Malai Thai Restaurant

Goodbye, Malai Thai. My neighborhood is changing, my favorite places closing everywhere. I was very sad to find this wonderful, laid back place out of business tonight. This is a loss for the neighborhood. So many years I’d been going there and I didn’t even get to say goodbye to them. So I’ll say it here: Thank you for all the nice meals and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do next.

I got one of the coconut soups and it was so over-​sweetened I could not finish it, which is unusual for me – I’ll usually finish anything in front of me. I hope the other dishes are better but I wont be going back. The service, however, was very good.

Best Tom Yum Soup I’ve had. Tomato based broth with huge flavor and spice. All of the food was very fresh and clean tasting. Cucumber salad was perfect for a starter. Oak Gai Ka Tiem packed a lot of taste. Service was on queue with every course.

Very Good service. Nice people. The food comes out fast. The Thai ice tea is to die for

The only place I have ever found a Yam Curry… and it is delicious! If you like Thai, you will love this small intimate place. For a sweet tooth and a love of curry — can’t beat the yam!

Gets 1 star for the ambiance. But everything else was a big, fat, soggy disappointment, much like the food.
I ordered pad thai with beef, chicken, and pork. What I got was a big plate of it covered in slime. It appeared that they stir fried the egg in it but not all the way. The tofu was soft and to be honest, this dish did not look like pad thai at all.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt anyway and took a few bites. Bland. I bit a piece of beef and it was a little sour. I thought, maybe they seasoned it in lemon or something. I tried another bite and it was worse.
When I complained to the waiter, he said it was probably the pepper that I mixed in it. If that were the case, the chicken would have tasted the same way. The beef definitely smelled and tasted spoiled. The waiter still charged me $ 12.50. I paid because I did not want to cause a scene (I was the only one in there at the time). This was probably one of the worse thai food experiences that I’ve ever had. And I’ve eaten at a a roach infested thai restaurant in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. That is saying a lot.

Yum! Best Thai food I’ve had in this city. They actually make things spicy. The curry had a delicious lemongrass flavor and was fantastic. It was a ton of food at a great price, and delivered fast and hot.
Osha is good for California-​style Thai but for something more authentic this is really delicious and to me perfect.
I wish they would open earlier!

I actually really enjoyed my grilled chicken and shrimp skewer with chili-​lime sauce that had an authentic spicy mouth-​feel that I was raised on growing up. My boyfriend’s yellow coconut curry was also really tasty, the base was rich and had a lots of depth in flavor.
We left completely satisfied.

*Comfortable and unpretentious
*Tasty food
*Generous portions
*Great service
We went with friends on a weeknight and it wasn’t too crowded but wasn’t empty either, perfect: we could actually have a conversation and hear each other. All the dishes we ordered were excellent: seafood appetizer, duck (both curry and spinach) fish, and pumpkin curry.

This is a SOLID, SOLID Thai place. Friends and I eat here every few weeks, at which time I consistently say, «I could eat here every week». We literally have not had a bad dish. The grilled salmon is awesome. Pumpkin curry amazing. And on and on. Solid every single time.
It’s not the hip décor other places have. They seem to do more takeout than dine-​in. But I would encourage everyone who likes Thai to give it a shot. And the prices are AWESOME! When we go, there are 5 of us and we order a bunch of dishes to share… and each get out for $ 20. Killer!

Their pad thai was really BAD thai.
I’m sure other things are better but this lone star is for the one thing I tried. Skip this one though unless you like to spend $ 10 for mushy noodles with an offensive old tasting shrimp (both of the 2 you get). really disappointing.
So the veggies were good, but I didn’t order pad veggies. I was craving pad thai. Gave ½ of it to the homeless guy around the block. I apologized to him in advance.
Off my list.

I was very disappointed by this place.
I felt like the green curry was missing a lot of key ingredients (e.g. bamboo shoots).

Elevated window seats? Yes please!
My friend and I came in here one cold rainy night and wanted some soup. We were immediately greeted by a kind lady who sat us right in the front. As we sat down we noticed something odd… we were the only ones! I mean it was 7 o clock and there should have been more people there. Kinda eery but that’s okay, we watched the rain fall.
The food was just great! We both got a soup to start and they both were perfectly seasoned and spiced! Although I can’t remember the names of them they were delicious. My friend got a beef dish while I got a chicken and they were great! We ended up switching plates because the beef was fantastic in my opinion.
The food was great and the server left us alone as we liked. It was great!

Malai Thai, as far as food goes, is a slightly upscale version of your typical Bay Area Thai place. I usually think of Thai places as being holes in the wall, but this one is a tad nicer. there are two tables with a nice view of 16^th st (great if you’re a people watcher), and the vibe is a bit more polished.
The food, however, is pretty standard. I was a bit disappointed by their view of «spicy» (it’s not), and the food didn’t come out super quickly considering we were the only people at the restaurant. I guess they had a lot of take-​out business? Anyway, the food was good, I’ll just tell them to up the spicy factor a bit more whenever I make it back next.

