Buri Tara Thai Cuisine

I went to Buri Tara Thai for lunch on a weekday. I ordered the Sweet Basil Pad Krapow with chicken. We arrived pretty early around 11:40, so the food came out pretty quickly!
The portion size was medium, but the food tasted really good! I would definitely recommend this dish.
For now, I will give them 4 stars but will return to see if they are worthy of getting 5 stars.
Overall grade: A–

Hate doing bad reviews but this is major. My roommate ordered from here a few months ago, shortly after eating the food he broke out in a rash and got sick.
Last night, not knowing I was ordering from the same Thai place, I ate their chicken skewers, chicken fried rice, and chicken chow mein.
Starting at about 3 or 4 am this morning, I haven’t stopped throwing up, it’s 2pm now and I’m finally able to keep 7-​up down. I don’t know what’s going on at this restaurant, whether they’re not washing the chicken properly or maybe cross contamination. But beware! (Sorry. About the bad review, but this needs to be fixed!)
I won’t be able to eat any Thai food for awhile.

I used to LOVE this place. It’s quaint and clean. The staff is super nice. The service is pretty decent. The space has grown from a tiny closet to a small restaurant. The food used to be SO good.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if they changed their recipes or their cook… But everything is sweet now. My favorite salads (beef salad and papaya salad) used to be a little savory, a little tangy, so yummy. Now, all I taste is sweet, sweet, sweet. Like dripping with sweetness. Even some of their stir fry dishes (drunken beef) is too sweet.
Very disappointed.

Water kinda tasted like acid tbh ⁴⁄₁₀ but the food was pretty nice. The servers are all nice too which is pretty nice. Nice atmosphere. Overall nice/​10

Been a constant customer for about a year, after today’s meal, we won’t come again.
The good side: the ladies of the restaurant are nice; food comes to the table in comparatively decent time.
The not so good side: the same dishes can taste different each time, and by different I mean very different. In recent 4 visits, we ordered fried calamari, pad Thai, and bbq chicken over green curry fried rice. The way the dishes were prepared, and the taste of the food for each time made we wonder whether the orders were taken wrong. In addition to that, in three times that the bbq chicken and fried rice were burnt. The burnt flavor was mild but obvious in every single bite, and the burnt pieces were always buried at the very bottom of the dish…
In all, the restaurant is at a very convenient location, so people may stop by for lunch or quick dinner, service is nice, so the business will go on. But it’s very disappointing to see the food quality going down as the price increases.

Great Thai food compared to all the other Thai restaurants I’ve been to so far. Although the chicken was dry in most of the dishes we ordered, the food in general was delicious. The flavors were perfect.
Will come again soon :)

I wish this place can improve as the area can use a good competition. We struck out from Sweet Basil due to too much wait. Not sure if people enjoy dining with waiting people looking through the window but food must be good. So we opted to this place. Oh man, you gotta wear jacket in the restaurant! The servers do. They reminded me of some eatery in country side where mom and pop come out to serve in non-​air conditioned joint. I can appreciate that they are trying to save money but come on. While SB was booming, this place was almost empty. We were bit worried but had to have some dinner as we were visiting the area and were getting hungry. Keeping up with the country setting, they never asked for spiciness for any food. Are they trying to be authentic? I know in Asia, they will not ask ‘how spicy?’ Many negatives in our experience. Got chicken instead of fish. On top of that the lemon chicken (wrong order) was a salt bomb! We tried couple of curry, chicken and Pad Thai. Pad Thai and Penang curry were edible but other ones were sort of gross. We left much food on the table but did not take home. Just the leftover rice. Jasmine rice was good. I shall only order rice if I ever return there. Price wise it looks reasonable but deceiving. No rice for curry and each order of rice costs $ 1.50. I am sure who eats curry without rice. To top it all off, their tip recommendation includes tipping uncle SAM if you know what I mean. Since when uncle SAM need tip? On the positive side, it may be a good place to hang out since the place is practically empty and you don’t have to feel sorry about other diners waiting for you to finish. All in all bad experience but I am taking my time to write this review in the hope that this place can improve. The area definitely can use another Thai restaurant that is worthy of. Sweet Basil was way too crowded.

