King Of Thai Noodle House

Just to be clear, the name is «noodle house» and they do have noodles (pad thai, pad see-​ew, etc) but also all the usual Thai dishes (panang, fried rice, tom kha gai, etc). They do have a lot of noodle soup options; I haven’t tried those yet, even though i guess it’s the specialty? No hexomino (sp?) but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that outside of Asia (sigh).
It’s totally reasonable but somewhat forgettable Thai food. Nothing was amazing, nothing was awful, if you’re feeling like Thai and you’re nearby it’s a fine choice. Prices are very reasonable. Some of the other reviewers complain about the décor but honestly I have no problem with it.

It was delicious. We had nice service and it was speedy. I loved the atmosphere, they had very modern décor. Plus they had an awesome sound track. Just a warning though, if you’re super sensitive to spice, there might be dishes you’ll want to stay away from. My friend ordered a spicy dish mild and it was still too much for her. But overall I loved it.

Great place to have dinner with a friend. I kept walking by this interesting looking restaurant, so I had to try it.
I used a $ 12 for $ 20 groupon and it was definitely worth it. The entrées are about $ 10 each and it was plenty of food.
Food: I had the mild pad khee mao and it was delicious. A little too spicy for me, but very very good. Like I mentioned earlier, their portions are fairly big. My friend had the pad rad nar and it looked delicious.
Ambiance: very edgy and trendy. They have very interesting dividers for the two person tables and the booths seemed to have interesting lights. The tables had these very sleek red chairs (I dig). This restaurant isn’t very big, so the tables near the door will definitely feel a draft.
Service: Very attentive. They are constantly checking up on you to see if the food is good and if you need refills on water.
I will most likely come again to try some of their other dishes.

You know it’s not a good sign when you and your group enter a restaurant on Saturday night and there are NO other customers. We ended up here because our top choices in downtown San Mateo were all packed. But the food and service are decent, so this place gets a solid 3 stars.
FOOD:
— — -
My friend and I shared the **Larb Salad** with ground chicken. The dish was pretty tasty with red and green onions, mint leaves, and sliced cabbage. We asked for the chili lime dressing and roasted brown rice on the side. The portion was reasonable for two to share, but a little small for $ 10.00.
I sampled some of my other friend’s **Fried Chicken with Fried Rice**, which was very hearty. The deep fried boneless chicken breast over fried rice with egg, white onions, cilantro, and cucumber comes with sweet and sour sauce. Yum yum! And not a bad price for $ 10.20.
The **Thai Iced Tea** was on point and complemented the meal very well.
SERVICE/​AMBIANCE:
— — — — — — — -
The mood was quite eerie since it was so empty. But the most disquieting thing is the odd setup with tall glass panels separating the tables in the middle of the room. It really gives the restaurant a cold disjointed vibe. I prefer the booths which are more cozy, but you can’t help but see the panels.
Service was decent. They were helpful in keeping the Larb salad non-​spicy, which I really appreciated. Some Thai restaurants are unable to make their dishes less mild, but it wasn’t a problem here.
TIP: If you enjoy dining in strange layouts, this is the place for you!
DATE TIP: Not the coziest place to take that special someone. If you get a middle table it might feel more like jail between those panels.

My best friend said KoT in SF was good, so we decided to give this place a try. When we walked in, there was a sign in sheet and another party of 3 waiting. I signed my name and we waited around 10 minutes and we were seated. It took me a while to decide on what to eat since it was my first time here, but I decided to get the Pad Thai in mild and my best friend got the duck fried rice.
Our food came about 20 minutes later, which wasn’t bad considering it was a full house.
The environment is nice and cozy, but they lack customer service. Our waiter never checked up on us or asked to refill our water. The only time he came quickly was to give us our check and to get our plates when we were finished with our food. The duck fried rice was really good, but the pad thai wasn’t as flavorful. 3 stars for the food itself.

