Tup Tim Thai Cuisine

I was pleasantly surprised. The pumpkin curry was very flavorful and fresh. Ambiance leaves a lot to be desired, but the service was good and quick.

I have been a Thai food kick recently. I decided to try this place because my favorite, Sweet Home Thai, in Keizer was closed for the holiday. This is by far the worst thai food I have had recently. The Panang curry sauce was watery and low on flavor, while the pad Thai was dry.

I’m sitting in this restaurant right now, waiting to place my order. At least they gave us water. The waiter is running around looking busy, but after 20 minutes I can’t wait any longer. Food is good. Service is shit.

Small, warm dining area
Friendly service
Reasonable variety of options
Average presentation
Flavors and quality are OK but definitely not super traditional or refined
Overall, good for getting your fix of semi-​traditional, Americanized Chinese/​Thai food but certainly not gourmet or anything to rave about

I arrived as the dinner rush was starting… greeted and seated… now lets examine the menu… so many great dishes to choose…
I started out with the deep fried tofu which is served with a slight sweet dipping sauce… crispy outside soft inside… very tasty.
Also ordered the Tum Yum soup with shrimp… steaming hot and very tasty… for my main entrée I ordered Pad Ped Taley… a seafood medley of shrimp, scallops, fish… stir fried with onion, bell peppers, crispy basil, and other bites of liveliness… each and every taste bud will come alive… this is what makes Thai food such a wonderful meal.
Perfect service, excellent food… a five star experience. This is a family owned and operated small business… these are your friends and neighbors… give them a try.

When I first moved to Salem, my biggest fear was that I would not be able to find a decent thai restaurant. I love thai food and I was spoiled with plenty of selection when I lived in Seattle.
Fortunately, I found Tup Tim Thai right away! This place’s food is excellent. THEY ARE OPEN ON SUNDAYS, which is basically the unicorn of restaurants in Salem. I will often call in my order for pick-​up — usually pad see ew or curry. If I’m dining in, this place gets busy which can result in a wait. Recently they hired more staff and service has greatly improved. Overall, if you want thai in Salem, this is a great place to go.

Salem, OR: New…
Welcoming greeting as soon as I walked in the door.
Very tasty, flavorfully seasoned chicken and lots of moist meat! Unable to do a half chicken and half tofu Pad Si Ew at dinner. However, for $ 2 more, they would add tofu on top of my primary meat choice. The wide rice noodles were rubbery on top but tender in the rest of the plate.
6 out of their 10 tables, that can seat up to four, were pushed together to accommodate a large family group during the dinner hour I was there.
Would definitely be back to try more!
SNAPSHOT THOUGHT
Service was consistent when we later visited during lunch to take advantage of their lunch specials at $ 7.95. Friendly and welcoming staff. The complementary soup was said to be made from scratch and was delicious, containing a very flavorful broth. Hubby’s «Hot» level Pad Si-​Ew was equal to a 2 on other“s spice level scale and his addition of pepper flakes took it up to the equivalent of a 3 out of 5 scale. The Garlic Basil was not the best combo with the Mixed Vegetables and Tofu I ordered. The flavor of the minced garlic was overpowered by even the Mild spice level but the vegetables were cooked just right.

We decided to try this place after reading the reviews. Large menu and a couple of specials. Service pretty good, although our waitress got confused and put a seafood dish in front of me. Not what I ordered, and being allergic to shellfish, this made me rather nauseous before our food even arrived. Still optimistic, we were very disappointed in the first dish: lettuce wraps. Do not order this, particularly if you’re on a first date! We somehow thought that the wraps would come wrapped, but the little plate arrived with the filling and a small wedge of iceberg lettuce (including the core). Maybe in Thailand they use nice big lettuce leaves, but the little pieces of lettuce were impossible to turn into much resembling wraps. Just a mess. Had to wash my hands before the main course arrived, and it’s not all that pleasant making your way back to the single grubby little unisex bathroom. Our main food selections arrived afterwards: Tom Ka soup (delicious), Eggplant Basil with chicken (medium hot) and Avocado Chicken in Green Curry (also medium). I would say that on your first visit, play it safe on the hotness… Definitely hotter than your average Thai scale. The tofu in the soup had a great texture. The avocado didn’t really pop, but the green curry really was delicious. Overall, we will definitely come back and try again. But not a stellar first experience.

