Phenom

This is barely food, much less Thai food. The restaurant looked like a drug trafficking front complete with shady looking people smoking cigarettes. They were all too happy to take our $ 50 and we were all too happy to have learned a valuable lesson: this place is awful.

This was by far the worst meal I have ever had. The entire place smells like cigarette smoke as people were smoking at the bar. The place was cold, dirty, and dark. Wouldn’t ever eat here again.

well for starters, i dont usually like thai food, and this was no exception. but my friends annoying gf insisted on thai for his birthday so i reluctantly accepted his choice even though there is a great authentic mexican place down the street that i have been trying to get to for weeks! that place looked cheaper and is very well received on Unilocal.i was already in a bad mood because i have a ton of work to do and this dinner is completely inconveniencing me. i have a huge project due on friday so i begged my friend to push the dinner back until friday evening but he refused. annoying. being a native of LA’s thai town, i have developed a very advanced pallet when it comes to south asian spices but i have a cold so i cant really taste anything. chef was smoking a cigarette outside the restaurant as was the only waiter, the place was completely empty. felt betrayed by my friend and his girlfriend for pushing this place having never eaten here themselves. also felt pangs of guilt and anxiety throughout the whole meal about the huge project that i should have been working on. owner who referred to himself as ‘big mouth jack’ made misogynistic, vulgar and unsolicited dating advice throughout the meal. the pad thai, which had been recommended to me by a friend tasted vaguely of peanuts and featured dry chicken and lots of chili powder. the of poor decision making of my friends girlfriend, however left an even worse taste in my mouth. hope to never revisit this dark chapter in my life. happy birthday, max…

Stopped in to Phenom tonight since they’re open rather late. I’d been there a few years ago, and remembered it being pretty inoffensive, so I went back.
I was surprised that the place was empty aside from one other table. You’d think the only non-​bar in downtown Easton would be hoppin’ on a Saturday night at 9:30, but not so. That didn’t deter me, ’cause some of the best ethnic food I’ve had has come from abandoned-​looking places.
I had the house curry with «vegetarian scallops» (which were actually seitan, looked like beef, and were pretty good) and my friend had the red curry with tofu. He ordered it extra extra super flaming spicy please, and the older Asian guy joked about fire trucks and asked if he was sure a thousand times.
My food was pretty good. My friend needed to douse his in pepper flakes to get it to the appropriate spiciness, which is annoying after the guy did his whole ‘oh-​ho! call the fire department’ shtick.
The Meh happened when we got the bill. We paid, but when we walked outside, we looked at the menu and realized we were way overcharged. His meal should’ve been $ 10.95, mine should’ve been $ 11.95. We were charged $ 14 (for his) and correctly for mine, and also two orders of rice. The older guy tried to blame the waitress because she asked for rice twice — We’d only ordered one, but heard the other table order another rice. He took that off with minimal annoyance. The extra charge on the food was because he charged us for vegetables AND tofu as separate things. The meal is literally vegetables and sauce. Was he just going to serve sauce and nothing if we didn’t add vegetables? This wasn’t «extra» vegetables — Both our plates had the same amount of vegetables on them. The guy’s argument wasn’t making sense, and we’d already paid so we didn’t have any leverage, so we gave up and left.
The waitress checked in on us a lot, and if it weren’t so dead it would’ve been annoying, but the poor woman was probably bored.
Moral of the story: Decide to have dinner earlier and go somewhere else, or else check your bill really closely.

I am a huge fan of Thai cuisine, the spicier the better. But beware, the food at this restaurant is terrible. I ordered the Pad Thai and Silver Noodle. First off, they did not look appetizing, and what’s even more disappointing they did not taste very good either. Which is a shame because the restaurant itself is nice and the staff is even nicer. But unfortunately the food is not. Also it was expensive for the quality of food served. There is another Thai restaurant just around the corner, my advice go there.

