Osha Thai Restaurant & Bar

Fantastic dinner! Came here with another person and we split the pumpkin curry and a ground lamb dish with fried egg. I chose the pumpkin curry based off of Unilocal recommendation I’d read, and I was not disappointed. The sauce was creamy and delicious, with enough chicken and vegetables to be filling. However, the vegetables were a little undercooked– I still enjoyed the dish, but some were hardly cooked, like raw vegetables heated briefly in the microwave. I mostly ate around them. The lamb was decent, too– that was my date’s choice, and I didn’t eat too much of it. I was busy with my pumpkin curry! I also loved the lychee martini– vodka, peach juice, and lychee. I was debating between three and four stars, but the atmosphere pushed it over the top.

Came here with a Groupon that my boyfriend’s mom purchased. Ambiance was great… beginning with the lovely metal sculpted entryway tunnel that immediately transports you into their zen garden world before you even step foot in the restaurant! Once you enter, the greeter meets you and leads you back into an even more zen looking restaurant with cozy and intimate seating for 2 to up to 6 (or more!)…yes, you can have intimate and cozy seating for 6 or more! The sheared curtains and subtle uplighted walls create a definitely subdued mood with the upbeat Buddha Lounge style music setting the tone. The menu is broad… we tried the pad thai, lettuce cups, ginger beef, crispy tofu, and scallops. All were good… and could each be a meal in itself. In fact, I think I’d just eat the lettuce cups as a salad dinner… was fantastic! Definitely want to come here again.

I came here for the first time with my bf who likes the restaurant very much. Now I’m not big into spicy foods, so why would I come to a Thai restaurant you ask? Well it was honestly because he had a groupon specific to this location. I checked the menu online and found a few items I could like. So I was willing to give it a try.
We started with the chicken satay and crunchy calamari appetizers. The satay was very good! The peanut sauce underneath was excellent and the cucumber salad on the side was refreshing. The calamari was on the sweet side, not what I’m used to for calamari typically, but I thought it was ok. It did have a little kick to it, but again I’m not a spicy fan so for people who enjoy spice this probably isn’t that spicy to them.
A note on the beverages at the Marina location: no free refills. My bf thought they were so he asked for another soda, and they charged him. He’s been to other locations where free is the case, so beware if you’re at the Marina location.
For our entrees we got the pan-​seared salmon and ginger beef. Each entrée comes with white rice. The salmon was excellent! Cooked perfectly! The beef was infused with lots of ginger, but overall was tasty. I also wanted to try the pad thai dish. It was a lot of food, but great to take home for tomorrows lunch! The noodles were on the sweet side as well, with chicken, eggs, crushed peanuts, fried tofu and sprouts. I enjoyed it all together very much!
Now that I know there are some items that aren’t spicy on the menu, I would like to come back.

Went in a group of 6 and had limited time. Orders taken promptly and food delivered quickly. Nice and fresh and well seasoned. Good range of menu items although I found it pricey for Thai food. Washrooms very clean, staff attentive to customers and tables cleared really quickly of used crockery. Seemed to be buzzing for an early Friday night so assume this is a popular place. Would go back.

The ambiance is nice, a Vegas feel. Our service was horrible, and weirdly uncomfortable. Met two gf’s there and we were chatting it up, not sure if that was the reason NO ONE ever came to take a drink order. When we did get our drinks we waited another 15 minutes for our waiter to take our food order.
The weird part came at the end of our meal when each of us had a tiny bit of food on our plate — the bus boy asked us if we would like to take our leftovers home, when we said NO, he stood there and gave us a look like really, you aren’t taking it home. It was so uncomfortable that the three of us wanted to leave right there and then.
The food was blah!
I hope it was an off night because the place is really cool inside.

