East & West Cafe

East West is my favorite. It is consistent and the people that own and work there are fantastic.

East and west is simply delicious! Staff is delightful.
Veggie Green curry is sooOoOOo good, along with their Saigon crêpe!
Their spring rolls and phở is THEE freshest! Nothing compared to the cheap pop up phở spots.
If I am craving Thai/​Vietnamese… East west is my first choice!

The food and service here are so good. Best fresh Spring rolls yet. Excellent Potstickers. Highly recommend. Delicious yellow curry. Amazing red rice! Will be back!

My husband and I are moving to this area and spent a week here working– we decided to wander into East West one night — parking was great– right on the street in front– service good, food excellent– I am sure we will be going back– nice quiet spot to enjoy good food and conversation– setting very nice and they do take out too.

My all time FAVE for Thai food! I travel all I over the world and their Thai dishes are the BEST! Cozy restaurant, very friendly employees, priced super reasonable and I’m never dissapointed. I’ll even get Take Out when I’m craving their food but in a hurry! I love their Swimming Angel and their Saigon Crêpe along with so many others! I promise this won’t dissapointed you!

I drop green curry bombs after this place — which is awesome! Seriously, if nothing else, get the green curry with chicken. It’s a refreshing concoction of veggies, basil and the most unique curry mix ever! Don’t think you can go to any Thai restaurant and find a suitable replacement for E&Dub’s curry delectables. Any of the curries are great. Have I mentioned the curry yet?
Let’s not get myopic though. If curry ain’t your thing (because you hate great food), then any of the other Thai staples at E&Dub are quite consistently upper-​echelon comparatively. Like if there was a Morningstar rating for them, they’d be top percentile; so invest your dinner money here.
Here’s what I’d do:
Appetizer: Fresh Rolls
Main: Green Curry w/​Chicken, white or red rice
Drank: Lemonade (it’s got a great twang to it)
Only reason it’s a 4-​starrer is because the service is somewhat hit-​and-​miss, but has improved dramatically.

This place has been my favorite place for as long as they have been in business. I don’t even live in WA anymore, but every single time I make a trip to visit, I go here and eat. I have never once been disappointed! The food is out of this world and the service is too. You will love it!

Literally the best dumplings I’d ever had. But customer service isn’t great and seems to be getting worse — we kept getting takeout and saying ‘no mushrooms in anything’ and still getting mushrooms, so they said «tell us you have an allergy» so we did and we still got mushrooms! Our takeout orders also always take longer than they say and the staff seems super frazzled. I haven’t been super impressed with the rest of the food, the soup and curries are pretty good but I haven’t loved the other things I’ve tried (stir frys, Korean beef, fried rice), but those DUMPLINGS. That’s the only reason they don’t get a 2! Basically we don’t order here as a family any more, I just go in for dumplings.

I’ve only eaten here once but I’m looking forward to my next visit! The portions are generous, the food tastes great (quality/​fresh ingredients) and the atmosphere is nice and laid back.

I’m giving this place five stars after my second visit. I’ve had much Thai in my life. Sadly too much… I used to go all zippy over the myriad of flavors Thai curries and noodles offered, but now they are so commonplace to me… HERE I have found a surprisingly differerent treat! A delicacy I’m quessing is more on the border of something «east or west» of Thailand. like maybe Vietnam? Maybe even things they made up? From wherever they hail, I will eat them again… and again. They fill that void… that nudging void I feel when I want something tasty, unique and a tad mysterious. (Those were words I used to describe typical Thai food, back in the 80’s.sigh) This new treat is Saigon Crêpe (ummm, so unique and good… chicken breast and prawns with piled high bean sprouts and jicama on a freaky crispy thin flakey breaky rice/​coconut turmeric tinted circular delight… with a yummy dipping/​pouring sauce… eat the mint! it’s not just a garnish, and goes swimmingly well with the flavors here!) You know, maybe this thing is old news to you, but I tell you my taste buds are living it up.
Honorable mentions: fried tofu and eggplant over rice… mmmm, and the Bot Chien! Oh lordy. The crispy noodles with chicken is very good. It’s great to have with sweet dish, as it’s lightly savory, but very good.
Also tried Cashew Chicken… standard and non exciting… preferred from Simply Thai in Tukwila only.
1 – 5 spice level rating is sooooo innacurate. If you like even the slightest bit of heat, get 5 stars. This is coming from someone who gets 2 stars at Thai restaurants and it’s a bit too much for me… Indian? ha!, I can handle one star there… so believe me, it’s not spicy at all. They do have peppers on the table, if you trust them. BUT that said, the flavors are so nummy that I do not care if there’s not heat going on.
EDIT: I had to take one star off due to the abysmal excuse for fried rice. The texture was like a boxed/​reconstituted rice ((why??)) and the chicken wasn’t breast meat incorporated into it, but charred teriyaki-​like thigh meat laid atop the rice. It just did not go. I couldn’t eat it, but my non-​picky husband finished it, all the while stating «this isn’t very good».

