Thai Spice
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Alcohol: None
34 reviews
Huntington Beach, CA
"I've been coming here for a very, very long time; lived in the area since birth. But in the past 2 weeks, I've been here 3 times. It's…" read more »
20 Reviews for Thai Spice
I got food poisoning from the Pad Thai at this location. It was years ago, but the unpleasant experience is timeless. Never again.
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Favorite place to get Thai tea. Better than Tap Ex, Cha, or Lollicup. Theirs just has this extra spice. No pun intended.
Other yummy dishes: pad see ewe and pad thai
Brother's favorite: curry rice noodle (he swears no one else orders this dish but him so here i am giving out the word on a hidden great dish)
Just because something is considered fast food does not mean it has to be tasteless. But go fig... this place was exactly just that.
For me, pretty bland. I wasn't expecting exotic flavors, but at least a more traditional taste. What I got was a soupy hodge-podge of hastily put together meat and rice.
Do Not Recommend. Sawly.
P.S. For some reason the staff does not see it fit for the restaurant to close before watering/mopping the floors. It looked like a plumbing emergency.
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Let me start off by saying I know the ins and outs of Thai Spice.
1) They're penny-pinchers. Need evidence? Look at the utensils and plates. Plastic and Styrofoam respectively. Secondly, the menus are just pathetic. They're made of paper, and probably cost about $5 to produce. Thirdly, the cooks WILL insist on using a Strofoam container for soups instead of a plastic bowl if you sit outside. Reason behind this is because some people will not return the bowls and therefore are stolen from the adjacent establishments. In order to curtail their losses, Styrofoam is used as a substitute. Understandable, I suppose. Don't go here if you value presentation.
2) Service is generally acceptable. Just don't go during peak hours as the wait time can be prolonged up to 30 minutes at times. From 3-6 it is virtually desolate. Through observation, some of the employees are lazy and unmotivated. However, if you know some one within, you can get discounts(10%), free drinks, and rice.
3) The food is alright. The popular dishes such as Pad Thai are their forte, they claim. The curry usually sits out in heated metal containers the whole day. The cooks do not use gloves when preparing the dishes. The excess rice at the end of the day is used in any dishes involving rice. So it is not fresh, but you would not discern anyhow, unless you read this first. Most of the meals are prepared before hand, so it's quality is diminished as a result of processing. Lastly, the food IS NOT AUTHENTIC Thai recipes. Well, some of them aren't. I am sure any Thai person can confirm that. So don't go off spouting about how you had real Thai food.
USE THESE TIPS:
If you have ANY, however minute or trivial, problems with the meal before you, return it and they will 99.99% of the time make a new one. Even if you made the mistake.
They will return your money at all costs, fuss or no fuss.
Masquerade as a fellow Tustin Market employee and ask for the 10% discount. Depending on the cashier's indifference, they will not ask for identification of any sort.
Ask for free samples of the Thai Tea. Might not be much, but free none the less.
Its a little better then the other Thai spice on Jeffrey. I order the Key Mow Pak and Pad Thai, both vegetarian.
oh me lordi. my sister and i walked over to thai spice to save a few bucks on gas. only took about ten minutes. we were relieved to set foot in the air conditioned restaurant. i ordered the veggie style glass noodles, nasty... my sister ordered her usual shrimp pad thai. i think i was picking off of her plate more than off of my own. this was my second experience at this location and again found the service to be horrible. the 15-yr old cashier should wait a few more years before getting a job. maybe after his voice changes. almost twenty minutes after we received our food some crazy persian guy comes in and starts to vandalize the furniture, screaming bleep this and bleep that, then begins harassing the 5 ft 2 female cook. she had some balls though, pushing a man double her size after he threatens to slit her throat. thank goodness the big mexican guy intervened and calmed her down. never eating here again.
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I really don't know why everyone is hating so hard on this place!
Lets first consider what Thai Spice is : a FAST thai place.. so with that in mind I would have to say I was pretty into it. It wasn't the best thai food Ive ever had but really, what do you expect ? For 6$ and putting into consideration the fact I got my food super fast during lunch hour, i was pretty pleased with my pad thai!
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I really like the House Noodle Soup. But they have a lot of customer service and general common sense issues that need to be sorted out.
1) When you order the noodle soup but then you sit outside, they package it in a to-go styrofoam container, presumably more for their convenience than mine. You know what happens when you cram a bowl full of rice noodles and broth all in a styrofoam tub? The noodles stay lumped in a ball and the broth is BOILING hot.
The area of exposure to cold air is small, so the broth really doesn't cool down much. I wouldn't mind if I really did get it to-go because then I can go home and dump it in a real bowl. They should've told me that it's packed like that. If you eat inside, you get a real disposable plastic bowl.
2) Today, in particular, there were two girls (I say girls because they looked like high-schoolers possibly recruited from nearby Beckman High) covering the serving/ordering/etc. One girl (we'll just call her "Girl") was very busy and was cleaning as though her life depended on it. However, the other one was hiding in the back of the kitchen or something because every time a customer came in, Girl would yell, "CHELLLLLLLE! REGISTERRRRRR!" (Occasionally from across the room.) This happened probably 6 times.
However, Chelle doesn't always emerge so finally, Girl (who would much rather be cleaning) will go behind the register and ring up orders. Consequently, some people (including me) were just standing and waiting, confused. When I was getting ready to leave, Chelle and Girl were talking so loudly in the back of the kitchen together that I could hear them from across the dining area.
3) Once when I came and order my soup, we sat outside. My boyfriend almost completely finished his Daphne's falafel sandwich before my soup (in the dumb styrofoam container) finally "arrived." The server (who also is probably in high school) seemed confused.
Him: "Uh??? Noodle soup???"
Me: "That's what I ordered. Is this the right order?"
