Mali Thai Bistro

I stopped in with a friend because it got good reviews. Once been back several times now… I love their Tom Kha soup! The other food has been very good also.

If you’re looking for authentic Thai food then look no further than Mali Thai Bistro. Everything about this restaurant is excellent. The lighting in house isn’t overly bright and the color scheme is warm and modern. The seating is amazing and the booths are nice and high for privacy.
The food is outstanding and the variety is very wide for a Thai restaurant in the suburbs. This isn’t your typical fast food takeout. The spring rolls and fantastic and even come soft or fried. I personally don’t like Crab Rangoon but loved them from here. The Pad Thai is delicious, as is the Pad Wu Sen. I tried a friend’s Tiger Cry Beef and it was very tender which went perfect with the crunch of the cabbage. If you’re looking for seafood the garlic shrimp dish is awesome and the catfish was surprisingly tender and fresh tasting. Their homemade sauces are extremely flavorful as well and I’ve yet to find one I didn’t like.
What sets this place apart is the wait staff. They are always extremely friendly and knowledgeable of the menu and eager to answer any and all questions you might have. Also if you’re a spice fiend such as myself look no further for actual hot Thai food. I always order the Thai spicy and it burns so good. I can’t recommend this restaurant enough.

Great lunch! Excellent ambiance, courteous staff, and delicious Thai cuisine.
It will be nice to have good Thai food in Lee’s Summit.

I stopped in for lunch today and was impressed with the place, the people and the food!
They have done a masterful job transforming an old Total gas station and liquor store into an inviting and cozy space to enjoy a meal. The bar area looked nice and the dining room was open and airy.
I had the Tiger Cry Beef, a salad and pad Thai (medium) with beef.
The Tiger Cry Beef was tender and delicious, served on a bed of cabbage. The accompanying sauce was tasty as well. The salad was small, but had just the right amount of dressing and the freshly shaved carrots on top were a nice touch. The pad Thai was delicious. The noodles were cooked to perfection and the beef was tender and juicy.
A great place for lunch or dinner!

Loved everything I tried, best I have ever eaten in the city. I cannot wait to go back and try other dishes.

Great thai food with a ton of flavor. Large portions that I can never quite finish but not so large that you feel wasteful. An average of a dollar or so cheaper than the other Thai restaurant in LS so that’s always a good thing as well. The ONLY thing I could nitpic about is their spice level is somewhat inconsistent. I order medium on the same dish many time. One time it will be a great medium heat, the next it will be hot enough I will be sweating, next time it may be almost mild. But again, this is the only thing that I really feel would be nitpicking as it is pretty much the same at any thai restaurant.

Authentic food. Had papaya salad and the tiger cry beef. One disappointing part of my dinner was the plastic wrapped sticky rice. Taste like it was microwaved and insanely hot. Overall good experience though. Great Thai iced tea!

We have been waiting for a good Thai restaurant. We have been here several times and the food is amazing and the service very attentive!

We decided to try this place when on our way to Thai Spice. We were pleasantly surprised.
The atmosphere is peaceful and simplistic without being boring. The Thai iced tea was phenomenal!
We had the crab Rangoon which was a generous 8 piece serving and was delicious but could have been a tiny bit crunchier.
For dinner we had the masaman curry and the Panang curry. Both were delicious and served with rice. The Panang had a wonderful peanut flavor without being over powering. Service was attentive and fast. Overall 5 stars. You’ve made customers out of us for sure!

We found this place by accident and we fell in love! Delicious food and amazing service. It is pricey but it tastes perfect! And the portions are very generous. It looks kind of sketchy from the outside but inside is beautiful. I will most definitely be a regular!

Stopped in on a quiet Wednesday night for dinner. Very clean interior with warm décor. Service was attentive and friendly without being overbearing.
Tom Kha soup was great to split among the four of us. Crab rangoons were good but nothing out of this world.
I had the red curry with chicken. Great flavor and spice. The others meals all looked great too!
Definitely stop by this place if you are looking for great quality Thai!

Excellent Thai lunch here! Our friend, Custom Home Builder Josh, recommended it and we are thrilled with our experience. It is a great day date and date night worthy restaurant.
The service was extremely attentive, and the food was wonderful. The shrimp pad Thai hit the spot and the crispy chicken wing appetizer was crispy and sweet in the right way. Careful of the spicy meter… Spicy is super spicy. We chose mild and it was just right. (It was actually medium spicy in my book.).
So happy this Thai restaurant is here!

