Below average. Can make WAAAY better at home.
Menu — It was kinda confusing for some reason. I guess it seemed the layout wasn’t very intuitive for a new consumer?
Help — I INQUIRED about a THAI CHICKEN BASIL plate, the (what seemed to be) middle eastern cashier basically said «yes we do. NUMBER 46» and that was it. Didn’t ask if I wanted it a la carte or w/​rice. Being that we ordered Fried Rice, you’d think he got the idea, but didn’t. In conclusion, I got the Thai Chicken basil WITH rice. Retarded. When I mentioned this to the cashier he said «I asked if you wanted it with rice or not». He really didn’t.
Thai chicken basil — best part about it was the basil and veggies. Chicken was rubbery if you ask me. Not cool.
Tried a bit of the chicken fried rice, it was cool.
Fried wontons were good. But to me that’s something you can’t really mess up, as well as the fried rice.
Overall, I wasn’t satisfied and I wouldn’t recommend a friend to go. So, here’s me saying «DON’T go.»

I often attend quarterly training week-​ends at Landmark Education in Irvine, and for the one hour meal breaks, I often shoot over to this place which is just down the street. It is fast, and tasty, and reasonably priced. The food is served on styrofoam plates, and they will run it out to you to the outside eating area which is fairly large. Not the greatest Thai food, but very fast and good. I keep coming back.

I recently started working nearby so I was psyched that a Thai Spice was right there. But gottdamn this place is horrible. I gave it numerous chances, and ordered different things hoping for a better result, but a small lunch fortune later the best I’ve had is mediocre.
It’s not that the taste is bad, in fact most of the food tastes OK (not great though, my regular 17^th street, CM one is better). It’s just that the texture of the food is the part they seem to be excellent at screwing up and oh so consistently. I think I’ve wasted enough money here.
So here’s a quick summary.
Some Thai Spice are Bad
That does not mean all Thai Spice are bad.
But this Thai Spice is very bad.

Fast Thai food – I’m a fan!
Pros: Cheap! Two people came up to $ 14.00. The restaurant is also in a nice, little plaza, with plenty of outdoor seating. The service is pretty good. The guy there remembered me and greets me by my first name. They will also take the food out to your table too. Plus, they cook your food pretty quickly. Now as to the food – I like it. I usually get vegetarian pad sew eew (spelling?) with tofu. You have to specially order the pad sew ew with tofu, however, as it’s not on the menu. The BF usually gets the pad sew ew with chicken, and he eats it all.
Cons: Sometimes, it’s hard to understand the person who rings you up.
Overall, this is a great place to go for lunch; however, I wouldn’t recommend it for dinner.

If you are a busy person and is craving some Thai food, try Thai Spice! The place is located in a busy plaza during lunch hour. When I said busy, I mean BUSY!
I tend to go after lunch hour where the place is unless chaotic. The workers there are really friendly and helpful. The service is quick hence it is located in a business area. The place is pretty decent, plus you can choose to sit outside if you like.
I have tried the Pad Thai and it is really good. I chose mild for the spice level because it is just not too spicy nor too plain. I almost tried the Curry Chicken Pasta and it is DELICIOUS. I would recommend it to you to at least try it out!
Let me tell you, there is a lot of food! You should most definitely go on an empty stomach.
Overall, the place is decent. The food is great. The service is good.
Try it!

I have eaten and ordered take-​out here many times, and for the price and location, the food here is just great. There is also a nice outdoor patio area (shared with adjoining restaurants) to enjoy during the warmer months.
I order the Pahd Thai, Pahd See Ew or Spicy Wings — they are all just great. The wings are not easy to eat, but they are good!!! This location can get very packed during lunch periods, so I go there or call for take-​out during the off-​peak hours, and you just walk right up to the counter…

I came here with a co-​worker for lunch since it was a walking distance away. I’ve been told that people come far and wide for the food here. So I decided to give the place a try.
When I want spicy curry… I want SPICY curry. At Thai Spice, when they say spicy they really mean it! I always order the curry chicken over rice. They asked me how spicy I wanted it. I said, «the spicier, the better!» Not ONLY did they made it spicy, they put a side of crushed chili peppers just in case I wanted it more spicy (and I didn’t request it!). Don’t even get me started on portions. I think at one point I said that there’s more chicken than rice! I never finish my lunch in one sitting.
Going there at noon and you’ll see the line out the door. Don’t let the line and crowd fool you. Once you order, you’ll get your food faster than McDonald’s.

