Khao San

Not bad, but rather overhyped. The food was all decent and good, but not striking. The prices were normal, and the service was friendly. The room is somewhat interesting — there’s a tuktuk and many other interesting Thai artifacts.

This Thai restaurant is really cute and has a small stand inside and a cute little truck you can eat in. The restaurant has a street food type of style. The happy hour is really good! But you have to order a beverage (can be alcoholic or non alcoholic). A lot of the food on the menu is tapa style or small plates. It’s also reasonably priced.

There are many gluten free options including the lightly battered (rice flour) calamari which is pretty good. The Pad Thai is a little on the sweet side with no spice; however there are the traditional delicious Thai hot sauces including jalapenos in oil. We received our meal to go which took about 15 minutes.

How is this place not crazy busy all the time?! After being tired of the typical Thai food you find in Portland, we went here to try something new. WOW HOLY FLAVOR BOMB! The chicken wings are amazing! The crispness is spot on with a nice and flavorful dipping sauce. Most of the dishes err on the spicy side, but definitely flavorful. They have a good happy hour and Thai beers. Their Thai iced tea is pretty great too!

When this place opened it was great. I loved the Spicy Crispy Basil Chicken and Thai Iced Tea. Both of those items ate still good, but the other foods are not.

First time here, came in early for lunch.
First course. Summer rolls. Fairly generic, not being a fan I had amputate the cucumber slice.
Lunch plates. Broccoli with crispy pork bento for $ 12. Broccoli is mainly stems with a few florets. Pork was crispy but over cooked and pretty tough. Probably won’t try this on again.
Also had the Khao Mu Dang. This is a bed of infused rice beneath pork belly, sweet sausage. Menu picture is far more generous with the protein than what I got. It was flavorful, and for $ 9 is a fair deal. Chicken stock accompaniment is a head scratcher.
PS as a gluten sensitive I am glad they identify GF, vegan etc. on their menu.

Great option if you have celiac as there are many safe GF options on the menu. Our waiter was also super knowledgable as to what was gluten free and what wasn’t and even double checked with the kitchen.
We ordered the calamari, pad see ew, pork and papaya salad. Everything was super delicious!

Great place. Super fast service. The prices are also very reasonable.
Definitely try the Khao Soi and the ulimited refill thai ice tea is a must.
The Kor Mu Yaang is so good!!!
They also have the cutest little bus booth that is super fun.
Great fun atmosphere to be with friends. Even went in a group of 11 (with reservations) and got instantly seated even when the restaurant was busy.
Definitely coming back!!!

There are many things that I appreciate about this restaurant:
1. The menu has color coded dietary restrictions next to each dish. So if you need gluten free options, you can easily spot them in the menu. Same for vegetarian and vegan options.
2. Since this is street food style dishes, the plates are well proportioned, i.e. smaller. I feel full, but not stuffed.
3. The waiter walks around with a pitcher of Thai iced tea… free refills!
4. The food comes out fast (based on the two times I’ve been here). I felt like it came out in 5 minutes.
5. It’s colorfully decorated. It’s got a lively vibe to it.
6. The food is good!
The one con I have:
1. The seven or so dishes on the lunch menu are the same price and size as the dishes on their dinner menu. I see no difference, so why a lunch menu?
I’ve had the Khao Mu Dang and chicken pad see ew here. The Khao Mu dang is my favorite here. It’s got three different kinds of meat in the dish: crispy pork belly, BBQ pork, and Thai sausage. And half a boiled egg. I like the variety and combination of flavors in this dish. Pad see ew is my favorite Thai dish, but the one here is not the best I’ve ever had. The flavor was a little off, and had kind of a sour taste to it.

Despite arriving 20min before closing, the staff was very accommodating and never rushed us. We were seated in the tuk tuk table and ordered the chicken wings, ping, and Khao soi. The scope of my Thai food experience is limited to the Bay Area. Quite frankly although I do enjoy Thai food, I can’t say I’ve tried anything that has fostered any strong love for it. With that aside, I was floored by the chicken wings. What the heck is it marinated in, then lightly battered and fried. The pork kebabs (ping) were equally tender and just slightly sweet. The Khao soi was on spot, with al dente noodles swimming in a pleasantly spicy coconut cream broth. I can safely say that it has been the best Thai food I’ve tried so far. Really looking forward to trying the other items on the menu.

