Tamarind Thai Restaurant

Never order their duck salad. The meat is hard, dry, and doesn’t even taste like duck. The waitress never came by to visit after we ordered our food. Thankfully I shared the plate that my boyfriend ordered. It was so disappointing. For hours I wanted a salad. When finally I got a hold of the attention of someone, the «manager» said that her policy is that they will not return or exchange anything that you are unhappy with, but they will take your name and number on a index card and hold just that info on file for next time you come back to see if they can get you back into their store. Sorry, but with that service and policy, no. I am not interested. Why should I pay for your mistake? You make shit for a dish, and expect me to pay for that? You do not deserve my business.

I am obsessed with Thai food and this place is definitely the best in the La Mesa area.
I’ve ordered take out through the Unilocal Eat24 app and I find that to be the best way to order. Mainly because calling can lead to miscommunication. The food has always been made on time and ready to eat.
Service for take out or dining in is about the same. The employees get the job done quickly and aren’t necessarily trying to go out of their way to be friendly. I can appreciate that though. I understand working in the service industry myself, faking a happy face is more tiring and irritating that just getting shit done. So a smiling face has no effect on tips! Anywhooo
I am in love with Pad See Ew! No matter what meat I’ve gotten the quality is always tasty. I’m no a huge fan of Pad Thai in general but here I’ll actually eat it. Everyone in my family’s go to dish is their Pad Thai.
Another favorite of mine is the Pinnapple Fried Rice. It has cashews and actual chunks of pinnapple, the portion is so plentiful I always have leftovers! And the last dish that I’ve eaten from here is the Yellow Curry.
If there are two things that are a must eat it is the Pad See Ew and the Yellow Curry! Those are always my go-​to dishes. Although the noodles are able to be spice less, the curry is a bit more difficult. The minimal spicy is just perfect for me, a little burn isn’t too bad. It includes potatoes and carrots so much yumminess! It doesn’t automatically come with white rice like most places do but it’s stands alone well.
I can’t handle spice so ordering even level 1 is too much for me. So if you can’t handle spice like me ask for none. On the contrary, if you’re like my s.o. and loveeee spicy food this place will be great for your rock hard tummy.
As for ambience it’s very quiet and sultry, not suited for large parties. Nice for a date, small family dinner, or just a good meal with a friend.
Overall, I love this place and I’ll be coming back time and time again. I DEFINITELY recommend it here.

There is a weird smell to the place and we had to wait more than 45 minutes for our takeout order. I really wanted to dislike the food so I won’t come back but the food was actually pretty good. Flavors were good and portions were okay. We’ll probably order out again from here but give them plenty of time.

Spent 20 minutes waiting to place my order I left after waiting an hour for food to not arrive at our table, had to tell person at counter that service is poor to nonexistent and magically my food arrived… horrible waist of time when there are plenty of other local options only gave this 2 stars because the beverage came. Highly-​rated this place might be but my experience was horrible and now I’m here in my car still hungry.

Called to order takeout. Asked for no spice. I have an extremely sensitive stomach. They told me 20 minutes over the phone. I got there and my food wasn’t ready for another 20. (40 mins total) they were rude while I was there and completely ignored me for 5 minutes before acknowledging I was waiting. I get my food home and it was so spicy I couldn’t eat it. I called, they said that the kitchen made a spicy # 4 and it wasn’t her fault. I asked for money back because, well it’s been a long day and I will not go get something else. She said it wasn’t her fault and they don’t give refunds and I could have a restaurant credit. Why would I want to go back to such a terrible place? She continued to tell me there was nothing she could do. TERRIBLE customer service and crappy food.

For a Thai place here in La Mesa this place was decent. It was packed when I went in for a Togo order. Saw lost of yummy dishes as I was waiting for my food. I had the fried springs rolls those were good. The dipping sauce had a spicy fruit like taste to it. Didn’t expect that to hit my palate so you have been warned lol it’s not your traditional sauce. I also had the pad Thai noodle plate and for $ 8.95 they give you a pretty large portion. I had a level 3 spice leave and it was just enough to make my nose water lol it was good.

I don’t know why I keep forgetting and going back to Tamarind Thai. The servers always seem unhappy and dismissive towards the customers. The food is over-​salted and oversweetened. It has a mass-​produced taste.
The Décor is very nice and the staff is efficient. but when I left today I offered my box of leftover pad Thai to a homeless man; he politely refused saying the food there isn’t that good.

Love this Thai place! Everything is always good and I like the atmosphere. YUM

One of the best Thai places in the San Diego area, and we have a bunch of really terrific Thai food here. Tamarind is one of my three or four go-​to places. It is consistently dependable and terrific food, and very affordable.

A small group of us went here with my puppy after hiking at Cowles Mountain. My sister was craving thai food and this was the only Thai place that had outdoor seating so we decided to give this place a try. Since we were sitting outside we all ordered tea since it was a little chilly. The Chrysanthemum tea with honey is AMAZING. I think it was called chrysanthemum. It was a tea that started with a C on the menu that wasn’t chamomile. Anyways, it’s a must try! I had the hot version, but I would imagine that the iced one would be even better.
Anyways, we ordered Crispy Calamari (don’t recommend), Red Beef Curry, Tom Kar soup, and the Kao Pad Poo. Aside from the Calamari, all were super good! We all didn’t want to stop eating! The soup was incredibly delicious. The curry was so comforting. And the Kao Pad Poo was addicting. The Kao Pad Poo is basically crab fried rice but made with Jasmine rice.
The only reason why I don’t recommend the calamari is because there’s literally 5 pieces of calamari and the rest are about 4 pieces of tempura fried broccoli and carrot. Tempura fried broccoli has a weird taste to it not a fan.
Other than the calamari, the table settings were super cute, and the food was great. Would come back again!

