Dusita Thai Cuisine
Ste 104
Santa Clara, CA 95050 (408) 247-5199
- 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
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
36 reviews
Sunnyvale, CA
"Holy Batman, this place is the BOMB! Lizzy and I were in search of Pho in Sunnyvale, but lucky for us, the place we were originally aiming…" read more »
36 Reviews for Dusita Thai Cuisine
This place is awesome. Lunch time is busy so try off hours or weekends. They have veggie plates as well or you can request it. I like their dessert - sweet rice - it's a piece of heaven on a plate.
Went there today around lunch time with a friend. The place was quite empty, I think there's only 1 other couple there. This is the first Thai food experience in the SJ area and I'm pretty satisfied with the food. So this place sets the standard pretty high for the next Thai place I go to.
I had the Kao Soy with Shrimp. My friend had the Angel Trout. I like mine better because it's rich in flavor. The Angel trout i thought was just like any other deep fried fish fillet.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Cool (1)
I DO NOT KNOW WHY YELPERS RATE THIS PLACE WITH STRONG 4 STARS!
It just doesn't taste like they cook with "fresh" ingredients.
I thought the seafood dish was overcooked and bland. The roasted duck curry was a disappointment. The duck was too 'rough'. Sauce was ok.
The papaya salad was also a disappointment. It was too tart and they served it with TOMATOES when they are banning tomatoes b/c of the salmonella outbreak recently. (Definitely not the vine type of tomatoes!!)
P.S. Lovely decorations. It was a quite dining venue for a "Friday Night". Mild and Medium dishes were pretty spicy.
Truly not worth coming here. I'd recommend Krung Thai near Valley Fair mall or Amarin Thai if you are in Mt View.
Gone here for lunch a few times and besides the miniscule parking lot in the front that shares business with 5 other businesses, I generally liked the place.
Their lunch special menu complete with pictures was large in selection and serving size. I never left hungry. For those more adventurous, you can ask for your food to be spiced up beyond the "spicy" level. My companion went in and asked for "Thai Spicy #1" which is level 1 of the beyond spicy levels. After her first bite, it rendered her body and senses into shock as the spiciness did a full-on assault. And from what I can tell, when she was able to talk again, she KEPT eating in pain and finished her food.
As I'm a wimp, I order medium and I start sweating so this place doesn't seem to be the type of place that serves bland American-ized style Thai. The service can be spotty since there's only three people to cover the cashier, host, serving, and cleanup. But this place is definitely worth a lunch visit.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (1)
Cool (1)
Lunch menu is great... complete with pictures! It's a good deal at $7.95 a plate, which includes a bowl of veggie soup and two small egg rolls. It gets crowded at lunch time so I'd go early (before noon) or later (after 1pm) if you want speedy service. It seemed like there weren't enough servers and we waited a long time to order our food and ask for extra plates, napkins, etc.
The food was good, not exceptional, but good. I would go back again if I were craving a Thai food lunch close to work.
The parking lot is small so when it's crowded you may have to park around the corner.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
I absolutely love Thai food and this place is the best! Well one of the best. I love Panang Curry and I've tried many different kinds but this place has to be one of the best so far. They made it just right. The portions are not that big but it gets you full. The house fried rice is not bad either.
The only bad thing I would say about this place is parking. The first time I wanted to try this place I couldn't, my friend and I tried looking for parking for about half an hour during our lunch then decided to give up. The last time I came was for a Sunday dinner, barely anyone there so we were seated right away. Also the waitstaff were very friendly and nice.
Best Thai in the area. I've worked in Bangkok and the flavors are on the mark (and the quality of ingredients superior). Take care -- they take your "spice" directions seriously -- This is the only restaurant in town where I can't order the "Thai style" spicy and enjoy my food. Only thing I wish is that they had some of the more esoteric "Royal Thai" options. That said, I've never asked them if they could just make them for me...
Lunch pace is also a nice feature - you can get in and out quickly.
I haven't been able to find a decent Thai restaurant since I moved to San Jose about 10 years ago, until I stumbled upon Dusita's.
I don't know the names of the dishes I like, I just point to the pretty pictures on the menu and am usually not disappointed.
A word of caution, though. When they ask you if you want mild, medium, or hot, make DAMN SURE you've got the cajones for HOT, cuz you will need a fire extinguisher otherwise. Their "medium" is comparable to "hot" you will find at most Thai restaurants, and their "hot" will have you panting like a dog and begging for mercy.
Good service, crap parking, but most importantly, GREAT food.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Good, solid Thai food. All the dishes I've tried are delicious, and they have a great vegetarian selection. Most memorable are the curries - I'd recommend the panang and the duck.
