Banh Thai Restaurant
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
44 reviews
Union City, CA
"This place is the S&#! seriously....... I've been in love with this place ever since my boyfriend (husband now) took me swearing up and…" read more »
46 Reviews for Banh Thai Restaurant
The food and portions (huge) were great. The service was super slow for a place that was empty when we walked in. Prices were affordable. The number of customers picked up around afternoon. We went for an early lunch. Good for groups or dates. I'd come again. I don't understand the other reviews about how bad this place was. Thought I'd try it and it was decent.
Oh no....no, no, no.....this IS NOT right to call this place Thai food!
Keeping it simple on this review
mushy pad thai noodles; no flavor. Smelly, almost rotten smelling prawns in the noodles.
BAAAD service; practically non existent
watery Thai iced teas
rubbery chicken and beef
WAY too overpriced for this crap food.
'Nuff said.
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I recently stopped eating meat, and I don't like tofu, so I haven't visited this place in quite a while.
However when I did eat meat, I used to go there quite often. Their chicken in peanut sauce was to die for - the best I've ever had. The restaurant is very nice and clean, as are the waiters. The presentations of some dishes are amazing; I got the pad thai and it was presented in a hollowed out pineapple! Very cool.
I've always been a fan of thai iced coffee and theirs is great too. It is a little expensive, but the restaurant is definitely a nice one.
I guess the only thing that's crackin' here is their Pad Thai Noodles. Everything else tastes bland and watered down especially the curries.
This is not exactly a bad place if you can't tell the difference between Chinese food, and Authentic Thai food, but at the price they offer, I've tasted far better.
Okay, we're talking about Fremont, the land of chain food. All decent, real-food places always seem to close up shop and get out of Dodge. Apparently, there is no market in Fremont for good food that doesn't break the bank.
Banh Thai saves me and my SO from living on Wendy's, Red Robin, Sweet Tomato, and Elephant Bar. Really, if it wasn't for Banh Thai, we'd have serious health issues like cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight problems... wait a minute...
Banh Thai is solid, consistent, if sometimes a bit behind on service. We're regulars, so they actually smile at us. The staff is extremely nice and well-meaning, even if they are a bit awkward and sometimes a bit behind on busy nights.
The food can be great, but do realize they aren't great at everything. We've figured out our favorites and stick to them. They recently began offering brown rice, but you have to ask as they sometimes forget to offer it. They have a respectable vegetarian menu, love the string bean dish (pork, tofu, or chicken), stay away from the yellow curry (not their forte), all noodle dishes we've tried were very solid, and the param dern dong is darned perfect every time.
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I was in the neighbor and craving some Thai food so I decided to try it blindly. I should have looked up the yelp reviews on my phone. It was okay... bland but not horrible. Staff was nice to me though. After reading the reviews I guess I should count myself lucky. My only real issue is I ordered a papaya salad and I didn't see any papaya which makes me wonder. Maybe they misunderstood me and gave me a different salad.. odd.. I guess. Hmm. I don't think I'll come here again.. not for any reason. I'd like to try other local places though so this place will give me something to compare the other places too. I guess that works!
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I like this Thai restaurant! Great food, price, & friendly staff. My friend had his bday dinner there last night and had a great time. Location is great and easy to find. Definitely worth a try!
Lunch specials are just average. Portions are somewhat small.
Luckily I didnt have bad service as the other Yelpers.
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Okay so the food is great, delicious, awesome, really really good....the red chicken curry comes HIGHLY recommended...BUT I probably would order take out the next time I want food from here.
Again, not the kind of place that you would see yourself walking around barefoot in...catch my drift?
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Like another poster had mentioned, I wish there was a damn ZERO stars on here!!
Take it from a Thai person, this place is a damn joke! To me, you know if the food is good if the place has a lot of its own race/nationality of people also eating inside of it in addition to everyone else. This place puts my culture of food to shame. It's like the Taco Bell of Mexican food. But in a nicer building with fancy plates and what not. The service is crap. They pressure you so much to order fast and they aren't even attentive. Blah, mind as well go to McDonalds down the freakin street!
Service is horrible. We sat there for 15 minutes before we even got water. We got our main dish when we were finished eating everything else so it ended up being MAIN DISH, "CHECK PLEASE!!!" Quite funny actually because I tried yelping it in the car before we got there, but I cancelled it. I regret it now.......