Me: I’d like to order Pad See Ew to go. Less oil and no MSG please.
Thai Spice: Pad See Ew is FILLED with MSG. I can’t take it out.
Me: Well, how about less oil?
Thai Spice: I can do that. It’s just that MSG is where Pad See Ew gets it FLAVOR.
Me: Oooookay.
MSG or not, the pad see ew was pretty good. The noodles were fresh, there was an abundance of meat and broccoli. The heat level was off. I requested Medium and my friend ordered Spicy but mine was wayyyy spicier than hers. Just be warned — they do not, and will not, make sauce to order for your sans MSG requests.

I’m so sad this place has a bad reputation.
I guess Thai Spice in general doesn’t have a good rep.
Interestingly though I always see sooo many people whenever I eat here.
Hmm.what does that mean?
I really like Thai Spice because it gives me exactly what I want: fast Thai food!
Sure it may not be authentic or life changing, but whoever goes here looking for the best Thai food should know better!
This is a fast-​foodesque chain restaurant giving you what you need fast!
The prices here aren’t bad to me.
I always get pad thai ($ 7). The shrimp pad thai costs like a $ 1 more, but whenever I order just regular pad thai, I’m lucky enough to get a few pieces of shrimp thrown in.
The Thai iced tea is reallllly sweet so be careful.
Its a popular place for lunch on week days. Workers in their suits and ties flock here.
I’m happy with what I get here.

A decent Thai restaurant for being fast food. I liken it to a fast food Chinese restaurant, where the staff have an idea what «good» should be and strive to that while making it cheap and alright.
Their pad Thai is probably their most commonly ordered dish.

I’m not really a food diva. If food is cheap and served on a styrofoam plate, I will not dock it stars automatically. Hell, some of the best food is off taco trucks!
Anyway, I ordered green curry and a drink. They didn’t get my drink order right. huh? I got my food SUPER late, I thought this was FAST food. I was sitting there for 10 mins while my coworkers were eating their pad thai. I asked for my food twice, only to get blank stares. The green curry, is something I didn’t recognize. It’s the dish I order most in Thai places. The rice was over cooked and I still don’t know if that was curry. Very confusing.

This is truly the McDonalds of Thai food. It’s sad because it’s one of the only available Thai food options in the Irvine area. However, it really isn’t all that great. I would definitely NOT recommend coming here.
I’ve ordered the Spicy Chicken with Rice (their version of pad krapao I guess), pad see ew, and the pad kee mao. They have all been severely disappointing. This is definitely not authentic Thai food, not even in the slightest. It’s definitely not worth the money you spend on it, that’s for sure.
In addition to this, even though it is more of a casual take-​out type of place, the service is still pretty bad. In fact, a man behind me in line ordered after me (he ordered a similar dish) but he got his food first. The counter lady was also noticeably much more polite to him than she was to me. *bitter*. I hate places with unequal treatment of customers.
I’d pretty much rather starve than eating here. End of story.

Oy! What a nightmare of a Thai joint?!
I came here for lunch and had the most horrible Thai meal — ever! I ordered the pad thai and chicken satay with peanut sauce. The chicken satay was over-​cooked and tasted bad. You know when you get re-​cooked meat, it taste old and the meat is hard to chew, well that was what the satay was like at Thai Spice. I felt like I had to tear into that chicken like a lioness ripping into a rhino. It was that bad.
And the pad thai was no better. The pad thai had the same problem. The chicken in the pad thai tasted like three-​day-​old-​left –over-​chicken you stick in the microwave ‘cuz you got nothing better to eat. Yuck! To top that off, Thai Spice added two over-​cooked shrimps into the pad thai that tasted like they could have been recycled from previous day lunches. This was the worst Thai fast food experience I have had.
Save your money and your stomach. Dine elsewhere!

Had the Pad thai and it was decent. They made it fresh after I ordered so that was good; however nothing really spectacular stood out from their menu so I played it safe with what I ordered.
Their Thai Iced Tea was good but for $ 4.50, I don’t know about that. That’s almost the price of another lunch entrée.
It’s an okay place for a quick lunch but if you’re looking for great Thai food, I’d stay away.

I think that the one-​star rating says it all.
Today, my friend and I had lunch here since it was close to both of our offices. She had the pad thai and I had the BBQ chicken. In her own words, she said «my white rice tasted better than the pad thai.»
For me, the BBQ chicken was bland and was completely devoid of taste. It was, by far, the worst thai dining experience that I have had. EVER.
This place gets a lot of business during the lunch hour since it is so close to many office buildings. However, I would never ever come back here again.