Lalita Exotic Thai Cuisine & Bar

I went in for the first time and needed to use the restroom before I ordered and they demanded me to pay before I could use restroom. I said I’m waiting for friends and they would not let me use restroom unless I gave my credit card. I can not believe this happened. We were going to be a party of 4 trying the place out for the first time and guess what now — NEVER AGAIN

«Sometimes you have to take a dump in your boss’s office to get $hit off your chest.» –Dice K. circa 2004
So my buddy Dice is stoic by trade but definitely no Seneca or Marcus Aurelius. However, he treats this place as his own Roman bath house, despite court orders to adhere to the no shirt, no shoes, no service axiom. He always says something profound that I wish someone scribed on an olive leaf, napkin, chalupa, or not at all.
A little fact about DK, he is a LA Dodger fan by birth. I once tricked him into watching a Colt’s game where he had $ 150 on old Payton covering the spread, however, he was too jonesed by the action to know that he was in the midst of the Giants clinching the series in 2010. To this day, he still cries about confronting a Civic Center exodus of orange and black. The tears are saltier on even years.
We like to think of this place as the watering hole for future insurance claims adjusters that are investing in a law education up the street. In short, above average happy hour prices, with average appetizer options.
Mondays are magically delicious because Ray Ray tends the bar and keeps the hobos from freeloading bathroom privileges without patronizing. Ray Ray is a Saints and A’s fan but still retains the hand eye coordination to pour generous Jami’s on rocks.
This place is definitely a great respite from the TL piss uphill and the pretentious VC vibe across Market Street. It sits on an intersection that will make any non union, civil engineer cringe. In fact, the turns in front require Google buses from gentrifying the TL, via vehicular manslaughter, instead of their usual cultural-​slaughter?!. Lalita Exotic Thai, has been there before the dot, dot, dot com experiment, and likely will survive when Twitter has to answer to shareholders, and move jobs to Austin.

The food was awesome.
The service was amazing.
The food prices are reasonable.
The food portions are good.
«Drinks» are eh pricey.

For Valentine’s Day this year, a friend and I decided to meet in the city and find a place to dine. Walking in the Civic Center area, we stumbled on this place and decided to try it out.
I can honestly say I don’t get it. It’s a restaurant but nighttime shows neon lights, turn exotic looking bar? It’s spacious, I’ll give them that, and the wait staff is super fast. They just don’t really talk.
For dinner, we had the following:
–Crispy chicken with three-​flavored sauce for $ 13.95. Breaded chicken served with bell peppers, tomatoes, pineapples and onions topped with sweet and sour sauce. I’m sorry, what’s the «three flavored»? It’s soggy chicken in sweet and sour sauce. That’s it. Not a fan.
–Pad See Ew with chicken for $ 10.95. Chicken with fresh flat rice noodles, eggs and Chinese broccoli. A little better than the last dish. At least the flavors were there. The chicken was little too dry but with the flavors, I can somewhat overlook that.
–Panang curry with beef for $ 12.95. Beef with bell peppers, basil and coconut milk. This was the best out of the three. It was served with white rice and the panang was flavorful.
Overall, not the best experience. I’ve certainly had better Thai food. I wish I had a better experience but unfortunately, just didn’t make a good enough excuse to return. Maybe in the future, you never know.

Taste is okay.
Needs work. A lot of work.
Lasting impression is so-​so.

Don’t order a drink here. Bartenders have no formal training and break all of the basic rules. Last night I watched the woman behind the bar use a glass to scoop ice. Great work if you like shards of broken glass in your cocktail. I also love standing at the bar for 5 minutes to get my change.

I’ve come here for a few work happy hours. This place is good for that, drinks prices and food are okay.

This place is better off as a bar than a restaurant, not because the food is bad, because it’s okay, but because of the regulars I saw during my dinner that were hovering around the bar before I arrived, and after I left.
The food is decent, but like all SF thai places, you’re paying $ 12 for a pad see ew you can get for $ 7 – 9 elsewhere. I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to try more of the dishes here, but I certainly can see this place being reliable for a quick bite to eat before catching a show at Bill Graham or the Orpheum theatre.

Once a week I cover the office for my client. Besides the food truck in front of Union Plaza, I like to find actual restaurants in the surrounding area to eat at. Its not the best neighborhood per say to walk around for too long but its good enough. Besides Philz Coffee, the Golden Era Vegetarian place, and the occasional market place in the Twitter building; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this restaurant. The pricing is fair and so are the portion size. The flavoring of the food is great. The only down side is the service level might not be up to par when they have a huge lunch rush. Just try to be patience, the food comes out fairly quickly.

