Dusit Thai Restaurant

Dined with a friend who lives up in the Sierra foothills; we strolled down Mission and chose Dusit Thai for food she can’t enjoy on a regular basis.
We both love the taste of curry and while I enjoy the heat, my friend doesn’t so the waiter suggested the red curry. We chose that dish and added an eggplant with fried basil leaves, rice and a glass each of Fume Blanc wine.
Simple Thai food that one can find in any Thai joint in the City. The vegetables were fresh, the flavors popped and we practically licked our plates! I can and do travel to the Tenderloin for the hottest, most authentic Thai in town and you know, I don’t always have to be a «foodie».
I will go back for the pleasant service, the fresh food and vivid flavors. So I didn’t get the heat, there are other pleasures in life.

What a bummer. Decided to ignore Unilocal reviews about the bland curry, since I tend to disagree with a lot of Unilocalers and the neighboring Pad Thai restaurant was closed.
Got the red curry with chicken and spring rolls for take-​out. Curry had fresh ingredients, but the sauce was extremely thin and tasted more like water than anything else. Not just bland, or watery in texture, but like actual WATER. Never had such tasteless Thai food. I even tried to spruce it up with some coconut milk and curry paste I cooked up because I hate wasting food (and money… and appetites), but it couldn’t be saved.
Spring rolls were okay but quite bland also. Though of course it doesn’t take much to make fried food taste alright.
Let’s hope it’s as nondescript coming out as it was going in.

I met a client here for lunch today and I’m very glad I did!
I ordered the Orchid Duck and it was amazing!
Good job, Dusit Thai!

Reason I was here: Cos I was at the next door bar and drank like noone’s business with an empty stomache and could not drive.
I had a craving for rice and spice. So we ordered Pad Thai and Fried Rice. The waiter asked me how spicey I would like for my fried rice to be, I said ‘try me!’.
Okaaaayyyy, that was the spiciest fried rice i ever had. It was bombastically spicey but good! The Pad Thai to me was amazing, the best one I had in the city so far.
I had the fried rice for breakfast the next morning, I was shocked to see how much Thai chillies they put in the fried rice!
I will definitely come back cos they took my order spiceyly right!

This was my first visit here. It was a quiet night with few customers.
The atmosphere was simple and pleasant. The waiter was polite and expedient.
I ordered a duck in peanut sauce which was delicious. The food was exceptionally fresh and flavorful. The peanut sauce was much better than most I’ve had and yes they have brown rice. Who eats white rice anymore anyway? Next time I will see if they can make the same meal with different meat, as duck, while well prepared, is still a bit fatty for my taste. I was told that I could exchange the meat in this dish. Yum.

I had high hopes for Dusit Thai, because it’s spelled very similarly to my own name. Yes, I understand that this is a dumb reason to choose a restaurant.
The food was VERY different from other Thai places. To me the differences were not improvements, but maybe you’ll disagree.
We ordered the following:
Fried Sweet Potatoes: could have used some salt, but it’s hard to screw up fried starch.
Pad Se Ew w/​Chicken: it tasted a little fishy (literally, like fish) which was strange. The chicken was a combination of white and dark meat chicken, which was not pleasant. I’m just not a fan of the dirty dark meat.
Pad Thai w/​Chicken: this was pretty decent, except for the dark meat chicken, again.
Pra Rama Kai: this was the most unusual dish. The peanut sauce was very dark — like a purple color. It didn’t taste bad, but it didn’t taste like the peanut sauce that I traditionally find in Thai places.
Mango Sticky Rice: i don’t like mango sticky rice, so I’m not much help here, but my partner seemed to think it was pretty ordinary.
In summary, Dusit Thai will likely be a favorite in the niche market of dark-​meat lovers that likeThai food that doesn’t taste like typical Thai food.

Very, very good. Fast and quite tasty. I had the green seafood curry with a side of rice. The curry was seasoned very well and flavored to perfection. It was a touch spicier than green curries I had at other Thai restaurants, but I like a little spice, so I am not complaiing about that. The restaurant has a beautiful, spacious interior and service was good and quick. I’m in the area a lot, so I will probably go back after visiting Pad Thai a few doors down to see how their green curry compares.