Dined here twice and both times were okay. The service is good, but the food takes forever to come out! Many of their dishes were drenched in sauce and often times came out cold. Perhaps due to the inconsistent timing of the dishes.
Grilled Fire-​Cracker Prawns — The prawns were bigger than expected. The sauce wasn’t really spicy.
Tuna Poke Salad — The salad was drenched in sauce and the tuna was cut into tiny little cubes.
Volcanic Beef — Dish was okay. The sauce was too salty, but the had the right amount of spiciness. Not sure if onion rings go well with this dish.
Ginger Beef — Loved the ginger pieces, but again the sauce was too salty! The rice couldn’t even balance it out.
Grilled Sea Bass — My favorite dish so far. I couldn’t taste the spicy or the cilantro component of the sauce. However, the fish came out moist and the skin was perfectly caramelized. The dish came out cold, especially the bok choy and shiitake mushrooms.

Sleek décor, comfortable front room, great drinks and delicious food.
I know. Chic design and comfortable don’t always go together, but Osha does it flawlessly– and with mouthwatering food and sweet staff! Win!

Usually when I come here it’s not so busy but on weekends it seems to be a lot more packed.
This is one of the locations I like better in terms of the layout and décor. The Osha near Embarcadero has a nice setting as well.
The service is really efficient and food is pretty decently made.

Food was 4 but the service at this location was one of the worst experiences in years, the average nets out to 2. The wife and I ordered within the first 10 minutes of sitting down. We lost track of time chit chatting when we realized 30 minutes later and our stomachs started to growl that no food had come out. Surrounding tables that were seated 20 minutes after us started to get their food.
Initially annoyed from hunger, we asked our waitress the status of our food and she did not seem all that concerned or apologetic. Now annoyed by her less than service minded attitude, informed her that we had been waiting 30 minutes for our appetizers which included a cold cerviche dish. Based on her attitude, I informed her that it was unacceptable others were being served the same dishes and we would be leaving if food did not come out within 5 minutes as all we had to consume at this point was one cocktail and a coke. The food came out immediately.
We did notice that although the surrounding tables may have been served their food sooner, they had to wait at least 30 minutes waiting for someone to stop by and pick up their check to get processed. In the end, if you wish to trash 30 minutes, stop by Osha on Union. I’ll be going to the other locations to get the food.

My boyfriend and I came here last night because we had a groupon (still avail! $ 45 for $ 85 worth of food). The atmosphere of the restaurant is really really pretty, especially the entrance way. It was like walking into Tao in Vegas. The service was excellent and our food didn’t take long at all.
For appetizers we got the duck rolls and the o’viche. Both were bomb! I liked the ceviche a lot because it didn’t just have your typical white fish, but also had shrimp and salmon! So tasty. For entrees we ordered the Kobe beef that came with a yummy brown glaze and an assortment of mushrooms, the sea bass clay pot that had Bok choy and mushrooms, and the Osha pan fried noodles that came with duck. The clay pot was full of flavor and the fish just melted in my mouth. We probably could’ve skipped the noodles. They were just egg noodles with a very watery sauce with duck pieces and some bell peppers. The duck was cold and the noodles for some reason tasted grassy to me. Yes grass. For dessert we couldn’t decide between the mango sticky rice or the Thai custard with black rice so we had the server choose for us and she went with the black rice. For $ 8 they you a lot! The black rice was delicious and the custard on top was a little intimidating at first because it looked like tamago egg but when you pair it with the rice it is the perfect sweetness. So good but we could only finish two out of the four servings it came with.
Their menu is huge! I would definitely come back to try more of their specialty dishes.

Such a range here. Not consistent.
Spicy eggplant: 4 stars. Great flavor, texture, and level of spice.
Pad Thai: 1 star. Probably one of the worst pad Thais I’ve had. Dry, bland, noodles were stuck together. Tasted like they forgot oil, spices, and sauce altogether.
Pineapple fried rice: 3 stars. Solid. Wasn’t amazing wasn’t bad.
Papaya salad: 2.5 stars. A bit on the sour side, more than I’m used to.
Overall rating: 2.5 stars (if I could). Will give it a 3 since the food came out fast.