The best part about this place is that you get quality food at a great price. I had the green curry fried rice, pad see ew and duck in red curry served with steamed rice and it was just delicious! It was spicy as expected but it was just scrumptious. I’d have it again in an instant. Setting is functional and no reservations are needed. Staff was very friendly and foods came out quick, ingredients were fresh and prepared well. Definitely recommend this place for a quick lunch or dinner. Very solid and tasty Thai restaurant. I always leave here smiling — yummy in the tummy ^_^

I went to this place yesterday… The food is really awesome .i tried for roti n samosa the food is yummy n delicious and waitress are very respectful. Restaurant is clean n very beautiful and eye catching paintings in inside. I’m very satisfied by visiting buri Tara

Continuing on with my vegetarian week, I saw this place was vegetarian friendly with so many vegetarian and vegan options.
Upon being seated, you are presented with a mug that is half-​filled with vegetable soup, not tea like you would expect. The soup itself was average, nothing memorable.
Looking over the reviews really quickly, I debated between Eggplant Tofu and Pad Thai with tofu and veggies. The waitress recommended the eggplant tofu but I had just caught a glimpse of a poor review for it, so went with Pad Thai with tofu and veggies instead. Also shared an appetizer, thai samosas, with my co-​worker.
They brought us the samosas first but we were disappointed to see only 4 of them and they were small. For 8 bucks, I had expected to see at least 8! They were sweeter than samosas I am used to but I think that’s a theme with thai cooking. Also, no dipping sauce was provided, just a small plate of cut vegetables. The samosas themselves were good but I would not order this again since I don’t feel I got my money’s worth.
The Pad Thai with Tofu and Veggies was pretty good. Usually I’m not a huge pad thai fan but I saw some good reviews that these would not be too sweet. (I usually do not like sweet foods that should be savory and I like my noodles savory). There was a hint of sweetness but it was palatable for me and the veggies were nice. Pretty decent portion. I would get this dish again with tofu because they sauted the tofu how I like it, with a little texture rather than being completely soft.
I’d come back to try out more of their dishes and hopefully on a day when I’m not being vegetarian. Although, there are great options for vegetarians and vegans, which is a plus in my book. Looking forward to coming back.

Food quality is not that great. We came here today and there really are better choices in the area. The pad see ew noodles were undercooked. The fried pompano which is a house special was ok but smelled fishy and was really greasy — I know it’s deep fried but this wasn’t good. My husband had the fresh salad roll appetizer and he liked the peanut sauce but not the roll itself which included mango, shrimp, mint and lettuce. It was edible but not enjoyable. The best part of the meal was the rice

I actually want to give this place ZERO stars! They don’t deserve a star at all!!! Unilocal and the Internet said they opened at 11 am. We arrived at 11:10 am. The door was open and there were voices coming from the kitchen, however no one greeted us or made an attempt to help us, despite our calling out «hello» several times. Another party was also there waiting with no luck either. After waiting for 5 minutes (shouldn’t have even waited that long) to be helped, we turned around to leave with the other party. As we exited, an Asian woman was coming in the door and yelled at us to get out! She rudely told us they were not opened until 11:30. When a woman in the other party said the sign and the Internet said they opened at 11:00, the Asian woman become angrier and said: NO! 11:30! And slammed the door behind us.
Nice customer service. Guess I won’t ever be trying this place out!

Went here for a birthday today.
We sat outside and had a water view.
We had 16 peeps and ordered two of everything.
We started with an appetizer of calimari, each piece 25 mm wide by 75 mm, golden deep fried and yummy.
I remember the pad thai and a larb dish with seafood and another larb dish with chicken. Also, we enjoyed a veggie dish with seafood: whole mussels, butterflied shrimps. I’m sure I am forgetting a few dishes.
$ 18.50 including tax n tip for each person. Not cheap but I tasted quality in every bite.
Everything was very good and tasty.
Customer service: good.
Décor: we sat outside.
No music.

Delicious thai food, nice view, and outdoor seating!
I got the spicy steamed basa fish, which was actually very delicious! Lime, cilantro, and relish sauce that went well with the juicy basa fish. Not too oily either. Yum!
Extra points for the nice view of Foster City waters and outdoor seating. Great service too that came by to refill our waters.
My friend’s sizzling beef was good as well. Def will want to come back!

This was a hidden gem. I was wandering about in search of lunch /​dinner, when I came across Buri Tara. They were not open for another hour (17:00) so I waited.,
I am glad I did! The Beef Salad was good, it’s a favourite dish, as was the (fried) rice.
The real gem was a Lemon Fish. It was broiled perfectly and was very flavorful and well presented. Do be aware that it is the fillets of the whole fish so It easily serves two persons. With a bit of rice, you’ve git a meal!
The décor is warm and interesting, cozy comes to mind… The place is clean and the prices were reasonable.
I am definitely returning!

