Pam Real Thai Las Vegas

Went today for lunch and they were closed :(They are seeking a new location. I hope they find one. I will miss the garlic fried rice and pad kee mao.

After seeing some of the bad reviews on here, I felt like I needed to write a review cause this place is awesome and I definitely want it to stay in business for selfish reasons! ;p I visited for the first time on Sunday but am considering ordering takeout again today cause it was that good! extra +++points for the very reasonable prices and freebies for Unilocalers (thai iced tea if you check in on the Unilocal app and 2 pieces of crab ragoon just because/​for no reason just because they are awesome and love Unilocalers!)
I recently relocated here from NYC – more specifically, Queens – home to some of the best Thai restaurants outside of Thailand. I’ve frequented Thai restaurants throughout Manhattan and in the southeast asian ethnic enclave of Elmhurst /​Jackson Heights /​Woodside including the infamous SriPraPhai.
In Vegas, I’ve tried Lotus of Siam, Komol, and Kinnaree and I’ve gotta say, this is the best one I’ve tried around here and the prices /​awesome service are just icing on the cake.
I went with my brother and we shared the papaya salad and fried calamari apps. I loved the papaya salad (yes those thin white things are the papaya – I’ve ordered this dish at 20+ different Thai restaurants) and we both agreed the calamari was on point (super crisp/​light exterior, not soggy at all like some places, and not too chewy). For entrees, he got the spicy basil pork, I got the pad kee mao with tofu – both were generous portions and delicious!
For those complaining about heat /​spice – if you can’t handle it, don’t ask for it! Thai food is meant to be spicy. If its not, it is Americanized /​not authentic. Even so, they are accommodating here and will make it not spicy if you ask for it. Ask for not spicy or very little like 0.5÷4 if you can’t handle it. If you asked for spicier than you can handle, just tell them instead of leaving a bad review without giving them a chance to address the issue! They are so nice here I’m sure they’d make you a new one
Yes, obviously 2 or 2.5 out of 4 is spicy because ²⁄₄ would be medium or average in Thai spicy but to the American palette, it is considered very spicy. While I am American/​born and raised here myself, I am of asian decent and tend to frequent many ethnic restaurants with foods that pack heat (szechuan, indian, ethiopian, thai, etc.) so I thought the ²⁄₂.5 was perfect and had the right amount of kick for Thai food. If you are going to be adventurous and try ethnic cuisines, please understand and be respectful of their cultures and don’t criticize them for their standards of what is the norm, especially if you don’t give them a chance to address the issue. Just cause we Americans «think» something should be a certain way, it doesn’t mean our way is right if its not to our standards or norm.

Solo Luncheon on a hot summer day weekday. Parking hasnnever been an issue here and conveniently located. Established from the East coast ive always enjoyed my experiences here.
I cooled down with a Thai ice tea that was invigorating. Although it was triple digits outside I ordered the Tom yum soup noodles. The soup tasted wonderful — many different ingredients combined which definitely got me working up a sweat from the spiciness and chili Peppers but so addictive. The portion was just right and I had room for the offering of coffee ice cream. The desset was unique & refreshing but definitely gave me a happy ending to a wonderful inexpensive luncheon,
Service by my waitress was spot on. I heart this place!

Pam real Thai … So I was intrigued by the name, so stopped in to see what it’s about. Pam is the mom in NY and Jersey branches, chef Timmy is the son and oversees the Vegas branch. Spicy, fresh, healthy is on the signage. He stated he uses fresh ingredients instead of powdered or pre made bases, stocks or sauces.
You can usually judge Thai venues by the Tom Yum Goong soup aka shrimp Tom Yum. This version reminded of Thailand… tangy, spicy, flavors of lemongrass, basil, tamarind bursting in your mouf! There’s spoonfuls of this stuff in the soup. And the shrimp was tender n plump, generally they overcook them and get rubbery. (Kudos to the chef) standard order is pretty Hott for most avg people but that’s how it’s served in Thailand! Thai food is known to be spiced! And serving It played down just doesn’t do it justice… I know some peeps can’t do spicy, so I’ll exclude them from the curve.
Same can be said about the pad Thai representing the venue, although this dish seemed average. Noodoohs should be al dente yet slightly soft but retaining the length and not falling apart and have just enough sauce/​moisture to it. I know that sounds like the perfect storm but why settle? And again the shrimp was perfectly cooked! Almost just undercooked for the plumpness like a scallop. I ordered it very spicy but was not burned at all so I added more sambal and pepper flakes!
Ratings go from:
Spicy
Very spicy
Thai spicy
You asked for it! Spicy
The jungle curry was something I have not yet seen… No coconut milk here, and no spicy rating needed, it’s fiery spicy! Like tickle your throat and need water type of spicy… It’s a northern specialty that’s worth a try.
Upon walking in, the space is very open like a dance hall feeling. Maybe they’ll have a club at night or karaōke… Some booths or partitioning of some sort could break up the openness. Nice wood floors, tables n chairs are basic but the vinyl tablecloths? I have never been a fan of vinyl anything in a restaurant unless its a 50’s diner.
Maybe a little décor and some time will let this new kid on the block venue (Newwww Yorkaaaaa) evolve into a contender for the ol Thai staples in town.
I can tell by chef Timmy’s skills so far that it may not be long for him to get a following of his own.
Next on the menu… oxtail soup!
Khap poon kraap (Thai is hard to translate)!