This place was horrible. We got Pad Kee Mao and Kai Green Beens for take out the other night. Both dishes had chicken and both used every part of the chicken that you would normally cut off and throw away while cooking. It was so gross that we ended up picking out all of the chicken and just eating noodles and green beans. Also, the Pad Kee Mao, which is traditionally served very spicy, came with a little cup of spicy sauce on the side. While someone who doesn’t like spicy food might appreciate this gesture (though why are you ordering Pad Kee Mao then?), it made the noodles bland and not very flavorful. Adding spicy sauce on top of a dish is *not* the same as cooking with it. The Pad Kee Mao in general looked very sad and not very appetizing. The Kai Green Beans would’ve made a decent meal if the chicken wasn’t so bad.
Do yourself a favor and go to Pad Thai down the block instead.

I would highly recommend Dusit Thai Restaurant, even for non-​Bernal Heights residents. The wonderful food and service is a big cut above the average Thai restaurant. It’s not the Thai equivalent of Slanted Door (Vietnamese), but with the right marketing and presentation it could be.
Dusit Thai is another neighborhood gem in Bernal Heights.
The servers are extremely attentive, friendly and sweet. I just want to hug them, they’re so awesome. It would be pretty weird to ask your waiter for a hug after the meal don’t you think? In fact I can’t think of any other time I’ve wanted to hug my waiter, but I do here.
There are many Thai restaurants in San Francisco and this place is one of my 3 favs. If you are fans of Khan Toke or Thep Phanom you will enjoy the high-​quality food here too.
My favorite dishes (don’t know Thai names):
1) fried shrimp and basil leaf appetizer
2) stuffed chicken wing appetizer
3) anything LAMB
4) BBQ pork
5) anything eggplant
Notes: The homemade chili sauce is excellent and VERY hot. And they have brown rice!
Most dishes are gems, but only a few are just average. That said, I have not deducted any stars because everything else is just so good.
Even if I didn’t live in the neighborhood I would drive here, the food and service is that good. My «foodie» family loved it here too.

Oof, nothing is more demoralizing than fantasizing about Thai food and American Idol after a heard day’s work, and then realizing it’s Wednesday and Pad Thai is closed. I had heard good things about Dusit probably 8 years ago, so I went for it. Oh man, I wish I could take it back. Bland doesn’t begin to capture it. The pad thai was inexcusable — worse than bland, it tasted vaguely chemical. I love a spicy beef salad, and theirs was completely devoid of spice, accompanied by a watered down sweet soy vinaigrette, and the beef was mealy.
It gets one star for speedy delivery and I guess for being open, although I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

The worst Thai food I have had in SF. I used to order in from Dusit about 4 years ago, and then it was reliable and consistent.
This time I ate in with a group, the restaurant wasn’t busy, and everything was watery and bland. Horrible pad thai, the green curry beef was beyond boring, the papaya salad was overly sweet, the eggplant with black bean sauce was a pale attempt at the dish, and the BBQ pork was tasty but so loaded with MSG that I had to go home and take an advil.
Blah!

Called a very nearby competitor only to be told that they didn’t know where I lived to deliver the food, but that the guy who did would be back in 45 minutes.
We called Dusit Thai instead. Solid food, quick delivery, and best of all, prompt courteous service on the phone. If you want somtum delivered to your door, Dusit Thai is no-​nonsense making it happen.

Dusit has been a very reliable delivery source. I’ve ordered at least 5 times by this point and they have always been kind on the phone, accurate in their estimation of time and most importantly the food is still hot and steaming upon arrival. I especially like that their signature Chicken Nuggets /​Fried Eggplant (both fried then sautéed in that killer sweet spicy thai sauce with crisped basil leaves) dishes arrive with in normal take out paper boxes but with open tops covered by a floppy plastic baggy to keep it hot and crispy. Nice touch.
The noodles are hit or miss and on average not my favorite but thats ok because most of the entrees with meat, or just the veggies with sauce are so solid. Fried rice is also very hearty and a good portion.
The pinnacle here actually is their freshly made hot sauce. I’m a thai vinegar pickle addict and here they use farmers market chilies and the perfect mix of vinegar and sugar for the brine. I’m not sure the chili type but they taste similar to scotch bonnets. Any self respecting thai delivery fan should have Sriracha in their damn fridge anyway. Getting some «special sauce» delivered always makes me happy.
Worthy, reasonably priced thai the Miss/​Bern area. Can’t attest to the inside as I have yet to dine-​in at the Resto.