WARNING — Change of Ownership
I’ve eaten at the Tup Tim Thai for about three years and had always been pleased with the food and service. That has all changed. New ownership has brought major changes to the kitchen and the front of the house. We were slow to be seated as the single person working the dining room was busy taking and handing out ‘to-​go’ orders. The glassware and china was all miss-​matched and the room was in disarray — tables/​chairs akimbo, missing hot sauce caddies, trash in waiting area.
The food was very different from earlier visits and quite uneven in preparation. All three dishes were ordered ‘medium’ spicy — two were bland and the other almost too spicy to eat (for me that’s saying a lot). Noodles were overcooked, presentation was haphazard, and the Thai Iced Tea was both over-​brewed and over-​sweet. Two dishes were delivered together, and the third several minutes later. There was a sharp broken bone in my duck salad.
I’m very disappointed in the rapid decline of this place as it was my favorite neighborhood restaurant. I’ll have to drive a fair distance farther for my Thai food, but I won’t be back here anytime soon. It’s become just another strip-​mall greasy spoon.

This place continues to be reliably good, with yummy affordable food, and quick service.

Tup Tim Thai serves pretty good Thai food. That means it is by far the best in Salem. Like all the Thai restaurants in the mid valley, TTT dials the heat back. Way, way back — if you’re expecting Bahn Thai or Pok Pok quality, you’re going to be disappointed. Unfortunately, service is a challenge: the owner apparently understaffs deliberately (our waitress told us during our last visit that she — the owner — focuses most of her energy on her busier location in downtown Albany. On our last three visits, there has been one server and the dishwasher, a really nice guy who helps out, seems like an uncommonly hard worker, and should probably be given a decent uniform — as the dishwasher, he’s a hot mess and a bit of an appetite killer on the floor. Nobody wants to see the t-​shirt that the remains of one’s dinner are going to land on shortly.
But it’s the waiting that has killed our love for TTT. Here’s hoping they check out their Unilocal reviews some day and get the help they need.

I really enjoyed thus place! I went twice in the same week. Shrimp pad Thai was very good! The Tom Yum was excellent!

Definitely the best Panang curry in Salem at a great price. Their pad thai is also very good. The lunch special is also a great deal. Well worth the trip to south Salem.

The food here is really good., nothing special but good the vegetables work perfectly protein which was chicken.
I like this old place

Great and affordable pad thai!

I am new to Salem and decided to try out this place. I ordered the Tom Yum Noodle Soup. Let me first say I had great service and the order took time. I can understand why the order took a little time because when I received my hot steaming bowl of soup it looked and smelled amazing. I only have one complaint, the chicken in the soup was overdone, but it was white meat chicken, so that’s not easy to cook perfectly in soup. Next time I will have tofu. I enjoyed my soup at the nicely decorated restaurant, and had enough left over to take home. I will definitely eat here again. I want to try more things on the menu. I heard the house fried rice was delicious.

Absolutely delicious, very friendly service, but at least in the evenings it has seemed understaffed with just one waiter/​waitress.
My parent lived in Thailand and I have enjoyed trying any Thai restaurant I can over the years all over Oregon and other states.
Tup Tim gets two thumbs up for prices, flavor and portions. The curries pack a punch if you ask for it. The peanut sauce and vinegar-​cucumber sauces are just right. The veggies and meats are well-​balanced and the portions are filling and often sufficient for leftovers.
The service is always top-​notch, friendly, with a smile and often jokes and friendly banter. I just can’t do five stars when there has always been one poor person running around for take-​out and the customers eating every time I’ve been in.