My companion and I came to this place with high hopes as a coworker highly recommended this place for its food. This is located in the Mission District where parking is limited, especially on Friday or Saturday nights, so beware. Getting of at the 16^th Street BART station, riding MUNI, taking a taxi cab, or getting dropped off at this place are your better options to get here, especially on Friday or Saturday nights when the Mission is packed in general.
We ordered a boneless chicken dish that came to us with bones in them. Although their pumpkin curry, Pad See Ew, and some Jasmine rice, which were nice dishes, though they made a mistake with our first entrée when yellow curry arrived instead. The food mishaps that we experienced weighed heavily on us as we expected at least a step up from other Thai food places. However, when they finally got our order correct, the food tastes good and decent, just like most Thai restaurants in general.
Overall, the ambiance and feel of the restaurant is nice, though the food and service is what needs improvement. I would eat here again if they do not mess up my order, as the food is good when it’s what you ordered, and their servers are courteous and friendly, even after we spotted the bones and wrong curry.

First restaurant review for San Francisco. YAY!
My friends and I were craving Thai food and spotted Malai Thai. Usually, I Unilocal before dining but we were too starved. So what did I do? I resorted to the tried and true, Phad Thai. This is my first restaurant in SF and I’ve got to say, «Not bad!» In Seattle, the noodles aren’t as sweet but I can definitely tell the difference. One key reminder, «Up your spice level by 2 notches!» I ordered a ⁷⁄₁₀ spice and it tastes like a 4. This is coming from a Unilocaler that doesn’t have much tolerance for spicy foods. So do yourself a favor and make it hot. You can balance it out with the freakin’ awesome cucumber water. I’ve never tried cucumber water before but it’s become my new favorite type of water. What better way to ensure a proper veggie intake than combining it w/​water?
Overall, I like the ambiance and décor. It’s quiet, the service is super friendly, and the food is decent. I can’t omit that it sounds like they play music belonging to all of East Asia. Such a wide audience.

We stumbled upon this place drunk and with the intention of going to the tapas place across the street. I’m very happy that the place across the street was too busy to seat us because this place was pretty good! We ordered:
Prawns and bamboo — this was pretty spicy but I really enjoyed the sauce and the bamboo in the dish.
Eggplant and basil — this is the typical eggplant and basil curry dish. We ended up bringing most of this home because the prawns and bamboo came out first and we were full after one dish (i.e. shared between two people).
I was worried that I just thought this place was really good because I was drunk but the eggplant and basil dish was excellent even the next day when I was eating it sober!
I highly recommend this place!!!

I won’t give this place one star because people will think I’m being hateful; who takes one-​star reviews seriously these days? Too vindictive…
But hey, Malai Thai was honestly really bad, and the only authentic portion of the meal was the cockroach which crawled up the wall next to our table.
The fresh spring roll was sloppily put together and the sauce too sweet. I felt the tom kha gai was decent, but my fiancée felt there was too much lime. We both ordered noodle dishes, and despite being extremely hungry, we could do no more than eat the vegetables from our pad thai and pad see ew. The sauce was heavy, thick and super sweet.
We understand this is «americanized» Thai, but last Friday night it couldn’t even pass for that.
The service wasn’t stellar either. We had to go up to the counter to get our check, and then wait for someone to acknowledge us.
It’s bad when the best part of your Thai meal is a bottled root beer, but that was our experience.
Dine at your own risk!

My girlfriend lives literally around the corner from this joint, but we hadn’t really eaten here much. Finally, one nite last week, we were pondering various eating-​out strategies, and eventually decided to get some Thai food.
Of all the asian varieties, Thai is probably my fave, given the spice combinations and so on. So, I readily agreed.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the to go menu at her place, so it necessitated a walk around the corner – which was fine. I like going in there, because the ambiance of the establishment is so pleasant – nice dim lights, soft music, etc.
We decided to get the food to go anyway, since we wanted to get cozy with a good movie while chowing.
So, we ordered an appetizer (garlic spinach), some brown rice and a red curry chicken entrée to share.
After a short wait, our food was served up quite pleasantly by one of the nice servers, and we departed, anxious to divvy up the spoils, and crank up the evening’s entertainment.
We began to unpack and serve out the grub, but discovered they gave us an entirely wrong entrée! Aaargh! Chcken with a peanut sauce (and more spinach!). NOOOO!
I HATE PEANUT SAUCE. No, really. It’s a deal breaker. Makes me a tad queasy, even. Bleh!
Soooo, my girl called, explained the problem, and they said to come back for the correct dish. We could dispose of the other dish if we liked.
NICE.
So, I went back, acquired the correct dish, and they were extremely apologetic. I in turn, thanked them for being understanding.
So, back around the corner I went, and we then split the food as planned, and enjoyed a nice movie via Netflix online (that’s another review for another time). It was all quite tasty. I LOVE red curry, and this dish has it combined with squash and zucchini. Sooo good. Yum!
My girl ended up eating the peanut dish for lunch the following day, so it all worked out.

Big portions, affordable prices, and if you get the right dishes — delicious food.
I was craving Osha Thai the other day — but my dining partner decided to switch it up with Malai Thai.
A good call, because our bill was probably half the price — had we eaten at Osha, and it was exciting to try some new Thai dishes, such as Malai’s yellow coconut curry with yams, their deep fried tofu, and their sea bass.
If you’re looking to eat somewhere new in the Mission and are finding most places too busy to get a reservation — try Malai. They’re never too busy, and if you study up the Unilocal reviews carefully — you can settle on some exceptional dishes for exceptional prices.