Ban Thai

Oh, Ban Thai… I have had such a love hate relationship with this place over the years. I love it, because simply put, the food is amazing. I’ve hated it for their slow service, long wait times and random hours, ie. Some days they are closed because they are too busy with take out orders. I do understand that this is a small, family owned, authentic restaurant and that the owner cooks each dish to order. That is why the food is so amazing. It’s also probably why it sometimes takes forever sometimes for dine in and for take out.
Obviously, the fact that the food is so good, overrides the other «issues» that this place has, because I keep going back. I would LOVE to see this place get more help, hire more employees and see it run more like a real restaurant. But I wouldn’t change a thing about the food/​recipes. It is honestly the best Thai food I have ever had, and I have eaten at MANY in many different parts of the country.
I had it tonight, my usual… 310 with Chicken and cream cheese wontons as an appetizer. It was so amazing, and the perfect amount of spice, just as I ordered. I’ve also had a few of the curry dishes and the pad Thai and everything we’ve ever had here has been dynamite. So so so good.
Basically, if you have a little (or sometimes a lot) of patience, it’s totally worth it, and you won’t be disappointed.

Best thai food ever! Must have the red curry I think it’s the 319… crave it!!! It’s not the best dine in experience but take out a must!!!

Checked out Ban Thai at Marketfest last night.
I tried the yellow curry as I was walking around the goings on. It was phenomenal and that’s all I have to say. You gotta try it.

I had the yellow curry at their stand front of the restaurant, during market fest. It was delicious! The flavors and balance of the dish were spot on. I will definitely be trying some food off their full menu.

Having seen the sign on the door that Ban Thai is award winning I made a mental note of it and promised myself to stop in. We came in for lunch early Sunday afternoon in June 2015 after shopping at a DIY store. One couple other than us had a table. The surroundings are simple giving the impression of being family owned. Our waitress was a polite young lady possibly a ‘tween-​ager’, also, a server/​busser provided our ice water and left a full carafe at our table before returning to chopping vegetables at another dining table.
I ordered Fried Rice with Large Shrimp, my dining partner ordered 4-​Spring Rolls and Yellow Curry with Chicken. Passing the time with conversation I felt an insect crawling up my right ankle. Turned out to be a wood tick. How unfortunate I thought and quickly removed it and crushed it under my shoe and swept it away with the sole of my shoe. Ninety seconds later, wood tick #2 is crawling on my other ankle and I notice my husband is swatting away a tiny flying insect that lands on his arm with two more landing on his other arm. This makes me wonder if this place is functioning with a wide open door back in the kitchen or if the previous clientele who sat at our table had slept in a ditch.
After dealing with the flies and ticks our eyes settled on the four bottles on the table (Hoisin Sauce, … etc…) which all four were in bad need of a good wiping down and lids tightened. (I wouldn’t handle the bottles in the state they were in.) We found ourselves wanting to avoid having to drink from our plastic cups of water having had to deal with bugs and staring at the goopy condiments in front of us.
When our food arrived my husband told the server we had no knives at our table — only a fork and spoon each. We were presented with one knife. The Spring Rolls were average; the Yellow Curry with Chicken was average; my Fried Rice with Large Shrimp was acceptable but I was disappointed that all the fried shrimp had tails or were TAILS ONLY in my dish. Rather than complaining to the little girl who asked us if everything was ok we opted to leave half-​way through our «dining experience», pay our $ 40 and go across the street to the Washington Square Grill. You know, when we first at down I thought the sound of our waiter chopping vegetables between dealing with customer was charming. Now it begs the question if food should be prepared out in the public dining area without a hairnet, sneeze guard, CLEAN HANDS after having wiped down a table with a filthy rag (no sink to wash available). If that’s the standard of cleanliness in the front it makes one wonder what is going on back in the kitchen? Gross.

Curry very good but a bit salty. Overall very accommodating. Very good appetizers but my wife’s entrée came with a mysterious fishy jelly sauce on top

Service: bad. Ambiance: bad, Prices: too high for what you get ($ 12 – 13 for a medium portion). Food: My Pad See Yew was very tasty but had american broccoli florets in it (yuk). Authentic spicing, not authentic ingredients (veggies).
We waited 40 minutes for food and there were only 4 other tables of customers in there, 2 of which were already served!
Someone needs to teach the cook what multi-​tasking is.
BTW: if there are a ton of other people writing the same 3 things (too long of wait, bad service, too pricey) why don’t you change those 3 things??? Hire another cook or learn to cook faster, have an adult on the floor to govern the front of the restaurant (there was only the young daughter and a young teenage bus boy). and either increase your portion size by 15% or decrease your price point by 15%. Not rocket sci.