This place is gross. If you read nothing else, read this: DO NOT EAT HERE.
Entering the restaurant seemed stagnant, but it was a Monday slightly past the prime lunch hour, so I excused the lack of other patrons besides a couple seated at the booth behind mine. While examining the menu I noticed a general dampness in the space, making everything feel clammy, like nothing was totally clean. At the same time my dining companion noticed old food crusted onto her spoon, before we could ask the waitress for new utensils, the guy at the table behind us began complaining loudly about an apparently large ant in his soda. At this point I obviously should have left and found another place to eat, but since we were situated and I was hungry and far too forgiving due to spending ten years working in food service and trying for a fast lunch in the midst of an eight hour drive, I stayed. It was a mistake.
My companion and I ordered from the lunch menu. I got chicken spicy noodles and she got the pork pad thai. The entrees came with a complimentary cup of soup and I wish they hadn’t. The broth tasted of jarred garlic and had a large layer of flavorless fat on top. It was regrettable and neither of us came close to finishing it. My chicken spicy noodles were ok, honestly two or three stars if they were the only thing I was judging. The noodles were large, flat and over-​cooked sticking together in big masses throughout. The vegetables and chicken were adequate and the flavor ok. I finished most of the dish.
My companion’s pad thai on the other hand was an abomination. The sauce tasted ketchupy, too sweet, too thick. The noodles were again overcooked and the shrimp was mushy. The pork was disgusting, tasting several days past goodness, making the dish inedible. The waitress never check on us and the greeter/​owner (I assume) who ended up bring us our check did not seem to understand our disliking the food (he kept offering to pack it to go).
A totally regrettable dining experience. I would have felt better about eating nachos at a ⁷⁄₁₁.

What a disappointment. I’ve been here various times over the years and had very pleasant meals. Friday was not that.
My fried veggie spring rolls were just hard oily messes. The plum sauce fried wings were under cooked (eek!). Complimentary soup was too salty to eat even after I dumped in all the ice from my water glass. Eggplant with basil sauce had no flavor. But the worst was the pineapple fried rice with rotten vegetables that stank and were mushy.
The owner took the fried rice off the bill but I still paid $ 30 plus a tip for food we barely ate and didn’t enjoy.
I would not recommend lunch, no one else was there, maybe not even the regular chef?!

Good Thai food.
I went to Phenom for a quick late afternoon lunch. Surprisingly, parking wasn’t a big issue because there were many street parking spots available in the late afternoon (especially on a Monday).
The restaurant looked very nice from the outside and inside. The spacious inside looked wonderful with authentic Thai decorations all over the place, and I absolutely adored their marvelous elephant statue centerpiece. However, there was a strong cigarette smoke odor that hit me in the face as soon as I opened the entrance door, and it lingered throughout the whole restaurant.
My waiter, who may be the owner, was very friendly, attentive, and talkative. He knew the differences between each dish, complimented on my choice of food, and checked on me frequently whether I needed anything else.
The «Thai Iced Tea» is always my choice of beverage when going to any Thai restaurant, and it doesn’t disappoint at this restaurant.
My «Gai Tom Ka» soup appetizer was delightful. The coconut milk from the soup made it taste very rich and creamery. The soup also contained a combination of chicken, green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and limegrass.
The «Bangkok Duck» entrée was so delicious! There were several flavors mixed together, and my boneless duck meat was a huge piece too. The sauce along with the onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, and white rice made this dish outstanding in every way. I would recommend the bangkok duck dish for any first-​timer or Thai food-​lover (Myself) trying Thai food.
Overall, the price for everything was very reasonable. The service was wonderful, and the food was delicious. Other than the strong smoke smell, I would come back again.

Firstly, Mike, the only waiter in the place, was wonderful. Helpful. Sweet. Attentive.
Now, the food. El-​sucko! I was really, really craving Thai food. Like «Ricky’s Thai» thai food in Princeton, NJ. Started at «Touch of Thai», see my review for that disappointment, then decided to give Phenon a shot.
I ordered the green curry with tofu and my husband ordered the pad thai with chicken. My first warning bell went off when the dish arrived with huge chunks of uncooked, unseaoned tofu floating in sauce like icebergs in the North Atlantic. The eggplant looked like jalapenoes and the string beans looked lost.
When I tasted it, it was just as I had expected: Bland, bland, bland, bland!
How can thai green curry sauce taste like white hot water? And the tofu… imagine taking tofu straight out of the container and eating it. My husband, in an effort to save the meal, offered me his Pad Thai. It was better than mine in that it had flavor but that flavor was very sweet and the texture, gloppy.
We decided the best course of action was to send back my meal, wrap up my husband’s, cut our losses and go home.
Here’s the best part. The «chef» refused to take my uneaten meal off the bill because he claimed it wasn’t «his fault»…WHAT?
It wasn’t until my husband was literally walking out the door threatening not to pay ANYTHING that the chef relented and charged us 15.00 for the worst Pad Thai I ever tasted.
The cherry on this is when you walk in, and I hope you never do, you’ll get a nice lung full of stale cigarette smoke and what sounds like a kitten playing video games at the bar. My husband and I and another table for 2 were the only diners on a Saturday night dinner hour. That should have been the tip-​off. Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Mediocre is the word that best describes the lunch my son and I had at Phenom. Thai food is one of my favorite ethnic cuisines, so before a meeting schedule in Easton, PA we stopped in to Phenom for a quick lunch.
We first decided to share an appetizer of fried chives dumplings; I pictured delicately assembled dumplings lightly pan fried to develop a slightly crusty exterior. What arrived were dumplings (hard to even describe them as this) that were greasy, dark brown and utterly unappetizing. They oozed oil, and clearly had been thrown into a deep fryer without much love. The taste was what you would expect. Fried dough and over cooked chives drenched in dirty fryer oil.
We moved on to Thai classic lunch. I ordered Spicy Thai Fried rice, my son pineapple fried rice. The biggest problem with both dishes was that the rice was terribly overcooked. It was mushy, clumpy and lacked any sort of resistance to the tooth. The spices were okay, but mine lacked a distinctive basil flavor. We both left half a plate uneaten, partly because it was not very good, and partly because the portions were extremely generous.
I could go on, but there are far better options for Thai in and around the Lehigh Valley in PA.

