Thai Kumkoon Restaraunt

Used to go here in my undergrad days at OU. Was always excellent. Went again this past Thursday evening for some take out. The shrimp fried rice was excellent as was the chicken pad wunsen. This is very authentic stuff not Americanized flavor wise like most other local Thai spots. Already wanting to go back.

I’ve only been for the lunch buffet, but that’s all I’ve heard it’s worth going for. There are definitely other Thai places in Norman that I would frequent before here, but I found the lunch buffet cute. Not a massive selection, but we all liked what we had and were full by the end of it. I’d try the buffet again.

Just had the best Panang curry here. The wait time is a bit long, but totally worth it.

Love their food! I’ve tried several of their different curries and the pad king which has lots of ginger in it. all were delicious!

the only Thai lunch buffet I have seen in this area, good food quality and nice service.

This place has THE BEST fried rice I’ve ever had. Ever. Don’t expect it to be smothered in soy sauce though, it’s house style.

I went there for supper with friends in July 2011. The service was efficient and courteous. For an entrée, I ordered chicken fried rice, extra spicy. Indeed, it was extra spicy and flavoured using Thai herbs and spices, lending authenticity. Pricing was average to slightly low by local standards, so it was cheap. For authentic Thai cuisine, I highly recommend Thai Kumkoon over some of the other local Thai eateries

This didn’t taste like Thai food! We went for the lunch buffet, so my review is going to focus on that.
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Your typical hole-​in-​the-​wall, but on the lower end. It didn’t look very clean. The wall, carpet, décor looked old and faded. The dining area had not been well maintained and was really run down looking. The kitchen is mostly closed off, so the noise level is average to low.
Wait Staff: 3 stars
Definitely nothing stellar here, but we were not ignored entirely either. A gentleman came to take our drink order, brought them to us, and then that was it. We didn’t stay long, so I don’t think we needed refills. I was too disturbed by the food though to really remember the wait staff experience well.
The Buffet: 1 star
The buffet is open until 2pm (I think). When we arrived around 12:45 or 1pm, the buffet was nearly empty. A few minutes later they started bringing out more food, but it wasn’t fast enough. There wasn’t even enough to fill your plate with one passing. So we kept having to go back to see what else was added. The containers they were adding were very small and so were being emptied very fast. So there was this constant up and down trying to get more food before it ran out.
The Food: 1 star
I’ll try to describe as best I can what I had from the buffet. Only a few things were labeled, which adds to my frustration, but I’m familiar enough with Thai food that it wasn’t a big deal.
*basil chicken stir fry — I couldn’t taste anything beyond the salt. It had some decent (for a buffet) level of spiciness, but was so incredibly salty that I couldn’t actually taste anything else.
*evil jungle curry — the biggest disappointment of all! I pored it over some rice, and what was left was rubbery, yet mushy chicken with a pasty (yes… pasty) white sauce. I could barley taste coconut flavor, and beyond that it just tasted like sauteed bell peppers.
*another type of chicken curry (not sure what it was, but it wasn’t massaman, and it had the same color as the evil jungle curry) — The chicken was slightly better in this one, but I was still left with a pasty white sauce. It barley tasted like coconut, so it was really bland and just tasted awful, like they added a ton of thickener to it or something.
*cashew chicken — I think this was their version of cashew chicken, but there was not a single cashew in sight. It was actually the best thing on the buffet and the thing that tasted the closest to what I was expecting, but it was still not good: Dark meat and overcooked.
*fried rice — It looked good, but there was something so awful about it that I kept eating it trying to put my finger on it, but never could. I honestly cannot describe how this one went bad. It didn’t taste anything like Thai fried rice and was more like a Chinese fried rice.
*white rice — hard to mess this one up!
*pad Thai — It didn’t even look good. It looked bland, and it most definitely was. It had some sort of sauce, but not enough of it. I couldn’t even taste peanut flavor of any kind and there was no depth or richness to it at all.
*fish — No idea what this one was, but it was a whole fish that they sliced through the meat, but left in tact with the bones. It was brought out while I was standing there, so I was hoping it was fresh. I tried by best to pry a slice from the bones, but ended up mangling it further. It was so crispy and dry on the outside that I couldn’t get it to pull apart. I ended up with a mangled pile of fish and bones on my pâté. When I ate it, I was pulling bones from my mouth and the fish was so tough on the outside I couldn’t tell if it was bones, skin, or just incredibly overcooked fish.
*fried bread — isn’t this a Chinese thing? This is the first Thai restaurant where I’ve ever seen this.
*ice cream — ahh… blue bell ice cream in their original buckets. They can’t screw this up, right? Wrong! Must ask for assistance while serving? Yet they were so backed up trying to manage the buffet, no one was available, and there were people everywhere, it wasn’t even worth the hassle to try.
In conclusion with the food taste, it was like I was at a really bad Chinese buffet. Nothing had that characteristic sweet, yet spicy flavor that one expects from Thai. There was no depth or richness to anything I tried, and was very bland overall.
Price: 2 stars
$ 7.50/person for the lunch buffet. While this is a good price for a lunch buffet, the food was not worth this cost. I wouldn’t eat it if it was $ 2.00/person. If someone did like the food, I feel $ 7.50 is a fair price for a buffet.
Overall: 1 star
Downright awful! The people who recommended it to me told me dinner is great… so maybe it’s just the buffet? I do want to try dinner before writing this place off forever, but I need to reacquaint my taste buds with proper Thia ASAP!
Go to Thai Thai for lunch instead (except Mondays). They don’t have a buffet, but they have a lunch combo thing where you get to choose 4 out of 8 things.

