Mr. Papaya Kitchen

The food was good but the Kaopiek that took forever tasted like clumps of flour. The worst part was the waiter“s”. The two brothers who were waiting people were rude and disrespectful.

Food is ok. tables were too close and kinda dirty. I don’t know why people like this restaurant… I’m not sure if I’ll return but the staffs were nice and food wait time wasn’t too bad

Food is authentic Laos food! But it’s a hole in a wall location. It’s a family-​run business, which is difficult when it comes down to service. The place is always busy and the staff (the brothers) are over-​whelmed. Service & sanitary needs some work but aside from that, will definitely come back for the food.
P. S. THEY ONLY TAKE CASH! So be prepared when you order and only have a card.

The Vietnamese sandwich was the worst sandwich I’ve ever eaten. The bread was really dry and old! Horrible… Service was horrible! Never going back again!

Brought my parents, baby sister and crazy baby here to dine for late lunch and it was yummy!
Thom khuen nai– bitter intestine soup
Seafood koua kao– fried rice
Tout pha phad krapao– deep fried pampano
Lad na seafood– stir fried noodles
Desserts: nam vhan/​Thai coffee
$ 55 not bad, highly recommended but that’s if you don’t mind being a little crowded, and somewhat of a shared greasy table; meaning there’s 3 individual tables along the left side of the wall and 2 other long connected tables.
Service was prompt, felt kind of rushed due to the fact that my mom was still browsing at the «Asian mall» and she was not seated w/​us just yet but I guess it’s get in order pay and get out type of establishment. None the less, food arrived and my mouth was already watering at the smell! Delishhhh! Fried pampano fried to a perfect crisp topped with the spicy sauce. Thom khuen nai was the main dish I was waiting on too bitter for my taste but I still devoured it b/​c that’s one of my favorite Laotian dishes.

First off CASH only so be prepared. Its small and seating is really tight and so are the walk way. They were cleaning off the tables and told us next time we needed to sit the high chair inside because we were in their way. It was ourh first time there and we were not sure of what to order so I ordered the papaya and pork skin and egg roll. The papaya we ordered extra spicy and it came out not spicy and very sweet. The pork skin came out and it was so cold and if you guys know fat on pork skin cold is not good. I had to ask for a box and they never check on us to see if everything was ok. I won’t be coming back to this place. I’m sure there’s better phở places in Fresno with better service then this.

Experiencing Mr. Papaya is like watching a Disney Movie– Imagine ‘Finding nemo’, its either you can appreciate it, cry with it, smile with it, love it or you might be that hater who goes «eh nothing special» and its as boring as a beg of pretzels. That is how I felt about Mr Papaya Kitchen, I honestly thought the food here is tasty and unique, because they offer a bona fide south east asian cuisine fusion of laotian, thai and also vietnamese dishes. The most unique thing on their ‘secret menu’ is the crispy pork belly for $ 7 served with a spicy sauce, its a coalesce of crispiness and tenderness on the inside– a unique taste only a serious foodie could appreciate. The BIG negative about this place would be the CASH ONLY policy, so make sure you load up with cash like a rich elitist prior to coming.
I for one wasn’t taken by surprised of its interior, its just simple and dodgy just like any other south east asian restaurant, come for the food not the interior design, and god heavens avoid it for date nights, unless thats the theme. This is a place for serious foodies, who loves real good south east asian dishes and can appreciate the complex taste
My favorite dish was the crispy pork belly (siu yuk) and after tasting that, I didn’t think I needed anything anymore, since I was already contented. Pork belly will never top anyone’s health food list. With its crispy skin, generous marbling of fat, and succulent (faintly spiced) meat, this roast pork belly is comforting, familiar, but yes – utterly decadent. The crispy pork belly is actually a Cantonese Chinese delicacy, and yes it is served in south east asian dishes as well. This is probably the only place, you could get pork belly made so perfectly and authentically the way its made in asian countries, its really quite a process to make it.
I also tried the Thai boat noodles $ 7.95. This medium sized portion, was utterly generous. For those of you who have never tried boat noodles, it’s a beef noodle soup that got its name from being served off of boats in the rivers and canals of Thailand. It is traditionally made with bits of beef, liver, tripe, and whatever else is on hand. The one thing they can’t go easy on (or else it wouldn’t really be boat noodles) is… brace yourself… the blood. That’s right. The not-​so-​secret ingredient in boat noodles is blood– but now that I’ve told you that, I want you to completely forget you ever knew it. Because if nobody told you about the blood, and pushed this sweet and sour, savory and spicy soup in front of you and told you to drink, you’d love it.
The reviews might skew to different ratings on Unilocal,however just like a Disney movie, its up to you to taste and to judge if you like the food here of hate it to guts. I honestly would be back for more of their delicious food since Im a serious foodie from south east Asia (Malaysia) who loves true culinary adventures and prioritizes taste to interior, and when Ive taste something so close to home, I probably remember it for all of my life, like great Disney movies.