2 stars for service. Over 30 minutes to get jasmine tea. The Gang Panang chicken (319) was fabulous! 1 chile spice was perfect. Good veggie-​chicken ratio. Lovely date got Pineapple Fried Rice (503) with shrimp. Good flavor, but nothing too unique. So, food overall earns 3 stars. We will be back!

Outstanding. Love it!
I always get the Gang Pa-​Nang. Its the best. I also always get it as hot as they can make it… level 10+ …and i’ll be honest, it is quite spicy. There are few places i’ve EVER been to that can be «too» spicy… this one gets close.

The #318 with the #319 yellow curry sauce is absolutely amazing! Small town diner type Thai restaurant. Been here twice and will come back many more times. My wife had the Pad Thai (#505) and really enjoyed it. NOTE: This is authentic Thai, so when they say hot, it’s Thai hot, not Minnesota hot. I normally like things very hot and ²⁄₄ was perfect.

We have tried to eater three times and they are literally never open! The last visit we checked their online schedule giving them the benefit of the doubt. When we got there, closed! We probably will not try again.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoy eating a restaurant when the owner comes out and talks about their passion for food. It goes a long way with me, and I know what’s good to eat. I finally settled on a nice yellow curry w sticky rice. It was what I expected but next time I might go to three peppers in the heat scale for more punch. Always great to have warm curry to bring you joy !

There aren’t many options for Asian cuisine in White Bear Lake so we were excited to learn about Ban Thai. The downtown location is convenient and the online reviews were good, so we gave it a try. Big mistake. We ordered the pad thai and spring rolls to pick up on a Friday evening. They told us to come get it in 20 – 30 minutes. We arrived after 45 minutes to find that our two dishes were still not ready. The owner said they were «backed up» in the kitchen. He told us numerous times that we’d only have to wait 5 more minutes. Nearly 35 minutes after arriving we finally left with our food. No apology. No offer to throw in some extra wontons. We were upset but too hungry to complain. We also hoped that if the food was great, we would be happy we waited. Unfortunately, the food was just OK, and that’s being generous. I’d avoid this place.

Been here twice and will never eat here again.
The first time, the food was delicious.
The second time, the food swam in a lake of oil on my plate. I tried to mix the rice and veggies, but could not get rid of the oily taste.
The owner said, they have a new cook and he got carried away with the oil. Normally they messure everything carefully. He made a new dish for me and it was ok.
If I wandet a bowl of oil, I would have ordert one! This grossed me out.

Had dinner here with a couple of coworkers while traveling from out of town. Service was a little slow, but the staff was very friendly. They actually have a large number of dishes on their menu, so there’s lots to try. I had the pineapple curry and it was amazing. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone that likes Thai food.

I liked it. Food was great. I ordered the 3 pepper level as I am a chili head. It was as warm as I had expected.
There seem to be a lot of one star ratings on here. I do wonder how much of that is simply MN «Anything other than ketchup or Gravy» is a scary thing?
As you travel throughout the country and also around the world. You do notice, whats great in one place. Is not so great in another.
I rate this place four stars. Only drawback is how cold the place was. Kind of wish I had brought my sweater.

I typically have my go to thai places that nothing can come close to. I ordered take out. The chicken pad thai was great! It was a decent size portion to share for two. The egg rolls were very peppery but I was great! Spri

I love supporting locally owned non-​chain restaurants especially in a suburb where there are a lot of chain restaurants. I love the chicken curry over a bed of spinach and the pineapple fried rice. This restaurant also makes their dishes spicy. It is difficult to find a place that will put caution in the wind and actually make their dishes HOT!
I add heat to almost everything I eat and a 2 on the Ban Thai scale is almost too spicy so be warned and stay on the lower side of the heat scale.

For decent Asian food in downtown White Bear, consider coming here for take out. The food is ok and the staff is funny but I think the restaurant itself is a bit darker and dated than I prefer.
The curries are where its at here and they are saucy which is good to go with rice. The bad being that they never seem to give enough rice. The pad thai is ok and I have had better at some other places but it does scratch an itch. Be careful on the heat level when ordering though as the heat builds quick!

Ok, do the service can be off, but we need to remember this is a FAMILY run business. They have very little outside help.
The food is AMAZING. I keep trying different things and they are all good
Have a glass of wine and relax