The food was okay, but the décor was a little weird. Seemed like it was trying to be a nightclub? Service was okay, but took a long time to flag someone down for the bill. Neighborhood is rough. Wouldn’t necessarily go after dark.

They serve very authentic Thai food and at a very decent price. We got a curry, a ginger chicken and a pad thai. They were all delicious and they don’t skim on portion. We had to take the food to go since they gave us so much.

I’ve never really thought much of Thai food because I was afraid of its heavy seasoning and would often order the safe foods like pad Thai or Thai tea. But I ended up liking everything I ordered! I don’t remember the names but I tried their duck curry and stir fry fish and broccoli and they were amazing! The flavors weren’t too strong and the curry was probably one of the best Thai curry I’ve had! Their Thai tea isn’t too bad either.
Service was really great (coming at a non-​peak hour might have helped). Overall, I definitely would recommend this place for anyone who’s new to Thai food or looking for a great date place!

I work around the corner and have had several business lunches here. We really like the food, and the atmosphere is pleasant. Services is generally good, but not especially friendly.
We met for a surprise birthday party last night, bringing 30 people to the bar/​restaurant. It took a very long time to order drinks, and I think we overwhelmed them with this many people at 6:00. The waitress brought my appetizers, but did not bring napkins or forks to the table. I reached to the table behind me to pick up the cloth napkin, and the waitress snatched it out if my hand. She said the cloth napkins were for dinner, and because I was here during Happy Hour I would have to use paper napkins. It cost a dollar each for a cloth napkin. Seriously?
I am very disappointed in Lalita. We brought over $ 1500 to the bar last night, and I don’t think they appreciated the business. We will still go there for an occasional lunch, but I won’t suggest it for an after work party again.

Went in for a bite to eat before the play across the street. The restaurant wasn’t so crowded on Friday night at 6:30, most people were at the bar or drinking. We sat down, ordered and the food came out pretty fast, so that was a relief. I liked one dish out of 3 we ordered, the shrimp, green beans and fried mushrooms. The other 2 dishes were kind of bland.

I love this place’s deals plus the food is always delicious.
This afternoon while having lunch with a friend, however, there was a huge cockroach walking around on the wall next to us towards the back. Ew.
I’ll probably still go back for happy hour… we’ll see.

This is close to where I work or otherwise I wouldn’t have known that it was here! Excellent Thai food and a great staff. I have 2 favorites which are Pad Thai with prawns and the salmon salad. Both are excellent, it just depends on my mood! The only bummer here is their location as if you get a seat by the window, you are staring at the neighborhood bums who are staring at you. If you ignore them they don’t go away. Just ask for a seat away from the window and you’ll be fine!

Here for Game 6 of the World Series. Much anger. Such yelling. Very sad.
Good for game days. Lots of room and lots of TVs.
Okay for every other day. The food is pretty overpriced for what it is and the service is sub-​par, but the environment isn’t bad considering the surrounding neighborhood.
Apparently the beers on game day are $ 3.50. My friend was adamant I make that known.
If you’re in the area and want a sit-​down place with okay Thai, check it out.

I went here for lunch yesterday with a group of work-​out buddies to bid farewell to our gym instructor. I ordered the sweet and sour chicken with salad, rice, and an egg roll. I liked that the sweet and sour sauce had a bit of a kick. The fried chicken was crispy but still tender. My favorite still is the egg roll. For $ 12, it’s a good deal.
We got our food pretty fast, and service was overall friendly. I don’t know why the restaurant is dark, but considering the heat wave SF has been having, I didn’t mind.

A well deserved five star rating for Winnie, the portion size, the excellent quality of food and cheap pricing for their happy hours.
I am always so happy, filled, and hopeful for returning back.
Tip: come on an empty stomach! Lalita’s won’t let you down!

Lalita Thai is located on McAllister right off Market St. and the UN Plaza. Getting out from the BART station, you might encounter some characters enroute to the restaurant.
The restaurant was fairly busy, but our group had no problems with seating. After checking out the menu, we placed our orders. All of us ordered from their $ 11.95 lunch specials featuring 10 different choices.
Grilled Honey Pork — The pork was sliced into strips and included egg roll, jasmine rice and a mixed green salad. You can substitute brown rice for a $ 1 more. The pork was tasty, but felt the portion was small and that it would have tasted better had it not been lukewarm. The provide a cup of Coconut Tapioca Pudding for dessert.
Overall, the food at Lolita is ok compared to some other Thai restaurants a couple blocks away in Little Saigon.