Loved it!
I ordered my favorite thai dish; chicken yellow curry, super delicious and 2 basil gimlet’s on the side which were light& refreshing, Perfect!
We also split the vegetarian egg rolls as an appetizer.
Everything was so good, the service was fantastic The servers were great constantly filling water, removing plates and super friendly!
Can’t wait to come back, it’s just a shame the nike store is next door which sends me into a spending oblivion!

Sehr guter Thai! Stylisch eingerichtet, nette Bedienung!
Essen war sehr gut und ungewöhnlich!
Absolut empfehlenswert!

I’m a newbie to SF and exploring neighborhoods. This trip comprised of a tour of Pacific Heights and Marina/​Cow Hollow which are both fantastic. Having wore our feet out, we found ourselves starving at 9pm and my friends aid let’s head over to Osha bc it’s fabulous. Who am I to disagree with a local recommendation?
^Ambience
Very relaxing, bamboo and waterfall sounds at the inner entrance. We were seated towards the back and it was very cozy. The booths are a tiny bit weird, but worked out well for our group.
^Food
Started out with the tartare, it’s served with shrimp chips. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I saw the chips. It totally took me back to my childhood bc that’s our version of popcorn in my family. I actually order these chips off Amazon bc I love them that much! Ok, enough of the chips. The tartare was perfect, with enough mango to temper the spicy sauce. We also got the grilled shrimp app, and the coleslaw was yummy, love the wasabi heat. For entrees we got the crab fried rice which had zero flavor and was returned. I had the yellow curry, extra spicy and this was delicious. The real star was the sea bass clay pot. Oh. My. Word. I will be returning for this dish. The sauce and the ingredients just equal heaven. Sea bass, bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, mmm.
^Service
Friendly enough, but we had 3 separate servers/​runners mention that they were closing at 10 and it was 9:20pm. Dude, this is your job. Do it and do it well. If you don’t want to serve people at a restaurant that closes at 10, find somewhere else to work. I took a star off bc it was irritating. The servers also don’t really know the menu to give recommendations. How hard is it to taste things so you know?
TL;DR: go for the food, immediately if not sooner!

Came here for the first time and ordered the duck noodles. The noodles were good — pleasantly and not overbearingly sweet. There were a LOT of noodles, though; I think more than half the meal was noodles, though there was also a generous portion of duck (not quite enough for the noodles, but whatever; not really a dealbreaker). The sauce on the duck was really yummy, but unfortch, once the sauce ran out, I realized how dry and tasteless the duck was.
The interior is really nice: modern with large windows and lots of space. Would I come back? Sure, but it’s not at the top of my list.

Came here with a large group and the service was impeccable!
We had a family style menu that consisted of:
Appetizers:
Crab Rangoon
Thai Samosa
Osha Tartare
Mango Salad
Entrees:
Volcanic Beef
Sesame Ginger Sea Bass
Pumpkin Curry Chicken
Pad See Ew
Desserts:
Fried Banana and Ice Cream
Macaroons
Mango Sticky Rice
Custard
By far, the dishes that stood out were:
–The tartare, which was served with the deep fried «shrimp» chips
–The sea bass, which so delicate and flaky. It didn’t have a fishy taste at all
–And definitely the macaroons!
I loved the décor. It was very clean, trendy and modern. All of the waitstaff was polite and efficient at their job.
I agree with others in that the presentation of their food was lovely!
I’d definitely come back to try their other items.

On the evening of 5÷17÷2014, my friend and I had dinner at this Thai restaurant. She said it was one of her most frequented spots in her neighborhood. I’ve been to other Osha restaurants in San Francisco (think it’s a chain) and the food has always been decent. We ordered spicy garlic eggplant and pad see-​ew w/​tofu.
Entrée flavors were great, restaurant atmosphere was more romantic/​dim, and the wait staff was friendly. A good place to dine with friends or even do take-​out.

