Be My Guest Thai Bistro

Food is just average. Service and hospitality is not as good as the food.

Ordered take out from them one night. They were super empty, it was about 7pm on a Saturday, and the waitresses looked bored…
The menu is really extensive, I got the drunken beef noodles. It was very greasy and fatty, and yes ok it was Thai Take out, but this was pretty bad. The meat itself was pretty tasty, and they were very quick and kind when we came in to get our food.
Ehh, there’s gotta be something better out there, I would recommend going elsewhere.

THIS REVIEW IS BASED SOLEY ON HAPPY HOUR
GREAT! I love Speakeasy Ale and they have Prohibition on tap, and during happy hour I got a pint of the beer that normally is expensive for $ 2, ZOMG. Such a good deal. I had two and I was very satisfied. My friends each had two beers as well, needless to say we all walked away from that place happy and a little buzzed. When I’m back in the area during the time of 4 – 6 I will be back for some more cheap good beer! They also have Sierra Nevada, Pyramid Hefeweizen and Stella Artois on tap. And if you go on Tuesdays, it’s also $ 1 wine night. Pretty Good :)

Of all the Thai restaurants in the area, this one is my favorite.
Favorite dishes: Pumpkin Curry and Pad Kee Mao.

I came here with a Groupon. At first glance, this place looks super classy. Everything is white and very clean-​looking. The first thing you’d notice is the hundred of light bulbs hanging from the entrance — which is pretty cool! However, I can only give it one star because:
1. The water tastes weird. My boyfriend noticed it first. My first response was, «You’re imagining things. Water is water. How can it taste weird?» Then I tried it and I was like, «Hmm… you’re right…» His theory is it’s some kind of vegetarian-​flavored water. My theory is it’s imported from SoCal. Whatever it is — nasty!
2. FLIES! Fruit flies everywhere! And they wouldn’t leave me alone! One fat buzzer was at least 1-​cm long and it kept buzzin’ around my table. I tried shooing it, but it just wouldn’t go away. My boyfriend said a small one landed on my hair. And I helped shoo one that landed on his jacket. I couldn’t wait to finish my dish and leave asap!
3. OK food for a pricey restaurant. We had two orders of pad kee mows. I’ve had better Thai food from King of Thai, Thai Basil, Banana House, etc. These restaurants are $ 1 — $ 3 cheaper and better tasting.
Bottom line — I probably would not come here again.

This place is kind of like an un-​identified Asian person. Not knowing whether they are thai, japanese, korean, etc etc haha. The reason why I say that is:
Thai: they label themselves as Thai food, and serve Pad Thai, Pad-​See-​Ew, etc, the traditional thai plates
Vietnamese: they have the traditional vietnamese garlic noodles
Japanese: they serve all sorts of Sake and mixed Sake cocktails, and also they answer the phone speaking japanese
Chinese: they serve shrimp chips in the beginning
But it’s pretty interesting. The food is not that bad, but the Sake cocktails aren’t really that good, and it’s kind of expensive as well.
The décor is really nice in my opinion, it is a really modern looking place, just how I like it.
We came in at around evening time, and there was only 2 other people inside eating, so service was not bad at all, I mean they didn’t have other people to tend to, so can’t really rate them on that yet!
Overall, they have a nice variety of food, décor is nice, and service is not that bad. It’s like any typical Asian restaurant, nothing spectacular.

Lunch time on a Tuesday — only one server for 5 tables seated. about 20 tables in the entire place. Owner, should really hire more servers for lunch time service.
Don’t make the same mistake I did for their lunch combo: the satay chicken is the exact same thing as the bbq chicken! :(
Wish the server could have told me I was ordering the same thing. Could have easily been avoided.
Happy to see lots of spinach in their salad.

Think fancy Thai. I went here with a Groupon Now. They have delicious Lichee Martinis. I ended up getting the Shrimp Pad Thai. It was one of the best Pad Thai I have ever had. The décor of the place is really elegant, and the owner did all of the art work. This is a great place to take a date. I liked this place so much that I have already been back once since I used the Groupon Now and plan to return again soon.

