Bua Thai Cuisine

Ordered crab fried rice, salmon dish, and eggplant and tofu dish. Service was good. They also had puzzles for the kids to play with while we waited.

This place is now called Orchid Thai, but I had eaten here while it was Bua Thai. It was not until this day did I know what hellish spice the Thai people can bring upon man. No humane person should ever let their friends order anything above mild.
Unfortunately my own youthful arrogance said to order medium spicy eggplant dish, while my other cohorts ordered curry and pineapple fried rice mild spicy. I knew something was up was asked by the waitress whether we WERE SURE (yes, she did emphasize this point), and I was like aw yeah, I love spicy.
We get our dishes, and the next thing I knew, everyone is blowing their noses at the table. We would get the occasional smirks and that «I told ya so» look from the waitress. It got to the point where it was just a matter of pride and principle to finish. I mean, how could I back down after saying such bold words?
I’d wish I could rate the food, but my only memory of this was that the food tasted like burning. No, I mean literally. Asking me how the food tastes would be like kicking me in the nuts with a lead clog and then asking me how the flowers smell.
My friends being oh so nice, gave me the leftovers. I’d usually end up mixing one teaspoon of leftovers in one bowl of rice. Oh how it still stung…
Food is okay. Memories are forever… burnt into my tongue.
COOL FACT: I’m pretty sure this place was a taco bell before! There’s even a drive through, but they blocked it up with potted plants.

This place is now closed, or at least has been superseded by Orchid:

G & I decided to try this place on a whim. It’s really small inside and there were only two other tables occupied when we got there shortly after 7p last night [Friday night].
The lady waiting tables was really sweet, but really slow in taking our orders. It also took forever to get our food. We ordered the shrimp rolls appetizer, yellow curry chicken and the mushroom dish with coconut milk, lemongrass & lime [I can’t remember the name]. G asked for some peanuts on the side for his yellow chicken curry and I asked for tofu to be added to my mushroom dish.
The yellow chicken curry was not yellow or spicy, nor was there any hint of curry. It was dark meat chicken in a thin, watery, brown liquid.
The mushroom dish was overly watery and although, when I asked for it, they did add the tofu they forgot, there was also a large chunk of hard beef [?] with a vein in it. Disgusting!
When we got the bill we were shocked that the tiny little bowl of a few peanuts was $ 3! Seriously?! $ 3 for a few peanuts!
I have no idea how this place got a 1 $ cost rating. Our bill was $ 40! $ 40 for mediocre food and slow service.
I’m giving them two stars just because the lady working there was really sweet.

I think there’s new owners. Before they gave soup w/​lunch special, now NO!
Lunch special you can get 1 item for $ 6.95 or 2 items for $ 9.95.
I got the Thurs lunch special which was Moo Kraprow for $ 6.95. Big scoop of steamed white rice and minced pork, basil, garlic, & chili. It was a bit spicy. Just ok.
M. got spring rolls $ 6.95 — I didn’t try it.
M. got pad thai for $ 6.95 — I tasted a bit, just ok.
One unisex outside of the building in the back.

I tried this place once, but wouldn’t consider going back. The hostess/​waitress is the sweetest thing, but almost all the soup and dishes we ordered were so spicy that my kids, husband and I must have drank more water than eat the food we ordered.
This place used to be Taco Bell back in the day — you can totally tell so by the structure of the building alone. The parking lot was empty and so was the restaurant. I love Thai food, and don’t mind spicy, but I’m sorry, this place just didn’t cut it for me.

Ok, so me and my coworkers went here cuz the Izakawa Sushi place was closed for inspections. We Unilocaled Bua, seeing 3 stars we went in. Then my friend sees all the recent 1 star reviews and we were kinda freaked out, but these reviews are too harsh.
I’m a white guy, not used to thai that often and the food tasted pretty good to me. I’ll definitely go back. I had the BBQ Pork and the Peppered Chicken and I loved both. Not too spicy, but I don’t like spicy, so it’s all good.
It’s kind of a quiet place and we were the only ones in there, but the lady was very nice, kept our waters filled, and was very accomodating.
again, the other reviews are too harsh. it may not be the most super authentic thai place, but there was no wait and the food was good, so i’ll be back.