Great street style food. Very nice service.
Super good chicken wings.
When they found out it was my 3-​year old boy’s birthday, they comped fried banana with ice cream and gave him a Tuk Tuk toy. Thanks!

Delicious food! We came here on a Monday night after a long drive from California. We were starving and we’re seated quickly. We ordered a fried chicken, Khao soi, and a kabob type thing. All of the food was delicious. The kabob meats were well seasoned and tender and the fried chicken was crispy with great sauce. We ordered 2 Khao soi and we’re very satisfied. Nice and creamy and savory. The only complaint would be the server. He was slightly underwhelming and forgot our second order of Khao soi.

We loved Khao San. I get pad thai at every thai restaurant we visit, and my wife gets drunken noodle everywhere — we felt that both dishes at Khao San were top notch, though slightly different than most places. We also got the summer rolls that were good, like any place you’d go. And the icing on the cake for me was the thai iced tea — that has unlimited refills. WHAT!!! I’ve never heard of that and took full advantage of it, gulping down 3 glasses. Needless to say, I’ve had plenty of energy all day. We will definitely come back here again.

The pros:
There is an adorable tuk tuk in the restaurant that one party can sit in. The vegetarian spring rolls were really well done, and the curry was good too. Far from authentic, but still tasty.
The cons:
Unfortunately, the service was straight up bad. There was only one other party so it was not because the restaurant was busy. Our waiter forgot the rice that I ordered, and I had to wait 30 minutes before eating my entrée because I like to enjoy it with rice. When the waiter finally came over, I re-​ordered my rice all he said was «oh, right!»
The food was spicy and the water was not refilled until the very end of the meal. My bf’s moscow mule was pretty much lime juice in a tin can. It was undrinkable. Overall, a disappointing and bizarre experience.

The Thai food here was delicious and exactly what we were looking for. The decoration inside the restaurant was interesting, with tuk tuks as an option for seating, and the service was quick. Between the four of us, we had the lunch dish #2 with crispy pork belly and rice, the pad see ew, curry (nice and spicy), and papaya salad. Everything was delicious and came in perfect portion sizes. As a bonus, we got a free Thai iced tea with Unilocal check in! They also have a Thai-​ger Palmer drink available, which is a mix of Thai iced tea and lemonade, that was refreshing as well. A great stop for lunch and highly recommended!

So I realized the reason I gave my last review 3 stars was because I didn’t order what I truly wanted. My friend was really sensitive to spice and I couldn’t order the good stuff but with that said, I went here a second time with my coworkers and really enjoyed my meal! I got the Thai Binto Lunch special with Jungle curry. The Thai binto came in a cute tin bowl tier thing stacked on top of each other. One bowl had rice, the other had curry and salad. I’ve never heard of jungle curry so I was curious and it turned out really good! The portion was the right amount for me and this lunch comes with a bottomless Thai ice tea! The salad was also good with a yummy dressing. Needed the fresh greens after all the rice and curry.

Service excellent. Décor creative. Dinner was flavorful. Dishes were light and delicious. I’ll be back.

Ridiculous! This food blows my mind. I rarely visit the same restaurant twice in the same month (with all the amazing places to choose from in Portland) but I’ve eaten here 4 times in the last 10 days cause I can’t get enough!

Wow, the food here is authentic, incredibly flavorful and the best part for me? gluten free! It was such a treat to be able to eat things that I usually cannot eat, such as calamari. Here, everything that is «breaded» is done so in gluten-​free flour so I can eat it!
Oh how I wish we had a restaurant like this in Boulder CO; but I’ll definitely be back every time I visit Portland!