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My friends, family, and I frequent Banh Thai as it's the closest Thai restaurant to us. We always order the green curry, the red curry, the panang curry, the pineapple fried rice, pad thai, pad seyu and steamed chinese broccoli with no meat. We strayed once and ordered some kind of shrimp dish, and didn't have enough shrimp for the whole party. So that was the last time we did that.
We definitely do not go there for service, and don't expect much with it being a somewhat small hole in the wall. Every time we go there, I sense the pressure of them wanting you to order right away, and getting someone's attention on a refill of water is a task.
If it wasn't for the food and the location (because it's a 2 minute drive from my house), we probably wouldn't return.
This place is pretty good. We've eaten here a few times and have opted for pick up most recently (no delivery). Our usuals are the deep fried potstickers, mango chicken, and bbq beef. This time we tried mee krob (never had, interesting, in a good way), pork fried rice, panang curry, and he had bbq beef. Some things never change.
Overall good meal but I had assumed the curry would have come with steamed rice, it did not. So, I tossed it over a pile of fried rice. Not such a good idea, too many flavors mixed together. I had much leftover of the curry so next day made some rice and enjoyed again. Pretty decent amount of food overall.
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I've eaten here 3 times already. The food is good. I don't understand why there are so many bad reviews. The customer service could be better, but overall the food is yummy! I love their mango chicken, crab fried rice, vegetable fried rice (yummiest!). Their chicken satay is not bad. I tried the Tom Ka Chicken soup. It has a little of sourness to it, but it's quite delish. Their mango with sticky rice is quite good! Although I would prefer them not to put those crunchy, yellow bits on the rice...don't know what it is...Definately give this place a try!
I wish there was a zero rating option because the 1 is too high for this God forsaken place.
1. Pressure to order within minutes of sitting down.
2. Once we ordered the appetizer, PRESSURE to order entrees.
3. Once we began to order and asked questions we got answers like "I'm not sure" & "I don't know" in response to which vegetables they use in a dish!!!
4. Rude waiter above also appeared to be the owner.
5. Most of the dishes tasted the same except for the Choo-Chee curry which was decent. The others was terrible.
6. Entrees were served before appetizer was finished.
7. You would think they would have left us alone once we granted their wish of ordering food but the minute we started eating they were ready to remove our plates!
This place needs to disappear! DO NOT EAT HERE...go next door to Noah's Bagels instead.
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If you like the sound of crying children, you are sure to enjoy Banh Thai.
Young mommies and daddies must love to bring their little kiddies to this joint because its hard to sit through a meal here without a couple of blood curdling screams knocking some basil catfish off your fork and into your lap.
Really though, crying children aside, having eaten here regularly for the last 7 years, I think Banh Thai is a quick, solid Thai choice if you live in Fremont. If you live elsewhere, then find a Thai place closer to where you live because the Banhster is probably not worth more than a seven and a half minute drive.
Service here ebbs and flows. Once, our waiter took our entire order while on the phone. Was he taking phone in orders? No, he was having a personal conversation while attempting to take our order. Generally though, the service is passable, water is on time, and dishes are served promptly. Just remember that this place is better for an early dinner, because crowds seem to scare the servers, and you never know what happens then.
Duck Jay, and spicier fish dishes are among my favorites.
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We just discovered this place not long ago. Our favorite Thai place having closed some time back. Charlie (God bless him) moved back to Thailand.
Anyhoo, this place is a decent stand-in. The mussels from the appetizer menu were very good. Broiled and served with a nice chili sauce. The soft shell crab was tasty too. Some of their deep fried wares are not for me, but if you like that sort of thing, I'm betting you would enjoy them.
The menu is very colorful with lots a pictures. You almost get overwhelmed.
The service has been very good all the times that we've gone there. I will definitely be back to sample more of their dishes. If you're in the area and looking for Thai, I would give it a whirl.
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The fiance and I decided to stop at Banh Thai Restaurant for dinner. Located right across the street from the Fremont Hub, Banh Thai Restaurant is your typical Thai Restaurant. Plenty of seating in here and the environment was nice enough that I could have a conversation with my fiance without feeling like I needed to shout to talk to her. Decor is a bit dated, but that's ok.