EL, J and I embarked on another food adventure late last night. After a brief discussion, we decided to try Bua Thai. The only thing we knew about Bua Thai going in was that they had extremely spicy Thai food.
From the street Bua Thai looks like it used to be a Taco Bell/​Del Taco/​generic Mexican fast food chain. The bathroom is located in the back, outside/​separate from the restaurant, which makes me think gas station. These two features, plus the eclectic homage to Thai leaders/​knick knacks gave the impression that the entire place was having an identity crisis. The fact that the restaurant was entirely empty didn’t help its case either. Uh oh…
We ordered a sauteed eggplant beef, red chicken curry, and the pineapple fried rice. The hostess was super sweet and nice, and warned us about Bua Thai’s level of spiciness. Since it we were on an adventure, we decided to order EL’s pineapple fried rice HOT, and the other two dishes medium/​regular.
OMG. The medium spicy eggplant dish BURNED OFF my tastebuds. It was hands down the spiciest dish of the three we ordered– so much so that within 2 seconds of taking a bite of eggplant, I started pouring sweat and tearing up. Good thing I ordered a Thai iced tea (mediocre tasting) that helped to temporarily alleviate the searing pain I felt. Obviously I can’t comment on how good/​bad the dish was… I avoided it the rest of the meal. I guess you could say it was bad… but we’ll just leave it at DNF.
The least spicy dish was the curry, which happened to be the only edible dish among the three. It tasted ok– not very rich in flavor and didn’t really have much chicken/​bamboo shoots in it. I’ve definitely had better curries elsewhere.
The pineapple fried rice, while not ridiculously spicy like the eggplant, seemed to be 1) overpriced for what it was ($ 13 for a small dish) and 2) lacking in fresh ingredients. It literally was just a plate of red rice garnished with some green onions and 3 – 4 shrimps.
The hostess came to refill our waters often (despite drinking so much water that I was shivering in the heated restaurant, my mouth still burned from the eggplant dish) and chatted with us. I had the feeling that she was mocking/​laughing at us– although we were brave enough to try all the dishes (the eggplant went mostly untouched), we still had to take most of it home. Total for our 3 small dishes, 1 Thai iced tea, and 3 orders of white rice came out to $ 46 + tax/​tip.
You would think after all our failed adventures, we would learn not to stop at small empty restaurants…

I stopped into Bua Thai yesterday — I’ve driven by it dozens of times and figured I should stop in.
I started out with Tom Ka Gai. While it was nice and spicy, the flavor was only «ok» and the chicken was downright inedible. It was gray in color!
I had panang beef and it was only mediocre.
I will definitely not be back — so may other good Thai restaurants in the area, there is no need to settle!

I live in the area and come here occasionally. I’ve always had a nice experience and am surprised by some of the reviews complaining about overcharging and small portions.
I have found the food to be good (less greasy than most Thai places), and prices to be reasonable. I agree the place seems empty most of the time, but I’ve no complaints since the service was great.
I would definitely say give this place a try.

my family loves Thai food and we tried various of Thai restaurants in bay area. Recently, we went there for the first time and were really disappointed about the food served…
1) The food doesn’t taste like Thai-​style. (they put potato in Panang Curry and no sign of green/​red peppers)
2) the taste is very «plain»; not very tasty and spicy like other places.
3) Portion of the food is very small. a $ 50 dollar meal can’t feed 2 adult and 2 kids. We usually be stuffed in other Thai restaurant.
i am 100% i wont be going back. Avoid this place!