I honestly really wanted to like this place. After roaming the streets of downtown Portland on a cold evening, the boyfriend and I were really craving some warm thai soup. Thai is usually my go-​to comfort food because its almost always reliably good. Having found Khao San with its high ratings, we were so excited to try it.
First impression: the place is really cute. They have an actually little cart that you can sit in inside the restaurant. How whimsical and fun! Service was friendly and a good level of attentiveness and we were seated immediately. The restaurant only seemed to be about 1/3−½ half full on a Saturday evening. When you check in, you get one free thai iced tea — very cool.
Next impression: The menu. We were craving something warm… They only had tom yum (I prefer tom gha) and they also did not have a large selection of curry, which I thought to be strange. There was one red curry dish and one pumpkin curry dish. Wheres the yellow and green curry? So we ended up ordering the Tom Yum soup with chicken and Pad Se-​Ew (a good standard dish to order when you don’t know what else to get)
The thai iced tea came out first in this cool tin metal cup. It is less sweet than I’m used to so I didn’t love it. They also brought out hot tea which tasted like the thai iced tea sans the milk and sweetness. Soup came out and it is very spicy. I normally love spicy things (used to eat hot sauce out of the jar before I could even walk) but I guess I wasn’t expecting it to be this spicy. It’s not spicy enough to make you cry or anything ridiculous, but it does leave heat in your mouth. Also, maybe I just wasn’t feeling it because I had just spent the entire day eating all the good food that Portland has to offer and spiciness on a bloated tummy can be a little uncomfortable. The pad se-​ew was also nothing extraordinary — not particularly flavorful. We ended up not finishing either of the dishes and getting take-​home boxes to give it away.
Overall, I was less than impressed with the food here. They get +1 for service and +1 for décor/​aesthetics. Maybe I ordered the wrong things (? LMK if i did.) but I probably wouldn’t come back here if I were in the area again.

I reeeeeally love Khao San! Service is always excellent. When we’ve asked for recommendations because we can’t decide between options, they’ve never steered us wrong. Quality and freshness couldn’t be better.
We bring friends here always! We love everything we’ve ever ordered. Right now, we are returning to order AGAIN (special menu order) Khao Soi. AMAZING! The #40: Ping Chicken is fantastic! #21 Som Tum Pu Pla La (papaya salad) is unbelievable! Whoa! Yeah! Right! Eat here! It’s so delicious! Reliably delicious and fantastic!

Been here in a multiple occasions and it’s been pretty bland food with nice décor. The concept seems to keep people happy and returning. I really wanted to like it but there are a lot of other Thai places in town where people are just better off. If you’re in this part of town just trek somewhere else if you’re really aching for your Thai fix.

I wanted so badly to like this – I even waited a little while to write a review! We were here for nearly 2 hours and the restaurant was half full – I’m not saying that is a bad thing, at least the food is fresh! Service was friendly but not attentive (some people prefer that) and that is where my positives end.
Food was okay. If you are going to charge me the same as other Thai restaurants and give me that little, it better be tastier by leaps and bounds compared to other Thai restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, the pad se-​ew was only okay. There was barely any chicken in it. Less oily than other places which is great but the major downfall was you could taste the soap they used to clean the dishes. Yikes. Also, it was served with a soup spoon. The same soup spoons served with noodle soups like phở. If you’ve never had pad se-​ew (go try it now, it is delicious), it is a dry, flat and wide noodle dish. The noodles kept falling off the spoon because the noodles were much larger than said spoon so we ended up using our forks.
The other dish ordered was a daily special that apparently does not come with rice since we were charged for the rice suggested to us by the staff. What? Also, culturally speaking, I consider it a terrible insult to charge separately for rice for a dish that should come with rice. It should be on the appetizer menu or advertised as a la carte (or in my opinion, not exist without rice). This dish was recommended to us by the staff. It’s gai yang (thai style bbq chicken) and the presentation was nice but not functional. It is wrapped in between pieces of bamboo and upon removing the chicken from being wedged, slivers of bamboo came off with the chicken. An unpleasant discovery when biting into the chicken! Gai yang is also traditionally served with a dipping sauce and none existed with this – no rice, no sauce. what gives? Am I the only Asian who grew up eating skewered gai yang with rice? Or sauce? Potentially.
We ordered from the dinner menu and received lunch portions – not uncommon for the area but don’t come hungry! In an attempt to get full, we also ordered dessert – which was not to my liking. The fried banana simply wasn’t that sweetness I’m accustomed to and I don’t even add sugar to my batter. Both of us left still hungry. I have never left a Thai restaurant without leftovers and still hungry but there is a first time for everything. I won’t fault them for the portion size but I do want to warn other potential diners.
Last thing, the lunch menu on the website does not list the hours/​days it is available. We were unaware it is only available during weekdays and hope they consider updating their website lunch menu to reflect actual and current availability.
Again, I did try to like this place. But the more I thought about the experience and food overall, the more honest I became.