Let’s start with that I frequent the Clement branch often and was very happy to see one open up a little closer here in San Mateo. Went in around 7−8pm on a week night. Took a lot longer to get seated than expected for the customer load in that evening. I ordered yellow curry with chicken as that’s one of the dishes usually ordered at the other location. Well, I was very unsatisfied with the taste. Very bland yet strong spicy and no creamy coconut flavor. Chicken was super dry and tasteless. Unimpressed with their quality of food straight off the plate. Unfortunately I will keep giving business to another Thai location in San Mateo or will just make the drive to the clement location in SF.
ALSO WHAT IS UP WITH THOSE TABLES IN THE MIDDLE??? Is it a host for a speed dating site??? Just seems very secluded and weird.

I was craving thai food, saw this place, and just went right in.
The restaurant is clean, modern, and there are plenty of tables. The tables lined in the middle are little bit crammed together but the booths/​tables on the sides are pretty spacious. The servers were friendly and helpful.
I ordered a crab fried rice and hot tea and received my food within 10 minutes. They even give you a complimentary soup which was a nice way to start of the meal. The portion was decent and the fried rice tasted great. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of crab that was in the fried rice. The prices here didn’t seem too bad, on average each dish is about $ 8 – 12 dollars depending on what you get.
They have a fairly large menu so you have a lot of options. I didn’t notice a wait around dinner time so I was able to sit immediately. I wouldn’t mind going back here again if I’m ever craving thai food :)

Overall, I’d say 3.5 stars — it was good.
Location: conveniently located on S. B Street near plenty of shops and garage parking
Ambiance: nice, new, modern décor & feel, but it was very cold inside. It was a cold day, so that didn’t help matters. Oddly enough, it was nice & cozy warm back by the bathrooms. Guess it’s behind the kitchen so it makes sense.
Clean space. Tables & booths were nice; however they initially tried to seat us in the two-​person «stalls» and they were incredibly narrow and we felt claustrophobic. So, we asked to move and they kindly obliged.
Service: friendly enough, mostly prompt and amenable to us moving as well as sending a dish back (which I NEVER do).
Food: Spring rolls were fresh and crispy, good portions! Red chicken curry was tasty with lean, clean chicken and just the right amount of spice. The pad see ew was good, not too greasy and not too many bean sprouts, which I like.
Unfortunately, the crab fried rice came late… and the bad part was when it did come, we knew almost immediately it was not fresh. This was disappointing as we had been eagerly awaiting its arrival. The crab smelled bad and the seasoning looked off for the actual fried rice. But, as its one of my favorite dishes, I tried to eat it anyways. I almost got sick at the table. It was very bad. We had to send it back and the server was very kind about cancelling our order and removing it from our bill.
Overall, it was a good and positive experience. Would go back! Just no more crab fried rice for me from there!

Would have given two more stars if everything (salad, seafood noodle soup, and fried chicken entrée) wasn’t so damn sweet. Seriously, it’s as if this place is trying to give you diabetes. I’m used to pad-​thai and such dishes being slightly sweet at thai restaurants, but this time even the noodle soup being super sugary made it a deal breaker for us.
Another very disappointing thing that happened to us while eating here was when we asked for some soy sauce to condiment things, and they brought us a small dish with definitely not soy sauce that smelled and tasted like Maggi sauce or similar. We would have appreciated being told that they don’t have any soy sauce instead of getting that.
All 2 stars go to the waiting staff since they were very polite to us, and I would have easily given 2 more stars if we hadn’t been so disappointed by the food.

If I could give this establishment a 0 star, I absolutely would do so in a heart beat.
Ordered online from these people and the minimum HAD to be $ 30.00 in order for it to be delivered. I only wanted pad Thai, but I had to load my cart with these:
— 2 Orders of pad Thai $ 21.40
— 1 Order of fish cake $ 9.40
— 1 Order of peanut sauce $ 3.25
Subtotal: $ 34.35
Tax: $ 3.46
Delivery: $ 3.00
After tip, the total came out to be $ 44.00.
Now here’s the issue:
After an hour, a guy rings our doorbell, hands us the food, and runs off before we can even check our order.
We open the bag immediately and realized, HEY, they forgot our other order of pad Thai… Did what they deliver look like $ 44 worth of food?! Absolutely not!!!
I called the establishment and some lady answered the phone. I told her the issue and her response was (I kid you not), «Oh yeah. Our kitchen is closed so we can’t send you anything.» Okay… what kind of customer service is that? I proceeded to ask her what can she do for us and she decided to just put the phone down and walk away. All I heard was people talking for a good 5 minutes. I had to hang up and after about 5 more calls, a man finally picks up.
Trust me, I demanded a refund.
The food was not worth the price I paid. Apparently they overcharge people for their food because they know they’ll never be returning customers.
I will never waste my money here again.