I feel bad giving this place 1 star b/​c the hostess/​waitress was really really nice but I’m sorry, that alone doesn’t cut it.
Here is my review in a nutshell: worst Thai food I ever had.
I had a
certificate so I took my family here for dinner. The parking lot was empty and so was the restaurant. We came here Thursday night around 7pm and we were the only ones there, already a bad sign.
I ordered:
Tom Yum Seafood
Larb Salad
Some stir fry beef dish, forgot the name
Everything was too salty. Not only that, it tasted NOTHING like Thai food. I’ve had Thai food in Thailand, Santa Barbara, and around the bay area: this was not Thai food. Sure every restaurant is a bit different but you can at least RECOGNIZE the essence of Tom Yum soup or Larb Salad, it was not the case.
I’m so glad I did not pay full price to try this place.

The Thai coffee and tea here is so addicting and good. Mmmm! So is the pak kee mao. The pad thai was okay. The calamari is a lot tastier than Krung Thai’s. The owners are very friendly people. Especially the wife. Really adorable. My friend that was dining with me is thai so the owner gave us a complementary dish ;D
The atmosphere seems kind of ghetto and deserted, but eh, it’s coo.

A friend said this place was really good so i decided to give it a try last night… This place was a little hard to spot since they don’t have a lit up sign (just a cloth banner that was hard to spot at night since the restaurant itself is a little ways away from the street) so the Unilocal descriptions that it used to be a taco bell helped a lot
I walked in and there was only one couple dining in there — not a great location for business… i ordered pad thai to go (i always order the pad thai when i try a thai restaurant for the first time)
their standard pad thai comes with chicken and it is 7.95 — to substitute the chicken with shrimp, it costs 2 dollars — i asked for both chicken and shrimp to be in the pad thai…
while i was waiting for my pad thai the waitress/​hostess asked me twice if i wanted some ice water while i waited — i thought it was nice of them to offer b/​c a lot of places don’t do that, but i didn’t want any water.
the total bill came out to be 12 dollars — i took a double take and was like how did 7.95 turn into 12 dollars?
so:
7.95 (standard pad thai with chicken) + 3.00 (i guess it’s 3 dollars to put BOTH chicken and shrimp in there) = 10.95
10.95 + 1.95 tax (i thought this was ridiculous — they charged me 17% tax — if i knew they were going to tip themselves, i would have definitely made them earn it — i would have drank 4,… no, make that 5 glasses of water, asked for napkins, a lemon to squeeze in my water… you get the point.
i don’t understand how you can tack on service charge on a TO GO ORDER. i didn’t make a big deal of it since it was just 2 bucks and i felt bad for them because the waitress was nice and business didn’t look like it was doing all that well.
the food was just ok. there was supposed to be egg in the pad thai. i did not see any — so disappointing b/​c i love egg. there was very itty bitty pieces of chicken and very little of it as well. the shrimp were all curled into an «o», practically superimposing onto themselves because they were so overcooked.
i won’t be back.

We tried this place tonight because I had a
coupon. We ordered up and got the coconut w/​chicken soup (#1 I think?), Tofu appetizer, Pad Thai, Red Curry, Brown and white rice and the Mango Sweet Rice dessert.
Overall it was pretty good. I especially liked the Pad Thai and it was probably one of the better Pad Thai’s I have had. The tofu was delicious and the soup was mmm sooooo good! The red curry was ok but I think I’ll try the yellow next time. I love they offer brown rice which was so good. The perfect texture.
The mango dessert was amazing! I think probably the best I’ve had. My husband said it was great but not the best mango dessert.
The service was definitely 5 star. Since we used a
coupon we ended up tipping probably 25%. We felt bad there was only one other group there on a Tuesday night at 6:30. I want to support the local businesses in Millpitas.
we would definitely go here again. Especially for the Pad Thai!

What happened to the old man? I hope he’s ok. There are new faces cooking and it’s evident. If you are Caucasian make sure to let them know you like spice. After we were overheard talking about how different things tasted we were informed that they assumed we needed the flavor dumbed down. Yuck.

