Arunee Restaurant

Hoping to redeem a bad experience from my last visit, well, not only did they disappoint but they failed big time. The chicken bbq did not come out of a grill… It was served hot on the outside but cold inside. The waiter/​owner took it back. Apologized profusely, served it back five minutes after. I hate wasting food but quite frankly I lost my appetite having served reheated food. This Arunee is not the same as the one we used to patronize in the 80’s. I am not coming back to this place EVER!

Delivery order was prompt! Food was tasty. Spicy level was on point as requested. Chicken satay was delicious. Spicy eggplant with pork hit the spot.

I love Arunee!!! They have the best Thai food. My family has been following Arunee around Los Angeles for the last 40 years or more because the food is so good and now we are so happy to find the newest reincarnation here on Virgil. The parking is easy, centrally located, and spacious restaurant.
Try the seafood green curry… Omg so good.
Thanks Patty for feeding us all these years.

I sincerely think they brought me something microwaved from the day before. I ordered the crab noodles delivered along with one of the dinner specials (#4).
The crab noodles were basically just a hard block. The cilantro/​parsley on top was wilted into the noodles. The lettuce on the bottom was wilted and disgusting. I only are a little bit and my stomach is in cramps.
There’s no way I will ever eat here again. I shouldn’t even have eaten any of this — I had already had some when I found the gross lettuce.

Great and speedy service. Have been coming to them for years. Food is delicious– kids enjoy coming here! Great ambience and great for groups. Service is fantastic!!!

This place is amazing! Best Thai food in Los Angeles! I had the pad see ew, seafood soup, egg rolls, combination rice, and Thai tea!
Everything was delicious. The pad see ew: The beef was tender and perfect, the noodles were so flavorful and just the right texture. The seafood soup was indescribable, very strong and tasty lemon grass based soup (I got no chili-it’s optional)
The portions can be shared but you won’t want to share. The Thai tea is perfect from here too.
The staff has the awesome service, very genuine people.
I talked to a woman behind the counter who told me that they have a history in LA as the first Thai restaurant in LA.
So much history attached to this place, one of their earlier restaurant locations was even burned down in the LA riots.
I wish I lived closer so I can eat here every day!

I eat a lot of Thai food this restaurant is just as good as any of the other top of the thai food chain.

Very friendly servers and the food is amazingly. Very authentic, very large portion and great atmosphere.
Fast service and good price too.
Personally enjoy their fried rice and tomyam very much.

«Arunee» has been our favorite Thai Restaurant since the 90’s. When first we patronized there, they were at two locations on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, CA.
One location was just South of 4^th Street’s SW corner. Right across from Sizzler’s.
The other location was further South from there at the corner of Vermont and 9^th Street (aka: James M. Wood Blvd.) on the second floor of the strip mall. Then we lost track of them. But we found them where a KFC was built on the corner in a tight strip mall on Virgil & Silver Lake Blvd.
They have an extensive offering and they all look fabulous. However, we have come to prefer their «Siete Mares» spicy soup (Seafood Soup). The Shrimp fried Rice is delectable. Chinese Broccoli with Fried Pork will have you licking your chops. Squid Salad has a unique exotic flavor. Their plate of Garlic Fried Riblettes (sic) has my mouth H2Oing as I type. This place is service minded. Don’t be stingy with the tip.