Back in Vegas and with mom fresh off the boat from her Japan/​Korea trip, the last thing she wanted was more Korean food. So we pick her next favorite cuisine, Thai. Having missed out on Pam Real Thai the last time out, I take this opportunity to make this our destination. Walking in, it’s peculiar that we are the only party there. Turns out, we were the only party here throughout our dinner…
The interior has a clean and neat, if not exactly trendy, décor that give it a splash of style. The server is pleasant, and as expected with us being the only guests, appropriately attentive. Overall we were very pleased with the ambiance. To the food that I was really looking forward to, especially given the experience the other day.
We ordered a large Tom Kha soup, spicy pineapple fried rice, shrimp pad thai, and crispy pork with chinese broccoli.
Tom Kha soup — tasty but too salty and not spicy enough. Was more a fan of the reddish tint to the soup, here it is white.
Fried Rice — good, fiery taste but again not spicy enough. Also salty.
Pad Thai — Again salty but pretty good. Has an usually tangy taste which was just okay for me, others liked it.
Crispy Pork — Not bad, no gamey taste which is good, but taste-​wise nothing spectacular.
So a bit disappointed because the food overall is a decidedly 3-​star affair, but the service and the more modern ambiance gets a ½ star upgrade. So really a 3.5 star experience, but the fact that it can’t fully be appreciated due to the emptiness it will have to settle for a 3.
Table-​for-​1 Factor: I’m guessing they’ll take any number, but even IF the crowd was more brisk I think it would be okay to eat on your own.

Pretty damn good Thai food, in fact the best Thai so far in Vegas (I’ve had Lotus of Siam, Komol etc) and I’ll tell you why…
3 words, spicy basil pork. Wow! I mean 5 stars on this dish with the amazing Jasmin rice. The sweet, sour, spicy, tangy ground pork over that sweet perfectly cooked aromatic jasmin Thai rice is a match made in heaven.
Also I ordered the veggie fried rice which was 3 ½ stars. Good flavor, lots of veggies, but undercooked veggies and a pound of almost raw white onion killed it. Why the hell would you used white onion in Thai fried rice. Like I said the taste was good but the veggies were hard and I spent 15 minutes pulling out raw white onions.
I would drive from SoCal to get the spicy basil pork and rice. I will be back, really great food.
PS Don’t forget the free Thai iced tea for checking in

I had high hopes for this place– tried to go yesterday but they were closed (they always are on Monday), and when I went in today it was to order the oxtail soup, as advertised on a sign in their window (they didn’t even have it).
But my BF is the thai expert. Ordered Fishcakes app, papaya salad, and the basil garlic shrimp stir fry with bell peppers. There was only one other table during our visit and it took nearly half an hour to receive our food. I’ll start with the positive.
The fishcakes were great– not too greasy, thick and flavorful, with a delightful cucumber salad sauce that I adore. Well priced at about $ 6.
It was downhill from there.
Papaya salad had no discernible papaya in it. There was a white, shredded substance that almost appeared to be bean sprouts and had no flavor. We were told that was the papaya. Um, no go, bro– plus it was packed with heat, even at ordering a level 2, to the point that it was not enjoyable to eat.
Then the stir fry arrived. There were several shrimp in the dish, and I could visibly see basil and bell pepper in a dark red sauce. But the bell peppers were raw, and the sauce was devoid of any flavor other than spice– no garlic, no balance. The entrée itself was served on a plate, so the sauce was all over the bottom of the dish and impossible to spoon onto the rice, making it difficult to eat– then again, so did the heat and lack of flavor.
This is one of the only dishes in my life I have sent back.
One star for the fishcakes, and because the server brought out the cook, who was apologetic and friendly, and offered repeatedly to remake the dish to tone down the sauce and cook the bell pepper. We had no interest, but he was polite and insistent, so we took him up on remaking the dish and taking it to go.
EDIT: tried the remade dish, and the sauce is still the same, the bellpepper is cooked, but now the shrimp is overcooked and dry. So disappointed.
Our bad experience doesn’t end there, though.
As we left, we were approached in the parking lot by another diner who had left and waited for us… To see if our dining experience was as bad as his was! Not a good sign, at all.
The cook, friendly and polite though he is, needs to consider being front of house or management– cooking is not his strength. And as a personal preference, maybe find a different server/​host who isn’t wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt and playing on the computer for our entire visit.

