Mahout

The food? No complaints, quite tasty. The Pad Kee Mao was better than average, and their ‘Cheddar’ Ice Cream was interesting. My girlfriend really enjoyed her Tom Yum.
We’ve been here on three occassions, and the reasons for the two stars is because the service is so slow. We’ve called ahead and were told it would be fifteen minutes till our order was ready for just a Sweet Mango Sticky Rice. We arrived in about fifteen minutes, and we had to wait another fifteen before it was done.
The other two times we ate in, we had to wait 45 minutes before our food was ready. Not a place to go on your lunch break.
I’d give them 2.5 if I could, as they are nice and the food is solid, but for the wait I can prepare my own food quicker during that time given the ingredients…

This review is based on my take-​out order today (Saturday). I called in at 1:04 PM to place my order for 4 items. The lady who took my order told me to come in right away as the food would be ready. I waited 10 minutes before I headed over. Surprise surprise, the food was not ready when I arrived. An even bigger surprise was the food was not ready until 50, I repeat FIFTY, minutes later. There was only ONE other party of 3 there this entire time while I sat and waited. I was finally relieved to pay and get out of there BUT she could not open the cash register?! She literally had a cup full of 10+ miscellaneous keys and I stood with her while she tried and failed with each key tested. I finally had enough and told her to just keep the $ 9.00 change and please bag up my food.
BESIDES the service: the food we ordered was the Sober Dish (Pad Kee Mao), Happy Birthday Noodles, Pad See Ew, & Larb Salad. All were good besides the Happy Birthday Noodles, it was extremely bland and mediocre. I do not understand why other Unilocalers have raved about this dish at all. Their Pad Kee Mao also had a little spin on it as they use udon noodles instead of the regular wide rice noodles.
I don’t think I will return until they become more efficient with their time management and service capabilities. Only try this place if you have time to waste.

I had dinner at Mahout on 6÷8÷13 and I was so disappointed!!! First of all a new girl in training… okay. However, they were not busy when I went into the restaurant. It took over 20 minutes to get my food to send it back because it was so salty I could barely even get it down my throat. Then I told the girl I could not eat my food. My son had a plate with these white noodles that tasted like candle wax! I was so blown away, has Mahout gotten to a place where they are already substituting food with GMO’s??? AWFUL experience.
Won’t be giving another try for a very long time. So DISAPPOINTED!

The Gist: Flavorful but pricey
For two people, we spent $ 50. We ordered two appetizers: I loved Todd’s Fish Plate! Small fish biscuits/​patties, crunchy on the outside and soft within, with sweet sauce. We wrapped the fish in the decorative lettuce, which tasted pretty good! We Love Roti was okay. The curry dip was interesting, but I prefer a sweeter curry sauce (Like the Roti Prata at Banana Leaf Restaurant).
I was interested in the tamarind sauce in Lady Tamarind. I was afraid of something distasteful (like the overbearing sauce in Mango Delight from Banana Leaf) but it was perfect! The grilled shrimp was served on lettuce, with purple onions and other refreshing vegetables. Overall a light, «healthy» dish-​I doubt the tamarind sauce is healthy for anyone watching their sugar.
Next came The Sultan. We ordered spicy and the waitress came out to confirm we ordered spicy. It was spicy. Boyfriend enjoyed it, but I was done after a few bites. I’m not about to allow the pain from spice ruin my dinner! However, even if it wasn’t spicy, I don’t think I would have liked the curry too much. I prefer yellow or green curry.
I had my meal with mango lassi, which I drained after eating from The Sultan. Boyfriend had sago gulaman. I’m a little disappointed in the drink. It wasn’t familiar to me like I thought it would be. It was red and appeared to lack any jellies, but they were there… swimming around invisibly. I thought it tasted like medicine. Boyfriend admitted it had a strange aftertaste. I told him to hold off on judgement until we go to a Filipino restaurant.
I liked that we received our food quickly, the food was TASTY, and I felt the food was healthier than other places we have eaten out at. Everything was clean and stylish. Staff was attentive and helpful.
Portions were not big. What we ordered was enough for two people. We did not have any leftovers :/​Also, the main courses did not come out together, which wouldn’t work out well for large groups. If you come in a large group, I don’t think the single dish that comes out is enough for more than two or three people.
If it weren’t for the prices, I’d definitely take more people here.

We waited a long time for our food, but the server did warned us they have a to go order. We really enjoyed the Pad Thai omelette with shrimp, Thai spicy! The regular fried rice was not as strong flavored as I like (being Asian), but my 4 year old son really loves it. The beef in mint leaf and lime (beware, Thai spicy is really spicy here!) was nice but I wished they were more lime sour taste. I would want to try their birthday noodle and other fried rice and the cheese ice cream next time. Owner Ted and Rebecca was nice and they listen to suggestion with an open mind.