Came there on a Tuesday’s night around 7:30pm. The restaurant was completely empty.
The service was friendly and warm but kinda slow. We were the only customers for the 1.5 hours, but we waited quite a bit for our food.
We ordered:
Summer Roll (Rice wrapper stuffed with lettuce, egg, cucumber, carrot, bean sprouts with sauce) — Since they were running of the shrimps, what we had basically like the veggie roll. The roll was just so-​so. I don’t like the texture of the rice wrapper… kinda hard.
Satay Chicken (Grilled chicken skewers served with hoisin sauce) — The chicken was tender but the sauce was just ok.
Pad Thai (Stir fried rice noddles with pork, chives tofu, egg, bean sprouts) — The meat was kinda dry and the tofu was pretty bad.
Curry Chicken — The curry tasted ok but not much chicken.
Portion of food was good, the presentation was nice but the taste was just so-​so.

Still love this place for the quality food & great service. I’ve turned on my friend to this place too, we both wonder why it’s not busier & have come to the conclusion that it’s too far up Clement street for people that don’t know the area to wander and notice it. My friend and I also use their free delivery service too.
Yesterday we had a great happy hour here. (You don’t have to sit at the bar for Happy Hour, you can sit at the tables near the bar too, maybe people watch Clement Street.)
$ 3 cocktails and $ 5 appetizers. Everything was delicious, we thought the Guavapolitan could be a little sweeter/​more guava tasting, so we preferred the Lychee martini. . but other than that. Yum! :) Love this place!

I wanted to take my sister’s family out to dinner for being such great Thanksgiving hosts and we decided to check out the oddly named «Be My Guest» Thai restaurant. I remember coming here as a kid when it was Royal Thai but as the times change, so do the restaurants. When we arrived, we were literally seated in the corner of the restaurant next to the window. Ok, fine I guess since we had a nice view outside. However, it was completely dark in the corner and we were lit only by a dim street light. No candles on the table and the overhead light was turned off. Just a little weird to say the least.
We started off with their shrimp chips, which are served as an appetizer here. We then ordered the chicken satay to start, along with blue crab fried rice, peanut sauce with chicken, pad thai, and pumpkin red curry for our main courses. The satay was very tender and great with the peanut sauce. I really enjoyed all of the entrees, especially the fried rice and pad thai. Their peanut sauce is great on top of everything too and prices were all totally reasonable, and much better than Osha’s. Portion sizes impress as well.
Service here is not impressive at all and it took forever to get anybody’s attention. The restaurant is super dim throughout and the bistro vibe does not impress. While the food is tasty, the rest of the place suffers from a lack of identity and finesse. I’d come back for the food, but otherwise it was a disappointing experience.
Food: ⁷⁄₁₀
Service: ⁵⁄₁₀
Price: $
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₁₀

Be My Guest is a sweet little Thai haven on Clement — surprisingly fancy, trendy, and friendly. Their bread basket — more like soy pop chips, if I had to describe them somehow — is multi-​colored and adorable, crispy, light… I really love them. It’s a good start.
The Volcano Chicken is legendary. And if it isn’t, it should be. Flaming, tender, and easy to share, it’s one of their absolute best entrees. Also, the pineapple fried rice makes for a super delicious pairing. You could have one without the other, but why would you want to?
It’s a tiny bit pricey, but if you’re splitting the bill, not so bad.
It’s just such a happy place. You could be there with someone boring and awful and still have a good time. The chicken is that good, I kid you not.

Absolutely excellent — as good as I remembered with super-​speedy delivery, even on Friday night.
I ordered the Edamame Sea Bass with spinach in ginger sauce and it was so savory, light and perfectly seasoned. It’s their most expensive entrée and while over-​fished, I have to have Be My Guest’s seabass three times a year.
Before I tasted it, I thought the sliced green beans and edamame that accompanied it might’ve been over-​cooked: They were pale and had the color of being canned. Oh no!
I was so wrong.
The edamame and green beans were perfect: They must’ve been gently steamed with the savory yet delicate garlic sauce. The dish was heaven.
For my little one, I ordered the pineapple rice with chicken. With currants and cashews and big pieces of grilled chicken with curried rice, he was very satisfied.
We both shared the crispy duck appetizer (chock full of finely diced shiitake mushrooms, cellophane noodles, leeks and celery) in a crispy fried (but not at all greasy) wrapper with a generous side of hoisin sauce.
Everything arrived **hot** and carefully wrapped; Despite the saucy dishes and an icy Thai iced tea, nothing leaked.
And, when the delivery guy arrived, he said, «It’s been awhile since you ordered» in a friendly way. So they track their customers and must have updated software that was also a shortcut when I ordered.
I felt welcomed to get back into the groove of ordering delivery from Be My Guest.