We got here and was immediately seated. The waiter gave us our menu. Typical Thai style menu with probably about 70 different selections. Appetizers will usually run you around $5 - $7, noodles and soups will go around $7 - $10, and main dishes such as pork, beef, seafood or chicken you're looking around $8 - $15. For you vegetarians out there, there are several options to choose from besides the "salad" because many of their dishes they can substitute tofu instead meat.
We put in our order for a big bowl of vegetarian soup, I got a shrimp eggroll appetizer, and we split a spicy version of Buddha's Delight with brown rice. As we chatted, we got the vegetarian noodle soup and the shrimp appetizer. Wow, they weren't kidding when they said big. Plenty of noodles and veggies in this soup. Enough to feed 4 and was good to offset a cold night. The shrimp eggroll appetizers were good only problem I had was they left tails on. I hate when they do that and fry the whole thing together. The dipping sauce was good too and while skinny there was about 6 - 8 so plenty to share around.
We got our Buddha's delight and brown rice and again a generous serving of each. Again enough to feed 4, plenty of veggies and tofu and the spicy level was a bit hot for my end. I ended up drinking lots of water that meal. We both enjoyed it and really went well with brown rice.
Service was nice as the waiter was there to refill our glasses and answer any questions. Only wierd thing was when he brought us our bill at the end of the night, had to pay up front. Not bad, just a bit wierd for a sitdown kind of place. At the end of the night it cost about $40 including tip. Not too bad considering that we also had plenty of leftovers so we got 2 meals for the price of 1.
As to the rating, everything was just fine. Nothing here blew my mind. The food was good, the service was good, but just nothing special IMHO. I would definitely consider coming back to Banh Thai Restaurant in the future if I'm in the area and looking for Thai food. It just doesn't come to the top of list nor would I drive out of my way either. So for me that says average and Banh Thai Restaurant gets an average 3 star performance.
OH NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
we just picked up dinner from banh thai.
ate it, and thought we were SO lucky to find a great thai place near our new apartment.
then we read the reviews.
... THE RATS!
i'm going to puke.
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Banh Thai was so busy at 9:30pm. People kept on coming into the restaurant!! I can't believe how late people eat. Anyway, Banh Thai was pretty good. I ordered the noodles with chicken and veggies, and extra spiciness. The spiciness was just right. However, I didn't realize the noodles would be flat and thick similarly to chow fun. The sauce was also not too salty.
The prices are moderate for the amount of food. One of my friends ordered the pineapple fried rice, and the rice came in half of a pineapple. That was pretty neat to see.
Service was very slow. It took a long time to get our food and it was hard to track down a waiter to refill the water. In addition, I didn't like how the tv was turned on. Our table was below the tv and my friends just kept on watch "The Singing Bee." It was quite tacky of the restaurant owner to have the tv on during dinner.
The food was okay... didn't blow me away or anything. We got the banh thai fried rice (served in a pineapple shell) and the bangkok chicken (in what tasted like ketchup sauce). The staff is not attentive. the hostess did not even look up as we walked through the door and our waitress forgot our drink orders altogether. Needless to say, we will not be returning here.
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Ordered take out, mi order was taken in a mostly prompt manner. Perhaps a few minutes waiting to order. They said 10 minutes, food was ready in five.
Combination beef/chicken satay, was cool they let me do a combo, very tasty. 7 pieces at ~$1/piece is a good deal.
Meal: under chefs special the peanut chicken over spinach(I don't remember the exact name), very very tasty(especially if you like peanut sauce and peanuts), could have had less sauce, but still excellent.
they put the to go food in aluminum foil prior to the take away dish, excellent idea for a no spill drive.
Rice options include brown rice which immediately gives them extra points, especially coming from east coast.
bottom line, I'd go back.
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I agree with the others that the food is tasty, but the service sucks in a an indifferent kinda way. I had the hardest time getting a water refill - same deal - they run right by and might see you, but don't stop. If I'm in a Thai restaurant, I need water, period.
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Pad Thai is excellent. Prices are reasonable for the portions you get. I've been to other thai restaurants that don't give much for your money. The service is a little slow, but the food is worth it. The crab fried rice is really good. Will come back.
