Ruan Thai Restaurant

This place is my usual go to Thai place because of the convenience but it still has its flaws. I usual call for a carry out and order their drunken noodles during their lunch specials. Its $ 9 for the selected entrees and then either a fried egg roll or soup.
They say the order will be ready in 15 minutes but I ended up waiting 30 minutes there. They have even shorten the portion of food they give during the lunch special.
I like supporting small establishments so I will probably be back but hopefully the next time I come back I’ll have a better experience.
*** Beware of the limited parking in the area. Tolling is enforced

Ruan Thai has great food; especially curry! Unfortunately, the take-​out portions are significantly smaller than what you get when you dine-​in. Even when you eat there, the amount of leftovers they put in the container seems much smaller than what they take away from the table.

Compared to some other nearby Thai places, this one looks like a hole in the wall. I honestly think their food is better than the nicer establishments. They have my favorite chicken pad Thai in the whole Wheaton/​Silver Spring area. The curry puffs, spring rolls, dumplings, and thai ice tea are great too.

If you’re anywhere within a 10 – 15 mins drive from Wheaton, you should go eat here. At least once to try it out.
Why would you venture out to a place where the parking is kind of hard to find during busy times? Seriously, it’s kind of a Russian Roulette because you never know what you’re going to get when you go there.
Well, simply because the food is delicious! I have been here twice and I have enjoyed everything that we ordered. I agree with other people in that you should order Pad Prik Khing and the Kee Mao, Yum Watercress, and Ped Pad Kha Prao. The meats are all really juicy and there is a good balance of flavors in their dishes. Service is slow during busy times, but the waiters come around more often when it’s not busy. So I recommend that you visit this place during lunchtime with a small group and try some of the dishes that your fellow Unilocalers have suggested.
Tip: If you do find yourself stuck in the parking lot wondering how to maneuver your way around, you can opt for street parking across the street. We easily parked 3 minutes away during a busy dinner time. Just make sure you don’t park at the shop next to the restaurant.

Ruan Thai is delicious and the best Thai food in the area. Pad thai, curi, and the chicken are all great choices. I eat here a lot and recommend it to everyone.

I love spicy Thai food. And I love the way they do it here at Ruan Thai, especially the green curry and the Panang curry. The only thing I do not like about Ruan Thai is that, like so many other Thai restaurants, they do not open until 11:30, and I usually have my lunch at 11 am; and in that half-​hour there are other good places in the Wheaton area that I don’t need to wait to go to. So I don’t get here as often as I like. But I did again this morning — I’d had things to do so it was after 11:30 that I got to the Wheaton area.
Everything I’ve said before about Ruan Thai still holds. I had the green curry, and while the first exposure that I had to this dish was at a restaurant that only served it in chicken, the lunch special at Ruan Thai allows you to have it in beef, pork, or tofu instead, (Even shrimp, but you pay a bit extra.) As usual, I enjoyed it immensely.
If you like spicy food, and you are willing to wait until after 11:30 am (and I’m sure a lot of you don’t eat lunch till noon, so that’s no problem!) come to Ruan Thai and order the $ 8.95 lunch special. You get a small bowl of chicken lemongrass soup or a spring roll (I’ve never had the spring roll; the soup is so good!) and a main course (I recommend the green curry or the Panang curry, but there are lots of choices).

While we usually are satisfied with the food here, Ruan Thai messed up our order tonight. They provided us with inedible Pad Thai in lieu of our order. They also promised a 20 minute wait for carry out, but instead it took almost an hour. There were other frustrated customers waiting for the food as well. The customer service was poor. When calling to complain, I was told that Pad Thai «sounds like» other dishes. With so many great competitors close by (such as Nava Thai and Thai Taste), we’ll be taking our business elsewhere.

Nothing fancy, just amazing food!
I have to resist the urge to have lunch there every day!
Not much more to be said, except the service is excellent too, and the place is comfortable. There is practically no parking in the front, but you can spring for 50c and pay at a meter on Amherst, no big deal.