Lots of variety (menu was pretty large — like physically, it’s pretty big). Prices are good, granted, the portions were a bit smaller than some other Thai places.
We ordered the Jungle Curry and the Pad See Ew. The Jungle Curry didn’t have as much curry/​soup as I would’ve liked, but it was chock full of delicious meat and veggies, so it was pretty hearty and flavorful. The Pad See Ew was good too.
Service was good and attentive.
The space was bright and inviting.
Would definitely go back to try other dishes and some of the Happy Hour items.

Loves me some Thai food… (been on a huge kick of it lately… not sure why). Previous trip to Portland we went to a different place, this time in for a soccer match we decided to head here after the game…
It was a little later at night… wasn’t super busy, so got a table right away. Wife and I shared an order of som tum, and then we each had separate mains.
The food was fast, and good… yumm yumm…
Would definitely come back again!

This is a place where the pictures taste as good as they look! A restaurant where you want to try everything on the menu and the server is so enthusiastic about the food that you can’t help not to enjoy the overall experience! Great food, Great service, and great atmosphere. Cant wait to go back and try more dishes, and some more chicken skewers! House made sauce is really good! Spicy!

We came, we saw, we ate! After reading some of the negative reviews I admit I was biased against Khao San and fully expected not to like it much. Service was absoultely fine, met quickly when we came in. Were paid attention to at the table while we waited for the rest of our party. The staff was attentive but not pushy in any way or overbearing.
We started off with Thai iced tea which my wife enjoyed, and hot tea for the cold night yesterday. For appetizers we got the fresh spring rolls (big hit), fresh spring bites (similar but good too), and hoy joh (good, but fishy taste which 2 of us liked and 2 didn’t). We followed with spicy green bean w/​porkbelly (excellent), chinese broccoli w/​porkbelly (also good), Kor Mu yaang a charbroiled pork which was tender and flavorful, Pad Char Pla which was bites of battered catfish with a little heat (yum), Pad See Eew w/​chicken which was a little dry due to the noodles absorbing all the sauce but excellent flavor and tender (also yum), and last but not least was the Spicy Crispy Chicken Basil (good).
All the food was good even if not great, a tad pricy but to be expected with their NW portland location. The service was fine as well. Will we be back? Maybe. Not because we didn’t enjoy it but because there are so many places in Portland to try. Also, Parking can be a challenge so plan on being early cause you may be searchin for a spot for a while.

Decent thai food with decent service.
I like to come here when I’m craving chicken basil, especially during their happy hour. I’ve never had to wait for a table here and so the food usually comes out pretty quickly.
The chicken basil is made with ground chicken and comes with nuoc mam (fish sauce with thai chilis) and a fried egg on top of the rice. A great deal for $ 7!
Also, if you check in, you get a free thai iced tea :)

Terrible. I sat for 8 minutes at the bar before any of the staff even looked up towards the bar to discover a customer. Almost walked out before someone finally asked if I’d like to order — this being another few minutes after someone noticed I was sitting at the bar — in a total wtf moment.
These places… If it weren’t for the amazing food I (eventually) got, I’d give this place a single a star. The price is a bit much, given the service I recieved — also, this place is running off the ‘thai street food’ vibe, which should translate into cheaper menu options but that’s where the crossover happens. Street food theme and vibe/​service, sit-​down pricing.
At least the uniforms are cute, and place itself is somewhat entertaining. Given the location just up the street from several pricier tap rooms and the brewcycle depot, if you cop a seat at a sidewalk tabe you’ll probably be entertained. Just… don’t expect to get service quickly. 2.5, ymmv