I think this place has gone downhill since I last came here… Anyway…
They’ve raised the prices by dollar to most items. Times are tough though, so be ready to fork out at least 8 or 9 bucks.
Lunch specials don’t apply to Saturdays anymore. Only Tuesday to Friday.
Which sucks ’cause I came here hoping to have the whole appetizer, drink, soup, and main course meal thing. Lunch special. Meh.
I feel like the service has gone downhill a little too. Didn’t refill water. Didn’t ask us if our meal was okay, etc. But it wasn’t completely empty, so I guess it can’t be the waiter and waitress’s faults.
The food quality is still the same, so it’s decent.
I am quite sad to lower my rating by so much. =/

Wow, I am so surprised! My friends will hear me frequently say, «Thai food in the bay is awesome! Every place I’ve gone to has been at least pretty good!» I am a huge Thai food fan and eat it at least once a week. So far, every place in the bay area I’ve been to has been satisfying. But seriously? Why do people come here? Groupon. That’s some awesome marketing guys. I seriously think if this place hadn’t done a Groupon, they would’ve gone out of business.
The Pad Thai was bland. Pad Kee Mao (aka Drunken Noodles) wasn’t even spicy and was too sweet. Imperial rolls were just plain crappy.
I do not wish to be your guest at this place.
At least the décor/​ambiance was very nice and service was great.

Just back from Richmond D. in the City… gotta say, sure are a lot of eating adventures one can have just in that neighborhood alone, so many things are springing up new like crabgrass… almost got in an accident just trying to imbibe all of that!!!
Hm. what to say, what to say… honestly, 2.3 stars for the food… but 10 BRIGHT SHINING STARS for the customer service, the peacefulness and low (read nice) lights of the place, and spaciousness too. né’er had to yell or raise my voice (except in excitability) during the conversation… that’s nice for cas Asian joint where I come from. =)
Ordered: tom yum goong soup with chicken… they used breast meat, which resulted in very rough and tough on the palate. Flavorful soup, could have used just a tad adjustment on the hot: sour ratio. Trust me on this; i know this soup well, as I make it!
Pad kee mow with tofu, all veg… the rice noodles were overcooked a bit and resulted in a glueyness (yes, it’s tricky to make. that’s why I go out for it… having frustrated myself many a time with my wok), but nice portion which I appreciate (and will more, with tom’s leftovers), great wok flavor of veg!
Friend chose a seabass dish for our family style that was nicely cooked. However that was ruined by a «La Choy-​like» cornstarch altogether-​too– sweet sweet/​sour goop” that trickled down and spoilt the spinach and green beans underneath.
And sad to report, those greens were not cooked with the right timing.
Beans were off in color, spinach bit overcooked as well. Hmm
But was that great greeting of a colorful shrimp chip round basket eliciting smiles all around? Was that window seat table not the bomb, with plentiful space? Was not the service just impeccable, with prompt attention to clearing plates, refilling water as I stayed for 4 hours, running myself dry in conversation?!
The food did take an unseemingly amount of time to come out… bit uneven. Were it not for the titillating company, don’t know if I’d be a happy camper. Will post photos when I’m not so totally done in.
Damage: $ 40 incl. t/​t. nice space, nice crew. easy parking on a Sunday.

Came here today for lunch, the place was half empty, and we were seated by the back of the restaurant. There were a few dishes that looked good. We ordered the Honey Roasted Duck Noodle Soup, and the Traffic Jam curry. This was a sampler of the three types of curry available, red, yellow and green. We also ordered sticky rice and a Thai iced tea. The service was slow the whole time, as they only had two waitresses serving. We also had to wait a while before the food was served.
The noodle soup was flavorful, however, the noodle had been sitting in the soup for too long, and had soaked up a lot of the soup. I liked the consistency of the curry, and there was a lot of ingredients in each of the three curries.
Overall, the food was not bad, and I would like to try some other dishes, including the Sea Bass. Hopefully when I come back next time, they’ll have a few more staff around.