King of Thai is the latest in a string of average Thai restaurants in Downtown San Mateo, but is average in a different way. Most of the mediocrity from the other Thai restaurants comes from a lack of taste and too much sugar in things that aren’t supposed to be that sweet (i.e. everything except dessert.) While this place is also too sugary, its averageness comes unbalanced flavors and preparations, from being rough around the edges. Everything is really salty and fatty. All of the soups (even the chicken soup) have a layer of fat on them.
But…there’s just something so comforting about their food. Maybe since it’s rough around the edges, it’s almost like homestyle… that is, if your home uses a ton of fat and oil in everything. It tastes like an amalgam of the SF locations, some of which are better than others… though the thing that the SF ones have, that this one does not, is that King of Thai SF is good drunk food. This one closes at 10 PM, therefore it is not. However, the shoe still fits as takeout.
Décor is nice and modern. Service is friendly. Prices are a little higher than SF, but still not too bad considering when they opened.

After watching «Sisters» my BFF and I were hungry. Since we had good parking we decided to walk around the area. There are several retardants the area that I’ve been too and so has my friend. Passing by King Thai noodle we decided to try it.
So, when you enter you have to write your name in the sign-​in sheet. They do get pretty busy. I’m not sure if they take reservations.
Ambiance: Love the décor. We were seated in a two-​seater table. Tables were divided by a high frosted glass, which I thought was really nice. Because the place is small they used all their space. What in order for you to get in your seat you have to pull it back. If your on the healthier side it may be a little difficult but I’m sure they can accommodate anyone.
Service: We were greeted right away with a friendly smile. Our server took our order right away. Food came out really fast too. There’s a buzzer on your table to get your servers. You know so you don’t have to keep twisting your neck around or raising your hands to get their attention. So I tried it a couple of times and I’m not sure if it actually worked. It took me about 5x to press the buzzer before our server came.
Food:
Egg roll– I was a little disappointed. The presentation was nice but the egg roll itself was just ok. The ones we got were not crispy. The outside was cooked but the inside was a little uncooked. I can taste the uncooked egg roll wrapper.
Papaya salad — this was amazing! I could have eaten the entire platter. Just the right amount of spices and love that there were enough peanuts.
Pad kee Mao with ground chicken– this was also delicious. Very tasteful.
I would definitely come back because I would like to try their soup.

This piece of ceramic glass was in my duck noodle soup. I almost swallowed it if I hadn’t bit into it and heard a crunch in my mouth! I managed to spit it out and saved myself a trip to the hospital.
I frequently eat at their different locations, but now I will feel less eager to do so because they are obviously very careless with handling food. They deducted $ 10 from my bill, which they thought was a nice gesture, but honestly a little insulting since my bowl of noodles was $ 10.95. So they figured I should still be responsible for $ 0.95. In a situation like this, they should really waive the whole bill and not infuriate the customer more.

Came here for dinner to check it out since I like checking out the new places that open. I got the Panang Curry since that’s what I was craving. I took a bite and thought it was alright. The curry was really thick which I normally liked, but it was a little bit too thick. The flavor was good, but it was a little too sweet for my taste. There must have been too much coconut in it or something. The rice was just okay. I don’t really like dry rice, but I ate most of it anyways because I was hungry.
Overall, it was ok. I would probably pass on this place next time.

