Baan Thai

This place rocks! Best Thai soup in town. Love it!!!

So I have been on a hunt for a good Thai spot and after reading reviews, I figured I’d try this place. It’s kind of hidden in the back of other restaurants. I wanted to take my boyfriend since he’s never had Thai before.
We ordered the Pad Thai, which I thought was okay. It was missing the fress ginger, peanuts and lime. My boyfriend said it was the only dish he liked. We also ordered a few other dishes that I had to cover in chili for some actual taste.
I won’t return and for anyone craving some legit Thai, don’t come here.

Love this place! Come here often and get my usual, Tom Yum Soup, Angel fingers (best sauce in the world, I would do a lot to learn how to make that sauce. Just for myself and no one else) and the Beef Pad Thai. So great.
This place is off the beaten path. It’s hidden behind Harumi, another great place off Fremont street in Seaside. Worth every penny. Wonderful place and can’t wait to go back.

So good. BEST authentic Thai in Monterey. Salad rolls & khao tung are sure fire winner openers. And the duck salad is the bomb-​order it spicy.

First let me first say that I live in Los Angeles where Thai food restaurants are plentiful. Secondly I am Thai so I know what I am talking about when it comes to my people’s food. Knowing this and coming here to Monterey I didn’t have high expectations for great Thai food. But when the cravings strike I had to go out looking to fulfill it. I came across this place based on the Unilocal reviews alone and it seems like an ok place. Upon initial impressions it seemed like a decent restaurant. Thai staff and I assume a Thai cook since I heard them speaking to the cook in Thai after I placed an order. I ordered the typical Thai dishes that any Thai restaurant couldn’t possibly get wrong. Stir fried basil leaf chicken with rice and tom yum shrimp. They asked how spicy I wanted it and I said «mild» Being Thai doesn’t automatically mean you can swallow chile peppers by the pound and be ok with it. So I got my food and was immediately disappointed. First of all they put bamboo shoots into my stir fry. I’ve eaten at a lot of Thai restaurants around the country and have never seen this. It was also VERY spicy! Needless to say I was disappointed and it didn’t taste very good. Much like a typical Chinese restaurant stir fry. The second dish was the soup. I already knew it was going to be bad when I saw no lemon grass or any other spices in the soup other than cilantro. First sip of the soup and I didn’t know what I just put into my mouth. It wasn’t Tom Yum and it didn’t taste like any Thai food I have ever had. It wasn’t that sour and the taste of the tomatoes inside made it taste more like tomato soup more than anything else. Needless to say I won’t be coming back to this place. If you’re looking for an authentic experience this is NOT the place. Giving this place two stars because the lady that took my order was nice.

MSG alert! I asked the server if there is MSG in the curry, and she said yes. I really appreciated her honesty. She told me there was no MSG in the Tom Kah Kai soup, but I have a terribly migraine this next morning. So if you’re sensitive, beware! The food is incredible, especially the red curry, but that’s because they use MSG to make it taste so good. The Pad Thai is not great, but all their curries and brown rice are tasty. The service is incredible.

I really liked their green curry, I just wish it came with a better variety of veggies and bamboo shoots! I’ve never had a curry without bamboo shoots.

Amazing. Great food. Strongly recommend yellow curry with sticky rice, sticky rice with mango, and Thai iced tea.

What a hidden gem! This restaurant is literally hidden at the back corner of the plaza, but it is such a charming little place. Not to mention, the great food & service as well!
My friend and I came in around 8 on a weeknight, and there was only a couple other parties there. We were seated immediately by the sweetest waitress, who continued to check on us throughout the meal.
I went with the spicy basil chicken, level 4 spice. The level 4 was perfect — not overwhelmingly spicy, but hot enough for me to sweat a little bit! It was absolutely delicious, and it came with a side of rice.
My friend got the aptly named spicy noodles, level 3. It had flat rice noodles that were tender, and it wasn’t as spicy as my dish, but still spicy enough to be flavorful.
The portions looked a little small to me, especially since it was dinner, but the spiciness had us eating slowly, which made us feel fuller. With the addition of a Singha beer, we left full and satisfied.

This is my favorite Thai place in the Monterey Bay area! I order pick up almost once a week, I can’t get enough! I usually order chicken panang curry, fried rolls, and tom kha gai soup. They are so quick to make the food, friendly staff, and so reasonably priced. Not to mention the amazingly delicious tasting food! Love them!

Came here with my granny this past weekend for lunch
Fried Tofu — underseasoned, strange texture, would not order again
Won Ton Soup — very strong pepper and chicken flavor notes, bowl is decent to share with two but no more
Pad See Eh — portion is great, flat noodles are done well, on the saltier side but was still good
Mixed vegetables with meat — fresh, vibrant vegetables, paired nicely with the sticky rice
Service can be spotty especially when busy since there is sometimes one person running the front so bare with them
Overall Thoughts
Baan Thai continues to deliver solid Thai food at a reasonable price

This was our first time trying Baan Thai and as I was leaving with my order two patrons were leaving behind me and said «this is the best Thai I’ve ever eaten» it made me even more anxious to get home and dig in and they were right! I placed an order to go everything was repeated back to me and correct when I received it! I sipped on a Thai iced tea while I waited.
Pad Thai was just what I was craving!
I ordered mango and sticky rice for dessert and ended up completely unwilling to share any with my husband! He loved his duck curry and our 8mo. old loved the deep fried tofu, pot stickers and pineapple fried rice. Excellent food and service!