I only come here for their number 12 Long Cheng noodles. I enjoy it because it’s like phở with little extras, such as baby bok choy and broiled pork belly. It’s not as beefy as phở but it’s its own.
I would say this place usually hits the spot, but I have experienced a few inconsistencies, such as too bland or barely any meat. Despite that, I still come back.
The service can vary anywhere from mediocre to excellent. There have been times where the manager just gives me a free drink. Perhaps, it may be due to my returning choice of business with them.

My husband and I love Thai food. We have had the pleasure and the privilege to travel to some amazing places and try different Thai restaurants across North America. This is by far our favorite. We went to college in Fresno, so Mr. Papaya Kitchen was a staple. We found places we enjoyed in Vancouver, British Columbia, in Chicago, IL, and in Southern California, but none compare. My husband orders the Spicy Cashew Chicken with purple sticky rice (which is impossible to find elsewhere!) and I order the Pad-​See-​Ew. Both are incredible. Every time we visit, this is our first stop. Always worth it.

Yea, the food is good but you can get this type of mediocre food anywhere. Today, I just cannot believe what I just witness. A Hmong elderly came in and wanted to purchase one of the to-​go wrapped steamed rolls from the shelf. She definitely didn’t look homeless but you could tell she was exhausted from walking in the heat. Anyway, she wanted to sit in and enjoy the to-​go steamed rolls, which is $ 2.25. She sat and water was brought. Before she unwrapped the food, she went and pay for it. The staff said the manager wanted to charge her for dining in. Probably 75 cents more. He personally wouldn’t do that but because his manager said so. However, he’ll accept just the $ 2.25 this time. I translated that to her and what she did will forever be imprinted in my heart. No matter how exhausted and thirsty she was, she decided to not buy it after all and left. That right there shows you that no matter how desperate in life you get, you should never put your guard down if you ever feel mistreated by anyone.
Mr. Papaya, what type of service are you f*cking selling? How low of you to further charge this elderly, just for wanting a place to sit and rest even after when she tried purchasing ur mediocre food? Just how dare you?! F*ck you guys! Ya just lost a loyal customer!

First of all, the waiter Joseph Is Always, ALWAYS very helpful and kind. He does a good job and he’s always cheerful. The food is good. I’ve tried the Thai boat (blood phở) it’s a little too much irony tasty though. Like too much blood… the regular phở is good. I like that they put the pork belly in it. Also the rices dishes are good. Except I personally think its too much for the portions sometimes. Papaya is good. They have 3 choices of what you can put in it like cucumbers etc., fried rice is good. They have a pork belly fried rice. That’s bomb! And the fried noodles are delicious too. However, one thing I hate there is the SPACE. Everyone is literally touching each other if it is a full house. Its not good for parties there. It will literally fit 40 – 45 people. So don’t go in a big big group.

I’m sorry Mr Payapa. But you’re not the same any more. 7 years ago your noodle #12 Long Cheng Phở was favorable under the old owner.
I keep on coming back from time to give you the chance to still keep me as a customer. But every time I come back, the phở greats worst and worst. Your broth had lost its original taste and has turned into just steamed water.
Further more, noodle is to be kept fresh and only to be pour into the bowl when ready. When you let the noodle sit for a long person of time, the noodle become soggy and sticky to each other. If I wanted puddling, I would have order puddling.
I would excuse and forgive you on your phở if it was an one time isolated event of bad phở. But I’ve tried coming back like 5 time and each time, your phở is the same and thoroughly disappointing. I’ve kept my opinions to myself with mentioning your phở to you but one like yourself would wonder why your patron left without eating.
Well, I tried you again last night. I had four bites and I was done eating your crap. Even your namva was warm. It should be cold and chilled in ice.
I’m done. I won’t return.
You’ve lost a customer. And if anyone else is readying this, you should try Angkon phở at the north east corner of Olive ave and Chestnut ave in Fresno. You will understand and appreciate first hand what difference in good versus bad phở.