Horrible service!!!
My husband and I decided to give this restaurant a try tonight. We were the 3^rd group there in the restaurant when arrived. We have been sitting there for quite some time and no service. We told the waitress that we would like to order, at the same time there were 3 other groups coming one after another. So the waitress went on and helped other groups with seating, which was fine. While that was happening, we again told the waitress that we were ready to order. She nodded at us and went to the kitchen. Surprisingly, when she came out she started taking orders from other two groups and completely ignored us. After she was done with the ordering, she went straight back to kitchen without looking at us. At this moment, we decided to leave the place for the ignorance.

In Foster City, there’s a restaurant with eye-​catching paintings and golden statues inside.
When I entered with my friends, we ordered Thai Iced Tea, Tom Yum Goong (hot and sour soup with shrimp, mushrooms, tomato, and more), Spicy Fried Rice, and Pad Thai.
Thai Iced Tea: ⁵⁄₅
— not the type of sweet that makes you coil your tongue. It’s the type of sweet that is just right – the strong taste of the tea is complimented with the condensed milk like a perfect kiss.
Tom Yum Goong: 4.5÷5
— definitely packed with intense and tongue-​twisting flavor that leaves you wanting more. Looks of it: light, like a broth. Tastes excellent with jasmine rice in it. The shrimp is perfectly pink and delicious. The mushrooms are cut in half and have the perfect texture. ***might be a little too intense for you if you aren’t used to many flavors at once***
Spicy Fried Rice: ⁴⁄₅
— needs a little lemon or lime spritzed with it to enhance spice. Very delicious. ***be careful if you cannot handle too much spice! There are sliced Thai chili peppers and if you accidentally bite into one like I did, your tongue will be suffering for a while. Even the tea won’t help***
Pad Thai: 4.5÷5
— Sweet and peanutty. Not intense, just light on the tongue and filling.
Overall service: ⁴⁄₅. Server was polite and asked additional questions to help us get our order perfect. Quick and smiled a lot. A little quiet, though, but that’s ok!
If you come here, you’ll definitely enjoy it. :)

The place:
Restaurant is extremely small but rather cozy. There wasn’t any extravagant decorations or anything. It was just. simple. Despite the size of the restaurant, I enjoyed being in the place in all of its home-​y-​ness. (:
The eats:
Honestly, the food was just «ok» in my opinion. We ordered quite a few dishes and nothing really stood out in my opinion. The Tom Yum Goong was a little too sour in my opinion, and the other meat entrees were all pretty «meh». Their pad thai was pretty good in comparison, but pretty bland in comparison to pad thais i’ve had at other restaurants.
The service:
I like the staff at Buri Tara; they’re all very mellow (:

Meh, OK experience.
Drunken Beef — Beef was over cooked
Pad Thai — Normal and delicious
Thai Iced Team — I asked for MINIMAL ice and the server didn’t listen. I hate when ice dilutes my drink.
The meal also came with soup and water. Too many drinks on the table for us, but it was cool that they were attentive. We were waiting a bit for our check and finally called the waitress over.
A friend and I were there to catch up, so glad she didn’t overbear us with service.

Typical Thai place. Food was alright. Place is clean and nice.
Service was good, they gave us complimentary soup. Food came out fast, which is perfect if you’re rushing during lunch.
Pad Kee Mao– the noodles were sort of thick and it was probably the least flavorful pad kee mao I’ve had. I got it with Duck, but there was very little duck, not really worth the extra money you had to pay for duck.
Thai Iced Coffee– very very sweet! but wait for the ice to melt, and then it’s perfect!

So far the food I’ve tried has been pretty good.
Ordering online was terrible. I ordered at 11:45, the receipt said pick up at 12:01, and didn’t get my food until 12:30. 45 minutes to get three lunches? No thank you.

There was a piece of hair in my food.
See photo attached.
Food is definitely on oily side as well.

Trusting my handy Unilocal app, I popped in earlier today for a Thai fix and tried the Sea Paradise Curry with brown rice. AMAZING is all I can use to describe it; very tasty and aromatic. It came with a great portion of giant scallops and grilled squid and I finished every last morsel. It was that good! If I had more time in CA, this would definitely make it on my list as a great local go to place hands down.