I’m too tired to write in detail about my experience so here are some bullets to skim through:
–Restaurant doesn’t fit more than four person per table and the restaurant layout doesn’t allow for an extension of tables (it’s tiny).
–Complimentary appetizer of deep fried won ton skins with chili sauce.
–Menu has perverted names for food like «Magic Mike (Yum Ma Kuer Yao)… long Thai eggplant».
–Food is all pretty mediocre… beef salad was chewy, fish pâté appetizer was good, roti used the thick bread (not the flakey tear off kind), fried rice was decent, and pad kra-​pow was good but nothing special.
–Service was lacking; we were one of two tables there and we constantly had to ask for things. I did see a couple takeout orders come in but it shouldn’t have impacted the flow because there were a bunch of employees there!
–Owners wouldn’t let us change the tv channel even though the sound was off and no one else was watching.
–They donate a portion of profits to organizations that care for elephants. I read that here:
.
Yeah, that’s about it.

Mahout has potential except the service is slow as molasses. The crab fried rice had good favors but everything else was mediocre. That is, if they have the ingredient for what you ordered. Twice they came back (after some time) to let us know: (1) they were out of learn, then; (2) they’re out of prawns. We were the only ones in the place and yet it took nearly 45 minutes for our orders to arrive.
Come here… but only if you’re full and have nothing else better to do with your time.

I will admit that when I first saw Mahout, I was very skeptical. There are tons of Thai restaurants in the area and they all blur into one for me. However after eating there last week, Mahout stands out very distinctly and is head and shoulders above the rest in the area.
First off, Ted was awesome. He was very friendly and made us feel very comfortable and welcomed. He shared the restaurant’s history and also helped us identify what to order based on our preferences. The roti and menage a trios (I know right?) appetizers were really good. The latter is a like a wonton filled with cheese and avocado and a nice presentation. Note that it is not listed on the menu. The yellow curry and fried rice was awesome.
The waitress was super sweet and friendly The restaurant is small and cozy with a nice elephant themed décor. I wish them much success and will be back for sure.

I came to Mahout recently on a weeknight for dinner and I was favorably impressed.
Mahout is located in a fairly nondescript (but tidy and clean) shopping center. The restaurant itself is not that large — maybe several tables, but the staff was very friendly. Bonus points for their very cool-​looking hats!
Now getting to the food — my dining companion and I ordered both the shrimp pad thai and the Thai fried rice. Both were well-​flavored. The pad thai featured tender noodles and the rice was not clumpy, as often happens in Asian restaurants when they use leftover rice for their fried rice dishes. The shrimp in the pad thai was tasty and not too overcooked, which happens pretty easily with shrimp.
Bonus points to the Thai iced tea, which wasn’t as sweet as many other Thai restaurants I’ve been to. They were also kind enough to make mine a bit more dilute since I didn’t want anything too sweet.
Overall, a pretty good Thai choice in the area, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t eat Thai food that often.

Absolutely Love Mahout! The food is incredible, I am yet to order something that I don’t like. Its a great place to bring your friends or family :] You must try the Cheddar cheese ice cream!
This is a Great Family Owned Business you should come and Support!
HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

How is this place not packed?!
We arrived on a Tuesday night around 6 p.m. for dinner, and we were the only people in the restaurant. We were a bit concerned, but we figured our fellow Unilocalers wouldn’t mislead us. Thank goodness we stayed.
Our dinner was fantastic. Our water classes were never empty. The restaurant was warm (sat right next to the heater), and we had a fantastic meal.

Before I address Ted’s comments, I must it put it out there that I am not very fond of giving out 1 – 2 star ratings (refer to my profile ratings graph to see for yourself) and I give honest reviews and do not give low ratings to restaurants if I didn’t feel like they deserved it. And unfortunately, Mahout was very deserving of the one star.
Now I have to let you know that Ted has written and rewrote his response to my review a total of 10 times over a span of 3 days and each time I appreciated his professionalism and politeness up until the last revision in which he blatantly accuses me of making things up. First off, my friend and I were there to eat, my friend was taking pictures of the menu which would take a total of 10 seconds and I was on my phone NOT because I was busy but because I was idling myself while waiting for a server that was taking an unreasonably long amount of time to come around. Secondly, yes, my back was turned to the servers area but when I was weary of waiting, I decided to wave down our server and had to turn around in order to do so. That was when she saw me looking for her and mouthed to me whether I was ready. The fact that it even got to that point where I wanted to get out of my seat and look for her says a lot about the service already. Now in regards to the food, I don’t believe in sending back food because a good restaurant should get their entrees right the first time, every time. If this was a fine-​dining experience and I am shelling out a lot of money for food, then I would have been more compelled to send back something i was dissatisfied with but Mahout is not a high-​end restaurant and I feel no desire to send back a $ 9 dish.
If Ted had wanted answers or genuinely wanted to address any concerns, he would have discussed this with me through other means. It’s ironic that Ted says he doesn’t encourage unprofessional behavior yet he’s accusing me of lying and on top of that, doesn’t take responsibility for the lack of service which is also frankly stated in many of their other reviews. And Ted’s unprofessionalism further proves my decision of their one star.