My friends were craving seafood soup and remembered about this place that closed down that they could never find. After a bit of investigating they found the place online and we made the trip.
We came here on a Friday night and the place was empty. It was a bit weird to eat in that sort of environment, but the best part was that we were seated quickly and our food came out at a decent time.
This restaurant is very homey. I liked the fact that there was a lot of Thai culture displayed around the restaurant. They had beautiful tapestry, portraits and figurines. They also have two fish tanks with beautiful goldfish.
The parking situation is very weird. It says that you can only stay for a maximum of 25 minutes before you get towed, which is weird because how can one dine in under 25 minutes. I’m not sure if parking is enforced, but there is always street parking, if you can find a spot.
The food was pretty good. I would say that this is one of the better Thai food places. The seafood soup was tasty, as was the pad see ew and the egg rolls. I wasn’t a fan of the Thai tea or the chow mien. The Thai tea didn’t taste like any Thai tea I’ve ever had, so I probably wouldn’t order it ever again. The chow mien has a peanut taste, sort of like pad Thai, so personally, I didn’t enjoy it that much.
The staff was pretty friendly. The owner of the store is super sweet and she told us about how the restaurant has moved to several locations in the past years. You can tell that she really loves her job and what she does.
Great Thai restaurant to come to, if you’re ever in the area.
They are going to be closed for two weeks, as the owner is going to visit her mom in Korea, so if you want to grab a bite here, you’ll have to wait while.

Arunee is just the best! Me and family have been coming here to this restaurant for almost 20 years. from the shrimp fried rice, to the seven seafood soup, and especially the bbq pork ribs that we always look forward to. I couldn’t recommend a better place to eat thai food then arunees. In my opinion, I always believed that arunees is better than ocha in terms of service & quality of food. Anyone thinking of giving it try to this place, I say definitely go for it.

Ordered delivery.
When the delivery guy showed up he said,
«You’re order of egg rolls comes with 4 but there is one in my mouth… But here’s a free Thai iced tea for you.»
First of all I ordered over $ 20 so the drink is free anyway as it says on the menu.
Secondly, how unprofessional and disgusting of him. I can only imagine what he did to my food that he didn’t admit to.
He smelled like he lack proper hygiene, definitely should not be the representative for their delivery team…
To top it off the egg rolls were the worst I have had in quite a while.
Tom kha Kai soup was average, and the pad see ew was decent.
Never ordering here again.

Would have given zero stars. Poor service. Poor food quality. Greasy egg rolls which literally taste like old grease. Noodles tasted like old egg. Service was extremely slow, which is maybe okay if they are super busy. No. They were not. My party and 2 other tables is all that were there. Asked for napkins. No napkins. No water refill. All of their sauces were old and watered down. Very rude people. I regret the 45 min i spent here.

I really hate when I order lots of food to make the minimum order to full the coupon but comes paying time they don’t accept the coupons saying they canceled it.
If they cancel it
would email me saying it’s canceled but they didn’t.
I orders too much food and shouldn’t have came here. After month of them saying they canceled
, they are still listed there. It seems like it’s a ploy to make you come, order excess food and then they surprise you to say they won’t take your certificate. That’s messed up. Low ball to make ppl come in. That’s shear desperation to get business.

Was disappointed. Ordered the food which is lack of freshness. Send it back and get the new one so still not better. And then came the bill which she charged me on sale tax 9.75%??? And when I ask her why charge me that high? She said; that it was set in her machine!!! I showed her sale tax from my phone but she don’t believe! She let me waited to find out the answer. OMG!!! Terrible service ever which no sorry to me at all!!!

Wonderful! This is one of the best Thai places I’ve been to yet. Started out with the chicken satay for an appetizer. Main dishes were special fried rice which had Chinese sausage, beef, and shrimp. It was perfect. Also had combo pad cew, and chop suey. All in all everything was perfect. We only finish3d about ²⁄₃ of what we ordered. The serving sizes are very generous.