This is an interesting place. From first glance, the décor looks modern, but it’s just a whole bunch of stuff from Ikea. Plastic chairs. Little candles. Glasses. All from Ikea! At least our table didn’t shake ;P
Being seated was an interesting experience in itself… They called us over to a table that hadn’t been set yet. There was a cloth on it, but I guess they like to put pieces of paper on it and then try to figure out who gets which plate and tucking the forks into their napkin beds. That took a good two minutes…
On to the food:
Fried Tofu with Peanut Sauce — Really good peanut sauce. Mediocre Fried tofu… something you can make at home. The peanut sauce reminded me of chunky PB with a little kick of spiciness and saltiness. I reckon I can make that at home too…
Chicken Green Curry — Pretty tasty. I like the slightly thicker bamboo shoots and including eggplant into it. Chicken was tasty too. Definitely different from other places as it was a whole piece that was grilled and cut. Usually, you’d get them in strips and they look boiled. I had a side of coconut rice with it. Couldn’t taste any coconut with the curry, of course.
Blue Crab Fried Rice — Not enough crab. Tons of fried rice. Thick sliced cucumber on the side. Nothing special.
This place really is nothing special. Kinda overpriced really. Paying for a side of rice is not cool. It should be included. Seems like their lunch specials are good deals though, so I’d like to try that. But I wouldn’t come here for dinner again.
Actually, I will because I have that groupon lol but after that, no more. I’ll try their lunch and update later.

While walking aimlessly around Clement Street, I was drawn to Be My Guest by the clean décor, open space, and discount lunches. From Tuesday to Saturday, they offer lunch specials ranging from $ 5 to $ 6.95. I was pleasantly surprised by the friendly waiter who continuously ensured both my glass of water and cup of hot tea was filled at all times.
I usually order duck noodle soup to gauge how good a Thai restaurant is, but this time, I decided to try something different. I had the «bloody» curry with pork because it sounded cool when I write my review. Repeat after me «I want a bloooooody curry!» The coconut rice was extra charge, but for the portion, you can feed two people.
At one point, I caught the waiter looking at me so I smiled and chatted with him about recommendations. He suggested the bloody curry for dinner as it comes in a larger portion along with roti. In addition, he highly recommended the sea bass with edamame and the mango tango shrimp. Hmmm, may save that for the next dining experience.

Was having a midday drink and then got hungry. The bartender suggested we walk down the street to this place and I thought anything within walking distance was a plus.
From the outside, I wasn’t very impressed. It looked like another one of those Asian Fusion places that has mediocre food, but I saw it was right before their Happy Hour ended so I figured at those prices, it was worth checking out.
I was surprised to see they not only had sushi on the menu, but a sushi bar as well! I didn’t expect that since this was a Thai place. I was weary about ordering the $ 1 nigiris, but I figured at $ 1 a piece, it’s worth a shot. We got two each of the sake, albacore, maguro and saba. The fish was surprisingly fresh! The pieces weren’t very big, but I’m guessing for $ 1, they do give you a smaller cut.
$ 5 appetizers! We had the corn fritters and seafood trio or whatever. The corn fritters were eh, I’ve had better. Seafood trio thingy wasn’t bad. A pile of deep-​fried squid, fish and onion rings… can’t really mess that up.
The boyfriend is a fan of spider rolls so we got one since they were 25% off. Again, wasn’t bad but it was smaller than what I usually see. We ordered one main dish and shared, because I love me some Pad Thai. You can pick what meat goes into your dish, much like other Thai places. It was really good, and the plate was actually pretty big compared to some places!
Somebody recommended the Volcano Chicken to me, but I didn’t get to try it. I will definitely have to at some point. The service was above average. At first, since it was the middle of the day, nobody was really in there and it was kind of dead. But once we ordered, the waitress was friendly and efficient. She gave us a free ice cream because there was a (eek!) small bug in the cucumber salad that came with the corn fritters. I worked in a restaurant before so I know these things happen… it’s the way a waitress or manager handles the situation after that counts.
All in all, I’ll definitely have to come back!