Since we were staying close to Salem on the last night of my most recent Oregon trip, my friends took me to Tup Tim Thai Cuisine (TTT) for dinner for my birthday. My friend said that there are a lot of Thai restaurants in Salem, but this smaller shop was one of her favorites. She and her BF had been there several times before, so I trusted that they knew the best go-​to spots when it came to Thai.
The eatery featured a pretty cozy interior, but since we were there on a regular March Monday around 7:20 p.m., the restaurant wasn’t full — only a few other tables were occupied. My friend’s BF had arrived before us and ordered an appetizer. Our orders were taken shortly after, and it didn’t take too long for our food to come out, either.
I had an enjoyable experience at TTT and would definitely return again. Here’s what we got:
«Garden Fresh Rolls»: My friend’s BF ordered these rolls before we even came to the eatery as an appetizer, so they were already on the table when we got there. The dish of four featured soft fresh rolls stuffed with rice noodles, tofu, carrots, fresh greens and Thai basil served with homemade sweet chili sauce with crushed peanuts. I probably would have ordered the less healthy option (the fried egg rolls) if it were up to me, but I liked the fresh-​tasting ingredients of these garden rolls. My favorite part had to be the crushed peanuts that were garnished on top and that sweet chili sauce, which I gently drizzled over my roll. Great appetizer and a great choice if you want something healthy and fresh.
«House Special Fried Rice»: After trying to decide between this dish and the Pad Thai, I opted for the fried rice. It featured a traditional Thai fried rice with egg, garlic, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, green onions, fresh cucumber, cilantro and lime. I customized my fried rice but getting it sans onions (all onions) and tomatoes, and figured I could just push the cucumber pieces to the side. Thankfully, the fried rice did not come with much cucumber (only a few chopped slices), and I really enjoyed the taste of this dish. I loved the generous amounts of broccoli that was included, as well as the garlic and egg flavors. This is a good choice if you want a more traditional, no-​fuss, no-​frills rice dish.
«Drunken Noodles»: This is my friend’s go-​to entrée from TTT, and I enjoyed a taste of her noodles. The entrée consists of pan-​fried flat rice noodles with egg, onions, green beans, zucchini, carrots, bell peppers, Thai chili and basil. The flat rice noodles definitely featured lots of flavor. I probably wouldn’t order this dish for myself, since I don’t like many of the mix-​ins – carrots, green beans, onions and bell peppers – but the noodles themselves were super soft and tasty.
«Basil Fried Rice»: If I had the chance to try another fried rice from this restaurant, this is the one I would go for. It includes garlic, homemade chili, basil, egg, onions and bell peppers. Of course, I would order mine sans the bell peppers and onions, but everything else sounds phenomenal. This fried rice dish is pretty similar to the «House Special» entrée that I ordered, except it features a stronger basil flavor. I love basil, so I’m sure this entrée would be right up my alley.
«Pad Thai»: Pad Thai tends to be my go-​to at Thai restaurants, just because I like trying the different versions – every Thai eatery has its own take on Pad Thai – and because it tends to be a «safe» dish. This version features pan-​fried rice noodles made with homemade Pad Thai sauce, egg, sweet radish, green onions, red onions, ground peanuts and bean sprouts. I would order this Pad Thai sans the sweet radish, onions and bean sprouts, but I look forward to trying the delicious noodles coated generously in pad tai sauce and garnished with ground peanuts (my favorite part because it adds some texture and crunch to the dish).
«Garlic Chicken Noodles»: These pan-​fried flat noodles come with chicken, green onions and white onions in garlic sauce served over bed of iceberg lettuce. This was one of the other entrees that caught my eye, simply because I love those flat noodles and I LOVE garlic sauce. I’ll just have to save this entrée for another visit, however, and I would get it sans the onions (all onions) if I ever ordered it. I just thought it was interesting that these noodles came served over a bed of iceberg lettuce … nothing like some salad with your noodles.
«Tup Tim Medley»: I seriously contemplated ordering this appetizer medley for my actual dinner, but I decided that it contained too many fried items for one person to ingest (more like too many fried items that I shouldn’t consume all in one sitting). It features a combo of satay, garden fresh rolls, wontons and chicken pot stickers. The satay included skewers of chicken that were marinated in coconut milk and Thai spices and served with peanut sauce, which sounded super yummy.

I love this place. The food always tastes great and the ladies are super nice. I have eaten here 15 times at least and have enjoyed every one. Yesterday had green curry with tofu and it was awesome. Me like.
…just made another of many trips here, and tried something new to me, which was the clear broth soup with vegetables and tofu. Healthy and tasty. That’s good eating!

Nice staff. Took a while to order, but we weren’t in a hurry.
However, I seem to be running into a lot of Thai restaurants lately that can’t get the basic yellow curry right. This one was not «yellow»…mostly watery coconut milk… and without the depth of flavor that a good curry should have. Also, the chicken was dry and chewy. The crispy spring rolls were good. Not much here that is unusual enough to bring me back.