The atmosphere is always quiet and tastefully decorated. I agree w/ other posters about the parking situation - I only come here to eat on the off-hours when I can get a spot.
Also: yes, yes, yes! about the spice thing. Medium equates to hot in every other Thai place I've been to. Yum!
The waitstaff were excellent, but I think the food (we ordered) could use some improvement. The green papaya salad was nice and spicey, but nothing balanced out the over-powering lime juice; all it needed was a bit of sugar. The curry was good and not very Americanized, though.
I only been here for lunch but it is always a good price and selection. The problem is parking and sometimes a wait. The lot is really small and shared by other restaurants, if you can't find parking you can always park on the street. They do get busy during lunch and I suggest if you can go earlier you should. Overall the food is always good here but there mild, medium, and hot are very different from other Thai restaurants I been. There mild is like a medium. I never went higher than that but they can make "Thai Hot" if you like too. Overall great place to eat for lunch.
People thought this was:
Useful (3)
Funny (1)
Cool (3)
I love my Thai Food. I've been going here for the last 5 years since I've been in the Santa Clara area and I love this place. I want again today, hence my motivation to finally write a review and it was great. So packed though, so maybe go early or a little later than the normal lunch hour. For $6.95, you get to choose from a wide list of selection that includes a curry or some other kind of chicken or shrimp plus rice, two mini egg rolls. and soup to start. I would recommend Dusita to anyone in the area.
My father was born and raised in Thailand, and Dusita is one of his favorite Thai restaurants in our area. We ordered food to go last week, so I can't comment on the interior of the restaurant.
The coconut chicken soup (tom kha chicken) had an excellent flavor! It was delicious. The mussaman curry with chicken was also good, but the chicken was a little dry. The pad see ew was "helllla good" according to my sister. My dad recommends the panang curry, but I haven't tried it yet.
The papaya salad was awful- no flavor whatsoever. The prawns in cup cake pan were presented nicely, but the flavor seemed strange. It had a prawn on top, egg in the middle, and a lot of basil on the bottom.
My dad says that it's super busy during lunch, and you need to get there early in order to get a seat.
Lunch was great... the vegetarian options were plenty. Great Panang. Can't wait to try some other dishes. SErvice and ambiance were nice and friendly.
The food here is alright- I like the mixed vegetables/ meat lunch special. But I didn't really care for this waitress who works there- she has short hair, always seems to be in a hurry, and she drops my order and drinks on my table without a word, even though I say "please" and "thank you."
It seems that this Dusita is more popular than the second restaurant opened in Sunnyvale, but I prefer the Sunnyvale restaurant because the service is better.
Been to this location twice.
Food Quality = above average
Service = good
Wine Select = not good, cheap wines
What I've tried so far:
Tom Kha Chicken Soup
Pad See Ew with Beef
Pad See Ew with Prawns
Mango with Sticky Rice
This place is decent. It's close to my work so I frequent this place. The food is very mediocre thai food, nothing special. It's cheap which is good; $6.00 buys you a lunch plate with soup and little egg rolls. The one thing I enjoy the most here is that if you ask for "spicy" they reply by saying "thai spicy? it is really spicy." The first time I went there I said that it was fine because from previous experience, nothing is ever to spicy for me. My food came out and I could barely finish it. I was sweating, my ears were ringing. I loved it! I never get this kind of intensity. The next time I went there I got the "regular spicy" and it wasn't spicy enough. There should be something in the middle for me.
Stumbled upon this place in a search for dinner driving down El Camino Real late Sunday night. Crazed by hunger, I wanted something tasty, warm and filling. But definitely not stopping at one of the fast food joints which seems to infest the area, and most of the Korean restaurants were closed (so religious they be!). So passed by this tiny place and thought we'd give it a try.
Actually, pretty glad that we did. Smallish-sized restaurant (although it's bigger than it looks). Surprisingly clean, and service was decent.
We split:
- Princess of Mae Khong - steamed white fish fillets with black mushrooms, ginger, and napa cabbage
- Pad Kee Mao w/ tofu - the wide noodles with fried tofu, basil, baby corn, carrots, tomatoes
Okay, I would've given this place 4 stars for the fish dish alone. It was quite tasty. Had similar flavoring to a Chinese fish dish. Steamed with a soy sauce, wine, oil sauce. Wonderful. And quite decent size for the price ($10.95). Man, I could've eaten that all night. But honestly, I guess it's pretty typical to what you find in most Chinese restaurants. And I love me my Chinese.