My friends and I were in the area shopping and I decided to give this a place a try because of the tuk tuk pictures. It was Sunday brunch time so when we arrived, it was pretty empty. Looked over to the right and realized the one and only sit in tuk tuk table was already taken. Regardless of our disappointment, we sat down and browsed through the impressive menu. They had almost all thai cuisine you can imagine (including some Northern dishes). With our waiter’s recommendations we ordered the Hoy Jah, pineapple fried rice, street style phad thai, and the crying tiger.
The Hoy Jah was something I’ve never heard of or tried before so it was definitely interesting. The taste resembled the fried beancurd wrapped dim sum (not sure what the name is)… basically just very dim sum– esque lol. Tasty nonetheless.
The pineapple friend rice also came with a surprisingly new flavor. they add raisins! The beef in it was a little dry and the dish could’ve used more spices. or salt. My least favorite dish for sure.
Phad thai (Street Style): Definitely brought me back to Thailand a little bit with the rustic flavor. The downfall is that the noodles were a bit overcooked and the fish sauce flavor was overpowering.
My favorite of all was the Crying Tiger, which was marinated steak strips. The meat was so tender with the perfect amount of seasoning. I would come back just for this and a side of sticky rice.
The atmosphere was cool, the staff had cool vests that resembles tuk tuk drivers and they were friendly, and the place felt clean. The pricing of the food was moderate but the portions were a bit small in my opinion.

First timer… and wondering how haven’t been here before. I can see many future visits to make my way through the extensive and unique menu. For starters, I love the atmosphere and the service was great.
With suggestions from my dinner mate, we shared two dishes, which ended up being the perfect amount of food for a very reasonable price. The Larb, requested with a few extra lettuce leaves on the side, made flavorful and juicy little pork lettuce rolls, with highlights of onion and mint. Also sharing the Pad Thai Street Style with Shrimp, I found it a nice blend of heat and just a touch sweet, with the head-​on and dried shrimp adding good flavor to this noodle dish.

#latepost
So. We dropped by again because I wanted to show off this little spot to my visitor from cali. It was a beautiful day out so all the outside seatings were full. But we didn’t mind sitting inside because the atmosphere is on point. =)
Since I had such a good experience last time I was here, I wanted to try out some of their other dishes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t all that pleased.
We ordered an appetizer — they looked like deep fried fish balls? it was tasty but the center was still frozen. =(
For our main, we ordered their street style pad thai, drunken noodles, papaya salad, and some skewers. I know its tapas. but did the portions shrink even more? well. either way. all the dishes generally had good flavors and the skewers were still tasty! but our noodle dishes were really really dry. and the pad thai seemed too sweet.
I left there with a slight disappointment. but. maybe i’ll give it another shot.

The closest to street food in Thailand! So so good. My favorites are:
1. Ping, which means grilled, chicken n pork. So juicy n tender.
2. Hoi Jor, a dumpling consists of shrimp n pork wrapped in tofu skin (the only place that does it perfectly).
3. Crab Noodle with soft softshell crab, most well balanced dish ever. Made with special Thai rice noodle.
4. My must-​have, Som-​tum (salty crab) style. My #1 dish. There are 2 versions, but I like salty crab, Northeast Thai version.
5. Last but not least, Singha Beer to compliment it all. Makes every gulp sweeter!
And the ride around the block on the Tuk Tuk is an absolute joy!

Thai one on! Nice selection for happy hour menu and craft brews $ 4. We ordered the Pad Kee Mao with painted hills beef and stir-​fry rice noodles, Chinese brocolli with pork belly and chicken ping on a skewer – tasty and generous portions all!
After a satisfying meal, we went for a ride in the authenticate Tuk Tuk taxi around the Pearl. What fun! The driver had the music turned up loud. People on the street will notice you so do not be shy. It is ok to dance and scream a little – «ready to Thai one on» Try Khao San!”

Good ambience!
With the wall pictures and Thailand imported Tuk Tuk rickshaw, steel mugs, they have created Thailand streets feel successfully.
Friendly staff and quick service. I
Liked the taste of entrées we ordered. They use fresh herbs and the aroma of food takes you to next level. Their stir frys are very fresh!
Order multiple dishes as portions are small.
For ambience ⁵⁄₅
For service 4.5÷5
Food taste 4.5÷5
It is one of the best Thai restaurant in town!

A semi-​secret: most places in the Pearl are packed on 1^st Thursday, but since Khao is on 15^th, there’s empty seats.
One of the better venues in PDX, the menu is a slight variation of those at almost every Thai restaurant in town. Enjoyed the green beans and pork belly was good.
Delightful surprise of the night was the
Thai-​ger Woods non-​alcoholic drink.
I mainly come here for the ambiance.