Baan Thai continues to be my very favorite restaurant on the peninsula. I love the fresh dishes and the spices that make the meals special. The Won Ton soup is unequaled anywhere, with chicken meat balls with a little peppery taste, and the fresh and tender bok choy gives the soup the fresh crispiness that makes this a super fire pot soup.
I really like the Khao Tung appetizer; the rice cakes are made fresh, and taste really great with the ground chicken curry. All of the noodle dishes are really great, filled with lots of fresh vegetables.
The service is very friendly, and the restaurant is always neat and clean, reflecting the extraordinary effort the owners invest in their restaurant each day.

Called in for phone order @ 8:40pm, accommodated us and picked up order at 8:55. Place closes @9.
Beef with oyster sauce — the sauce was very delicious! I’m a vegetarian so idk how the meat was. Bf said meat was good… Veggies (carrots & broccoli) so yummy in the sauce
Pineapple fried rice — No actual pineapple!!! Why do you even call it pineapple?! Lol very bland. Not yummy.
Tofu pad thai– flavorful! Kinda sour… In my opinion, didnt really like that it was a bit sour. But It’s not too bad but not excellent
Thai tea– like a normal Thai iced tea, WAAY too much ice! Ask for less ice to get more bang for your buck.

I came here back from in the beginning of November. My friend and I finally arrived from the long drive up from Los Angeles, and we were HUNGRY so we stopped by here cause we were in the mood for something Asian. This place is tucked in the back corner of this plaza.
The food is on the sweet side which is just a plus for me, not so much for my friend. The service was excellent and they checked up on us to make sure we were okay.
I ordered the pad thai while my friend ordered the pumpkin curry. We shared the food of course but apparently it was too much and we took home leftovers. We had the leftovers that night and the next day.
There’s plenty of parking in the plaza :)

Wonderful food despite the un-​touristy area!
Dinner is served family style.
We had the:
beef salad, which I wish I hadn’t shared because I would’ve ate the whole bowl. It had such a fresh and bright flavor because of the cilantro and mint.
Pineapple fried rice: seemed curry infused, which was fine with me. Had cashews and raisins. Very good.
Curry panaang: we had ours with chicken. One of the best curry sauces I’ve had in a long time.
I want to come back tomorrow.

Ate for dinner there tonight. We ordered 2 spicy meals. We only ate a little of our meal, not even half of it so asked them box our left over.
When I got home I noticed that the food that they boxed not the same amount that was leftover. They gave us this little containers with tiny little food in it. Wheres the rest of our leftover? Did someone ate it? I was so confused, Im pretty sure we had way more than that because we barely touched our food.
I was soo diasappointed with the dishonesty of this place that even if the food was good, Im never coming back again.
Lesson, check your boxes before you leave the restaurant.

Quality thai food probably my go to spot. The thai tea was on point. We got pad thai, red curry, and pineapple rice all spicy. They where actually spicy which we really apreciated. Everything wad very good I will be back for them. Our favorite wax the pineapple rice.
Also looked like they have a good lunch menu.
The parking was a bit of a Hassel don’t waste time looking for parking on the lot of Freemont. Make a right at the strip Mall then park in the bigger back lot.
The only complaint is the barroom and the dinning room could have been a bit cleaner.

It’s one of those days where I just couldn’t decide what to eat so I finalllly decided on Thai food cause I was in the mood for something spicy (Thai spicy). Having been to Thailand I know a few things about authentic Thai food.
I ordered spicy chicken fried rice (extra spicy) and Thai ice tea for take out. Since there weren’t many customers there my wait time for the food was only about 10 minutes. The Thai ice tea was a little on the sweet side but not too shabby. The rice was excellent! I love the fact that they actually made it super spicy! A little heat never hurt anyone :) My mom loved it as well. The portion was big enough to share between two people. My total came out to $ 12.
Definitely worth trying but be aware their hours are a little weird so make sure to call or check the hours before heading here!

The staff were very prompt and friendly. We were promptly seated and asked if we wanted something to drink.
The restaurant was kept very clean. i didn’t check out their bathrooms but I’m certain they would have been clean as well.
I love the Thai iced tea. Highly recommend trying a glass. It’s kind of like a dessert tea. Very yummy!
We had brown rice, cashew chicken and a plate of ginger chicken. Everything was very tasty and flavorful. It paired well with my glass of Cabernet.
My friend said his hot jasmine tea was also very good.
The staff were very attentive and always kept my water full, which is a big plus for me.
We will definitely be trying this again.