Alas, the noodle dish was sub par. Really put a damper on the night. The noodles were mushy (not chewy). It felt like they used older refrigerated noodles that they ended up soaking and stir-frying for our dish. The flavors were a little bland, and the tofu was cold and a little soggy. There was like 3 basil leaves and one tomato slice. Seriously, just one slice. Stingy much?
I would return if only for the fish. But not like I would really go out of my way to go here. Now that's when you know you have a good restaurant.
Me: Hi, can I place an order to go please?
DT: Yah sure, what you want?
Me: Umm, the golden calamari and the papaya salad. How long will it take?
DT: You come 25 mins okay?!?! (not sure if this was a question or statement)
Me: Okay, thank ...(phone clicks)...you.
Golden Calamari was so delish I wanted to do naughty things to it. Papaya salad....ehhhh, not so much. Tasted kinda like ass...dipped in fish sauce. (gag)
Oh, on the plus side there's an adult store right next door if the Tom Kha Gai gets you all hot and you need an outlet. Mmmmm...nothing like porn and Thai food!
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
Funny (1)
Cool (2)
Eh, this place is alright. I ordered the "Lord of the sea" something like that and also the special salmon. Both lacked flavor and just tasted like curry and something else. The salmon was too hard and dry. The Lord of the sea was.. hmm.. I can't describe it.. just don't order it not in case you want to try something new and different. Maybe I'll come back but the only reason I even came in the first place was because I had a coupon.
People thought this was:
Useful (2)
Funny (2)
Cool (2)
As I write the review for Krung Thai, I can't help but think of poor Dusita Thai that is relatively closeby, with much less customers and no wait in the evenings. It's probably not the food, but the location of the restaurant. Located 10 or 15 mins away from Krung Thai, it's a good alternative. If the lines are way too long at Krung Thai, I'd come here. 3.5 stars for the food. Lunch specials are rather unexciting, but the dinner menu is huge and lots of stuff is absolutely delicious.
People thought this was:
Cool (1)
Green onions were completely not cooked in my Pad Thai. Green curry is not bad but Thai Orchid is slightly better I would say. Service is always from frowning waitresses that look like they would rather be anywhere else. When I mentioned that the green onions were completely raw I was just smiled at and handed the check.
Above average Thai Food..
The pad thai here is above average compared to many Thai food places I've been to. One of the ingredients that make the Pad Thai good is the lime. They brought me out the driest limes on earth. So I had them bring me out some more in hopes that I would find one bursting with juice...but it was to my dissapointment that all of them were dryer than the Mojave Desert.
The service wasn't too good. They are way understaffed, and when you're seated they expect you to order right then and there. If you hesitate she will give you this mean look, and try to cover it up with a fake smile. Drinks and water are never refilled.
The food is good the service is lacking..
Go down the street to Thai Chili Pepper..
People thought this was:
Cool (1)
Their hot is RIDICULOUSLY HOT! If you're weak sauce, don't even attempt to take on their mild.
First went here with my work and we had a large group. The organizer was able to strike a deal and get us free dessert (ice cream and fried banana) So if you're organizing a large group event (20 or so) you'll definately need to call beforehand and it doesn't hurt to ask for free dessert!
This was a tough call, id really say a 3.5.
My gf and i went here and i came knowing spicy meant spicy at Dusita. We started with a papaya salad for the gf and a Tom yum soup w/ tofu and veggies. The soup was great. alot of veggies and great flavor. The papaya salad was very fresh, however my gf wanted it mild and she ended up biting into a chili that burned the bejesus out of her mouth. If you want something mild dont you think you would keep the flaming hot chilies out?? I considered trying to try the chili just to see if it really was that hot but based on the reaction of gf i decided against it.
We also got two entrees, basil tofu w veggies and panang curry w tofu. Both had great flavor, my complaint was the tofu in the basil stir fry was too fried and kind of soggy.
As for alcohol, typical thai restaurant selection w big name wines (Clo du bois and Fetzer) and Singha beer and a few other choices.
I would go back bc i really thought the soup was above average, however the chili incident will hold strong for the gf so i dont see us back.
Ok, edit....
The chicken here always tastes old! argh. I keep telling myself not to order it and then I do. Oh--and the "hot" used to be hot. I'm going back to ordering "thai hot" again, which used to be masochistic. I had to dump a bottle of habenero powder on my rice tonight just to feel something on my tongue.
If it was SF, the parking is great. But for Santa Clara, the parking sucks.
However....the secret here--go buy an expensive bottle of wine, order the Mango with Sticky Rice to go, drive home or to a park or up to the mountains and have the best dinner of your life even though it's not really dinner.
This area is pretty cluttered...mex, sushi, korean and thai! Well, we went there to use our entertainment coupons effectively...My gf loves Thai...the panang beef was a bit undercooked for my taste. The new try was the garlic chicken. It was super hot, since i got medium...the flavor was excellent tho...