Pretty inside and very attentive, lovely servers. I made it known I didn’t like spicy and was assured it wouldn’t be a problem. I tried the Tiger Cry beef & it was very flavorful. Then had the garlic shrimp as an entrée. Both were excellent. Looking forward to trying more items at this place. For what it’s worth, I overheard a lady telling her server that it was the best Thai she’d ever had and that she KNEW her Thai food.
I can’t claim that kind of expertise onThai, but it was very good.

Service: 5
Food: 4.5
Atmosphere: 5
We came in for dinner and we’re really impressed with our meal. We ordered the appetizer sampler — 2 cold spring roll, 2 crunchy spring roll, and 4 crab Rangoon. They were light, flavorful and hot. For dinner we had Garlic Prawns, chicken satay and beef curry with coconut milk. The prawn dish had great flavor and was full of fresh veg. I would have preferred that the shrimp not still have the shell on as it made the dish more difficult to eat. But… it was worth it and I would order it again. My spouse had the curry and we shared. It was complex and flavorful. Perfect amount of heat (he ordered mild/​medium) and he wished the dish had more beef. The satay was delicious and very tender and juicy. We really liked the peanut sauce and cucumber sauce. Our waitress was extremely friendly and helped us make selections from the expansive menu. Service was on point. I can’t wait to return and try more dishes. Glad to have another Thai gem in LS!

We walked in and immediately loved the ambience. We were seated and immediately got our water. Started with the Tiger Cry Beef and loved it. It was pretty spicy but you could taste all the flavors. Next we tried the Pad Thai. It was awesome. We asked for medium hot and if you don’t like the heat you better stick with mild. Last was the coconut ice cream and that too was perfect.
I am anxious to go back and try more. There were so many entrée and appetizers that sound great.
This is one of the best places and the food is worth a drive to have.

As we walked in we were welcomed by warm, rich colors and décor. We were promptly greeted and seated. That is where the promptness ended. After being seated we waited 18 minutes for a water and a menu and an additional 10 minutes before our server was back to take our order. The server apologized while laughing and her voice trailed off; so I didn’t really feel it was genuine.
We ordered crab Rangoon and fried spring rolls for an appetizer; we received soft spring rolls instead of the crab Rangoon. After pointing that out to her, she quickly took the spring rolls and ran off to get the crab Rangoon.
The crab Rangoon was o-​k. My husband kept pointing out that his was full of grease; that is when we realized we still had no napkins or silverware (to wipe the grease off of our hands). My spring roll was still partially frozen in the middle! That was surely odd to be eating a hot fried food and then get a bite of frozen cabbage!
I ordered the Tiger Cry beef for my meal. It was o-​k (I normally get this at Thai restaurants offering it). It was So Super Salty!!! To the point that if I didn’t mix it with some rice noodles it would not have been edible for me!
My husband had the chicken fried rice (mild to medium) and he said he would order it again.
Now that we were finished here comes another LONG wait for a water refill and our check.
So to sum it up… Our lunch took an hour and a half from start to finish. The service was slow and uncaring. The food was ok, I’ve had way better Thai food. The verdict… we will give it 1 more shot in a few months to see if they can work out the kinks.

Fantastic! Great service, fantastic cuisine, atmosphere is superb.
If you’re a Thai cuisine fan, this is the place to visit. Having gone to every Thai restaurant in Kansas City, many in Santa Monica, CA, Miami, FL, I put this on-​par with some of the best thai restaurants I’ve had the privilege to visit.
We had 5 different dishes for our group, and taking it to go was just as pleasing as dining in, in both presentation and taste.

Man, was I surprised when I walked inside! The interior is bright and new, with a great color scheme. Large enough for groups and small enough for couples. The restaurant was clean and the staff were friendly. The food was delicious. Definitely the best Thai I have had in a while. I ordered the pad kee mao with pad thai noodles. My food did not take long to prepare and was hot upon delivery. I will be returning soon!

It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but once you get inside it is a special place! I thought this restaurant was especially delicious. I had the pad Thai with shrimp and my wife had a chicken cashew dinner. Both of us had medium spicy, which was just about right for taste vs sweat. The crab Rangoon was probably the best in the two state area. We equated this to the spice and taste of Bangkok Pavilion, and the quality of Bo Lings.
I spoke with the owner, Nisa, Who has previously run a restaurant in Thailand, and now hopes to be just as successful here. Based upon the high quality of the meal, I’m sure Mali Thai Bistro will do fantastic.

I would highly suggest trying Mali. The food is great and the service is friendly. While they need to work on the restaurants curb appeal a bit, the inside is bright and aesthetically pleasing. With it being the first day open, it was fun to see the staff’s genuine excitement.
If you want Thai in Lee’s Summit, Mali Thai Bistro is definitely worth a visit.