I first ate at Ruan Thai in 2001. I’d just started grad school in College Park and was craving some Thai food one weekend shortly after moving up here from Atlanta. Back then the internet was smaller, but consulting Zagats and Mapquest led me to Ruan Thai. I loved, and have been going there for nearly 16 years now. For a while it seemed to be a bit of a local secret, but in recent years both its reputation and dining room have expanded. Sadly, the last few times I’ve been, I feel like the place seems to have started resting on their laurels and established popularity. The service has been a mix of indifferent at times and friendly at others, but in both cases it has been haphazzard. Waiting ten minutes after being seated for someone to simply take your drink order is not uncommon, and once your meal arrives, good luck seeing your server again. Sadly, recent meals have also been disappointing. A recent order of Ped Pad Kha Prao featured huge chunks of deep fried duck that had been far overcooked to the point of being dry, tough, and flavorless. All I could think when eating it was, «Why deep fry duck?» It’s already a rich meat, it doesn’t need anymore flavors of fat or sodium. Why not just slice smaller chunks and stir fry the meat? The menu even says it’s supposed to be stir-​fried and DOES NOT suggest it is going to be deep fried. The same issues came up with an order of pork belly and Chinese broccoli. The pork belly came it huge slabs that had been deep fried far too long and had the texture of leather with little flavor other than fat, salt, and deep fryer oil. Why not cut smaller chunks of pork belly and sear it well in a wok, giving it some nice smoky notes, and then toss in the broccoli? That would be tasty, but what I got was awful. Seriously Ruan, why are you deep frying golf-​ball sized chunks of pork belly? There are far better ways to incorporate such a rich and fatty ingredient. Leaving aside the inedible pork belly the dish was just bland. A recent order of their steak was overcooked, chewy as leather, and also fairly bland as were the pork on bamboo skewers, and somehow they manage to turn out an unpleasant version of Drunken Noodles. Yes, there are still gems to be found here — the charcoal pork, BBQ chicken, and duck red curry are usually can’t miss items, the Yum Watercress is still perfection on a plate, and their Pad Thai is still one of the best in the area, but as a whole, I feel like this place has really dropped a notch or two in recent years. The menu is smaller and the prices higher. Whatever happened to the tasty clay pot bean noodle dishes they used to have? Those were delicious! When did so much of the menu become devoted to «meat and veggie in brown sauce» type dishes? DC has seen a recent, albeit small, rise in more adventurous and «authentic» Thai places, and Ruan’s recent offerings have seemed uneven in quality and the menu increasingly looks stuck about a decade in the past. Throw in increasingly poor service and the result is that my decade-​plus fondness for this Thai institution has sadly dropped to the point where I really struggled over whether to give this a two or three star rating and largely due to the increasingly bad service felt that it really has fallen to two stars in my book.

Living in DC Metro area, we have tons of options for Thai Food. In the Silver Spring area I would say this is the best. I don’t know if I would make a special trip from VA or DC for Ruan’s, but if you are in the area and in the mood for a Thai, I would recommend it. Everything taste pretty good /​service is slightly below average. I been here hand full of times and I have never known the staff to be very helpful so maybe not the best place for those with complex dietary restrictions.

Food was ok, don’t get me wrong. But the real reason why this place gets 1 star is because the service was really bad. Took a while to get our food, took a while to refill our waters, AND after we paid our bill and tipped, the waitress ran out as we walked out the door, and asked for more tip. WHAT KIND OF SERVER DOES THAT?! ARE YOU BEGGING FOR MORE FOR BAD SERVICE?
Mind you, we tipped the waitress 15%, bare minimum because of the bad service. She has the nerve to come out and run after us and approach us saying no, you need to tip more. She did the math wrong, but I gave her an extra $ 5 so she can stop bothering us.
Hope this has changed since the incident 3 year ago.

If you don’t care much about Ambiance, just go there for good food. Spice levels are apt as per listed and everything was really well cooked. Worth visiting again but this time for take-​out.

First of all, let me just say that I came here a few months back and the food was meh! I really wanted to give them a second try so I came here to catch an early dinner at 5 pm before the rush. There were only three parties in the entire restaurant, mine included and it took over 20 minutes to get our appetizer. We ordered the Yum watercress dish and it was good, but too much vinger. Our dinner took another 20 — 30 minutes to arrive! I was so hangry by that point, I wanted to leave. My husband ordered the pad Thai and I got one of the curry dish.
Overall, service was terribly slow for a slow night and the food was just okay. I would not go back.