I had their red chicken curry and thought it was a bit bland. Did they water it down with half and half?
The Tom Yum Ga was a bit on the sweet side and it was not a spicy tangy broth that I’m used to having. There wasn’t a distinct flavor of lemon grass, galangal, or kaffir lime leave that is so typical of this soup. The chicken was dry but the mushrooms were okay.
The mangoes and sticky rice had a nice flavor (yum, panda, coconut milk, and sugar) but the coconut milk was dry. The mangoes were fresh and sweet and the mung beans were a nice touch. The whole meal was about $ 30, which is okay but the quality of the food was less than okay. I won’t be going back.

Dusit did not du it for me.
Still on the search for good Thai delivery in the Mission that is a little cheaper than Osha, I did a little recon on Unilocal.So I can’t say I wasn’t warned, but I do think that I did go in to this with well managed expectations. (I’ve quoted before and I’ll quote again: «the key to happiness is expectation management»)
So we ordered a Pad Kee Mao and a Pad See Ew. They looked almost identical, but we were able to tell them apart because one was tofu and one was chicken. Otherwise, they were a pale pile of wide noodles with a little light brown liquid underneath. There were identical clumps of egg, some veggies… Unlike most places, they included the vinegar with chilies that I love without us asking. But maybe it’s because they know their noodles taste like nothing?
The food was decently well priced, succeeded in moving me from hungry to not hungry, and arrived in a reasonable amount of time while retaining a reasonable amount of heat. If your expectations are simply to satisfy hunger in an economical and efficient manner, you will not be disappointed.
If you have expectations of satisfying tastebuds or enjoyment, you may want to adjust your expectations.

Good but not great.
Warm (delivery) but not hot.
Affordable but not cheap.
To sum up: they didn’t mess anything up, but they didn’t do anything to impress me, either.

Solid performance from Dusit Thai.
Awesome pan-​fried noodles but even better fried eggplant — seriously, try it. Light and fluffy with a hint of sweetness and topped with crispy basil leaves. The one let-​down that would not be a big deal for most — the green papaya salad was only so-​so, a little limp and not as zesty as one would hope for.
Overall: lovely, reasonably priced, clean, relaxed. What one would expect from a decent Thai joint — no disappointments.

Been here twice and looking forward to the next visit!
Pros:
–I love, love the Dusit noodles: slightly sweet, but mostly deliciously savory
–Quick service
–Large portions: each noodle dish is easily two meals, and trust me I eat a lot of freakin noodles in one sitting
–For Thai food, it’s pretty inexpensive: noodle dishes
–Eaten here til closing twice before and I never felt rushed to finish my meal
–Beautifully decorated
Cons:
–I can take A LOT of heat, but holy moly «Thai hot» is F-​ing hot! It was just too damn painful… and hilarious at the same time.
Bottom Line: I still crave their noodles. Like right now.

My last week in the Mission, so I’m hitting a few places south of César Chavez before I leave.
My friend and I ordered the green curry and the deep-​fried eggplant. Curry was a little too mild (or bland, depending on POV), though vegetables tasted fresh. Eggplant with chili and basil was out-​of-​the-​park good — just the right amount of tangy, savory, and sweet.
My two cents on the «authentic» discourse: the menu is actually pretty extensive and has items I haven’t seen at many restaurants. So the interestingness factor I’d have to say works in its favor. Also in its favor are good prices and friendly service.
In conclusion, Dusit Thai is a cut above the average Thai restaurant.

This is a prime example of the kind of bland Americanized Thai food that passes among people that don’t know any better. I’ve traveled extensively in Thailand and know what I’m talking about. There’s a much better place on the same block called Pad Thai that will rock your world. There are several Thai Places in the Mission and Dusit Thai is the worst. If you are in the Mission on a Wednesday, when Pad Thai is closed, don’t settle for Dusit Thai. There’s a much better place on 24^th between South Vann Ness and Folsom called Chili Lemon Garlic, it’s not as good as Pad Thai but much better than Dusit Thai.
The only reason I can figure out about the people on here that like Dusit Thai better than Pad Thai is that they must not like authentic Thai food.