This restaurant is quite small, and the cleanliness is not very good from the outside to the inside. However, what kept me into coming back to this place is their food. Despite that, the servers are very polite, friendly and accomodating.
First, their tables are connected to each other. So if u are bringing a huge group in a busy day, chances are u will either wait, or seperate ur group into different tables. The ambience of the restaurant is a bit stuffy and unclean.
Moving on to the food: we usually get Phở or Khao Poon. Their Khao Poon is very delicious. The chicken in it is very soft. I really like how they are shredded as well. Their Papaya Salad (Laos) is excellent to my taste. It has the sweet, salty, lemony taste that u r looking for in a Papaya Salad. I like how the Papaya is shredded into big pieces; so they dont get caught in between my teeth.
Thai/​Vietnamese cuisine is foreign to my taste buds even though I had some of their dishes before. The first time Khao Poon and Papaya Salad were introduced to my taste buds were just two years ago and I grew in loved with it (I came from SoCal and we dont really have these there). I have tasted a variety of them, like home-​made, and from other restaurants, and I got to say that Mister Papaya Kitchen has the best in my opinion. I dont know the authentic taste for them but to me, this place captures my taste buds on Khao Poon and Papaya Salad (Laos) the best!

Best pork belly and phở in town! I always come to this restaurant for pork belly and the number 13 phở combo! Service is quick, friendly and the food is always good!

My wife used to buy papaya salad from here. It was pretty good.(rating only for papaya salad only)

The papaya salad is awesome here… I always order Thai style and request that they make it spicy. The Larb here is on point and the Tom Yum is perfect. I highly recommend this place.

As you have probably learned from the other reviews, this place is a hole-​in-​the-​wall. I went in the dead of winter (and not summer), so I wasn’t frying inside. It also doesn’t seem really clean.
I ordered two Phad Thais for takeout. The young man taking the order was friendly and helpful. I told him that I wanted extra green onions and bean sprouts on both dishes. Once I got home and tossed the noodles, I found out that there were literally zero green onions in both dishes, except for two or three very tiny slivers of it. Instead, I received broccoli, carrots, zucchini, and cabbage. What? For phad thai? And it was super greasy, but the sauce was good.
Overall, it would’ve been five stars if the place was cleanlier, had air conditioning, the food wasn’t greasy, and they could follow through with requests (this last part is huge).

I went to this place to try their pork belly. I found out that they have been out of the crispy pork belly for the last 2 days. But my friends and I ordered other dishes.
Cons:
1). The plates are very old with stains and crack lines on them.
2). One of the waiter had sweats on his nose and on the mustache area which he would discretely wiped on the way to the kitchen.
3). The place is very small, old and very dirty.
4). The a/​c must not be working because there is a huge fan blowing right behind me.
5). Some food taste like its been sitting on the shelf for awhile — like the dessert nabvaam.
Pros
1) the food and price is not bad — order to go might be a better choice so you wouldn’t noticed the above cons.
2). It is very obvious that the crispy belly pork, nabvaam and other packaged food were brought in by the Hmong vendors which is a good thing, especially if you get them when they first came in (the owner is either a Laotioan or Thai).
Will I return? Ummm, for now I will stick with the Laos-​Thai Restauraunt which is 100ft from this one.

I consider myself to be a «phở king», in my travels I’m always looking for the finest quality of phở establishments, I take into consideration: portion, taste, price, atmosphere etc.
Overall: its your typical phở establishment, tight spacing though, more of a eat quick and get out or takeout place. If you don’t mind sitting close next to strangers than this wouldn’t be a bad place to go. The service was fabulous, didn’t wait long at all for the phở. The appetizer came out first, which it should as always, most places do not know how to do this to my surprise. I would reccommend this for phở lovers but not so much for people who don’t like strangers eating with them due to the tables being so close together.

HOT is the main thing I can remember about this place. Air conditioner seems to always be a big problem here, is it too much to ask? I don’t really know. But it would definitely help out the business in the dead of summer.
As for the food, nothing I can say «is to die for». But not BAD either, considering that FRESNO doesn’t have too much Lao/​Thai restaurants to choose from, especially on this side of town. Thai boat barely gets me by, pork belly is deep fried (I prefer roasted).papaya salad is a quite good but I would rather take the drive to Lao Cafe2, since they also put pickled crabs. Mr. papaya is not terrible, but also not mind blowing. Just enough to feed the hunger for Laos food, keep in mind that I said Laos. Definitely not a Thai restaurant, though they do have their own version of Thai dishes (Not Thai owners)… So authenticity is quite not there.
Service is almost nonexistent, so be glad it’s a smaller place, where flagging down service isn’t too difficult. Not rude, actually casual as they take your order but after they bring out your order, they move on to the next order of business. Don’t bother me much, quite used to it here in town.
The cleanliness may cause concern for some people but I can see why. Wouldn’t hurt to be a little cleaner than they are now. And the cash only policy will bug people who don’t have a habit of carrying cash. So 3 stars is my final verdict, wanted to push 3.5 for them but can’t find enough positives.