And lo, the ladies looked amazing in their Thai dresses...
My boyfriend loves this place, and as a result I've been here several times but have never been impressed.
The lunch menu is a good deal. Entrees arrive with a spring roll, and a very good cup of vegetarian soup. If only this review could stop at the soup, Dusita's would be doing really well. Unfortunately, the entrees ruin everything with too much oiliness. My boyfriend's fave is the basil chicken, which smells and looks better than it is. It's not bad, but that's about all I can say.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
I have always like spicy food and have for as long as I remember challenged every Mexican, Indian, Thai, Korean place I've ever been to meet my expectations. Dusita Thai makes (upon request) THE SPICIEST FOOD ON THE PLANET. I can drink jalepeno juice and be cool but this place kills me. The staff is careful to ensure that you indeed want "Thai spicy" but you will not be disappointed. I promise.
People thought this was:
Cool (1)
Next to an adult bookstore on El Camino, Dusita is often overlooked in favor of nearby Krung Thai. The dishes occasionally disappoint, but in general, people are very pleased with Dusita's fare. My husband says they serve the best Tom Kha Gai (which they call Tom Kha Chicken) in the Bay Area. They offer an entire page of vegetarian entrees (see the website for the menu) and my favorite drink (coconut juice served in a young coconut). This is great place to take kids or to go if you don't like the wait at Krung; Dusita is only crowded at lunch time.
PS: We all agree the Basil Chicken / Basil Beef / Basil Tofu is the best dish.
People thought this was:
Useful (1)
My Basil tofu at lunch special was so tasteless... But when I catered the food for my sons party it was great. So I have mixed reviews for this place.
Do they have a new location now in Sunnyvale? Wow, they really grow fast.
Anyhow, with the plethora of Thai restaurants growing in Santa Clara, Dusita popped out a couple of years ago and has established itself with solid food and good service. Some of the more memorable dishes are Green Curry pork, I also order it with Penang curry, both at $8.95. You have to check when the dishes arrive, because they may screw up the meat they use from the ones you ordered. Aside from that, it is delicious. Prawns in Cup cake pan ($9.95) is an interesting appetizer we like to order. I am not sure if this is considered authentic Thai, but the sourness of the sauce is mixed with the shrimps and the egg make this a perfect dish to "open" your stomach before the entrees arrive.
Parking can get a little crazy in this tiny plaza, so I just park on the side of El Camino if I can find any spots. There is almost never a wait here, and the food is consistently good, the one complaint is that they always seem under-staffed whenever I come here. The owner might want to hire a little more help for the restaurant.
I still cannot believe there is another Dusita in Sunnyvale.
My rating would be actually negative ... I got a take out from this place yesterday. Ordered Veg Padh Thai and Veg Red Curry. 'All the vegetables were stale'. Just couldnt have the food.
Ruined my dinner. Had to toss away all the food.
Wouldnt recommend at all.
Dusita is pretty good for lunch. They have at least 30 lunch menu items, including a whole range of vegetarian. All lunch items are $6.95. While lunch tastes ok, it is not spectacular. Unlike many Thai places, they really will make it spicy if you want.
If you like your meal spicy, be prepared for extra questioning, though. I got this the past two times:
Waitress: how do you like it mild/medium/spicy
me: spicy
Waitress: Are you sure? It is Thai spicy.
me: sure
Waitress: Are you sure? You cannot send it back if it is too spicy
me: that's fine.
Waitress: Okay.....
The parking lot is small but there's residential street parking if you don't mind a short walk.
Some of the dishes were bland. Flavors didn't taste authentic enough.
Decent food, but for some reason the waitresses seem to be in a real hurry everytime. It is not fast-food, but it feels like. Wonder if they are flown in from Bangkok just before lunch hour and have to catch the return flight soon after!
People Who Viewed This Also Viewed...
Related Lists
-
Top Restaurants
Some of my favorite dining destinations in the… -
A Thai-Phoon of Thai
I've been to 38 Thai restaurants in Bay Area, and… -
I put your kids through…
Places that have acquired a significant amount of… -
Lunch Spots in Santa…
These are some of the Lunch spots I hit around my… -
My Neighborhood
My local dry cleaner, watering hole, deli, cafe,…
Hot and New
- 99 Chicken
338 reviews
Santa Clara, CA
- Tu Rinconcito Colombiano…
17 reviews
San Jose, CA
- Grill 'Em
17 reviews
Campbell, CA
- The Cakeworks
11 reviews
Campbell, CA
- Tofoo Com Chay
151 reviews
San Jose, CA