This is much more authentic than any other Thai restaurant I’ve had in Oklahoma. I’ve had a few dishes here including the Pad Kee Mao, some spicy (it was HOT) coconut soup, chicken satay, some chicken and veggie stir fry dish, and a few others. Everything has been good except the stir fry dish (don’t remember what it was called). It was super bland. Like, no sauce or spices at all; no flavor. That was weird.
The people that run this place are nice, but they keep it a family run joint, and that’s hurting them. The service has been slower than slow. Twice. Like, winter time molasses slow. However, the last time I went there was at the right time of day or something, and I walked in, got seated, and was eating 10 minutes later.
If it’s not a normal meal time of the day, check this place out! If there are more than three tables of people, just try again another time. The food is pretty good overall, though.

Not a good restaurant. Bad service, very bland food. I don’t understand the other reviews raving on this, maybe they have good days? I can say my experience was not !

This is not the fanciest restaurant, but they do have good food on the buffet & the dishes are good (which I usually only order at night, when there is no buffet) They always have Pad Thai and several curries on the buffet. There is not a huge variety, but everything they have is good! There are also vegetable and vegetarian dishes, which are sometimes lacking from buffets of the Asian variety.
The service people and owner are friendly and do a decent job filling your drink and delivering your dishes (and keeping the buffet filled up)
+1 star for blue bell ice cream!
I don’t go here a lot, but I always leave happy when I do.

We were expecting a menu but noticed it was a buffet restaurant as soon as we walked in… maybe because we went on a weekend. This place is a very casual, small restaurant. It’s also messy esp. the bathroom. It’s not infant friendly either because of that. Lunch time was crowded. full of college students. If you never had Thai food then buffet is a nice way to try different items but their Thai food is just okay.

Somewhat odd initial impressions gave way to… mediocrity at best.
Thai Kumkoon has no windows, so you can not see-​in from the outside to determine if you are in the right place. The door is very poorly-​marked making you feel like it is either out of business, or a speakeasy.
Then upon entering, no one greeted me. So I stood there. The owner’s daughter (?) sat behind her laptop in a booth and finally rose to greet me.
However there were several college-​age chubby Thai students dining and carrying-​on in Thai. So that was an encouraging sign. :)
Unfortunately it was not a sign of things to come. The owner (?) took my order. The service was slow. The Thai iced tea was good, but standard fare. However the rest of the meal went down hill from there. The crispy chicken spring rolls were served blisteringly hot, so they were dried-​out. The shrimp pad thai did come with a good number of shrimp, but the noodles were not spicy (I had asked for a ‘7’ out of ‘10’ on the spicyness scale). The noodles were not even bland Thai noodles; they were basically linguini noodles in butter. No bean sprouts or peanuts came with the pad thai. Disappointing all the way around.
The service, unfortunately, matched the poor food. The waitress (owner?) brought my food without making eye contact and scooted off to the next table to deliver the other food in her arms. She never checked-​in with me to see how the meal was. After not seeing her for a while, she arrived with the check (which I had not asked for — and might have risked asking for a dessert to give them one last chance to serve good food if she had asked if I wanted anything else). She then scooted off again not even hearing me say ‘Miss… miss…’ (I was asking for more lime). The check came with a … Chinese fortune cookie???
The men’s room is a little messy (not unclean/​dirty — just stocked with random cleaning supplies and then other stuff hidden behind a curtain). There is no mirror — just a photo of an otter where the mirror should be over the sink. (Is there such a thing as a Thai otter?) ;)
So I’m totally confused by the positive reviews of this place; I feel misled. At the risk of sounding catty, let me just say that perhaps if you’ve never been outside Oklahoma, Thai Kumkoon might have a ‘wow’ factor to it just because it is not a typical Oklahoma burgers or ribs place. But if you’ve had Thai food in NYC, or L.A., or any big city, then you know there is nothing special about Thai Kumkoon’s food, service, or décor. Eat anyplace else.

THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST THAI RESTAURANTS IN OKLAHOMA. I have eaten at many thai restaurants (considering thai food is my favorite food) before and this thai restaurant tops it all. Thai food is my favorite cuisine and I would definitely say this Thai Kumkoon fulfills my appetite. When living in Norman, I use to go here every week but now since I moved, it’s very rare that I stop by. I do try to every chance I am in Norman. The beef larb, tom yum koong, and green onion steam fish is to die for. I have tried many other dishes and they were all great.

Our very favorite thai food in Norman! Super friendly people and really great food. Ask for the chicken salad (it’s not on the menu but they’ll gladly make it for you if you ask) and mangoes & sticky rice for dessert.

The menu was nice. They have Larb, which I thought was Laotion, so I will have to try that.
I got the Evil Jungle Chicken, it indicated it was spicy but it wasn’t.at all. I had to keep adding hot sauce to it.
It seems as the Thai is a little toned down in this place. Kind of a watery mixture of Thai/​Chinese.
Service was slow but I didn’t really mind.