Absolutely amazing Thai food! This is the only place that my wife (Thai) says that truly takes her back to being at home. The owner is awesome and extremely friendly. The food selection is terrific, very authentic and extremely delicious; and no, not everything has to be «authentically spicy», they are willing to adjust it for those of us that aren’t from Thailand, haha. We’ve been there a number of times and it’s always great.
Get there EARLY! Even though they’ve expanded the place, it still get extremely busy so come hungry and come early! The ONLY downside, parking sucks; park across the street.
We will definitely keep coming back! Keep up the great work guys!

If you’re looking for scrumptious Thai food and friendly service, then Ruan Thai is the place to be! Upon entering the restaurant, my family and I were seated almost immediately. Surprisingly, the restaurant was not as crowded as I would have expected for a Friday night. As starters, we ordered the curry puffs and Yum Watercress. The curry puff was just *meh* to me. It was on the sweeter side, and I didn’t taste any chicken in my puff. However, I really enjoyed the Yum Watercress! The fried watercress was accompanied with shrimp and squid in a lime dressing. As delicious as the Yum Watercress was, I feel that the dish was a bit over-​saturated with dressing. Next time I order Yum Watercress, I will probably ask for the dressing on the side.
My family and I ordered the crab fried rice, country curry with beef, and fried mussels as our main dishes. Holy smokes… the crab fried rice at Ruan Thai was money! The country curry with beef came with various vegetables– eggplant, baby corn, and string beans, to name a few. We asked for only one chilli pepper on the spice meter, as opposed to the three chilli peppers it usually comes with. One chilli pepper was the perfect amount of spice for me; hot enough to get a kick, but not so spicy that I couldn’t enjoy the dish. The fried mussels sat on top of a bed of stir-​fried bean sprouts and came with a spicy sauce. It was delicious, but got a little heavy after the first few bites.
I appreciate the generous portions they serve at Ruan Thai and feel that I am definitely getting the most bang for my buck there. By the time we were getting ready to leave (at about quarter to nine), the restaurant was packed! I’m looking forward to dining at Ruan Thai again in the near future.

I’ve been coming to this restaurant since I was in middle school. I’ve tried just about every Thai place in the area and this one has always been our family’s favorite. It used to be the size of a large closet back in the day but they expanded to have the space next door and now can accommodate much more. The food is always good and as authentic as you can get in the area. Their green curry is awesome. I get it every time but have also tried most things on their menu too. Everything is good. It used to be much cheaper back in the day but now that everyone loves Thai food these days they marked up. Their prices are still very decent. Definitely recommend. Can’t speak much about service and management practices but after reading some negative reviews, even if I did have those experiences I can’t say that it would stop me from coming here because the food is worth it.

The atmosphere is great for you, your mom, or your date. Liked the dinning area, restroom is nice and clean, too. 4*
There is a city garages that is free on the sat and sun.
It is a cold day and I ordered Tom Kha Soup. It smells really good with coconut cream on top unstirred. Mushroom and chicken white meat unveil when I stir. I miss the lemongrass flavor in there and the mushroom still have a can taste. The soup could use some balancing on amount of lime. 3.5*
They charge $ 1.5 for a bowl of rice.

I’ve been sitting on this review for a few days. Finally I determined that I will give this place a 3 star review for the following reasons:
1. The Restaurant did not give full disclosure that there was a credit card minimum for large parties. There was 14 people at our party, and they would only allow four credit cards to be used.
2. Service was okay — little hit and a little miss.
3. The Yum Watercress and Pineapple fried rice with beef were both tasty. I really liked them. The other dishes that were shared among the table were only okay to me or things that I would not order. There where several spicy dishes and I do not have and huge threshold for spicy cuisine.
4. The overall atmosphere of the restaurant was nice. I did think it was a little weird that in the bathroom above the baby changing station that they made it look like a kids bedroom. It’s like as if the bathroom was to be a restaurant bathroom and the other has to be a kids bathroom with stickers on the wall. That just put me off a little bit for some reason. I get why they had it, but like I said I felt it looked tacky and cheapened the décor.
5. PARKING is extremely limited in this area. Unless you get here after 6pm, good luck on finding a space. Youll also have to pay for parking before 6. The parking lot is also limited for parking.
Would I return? Doubtful. It is way far away from where I live, and I have better Thai places I’d rather spend my money at.