Look for the Bell building. We missed it the first time passing. Quaint little place.
The complimentary soup was luke warm but flavorful. We also ordered the egg roles which were fried and I was hoping for fresh. ok.
i ordered the basil chicken and was very happy with the lunch portion and the flavor.
don’t think I would go back but it was fun to try.

I never read the reviews on this place and usually drive by it after visiting the Great Mall. Me and my friend decided to venture in to try it. I actually thought it was a fast food joint considering the building. There was only one other table there when we went. The lady that served us was very friendly and asked how we knew about the place. We asked some questions, and it turns out that there was a recent change in ownership. They’ve only opened it with the new ownership for 2 days! Well, based on the experience and the food served, we loved it! I just wished I could get a refill on my drink (came in a can).
We ordered: Tofu Pad Thai w/​vegetables. Tofu ginger stir fry (wasn’t on the menu, but I asked if they can make some other dishes vegetarian that was meat based like some of the other Thai restaurants).
The Pad Thai was hot and moist just the way I liked it. The stir fry was very good too. Nice flavor. So far, our first visit has been great! Will be going back!

Ah yes, «Taco Bell Thai.» That’s what we call it. There’s something charming about a restaurant taking over a former Taco Bell — I love the arched kitschy goodness and the WTF feeling when the sign reads something other than «Taco Bell.»
I was really hoping to find it on this page that covers businesses converted from Pizza Hut, Hardees, Dairy Queen, and Taco Bell:
The place is small but loaded with lots of knickknacks. Whenever I’ve visited I’ve been one of only two parties in the restaurant for dinner.
My friends like this place. However, I am put off by the meat quality (all dark meat chicken) and mediocre taste. The prices are good (under $ 7 for dinner) but the portion sizes are small.
Spring Rolls (vegetarian) — B. Too peppery like Costco’s but good.
Tom Kha Gai Soup — B-​. Broth with really good flavor; chicken gnarly in a bad way.
Chicken with Basil — B-​. Needs more distinctive sauce.
Chicken with Special Sauce — B-​. Sauce doesn’t seem very «special;» tastes suspiciously like Basil Chicken dish.
Chicken with Mushrooms and Ginger — B. Good gingery sauce without sharp-​tasting pieces of ginger.
Yellow Curry with Chicken — C. Too watery; not enough potato.
Beef with Green Peppers and Onions — B+. Good quality beef; like pepper steak but too oily.

Decent place for Thai Food. A very cozy remodeled Taco Bell house, we call it =) The owner lady is friendly; can be moody at times. The place is always packed during lunch time on weekdays, so if you don’t want to wait, go before 11:30AM or after 1:00PM. They also open for dinner, and I think they close on Sundays (? — Unsure so you might want to call before you head over on weekends, hehe…)
Their lunch specials consist of: 1 item for $ 4.95 or 2 items for $ 5.95. My usuals are #1 & #18, or #1 & #8. And if you don’t want two different items you can always order two portions of the same thing =) All lunch specials come with a bowl of steamed Jasmine rice and a small bowl of the clear noodle soup.
THAI EGG ROLLS (#1) — Veggies and clear noodles (unsure if there is ground meat in it), very tasty most of the time, but can be overfried sometimes.
GAI KRAPROW (#8) — Sauteed chicken w/​garlic, fresh chili, onion and sweet basil leaves. Very tasty and the spiciness is so mild I can’t hardly taste it.
MOO KRA TIAM (#18) — Pan-​fried marinated pork w/​garlic and black pepper served w/​lime sauce. This is my favorite =) I like this dish more when they slice the pork pieces thinner so the texture is more dried when cooked. At times when the pork pieces are slighter bigger, the taste gets altered. It’s still good thou =)
Their curry dishes are supposed to be pretty good also. My coworkers tried their red, green, and yellow curry and liked it. Maybe next time I’ll give curry a try too…