Him: "Uhhhh...I dunno." Looks around, as if the answer will be in the potted plants. "Uhhhh... let me check." Goes back inside.
Me: Waiting...waiting...waiting...
Boyfriend: "Let's just open it. It probably is right."
By the way, the server never returned. Oh, and he never gave me a freaking spoon so I ended up walking back inside anyway.
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Mediocre Thai food. I've had a lot better. The food is somewhat lacking in taste and they try to make it up with spiciness. I had the shrimp fried rice which was bland. I had spicy shrimp and rice and it was oil. The fried chicken is too greasy for my taste. Service is fast, but I'll pass. I'd rather just eat at Pho Factory a few doors down.
This place just doesn't cut it for me.
We arrived for dinner around 7pm and that tables were about 70% full with 4-5 people waiting for ToGo orders; for me this was a good sign especially for a Tuesday night.
I'm not a big Thai food eater, my usually dish is chicken satay so this review is of my only Thai dish and my restaurant observations.
First off, I read several reviews saying how fast people get their food; this must be the lunch crowd because dinner took about 15 mins to come out which isn't excessively long but i was expecting it to come out sooner considering it was only satay.
Our food arrives and I open my little container of peanut sauce; it looked very thick; I dipped a piece of chicken into it and broke the surface! liquid poured through the surface, my sauce must have sat in this container for a while because it separated; once mixed it tasted ok but I've had much better tasting and smoother sauce at other places. you get four skewers of chicken which made for a filling dinner, I didn't care for the salad and fried rice that came with the plate.
special note: napkins held behind the counter and you have to ask for them! I accept this setup at mom and pop restaurants but not a place this big.
My Thai "Iced" Tea was warm and tasted a 6 on a scale of 10; overall a 3 for not being cold.
dinner for 2 came out to $26 which i think was expensive for the meal we had.
When trying new Thai restaurants, I tend to stay away from the more authentic dishes and try the common things first - like Pad Thai, Pad See-ew, Sate, or BBQ chicken. If I like it, then I venture out to the more exciting dishes on future visits. I went to this place and decided to order Pad-Thai. I give it one star for getting the spiciness just right and another star for the convenient location, but that's about it.
The portion was small and oily and good GOD! Who charges $4 dollars for Thai Iced Tea? My lunch came out to $12 just for the noodles and the drink! Certainly not an amount to spend at a fast-food chain.
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This is some of the worst Thai food I have ever had. Most of their food sits out on hot trays so its not very fresh if its a slow day.
Unless you are desperate for Thai food I would never recommend going here. There is a better Thai restaurant just 10 min away in Tustin, Thai Specialty 2.
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Paid $12 for not-so-good-and-not-yellow curry, rice and thai tea. I don't get how a fast food thai place charges more than a sit down mom & pop thai place. And their menu display and layout is horrible, how does anybody find anything on that thing?
In short, this place sucks!
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why oh why is there fast food thai. I'm sure when I go to Thailand I'll know why but if it's supposed to be cheaper versions of normal sit down stuff there's something a bit weird, no? The panang was watery, the honey chicken wings were too hot and sticky to be edible, the thai tea oddly resembled a fountain drink, the only thing decent was the pad thai and even then I'd rather go to thai kitchen. My husband always thought if it was the actual ethnics making the food it was be good, but no - not so much here at thai spice. not.so.much."
A pretty good place to fill your Thai cravings. Their Spice-o-Meter is very accurate-- I tend to enjoy spicy food, but feel much more comfortable eating their dishes at the "mild" level. My favorite would be the chicken curry rice hoodle served on lettuce dish (I forgot what it was called, but it's mighty good). Stay away from the boba, just spend the same amount of money on a smoothie @ Juice it Up across the way.
Good food, average service, and good-sized portions. I can never finish my noodles and I love me some leftovers!
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Even though this place is considered "fast food", it tastes better than some other sit down Thai restaurants that I've been to.
The Thai ice tea is so good and if you're feeling particularly greedy that day, you can get a huge jug for about $5-6!!! YUM IN MY TUM.
This one is in a nice little corner of Tustin Marketplace next to an Indian restaurant and some other fast food types. On a sunny day, sit outside by the fountain!
Yes, I know it's a chain and you won't find Ma and Pa in the back cooking up their favorites from the homeland. But if you want to pop in and get a quick bite it's not half bad. They will make you a real vegan Pad Thai and always remember to ask if you want egg or not. And their spice/star ratings are not to be ignored; they do turn the heat up on their dishes. The veggie pad thai has an interesting smoky flavor but sometimes it's too sweet....not sure what they throw in there. If I can remember the name of the dumpy joint I used to eat at in Hollywood I'll post it up here....now that was the real deal.
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Decent tasting Thai food, although the portions seem smaller than the one on Jeffrey. Prolly cause of the higher rents and clientele at Tustin. A good addition to the food court at the Marketplace.
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the pad thai here is downright nasty.
the pieces of chicken found scattered among the noodles are dark meat and oddly shaped at that.
the chicken really doesn't taste very fresh.. might be leftover from the day before.
the actual flavor of the noodles is decent, but nothing special.
for the quality of food you receive, it's way overpriced.
i've had thai food all over los angeles and it's sooo much better than any thai place i've visited in orange county lately.
it's pretty sad.
+ good thai iced tea
- not so fresh chicken
- hard to find parking
- weird "menus"
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This location has more of a seating area, and the same filling and spicy food as the other locations. Although I know that this isn't authentic (my friend Kanita, who lives in Thailand off and on, goes to great lengths to tell me this), its quite good.
The girlfriend loves the curry, which I must admit, has the right mix of sweet and spicy. I've tried several things on the menu - some I would definitely order again, others I wouldn't. But overall I don't think you can really go wrong.
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