Maybe it’s my fault for ordering «very spicy with vegetables only» and taking it out, but the Basil dish was very bland. It was all cough-​causing, [blank] burning, spicy heat and no flavor. I’ve had atomic wings that were much hotter and with WAY more flavor.
I also expected a higher quality for $ 12 especially in Easton, PA. What do they think this is, NYC?
No, because in NYC I’d get a kick-​a$$ meal for only $ 10.
Maybe it’s organic? Maybe next time I’ll just get Pad Thai: P

The place was dark and cold and felt dirty. The ceilings were leaking all around us. The drinks barely had any alcohol in them and were way overpriced. We asked for a small side of rice and got charged for a very large plate. We asked for our check and it took the waitress over 20 minutes to return with it. The sad part was, they weren’t even busy. There was one other couple there beside us. We were confused about what took so long, since the waitress found it necessary to return to our table almost 10 times during our meal. Every time we tried to have a conversation, she would walk up and butt in. Very unnecessary.
Phenom has great potential with the location and the neat interior, but they seemed to have let it slip. The food I remembered raving about a couple of years ago is mediocre at best, now. We definitely will NOT be returning here ever again. There are way too many Thai restaurants in the area to even give this place another shot.

Easton, PA. Thai restaurants usually have an amazing interior! This is pretty cool here. Stopped by the Crayola factory and found this place nearby to get some chill time in! Good food and good service!

Super friendly!

Still decent food and friendly staff — but not quite as flavorful as it used to be. The menu is the same but the dishes are prepared differently. What used to be bold, tongue popping flavor has been replaced with heat, and each course was a little more bland than it used to be. Even the veggies in the dishes seemed haphazardly chopped — including some onion skin — instead of the careful delicate slices they used to be. Bring back the old chef!

I really, REALLY love this place!
As a local, I really love walking around Eason once in awhile and enjoying the atmosphere, and I always make sure to stop her for either late lunch or dinner.
The staff consists of a very kind group of people, I’m assuming they’re all related.
It’s very clean and intricately decorated inside, with traditional Thai artwork and accompanying music.
Our food came out at the perfect time, and of course was hot, fresh, and well-​portioned.
Our waitress was extremely kind and made sure we had everything we needed.
A really great place to bring someone from out of town, or just have a lunch date locally with a friend!

Friend’s food was plated with cockroach. And the food was brought to the table. Not handled well by staff even after brought to their attention (by the customer).

Got delivery twice, ate there in person once. Disgusting food. I love Thai food, but this place sucks. It’s overpriced for what they serve. In terms of service and drinks, it’s ok. But in rating just the food, HELL NO.

I really wanted to like Phenom, as I LOVE Thai and try to support downtown Easton. I went at least three or four times before giving up. The owner is friendly enough, and I can live with random eclectic décor, esp in ethnic restaurants. However, the food was terribly inconsistent, and usually not good, for a variety of reasons: bland; oily; tasted «old,» etc. — you get the picture. Frankly, it’s probably too large and too big of a menu, so stuff winds up sitting around.
If I ever see a change in review trend I’d give them another try but for now, they’re off the list.

We enjoyed our dinner here. The staff is very friendly and attentive and the food is very good.
The establishment’s interior is very large with plenty of space for seating. They have a full bar on the property and a good selection of beverages and signature martinis.
I had the spicy noodles and my girlfriend their Phenom seafood dish. They were both very good and the presentation was excellent.