Oh dear… I really REALLY really wanted to like this place. I love supporting local businesses and am sad to have to write such a bad review on my experience here. I was debating going here or to another local Thai restaurant that I had not been to. I wish I had opted for the latter.
5:30PM on a Friday night… My BFF and I walk in to see only two other patrons. First impression? Loved the décor and was salivating after reading the food suggestions from other Unilocalers. I really liked the whole concept of the restaurant and was impressed by how much they incorporated their cause for elephants into their décor and «uniforms».
Two young girls looked at us when we walked in and one of them made the effort to come out from behind the register and seat us. I asked her what was the proper way to pronounce the name of the restaurant. She told me it was pronounced Ma-​hOOt. When she walked back to the register, the other young girl gave her a «what the hell» look and rolled her eyes. I really did not appreciate this because it was a rude reaction. I do not think this is the right way to react when a customer is asking a question, especially when the question came out of genuine interest and respect. I do not like mispronouncing things and always make an effort to learn the proper pronunciation of anything– be it a name, title, dish, etc.
I decided to dismiss the girl’s reaction and focus on the food. My BFF had to flag down one of the girls just to take our order, which kind of irked me since the restaurant is incredibly tiny and they didn’t same to care much about the patrons. In fact, a family of four walked in shortly after and attempted to flag down one of the waitresses multiple times just to have their order taken. We ordered pad thai, roti, and green curry with a side of brown rice. I know some Thai plaices will charge for a side of rice when you order a curry dish, but I always felt it should be included. Just a personal opinion.
The roti was a disappointment. I have never had roti that came with a curry that had meat in it. It bothered me because I only eat meat once a month and the waitress clearly knew I did not eat meat since my friend and I kept going back and forth about putting tofu in our dishes because of my pseudo-​vegetarianism. I thought it was odd that she failed to mention the shredded chicken in the curry. It would not have bothered me too much if I did not get a bite of a tendon when I dipped the roti in =\
The green curry was spicy and had little remnants of coconut. Instead it was overpowered with basil. The only dish that was somewhat good was the pad thai. However, I feel like pad thai is a hard dish to mess up at Thai restaurants.
The meal ended with us yet again flagging down one of the waitresses. Total damage with tax and before tip= $ 27.46

This place would get 3 stars from me if not for their AMAZING noodle dish.
MUST ORDER:
–Happy Birthday Noodles — best Thai noodle dish I have EVER had! Thin silver noodles with veggies, shrimp, and chicken all cooked and seasoned to perfection! and it was great because we came here for a friend’s birthday!
Pros:
–Super friendly service
–Excellent Thai Iced Tea
Cons:
–Only 1 server, took forever to take our order/​serve food/​get bill
–Menu is all over the place and super messy
–They messed up the green curry with chicken. Chicken was overcooked and curry was very milky and lacked flavor. That’s the easiest curry to make, how can you mess that up? Even the eggplant in it tasted funny.
–Portions are on the small side
Tip:
Order everything Spicy because their medium is really mild! They have no hot sauce, just dry pepper and funky fish oil pepper (I usually like this, but the fish oil flavor was too strong in this one).
I plan on coming back for the Happy Birthday noodles. I hope the noodles are consistently this good! :) It’s not often that I find a new favorite dish!

fav thai place in Newark/​Fremont area so far. this place opens with a cause, which is to save elephants. the owner is super nice and friendly and even gave us a ‘treat’ for next time.
yum thai sunny — OMG i would get this to-​go and eat this all day. maybe just a hint lighter on the sauce so it’s less salty would be A+++
young aspara — very delicious. the salmon are cubed, and the price was cheaper than what was on the menu which was nice of the owner to tell us. still delicious with the sauce…
Harold and kumar — it’s almost like chinese bbq pork. it’s a bit chewy, but i love the idea and the sauce that went with it.
lord massamun — best curry. this is the kind of curry i like. not the yellow watery kind. the ckn has bones. u get two pices of thigh and drumstick. i wish it had more ckn. but man it fall off the bone n it’s really good! the potato and the peanuts! o gosh.
lastly.CHEDDAR ICE CREAM! seriously? it’s almost like a mango base with cheddar shreds throughout. dude you must try it!
the owner is super nice and the whole concept is awesome, i hope they will be successful. he mentioned in the future there might be cooking class and maybe see the elephants??? I’m all in!