Boy, did I want to beat my boyfriend's butt when I found out he'd committed to eating here before reading the Yelp reviews. In his defense, our friend spelled the name wrong and he initially couldn't FIND it, but still. RODENT PROBLEMS?! When I heard that, I just about fell over and died.
Unlike Daniela A., I did not have the privilege of seeing any rodents at Banh Thai. I did, however, have the same feeling as everyone else who has shared their experience with Yelp--terrible, terrible service, and "nothing special" food.
In the Bay Area, we are lucky to have many wonderful choices for dinner. The food at Banh Thai isn't good enough for me to choose it over other Thai options, and the service sucks so hard that I would rather go somewhere else.
And honestly, even the RUMOR of rodents is enough to send me packing. BLEH--it makes me nauseous just thinking about it.
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After looking at rooms for rent in Castro Valley, I went searching for dinner. I ended up on this long road passing Korean BBQ places, Thai food, Mexican food. I wanted something different. Suddenly I looked up and the sign said Welcome to Fremont. I swear there is a road from Fremont to Castro Valley/Hayward. So I call up my friend DJme and ask him what he is doing for dinner, because I just happen to be in the area. This place was his selection. Mind you I had passed up a ton of Thai places, but I wasn't going to say anything. Let me just say the food was damn good. Dj ordered chicken and green beans, it was in this yummy red sauce. I ordered curry, it wasn't as spicy as I expected (it had the little chili next to it on the menu), but some chilli hooked that right up. The staff was nice, busy. The one complaint I do have is that it is served typical Thai family style, so dishes are brought out separately, which is great if you are actually eating family style, but we weren't and I was going to take DJ's plate and hold it hostage, because I was really hungry. For our dishes, rice, a thai ice tea and a beer it ended up being under 25 (not including tip) and I had some left over for lunch. It was totally delish and I can't wait to go again.
This restaurant is not good. We ordered the dungeness crab for an appetizer and it came with two pieces of not-that-fresh really greasy crab, with a ton of tempura vegetables (??). The yellow curry was decent, but the Pad Thai was overly sugary and used a really thin noodle. The sauteed eggplant had a really bland favor, and was again, mixed with a bunch of undercooked other vegetables, like carrots. The service was really slow and the waiter not that friendly. I definitely prefer Salathai.
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Consistantly good food. I love the Satay Chicken and their Panang is wonderful. Meat is usually well cooked with fresh vegetables.
Service ranges from OK to terrible. If you call in an order check it before going home.
Look, I know you big city folk ain't gonna be makin' a trip to Fremont for Thai food, but for us peeps to po' to afford the high rent district and for families who live in the hood, we need to know where to eat.
Let's face it a restaurant is one part food, one part service.
On the former, this being the bay area, we all know the score, the more ethnic the patrons, the better the food and BT scores high on the ethnic scale.
What I like about BT are the tasty, generous and modestly priced portions. I love the the Panang Curry, but the other entrees are just as delish. I've had guest from Santa Monica, who pretty much hate all things Fremont but love the food at BT.
But while the food is good, there is not a thing I can possibly say to contradict what people have said about the service. While waiting for my order last night, each and every one of the floor staff looked my way and then went back to doing what they were doing while my food sat on the back counter. About the time I was pulling out my phone ready to call them and have them bring me my order, they finally came forward with the eats. And while I may hate the poor service, you have ways of expressing your displeasure.
That said, go for the food, tolerate the service, and enjoy.
three and one half stars
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You know, I like their food. It's good and there's a lot on the lunch specials. You get a little soup, a little salad, and the main course, which comes with two whopping scoops of rice and then your dish. All that's around $7. Their Thai iced tea is delicious, too... very creamy! The only thing I guess I have against the place is that I've never gotten great service there, it's not super friendly. It's not unfriendly either, just kind of indifferent. Also, the decor leaves a lot to be desired.
Still, it's a great bargain for a Thai lunch!
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Before I came to this restaurant, I had the mindset of "it's impossible to screw up Thai food". Well I was wrong. The food just isn't good and the prices are too high given the quality. About the only thing that didn't suck about this place was the service.