WOW! I was so excited to check out Ruan Thai Restaurant as I’ve never been there before, and what better way to try a new restaurant while celebrating Mike B.‘s cumpleanos!!! :D We had a large group that was seated in the back, and the staff were oh-​so-​friendly and quite attentive to our party: D The menu was quite extensive, offering appetizers (skewers, dumplings, fried tofu skin, etc.), soup, salads, stir-​fry entrees, duck/​chicken/​pork/​beef/​seafood entrees, curry, rice & noodle dishes, and vegetarian options. We started off with some Thai Iced Tea and some appetizers: Curry Puffs (comes with 2; stuffed with potato and chicken, served with a cucumber salad; these were just okay, as they were quite starchy and tasted like they had taro in it), Larb (minced chicken, beef, or pork, we got 1 one of each; the meats were tossed with cilantro, red onion, scallion, topped with roasted rice powder, and covered in a lime dressing; I wished there were lettuce or butter lettuce cups to eat these as wraps), and, Yum Watercress (deep-​fried watercress, battered shrimp and squid, red onions, shallot, cashew, all in a lime dressing; OMG, this was literally one of the best things I’ve tried that night — the dish had lovely battered watercress (kind of in a clump, so just spread it apart), had little fried shrimp and squid pieces, and raw onions and shallots, whole cashew nuts, all covered in this tangy/​refreshing lime dressing — it was light and delicious!). For entrees, each person ordered a dish, and we sampled it all, family-​style: Pad Khao Prao (choice of meat (beef) in hot chili, bell peppers, and basil leaves — this was pretty spicy, and the sauce was a little too watery for my taste); Ped Pad Kha Prao (stir-​fried boneless duck with hot chili and fresh basil leaves — another favorite of the night! The duck was so tender and juicy, and the sauce was amazingly savory and thick and yummy — could have eaten 5 of these!); Mooh Cook Foon (grilled charcoal pork served with a Thai spicy sauce; another favorite of the night! This had a lovely bbq-​charcoal-​y taste, and the sauce isn’t even needed!); Ped Tod Kob (fried crispy duck with house special brown sauce on the side; the duck was a little dry, even for my liking, and I didn’t feel as if the brown sauce complemented it well); Kao Pad (fried rice with chicken, egg, onion, tomato, and scallions; this was your typical Thai fried rice); Scallop Pad Thai, Chicken Pad See Ewe (they ran out of the wide rice noodles, so they had to substitute it with the thin rice noodles; I thought the noodle dishes could have been more al dente and have a little bit more sauce! I did appreciate in them using Chinese broccoli — mmm!); Chicken Kee Mao (aka Drunken Noodles); Pad Ma Keau (stir-​fried eggplant sauteed with chili paste); Chicken Panang (it was extremely watery, so I wasn’t a fan); and, I believe, How Mok Talay (which was a baked seafood combination (in a clay platter) in red curry sauce and coconut milk; the seafood was succulent, and the sauce was creamy and had a nice kick to it). Overall, I definitely had favorite dishes of the night, and we all left stuffed — definitely a lovely fun night!!! I would love to come back and try out their Deep Fried Whole Flounder, as well as their other house specialties! :D
+Yum Watercress (!!!) — believe the hype: D
+Ped Pad Kha Prao (!!!)
+Mooh Cook Foon (!!!)
+How Mok Talay (?) (!!!)
+friendly and attentive staff: D
+metered-​parking up along Amherst (free after 6PM!)
+4-​credit card maximum (in splitting the bill)

Cozy, serene space with restful pastel walls, a few small framed pieces, and soft lighting. I came for Mike B.‘s «Birfday» UYE and was not disappointed. We went supper club style, passing around a wide selection of dishes.
The Yum Watercress lives up to the hype. Larbs were tender with the appropriate kick. The sleeper hit among entrees was the char broiled pork, smoky and succulent. Not to knock the noodles, curry, duck and seafood; there wasn’t a loser in the bunch. Very warm efficient service for our large, boisterous group.
Four **** plus, but just doesn’t have the audacious brightness of Thai Taste by Kob or the sophisticated complexity of Siri’s Chef Secret.