Decent Thai food at average — affordable prices. Real thai people working there, dressed up in traditional attire. Good for casual or classy and also good for families. (I’ve seen little kids running around with moms in leopard pumps and in a fur coat trying to hold it down). It can get busy there, but kept pretty tame.
I enjoy their Shrimp Tom Yum soup that can be shared by everyone. They’re accommodating about food preferences with some vegetarian options available. Papaya salad is well marinated. Standard Pad thai, and a fish dish that could be shared. This place is good for medium family style orders for share.
There’s certainly more authentic, adventurous restaurants I’ve had in San Diego, but I like the overall ambience. I live in hillcrest and this place is easy to get to. Street parking can be a bit challenging but not terrible. I’ll most likely return.

I bought the chicken green curry with rice to go… very tasty. The place seems quite authentic and service was polite. My only criticism would be that the portion was small, not much chicken or eggplant in the dish.

Take out order: papaya salad, Spring rolls with shrimp, panang curry veg. Reason for this rating: portions were small; soy in the spring rolls when specifically stated no tofu, and sprouts were brown and wilted after removing from the cellophane they smelled spoiled as well so I had to throw out, very small spring roll portion 2 egg roll sized) for $ 5.95 -; papaya salad was actually good & well seasoned, but not great, meaning I have had better, much better; Interaction experience ½, due to argument and some other commotions. Overall They are going downhill, so I cannot recommend this place because I have had much much better in the area I don’t see what the other reviewers were rating on; maybe they are great with the pad thai? I am not going to be the one to find out…

We had the Tom Kar soup and the yellow curry. We loved the curry and while the soup had some good flavor, it was way too hot for us. We’re not used to needing to specify the spicy level even for soup, so we’ll be sure to remember to do this next time. I really wanted to keep eating it but I just couldn’t. Oh, and if you want rice with your curry (of course!) it must be ordered separately. We didn’t realize this and they preemptively threw in a free side of rice for us! Overall a nice experience and good food. Will be trying it again.

Stumbled upon this shop during lunch and glad that I did! Affordable prices and clean environment. I typically order a traditional noodle and curry dish when trying new Thai places so that I did. Tom Kha Soup, Pad Thai and Panang Curry. The Pad Thai, to my surprise, had a punch full of great flavors! The soup had a good amount of coconut richness. The Curry was good in flavor but didn’t come with much curry sauce at all but rather bamboo shoots. I usually have Pad Kee Mao but I’ll have to come back for that as I was feeling quite westernized that day (don’t judge my pallet because of this.)

I was delicious!
I ordered it spiced ‘5’ on a scale from 1 – 10. It was too spicy for me (and I’m used to spicy foods).
For the price it’s really good!

Pad Thai here just became my favorite in San Diego!
Very friendly staff!
Would recommend to all friends who enjoy good Thai food!

After devouring the rest of my food, I wanted to write this review of praise for this restaurant. Man! I thought Sala Thai was good. This restaurant is the best. I was always afraid of eating Thai food due to haunted memories when I was younger. Today, I completely changed my mind about Thai food. It’s delicious… hmmm hmm… dang. This is now my favorite thai spot. Customer service is definitely pro status. + 10.

Remember your fire extinguisher before lunch/​dinner because the food gets hot hot hot!
Mmmm so good and hot. LIke the «Holy smokes my mouth is numb but I can’t seem to put my fork down» kind of hot. Like the «This is totally going to be worth the burn a few hours from now» good.
TMI? Whatever.
After an awesome workout I decided I would get my protein from some yummy chicken curry. I planned on cooking it but forgot I was lazy so I stumbled upon this place just down the street from where I lived. Their great reviews lured me in and their food is what will make me go back.
After looking over their menu, I decided on the Yellow Curry and it was loaded with chicken, potatoes, carrots and onions. It was piping hot even after ordering it to-​go and waiting a little before I ate it. That is one thing I love. Because who likes to eat cold food?
The yello curry had a different taste than what I’m normally used to. I got it at a level 4 since I like a little bit of kick. Theirs was more like a punch in the stomach. Freaking hot as heck. I’m not complaining though.
When I ordered my curry I was talking to someone else who was ordering to-​go and she recommended their spicy noodles which I will also have to try. I’ll probably get it at a level 2 and it’ll be hot as hell.
The rice that the curry was paired with was cooked beautifully and I can’t seem to put my finger on what type of mix it was since it had some grains on dark brown rice. It was super bomb.
All in all it seemed a little more authentic than the usual Thai restaurants I have visited and am excited to order from them in the future.

Food:
1) Tom Yum Soup: I didn’t really enjoy the soup as much as I have at other places. It was a little too salty and too sour for me, so I wasn’t able to drink as much of it as I would have liked.
2) Papaya salad: Pretty good flavor, great portions!
3) Appettizer platter: The chicken satay was delicious, the shrimp wrapped with noddles and deep fried was pretty unique. I liked the presentation and execution of the shrimp! Everything else I didn’t really try.
4) Pad se ew: delicious!
5) Pineapple fried rice: also delicious!
Service:
Very nice and welcoming!
Ambiance:
It’s a really small, cozy, quaint place. I really liked the artwork that were hung up on the walls. The restroom was located in the middle of the restaurant and looked like it was an entrance to a VIP area. It’s a pretty cute restaurant. More impressive décor inside than outside.
Price:
Decent, nothing too expensive.
Overall:
I liked this place. Glad it’s so close to my house. Will come more often! Glad I tried it!