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This place was a disappointment. I stopped in for the lunch special and was treated to "whatever table you want" even though none of them were set. The waiter fixed that by throwing a table setting from elsewhere onto my table with the menu. The salad that came with the lunch was a few leaves of wilted lettuce with a dressing that seemed to be equal parts mayo and mustard with some hydrogenated oil mixed in. After I finished looking at the salad, I was treated to my sweet and sour soup. The veggies looked like they were out of a Campbell's can and the soup tasted like vegetable stock. The noodle dish was unremarkable. One star for having a cheap lunch deal. One star for having reasonable quality beef.
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The first time I came here, it was for a work-related lunch. Sure it was good then, but once your boss goes into a phase of when they want it for lunch every other week, you kinda grow tired of it. :\
Their red curry chicken was pretty good, but just becomes mediocre when you start to compare it to other Thai places. I guess a good side to this place is that their lunch special is a pretty good deal.
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Agree with others that the service is way sub-par. However the food presentation, extensively diverse menu, reasonable price and quality of the product make it worth while. Lots of Thai places come and go in Fremont so the fact this one has been around a while speaks a lot (though having the good location probably helps as well). I rated a 4 based on the food but taking into account service it was adequate but mediocre at best.
I've been putting off writing a review for this place for a very, very long time because I feel really bad for what I am about to say, but it's the truth: Banh Thai has a rodent problem. I used to frequent Banh Thai because I have always enjoyed their food, so a couple months ago I took a friend there. He was visiting from out of town and felt like getting Thai food for dinner, so I told him about Banh Thai and how they had the best Thai food in Fremont. He liked my description of the food, so he was eager to go try it out. We ordered Pad Thai, red curry, yellow curry and green papaya salad, which were all very good while we were having some great conversations- until all of a sudden my friend pointed at the floor and gasped. There was a rat scurrying under the tables. It ran around the floor for a little while, although nobody noticed except the three of us at our table, and then it ran into the kitchen.
I had already had several doubts about Banh Thai being sanitary. I had found hair and eyelashes in my food several times prior to this incident, but I always kind of ignored it (I know, I know... it's kind of gross that I continued going there all the time even after the hair incidents, but the food was good!) After seeing actual rats in the restaraunts I have completely stopped going there. I'm glad I did because I have discovered other Thai restaraunts in the area that are much better than Banh Thai ever was, and with much better (and friendlier) service.
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Yummy pineapple fried rice. I'm not too sure how sanitary it is to wash out the leftover rice out of the pineapple and then refill the pineapple w/ fried rice and then serve it again????
Food is decent, but not the best of the Thai restaurants I've been to. I've only been there for lunch. I get my usual yellow chicken curry and/or chicken satee. I would go back for the convenience, but I found a better one in Fremont.
My favorite thai restaurant in the bay area.
I love the mango vegetable dish here. It is by far my favorite asian dish on the planet - especially when you ask for it spicy. It is served in a mango peel, w/ the fruit removed and is remnant of a basil chicken dish - but of course without the chicken.
The spring rolls, thai soups and other dishes are also worth a try.
It is also very vegetarian friendly (and accordingly is always packed with indian folks) and has several pages of vegetarian-only options.
I decided to try out Banh Thai last night since I've seen the place many times. I tried to eat there once for lunch about 4 months ago but they wouldn't seat me 30 minutes because closing time. So this time I went with another relative and ordered chicken satay, Tom Ka chicken soup, Pad Thai, and Thai iced tea. Nothing new, service sucked. The waitress even gave me a little attitude because I wasn't ready to order when she came by the third time after ordering satay on the second time. Iced tea was pretty good like it should be. Satay wasn't that good especially for a higher price. They gave us a good size portion of Tom Ka. However, it was too watered down. Pad Thai didn't really have taste to it but the noodle itself was good and not over or under cooked. Over all, food was just okay (not that I'd go back again). Service was the worst of all. Lastly, some thing must have been bad in the food. Eventhough I have a strong stomach and can take bad food from time to time, I had a bit of stomachache later that night. But my relative is not doing so well, she has been going to the bathroom all night.
it's a big restaurant with plenty of seating. i didn't see any rodents, thank god, but had i known beforehand, i would not have gone. we had the steamed pompano fish, fried rice, papaya salad and green chicken curry. everything was fine except that they put a lot of peas in their dishes. i hate peas.
the papaya salad was probably the best thing we had. i had no problem with the service but i don't think i can eat here again.
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