Ordered pick-​up, including one Thai iced tea.
The cup of tea came with about an inch missing off the top, lacking in volume. I went back in the store to ask them to fill it up. The woman told me it’s meant to be a 16 oz. drink, pointing at a line under the top of the cup. I pointed out that it wasn’t even touching *that* line. Who even says that, anyway?! Then she took it, poured about 1 mm more in there and handed it back to me. Just couldn’t fill it up (or even touch the 16oz line), could she? Never coming back.

Interesting layout… glad we didn’t get seated in the narrow couple seating booths.
Got the pork egg noodle soup. Figured this is the King of Thai Noodle, so I must get the noodle soup. Well… it came and looked depressing. No greens no color. It was warm too, not hot like I expect soup to be.
We also got the beef pad see ew. That looked really good and thankfully tasted pretty good too.
Overall, don’t really see myself coming back.

A group of us went to King of Thai last week. The wait for a table was only a few minutes long. I ordered the kao prik sod, which was chicken with Thai chili, white onions and bell peppers.
The food delivery was not fast and my dish was kind of on the small side. I knew I’d be hungry afterwards because I like big portions. (Everyone else had decent portions.) The kao prik sod was very tasty though.

Solid Thai food addition to downtown San Mateo. With a sleek and modern feel, King of Thai Noodle House serves home-​style Thai food at fairly reasonable prices. Considering a lot of Thai places in South Bay tend to go upmarket (think table cloths and $ 10 Tom Yum Soup), I appreciate having a place like this to satisfy my craving for noodles.
You’ll notice the «interesting» interior design when you first walk in. Tables in the center of the restaurant are separated by 8-​foot tall frosted glass partitions, reminiscent of a library cubicle or a speed-​dating marathon. It all feels a bit too claustrophobic for me, and several times during the meal I had to stretch back to make sure there wasn’t a wall closing in behind me. If you’re like me and dislike seeing so many jarring reflections everywhere, you’ll look up and see Christmas-​style balls for decoration. It’s definitely unique, but ultimately just serves to distract from the food.
And the food is good. I ordered my favorite — Pad Kee Mao — and was not disappointed. Eminently slurpable noodles with strong flavors of soy and basil, my only lament is that there was not more. We also had a yellow curry with beef, a savory-​sweet addition with that coconut-​milk flavor that really makes Thai curry shine. The table is garnished with four condiments made more exciting by their hidden nature — opening each one is like opening a present — but I never needed to use them in my food the dishes were so on point.
King of Thai is a solid 3.5 stars for me, rounding up for liberal use of my favorite spice basil. I’d be even more impressed if their interior design didn’t make me feel like I was in a house of mirrors, or if their portions were larger, but overall I don’t have too much to complain about. Next time I’ll have to check out the mango sticky rice!

New restaurant on the corner of B and 2^nd streets.
Very clean. Fast, friendly service.
I ordered the duck noodle soup with the flat noodles on an overcast day. It was very tasty. But duck is on the oily side of proteins.
My husband got panang curry with chicken. It’s very authentic and peanut-​y.
I look forward to coming back and trying other items on the menu.

New Thai place in San Mateo downtown with interesting interior design, and average food.
My colleagues and I came here to try the new franchise of King of Thai Noodle House during the lunch hour. One of my colleagues is a fan of the San Francisco location; We hoped it would have the same great taste.
We were surprised by the place’s interior décor we haven’t seen around yet: tables are divided with glass walls which creates an interesting acoustic. This feature presents a certain challenge for waiters and the tables for two. The whole place looks a bit like a bath house with these dividers. Even though the new décor has a young vibe, the overall feeling of clutter is persisting.
Our order took little time to take, but a long time to get the food out. We’ve waited 20 – 30 minutes to get the meals, which came out one by one, rather than a group order.
We’ve ordered Penang Curry with Rice, Pad Thai with Shrimp, and Fried Rice with a Crab meat. Penang wasn’t great, Pad Thai was average, Fried Rice was good but the presentation was lacking the beauty. Cucumber slices weren’t fresh or cut recently, they were pretty beaten up.
Although, the servers were pretty attentive.
I hope this place improve in the food department and will put the food out a little quicker. I’ll try them another time.