Sunday (3÷16÷14) at work, I was really craving fish cake and something savory and salad-​y. Salad-​y is a word right??? In comes Unilocal.
Pam Real Thai delivers (which was a must because I couldn’t leave work) and they supposedly don’t use boullion in their cooking. This obviously works for me and I order via Unilocal (Eat 24 or whatever this thing is.)
There is a $ 15 minimum for delivery so I order:
1 Narm Tok Beef salad $ 6.95 (Extra spicy)
1 Thai Fried Fish Cake $ 7.95
1 Cucumber salad $ 1.00 (Because I was $.10 under the minimum for delivery.)
Total: $ 15.90
+ $ 3 mandatory delivery fee.
Total: 18.90 + $ 1.51 tax
Total: $ 20.41
40 minutes after I place my order, I got a phone call saying that they were out of fish cake. The guy on the phone asks me what I want in place of it. There’s no web site and I wasn’t near a computer so I said, «Umm I guess two salads?» It would have been nice to have had an extra cucumber salad or a $ 1.00 refund as the salad was a buck cheaper than the fish cake that I originally ordered, but alas, I did not receive one.
An hour after I placed my order, it was dropped off. (My work is 1.9 miles away…) Sadly, the «salad» consists of beef atop a single lettuce leaf with a scant amount of shredded romaine. I’d say it’s more of a garnish than a salad. :(
Everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE spicy food. If a restaurant has 3 chili peppers on their menu next to an item, that’s basically the number one selling point — even though I know I’ll still have to douse whatever it is in more hot sauce. If my nasal passages aren’t running, it’s not hot enough. If it doesn’t feel like my intestines are knotting themselves, it’s not hot enough.
I dive into one of the beef salads — FINALLY. Yes, this is spicy. If I say it’s spicy, best believe you can’t handle it. It wasn’t so much of a nasal clearing spicy, but more of a singe your tongue off spicy. I loved it but I saved the second salad for the next day’s lunch.
I do feel like delivery is not the best option and I really wish I would have been alerted earlier to the fish cake shortage as that was what I was craving but oh well. It looks like dine in gives you much better bang for your buck than delivery.

They deserve a bigger lunch crowd.
That’s the distinct impression after my two visits so far, anyway. Maybe they get good traffic at other times, but I’m just real afraid that a spot like this serving up great food will just get lost in the neighborhood of excellent restaurants that is Spring Mountain. Don’t let them quietly into the night.
I was pretty sick the first visit, where I shared some shrimp pad thai and beef red curry with a friend, so I’m mostly discounting that one. However, when I opened up the leftover curry that night, my stuffy nose cleared up for a few shining minutes and I got the full flavor of some delicious curry.
Attempt #2 was today. I was so sad that nobody else was even there when I first arrived, and the chef finally stepped out to the front of the restaurant after a few minutes. I still hadn’t decided what to order at that point, but after talking to the chef for a moment, I went with the pad see ew with beef.
Lunch comes with a free appetizer, which happened to be the same as last time for me. It was a small bowl of the house salad with peanut sauce, and a fried chicken and shiitake mushroom with a bit of sweet sauce underneath. The salad is very fresh and the peanut sauce is sweet but not very heavy, and the dumpling was cooked through with a crunchy skin and a pretty soft, ground-​up interior. Might’ve lacked just a touch of salt, but it’s good otherwise.
The pad see ew was delightful. I might have had it once or twice before (yeah, need to diversify my Thai repertoire), but this one deserves to be called the best I’ve eaten so far. Every piece of flat noodle was soft and freshly made, the sauce is balanced between sweet and savory, the Chinese broccoli added a great crunch, and the beef was just plentiful enough. On top of all that, the portion size is a solid lunch value for $ 6.95, even though it’s the same price all day.
I ended up having most of my free-​with-​Yelp-​check-​in Thai tea after the meal. It was good and not overly sweet. Make sure to advantage of the check-​in offer since it’s normally $ 1.95. And make sure just to come here and try it. They’ll also deliver for $ 15+ orders within 3 miles and serve takeout, but I’ll stick to sitting down at a table in their hopefully-​not-​so-​empty-​in-​the-​future room.
Hyphenator, out.