I’ve eaten here twice technically, once I was picking up fresh spring rolls for a graduation party and the other we sat in for dinner. The spring rolls are delicious! Especially with the sauce, yum. When we sat in the waiter seemed very annoyed that our last guest was arriving later than expected, but we brushed it off. Overall, I do enjoy the food and the company I’ve had it with. The wait staff could be a bit more polite, though. I know that it’s annoying when you have a large group of people to serve and someone shows up late (I was a waitress long ago) but you’ve got to show a bit more control and patience. It not only adds to your tip but also gives the party an overall positive experience. In short, good food — some improvement needed on the wait staff

My favorite Thai place in Tacoma! Great fresh flavors and never too heavy. I love and can’t help but order their pang nang curry. You can’t go wrong with anything on their menu. Their sea-​bass is so light and flavorful and their mi xao men is alway a good fix for my noodle cravings (as I’m not a fan of pad thai in general). and they have the best fresh rolls with the best peanut dipping sauce! It’s quaint and relaxing and I always get a smile and great food when dinning there.

We’ve been here a 5 – 6 times over the years and I’ve tried something new each time hoping to find a good dish and each time I’ve been disappointed. Noodles usually overcooked. Service is consistently good but that’s about it. Silk Thai restaurant on 6^th ave is much fresher and higher quality. Service there is just as good too. I think after this last try I won’t be coming back to this place.

We love this place. I have only eaten in once, about a year and a half ago — service was good. We’ve done takeout about a dozen times since then. It is always good, no matter what we get. I love the Swimming Angel (their peanut sauce is excellent), but have recently been ordering shrimp pad thai. We’ve eaten their larb, salads, curries, soups, spring rolls — we have never been disappointed. Order one up from your usual spice level — they are a bit conservative there, but that doesn’t mean it lacks flavor.
When you do order take-​out, give them an extra 10 – 15 minutes on the weekend — they do get busy.

Oh, that three and a half star average again. You just can’t ever quite tell if it’s going to swing in your favor or not.
In this case it swung in a very favorable way and I really enjoyed the food that I ordered here!
I got the crispy noodles with chicken which was excellent! The crispy noodles were very crispy and were in the shape of a bird’s nest with the chicken and veggies in the middle of it. The freshness was good, the spiciness was good, no complaints or criticism at all!
I had bird’s nest entrees before and always enjoyed them but those were back in Colorado so I was paticularly excited to find a good dish of this variety here!
Looking forward to going back!

I live really close, and I won’t go back. The food is bland.
When I ordered take-​out, I asked for a bit more hot sauce (they give a tiny plastic ramekin filled ¼th of the way) and I was charged extra and told I «should just buy a bottle of hot sauce.»
A different time, I ate there with a group, and we noticed there is what looks like black mold in the bathroom, and the whole restaurant is dusty. Just not good — I would rather go anywhere else.

Service was horrible. I stood at the counter for10 minutes waiting to place an order. The blonde server/​hostess assisted two other patrons at their table came back to the counter and put her back to me. She didn’t acknowledge me.
A woman came in behind me to pick up an order and she was assisted by someone that came out of the kitchen.
I turned around and left, went up to 6^th ave to Wild Orchid and bought dinner where I received great service.
Worst part is they were NOT busy, they only had two tables in the restaurant occupied.

I can’t believe this place is empty so often. It’s definitely not the food, the location or the prices, all of which are great. Very fresh, well-​prepared soups and stir-​frys which are made to order. Sauces aren’t pre-​made so most items can be prepared vegetarian (a few appetizers and a couple of the curries can’t). Excellent Thai iced tea.

The pad knee mao (sp) really was as good as I have had. Large portion, lots of vegetables and the perfect balance between salty and sweet. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised since we had not come in here before due to the reviews-​which are kind of middle of the road.
The ambiance is pretty 90s but I kind of like to see an unaffected place-​probably doesn’t get posted on instagram too often. Definitely a comfortable place we will eat at often.

Update from my previous review of 4 stars
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We have been there for lunch and dinner four times after this review, and we were very disappointed each and every time. To the point of not wanting to go back again.
Something must have happened, maybe it’s under new directionm or they changed the cook.
The food is just not the same, quality went down the hill.
In one of the times my Thai Rice was undercooked, rice was very dry. I opted for pork, and to my surprise the pork was cooked separate from the rice (and it was breaded??) and just sliced on top of the dish. It had a funky taste to it that only less than fresh food have.
My husband’s food (Chicken panang) was not good either.
Even the desert was terrible, the sticky rice was so dry and chewy that we left it on the plate.
We do not plan on going back again!
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Always a good option if you are craving Thai food.
The food and the service are consistently good.
It is not by any means a fancy place.
It is simple and casually decorated. But you are there for the food right?
My suggestion is the Chicken Panang Curry with red rice.
The curry is perfect every time, the red rice gives it a nice and perfect texture and the fresh green beans and mushrooms on the side are divine!
For desert, you have to try the Mango sticky rice: to die for!
We always go back for more!