We had dinner at Osha Thai on Union St. last night (Saturday). When we arrived at 7pm, the restaurant was mostly empty and the noise level (other than the music coming from the bar) was relatively low. Perfect, we thought, since we chose this restaurant for a mini-​reunion with some cousins and really wanted a place we could talk. Over the three hour dinner, the noise level steadily rose, until by the time we left we had to shout to be heard even though we were leaning in across the table. And this is the first time I’ve left a restaurant when my ears were literally ringing for at least an hour or two afterwards.
The food and service gets mixed reviews. The egg roll appetizer was refreshing with a great sweet peanut sauce. My wife’s special sea bass had a wonderful sauce, but my pan seared salmon was totally unseasoned. I had to ask for some soy sauce to give it a flavor boost.
But worst of all, two of the four entrees arrived at least 10 minutes before the second two. As a result, the first ones got cold while we waited for the other two people to be served. No idea why, never got an explanation, even though we had to flag down our waiter to find out why we hadn’t been served.
We previously had lunch here and it was great. We might be back, but not for a weekend dinner (unless they also serve ear plugs). I can’t imagine anyone in the restaurant last night would ever say the noise level was «Average» — it was jet engine loud… rock concert loud… exploding talking volcano loud. Maybe the «Average» sound level rating is averaged over very slow periods when no one is in the restuarant!

Americanized thai food, which is fine if you are looking for that sort of thing.
what i do like about this place is the excellent ambience and stylish décor. when we walked by the building after having eaten there, my buddy’s gf said, «oh, how much is that chandelier for sale?» thinking that the other half of Osha was a furniture store. that says something about how well put together this place is.
as for the food, it’s very forgettable. we ordered 2 noodle dishes that were overcooked (soggy noodles much?), the fried rice was on the bland side, and the other dishes we ordered (we had a large group of 8 or 9) were lackluster although not bad. the pumpkin curry was pretty tasty and perhaps the only almost-​standout.
in summary, this Osha is like that well-​dressed date you want hanging off your arm, but lacks a bit of substance. which is fine if that’s the sort of thing you need.

Meh. Another Osha, another meh experience.
In the words of Cher from Clueless, I would consider Osha to be a «Monet».
“It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s OK, but up close, it’s a big old mess.“
I admit, the décor at Osha is super trendy, and you really do feel like you’re in an upscale kind of place. And no matter whether you’re at their Embarcadero or 2^nd/​Mission spot, Osha gets you in the kind of mood where you’re totally OK paying at least $ 12 for Pad Thai.
I came here to have dinner with 11 other girls on a Friday night and while the food was decent, the service left a lot to be desired. Most of us wanted constant refills/​re-​orders of wine, but our server would disappear for 15 – 20 minutes, or ignore us as he hurried to his other tables. When it came down to asking for the check, it literally took us 30 minutes to receive the bills! WHY?
I’m generally lukewarm on Osha; the food’s OK, but pricey, and the service at this location gets 2 stars for the efforts (or lack thereof).

SO, SO good!
I came here for a birthday dinner for Cassandra C. We had a huge party and was never rushed to order, which is really nice. The server made sure everyone had arrived before he took our orders.
The beau and I got angel wings, pumpkin curry, and volcanic beef to share.
Angel wings: So good but could be a bit more crispy. The sauce on top was excellent with a sweet and sour tang to it.
Pumpkin curry: I didn’t really get the pumpkin taste but it was a good curry. The beau loved it!
Volcanic beef: This was my favorite dish. It’s pretty salty if you eat it alone, but that’s why they serve it with rice. It was cooked perfectly, not too overdone and the sauce really compliments the beef.
Minus one star because service was pretty slow towards the end of the dinner. It took our server about 15 minutes to bring out a complimentary dessert for the birthday girl and another 15 minutes for our bill. I guess they really didn’t want our party to leave.