This Hidden Thai Gem serves the type of truly authentic food you normally only find at Thai Buddhist Temples + some creative house flourishes like their Filipino inspired Cheddar Cheese Ice Cream (which is actually quite delicious & addictive… a Coconut Milk base with creamy, cheese undertones & chunks of salty, cheesy goodness! (BTW, Ted is Thai & his wife is Filipino hence the connection)
Tonight I had an uncommonly well crafted Tom Kha, and a grilled Pork Collarbone dish that is rarely found in restaurants outside of Thailand as foreplay to the ice cream.
BTW, the décor is quite nice — converted Sushi bar meets the jungles of the Issan — & well beyond the typical strip mall restaurant.
Finally, Ted says he can make Khao Soy upon request!

Just came back from dinner at Mahout and it was such a pleasant experience. This is a pretty small restaurant but service and food was excellent. We were greeted by a friendly waitress who brings out water and menu promptly.
We ordered Shrimp tom yum soup in claypot, bangkok street grill (it’s grilled pork over veggies) and the sober dish (pad kee mao udon noodles) to share. We requested for medium spiciness and everything was very good. Enough heat but not too overwhelmed. Their tomyum is the best so far and I love it. Their food portion is not very big, but it’s no big deal to me because I care about food quality more than quantity! Everything tastes authentic and I am sure I will come back to try out other dishes.
+1 star for them to support organizations that provide rescue to abused and injured elephants
I definitely recommend this place!

Taste ¹⁰⁄₁₀ — real Thai food. There’s a lot of different ingredients in the food beyond other restaurant .
Presentation 10÷10− pretty
Customer service 11÷10− this is the first time in a long time that a Asian restaurant has excellent customer service .
Menu– I like all those crazy name for their foods. Hahahaha. we got crazy little thing call love and other stuff. Recommendation — more beef for crazy thing call love. But overall I like it. Will be coming over more.

Mahout is just a few tables, mostly along the length of the eatery. when i entered the kitchen staff was seated in the dining room, no waitress.
got a menu which mentions thai and filipino food. scratch filipino for now. no filipino cook da house yet. (the cuisines seem to be clash, should be interesting).
décor: laid back elegance, browinish hue
eats: lord masaman curry, lunch special (8.5)
*soup with carrots, squash, veggies. broth very rich, tasty
–partial undeboned chicken leg mixed in with potatoes, curries, other veggies
–potatos not fully cooked, chicken was
–jasmine rice dry, tasteless, cold.
–nice masaman sauce
3.5 stars, food not integrated well
thai bits:
–no wait staff on lunch duty, just kitchen.
–restaurant menu easier to understand than online one.(too electic)
–kitchen on the right behind some «shields».
–kitchen helpful with dining suggestions…
–lots of parking in lot.
–pics depict patio dining.
–cooking needs consistency.

Clearly not everyone has good taste.
I waited and waited for this restaurant to open up and was rewarded when I finally got to eat their food. This is a quaint little restaurant that is appropriately priced. They have many selections and pride themselves on fresh, healthy foods. The chef came out to greet us and to make sure our experience was pleasurable as well as someone else who asked for feedback and suggestions. We had none. There were a couple items that were not available but that is to be expected with any small restaurant. Quality OVER Quantity! The entire staff was all smiles and as polite as I’ve ever seen restaurant staff.
On our first trip, we tried the crab fried rice and I must say I thought the restaurant I USED to frequent in Fremont was good, but this was phenomenal. I tried the massuman chicken in red curry and my husband had the chicken in yellow curry. The massuman chicken is served shredded and it was so moist and tender, it literally melted in my mouth. The red curry had a hint of sweetness. I ordered medium-​spicy but I think they went easy on me because I was kind of iffy when ordering. Next time I’ll be sure to mean it when I say medium-​spicy. The flavor the yellow curry was clean. The chicken was more tender than any of the chicken I’ve had in yellow curry before.
They support a great cause — the elephants — which you’ll find honored throughout the restaurant.
This is our new Thai spot and I hope they flourish and become a staple in Newark!