Since Arunee seems to change locations, the Arunee of September 2014 is at the corner of Virgil & Temple in a little strip mall with limited parking that states «30 minutes only», but I would like to think that if you are eating here, the enforcement will be waived. I can’t think of gobbling down my food in less than 30 minutes which would make for rather uncivilized dining. Street parking is tough since this intersection is transected by 3 different streets so that the traffic circulation is busy & complex, and parking is restricted. Not sure where the nearest street parking would be if the strip mall parking lot is full.
The interior of Arunee seems clean, utilitarian, clinically bright from from the overhead fluorescent lights. There is an odd assemblage of Japanese «Inviting Cats» with one paw up, framed Korean fan, Chinese & Thai objets d’art, kitschy fat god of good luck as well as the ubiquitous honored «shrine» for the Thai royal couple. There are well maintained aquaria, one housing tropical fish & the other goldfish with an enormous black fantail that has long fins & moved in stately, undulating motion like that of an elegant black diaphanous curtain moving in a languid breeze.
It was a summer night where daytime temperatures had reached the upper 90’s, and even at close to 10pm, the air conditioner was barely working so be forewarned that it can get somewhat warm inside. I did take out so I can’t talk much about the service except that it was efficient & quick since there were only 7 customers, and it was near closing time.
1) Stuffed Chicken Wings: The chicken wing is completely deboned except for the tip. The cavity left behind is stuffed with a forcemeat mixture of pork, glass noodles, finely slice carrots, cabbage, onions, flavoured with Nampla/​fish sauce, garlic, white/​black pepper, possibly a touch of ginger. The outside of wing is breaded & fried. There is a sauce that seems to be made of Thai sweet chile sauce & a bit of nampla & ground peanuts.
Basically not a bad dish, but it seemed to have been over-​fried so that the chicken meat & the forcemeat became dry & hard. The over-​frying also seems to have cooked out the aromatic herbs/​spices so the flavours were lost. This is where the deft touch by a competent chef is so important. Cook it too much & get leather while undercooking might lead to salmonella poisoning. Cooking it just right is an art.
2) Pad Thai seems to be the national Siamese dish at least here in Los Angeles. Usually most Thai restaurants tend to be too heavy on the sauces making for extremely salty food. The surprise at Arunee is that the spicing of the Pad Thai is unexpectedly bland. It is is rice pasta dish similar to fettucine in shape that is stir-​fried with garlic, nampla, touch of tamarind paste, stir-​fried egg, sugar, vegetables such as raw bean sprouts, cilantro, shredded carrots, etc. Ground peanuts & a lime wedge for adding more gastrique is offered on the side.
I had to take this Pad Thai & doctor it up at home. I sautéed more garlic, onions, broccoli florets with nampla, oyster sauce, & Mae Pranom Brand Thai Chile Paste which consisted of dried shrimp & tamarind. I tossed the Pad Thai from Arunee in with the above mixture, and finally the flavours of the Pad Thai came through. To their credit, the pork meat was not over-​cooked so the meat was soft, plump, moist, and the portion size of this dish was generous.
I must say that Yai in Hollywood has a better taste profile and the prices & portions are comparable. Good enough neighborhood place if you live close to Arunee, but not enough to draw me there from afar. 3– Unilocal stars.

Clean cozy place; great food with generous servings; good prices; fast and friendly service. Great combo selections on lunch and dinner specials. Great to have choices on level of spices, not salty nor greasy. Also very convenient and have good parking structure. My family and friends are now «regulars» here and would gladly recommend to anyone to try their wide variety of excellent dishes sure to please everyone’s taste.

Same great Arunee taste, same good Thai food. The owners of Arunee have yet again moved their location but have not changed their great Thai cooking. They recently just moved from K-​Town (I think the old location was 6^th street) to this new location off Virgil and Silverlake Bl.
I actually like this location more even though the the corner is a bit busy. If you know the area, the old establishment was a KFC (RIP KFC). This new location is better suited for Arunee (I think) because it’s less crowded in this strip mall and there’s not a lot of competition here. The old place was full of Korean establishment and never had parking since the strip mall was always packed.
The menu? Well it’s the same good Thai food you’ve come to love with Arunee. For you non-​Thais out there: good for the large seafood soups, fried rice and of course the chow meins! For you authentic Thai food lovers, order the pad thai, the garlic chili (gra-​pow) beef or chicken and order their yummy curries!
Chat it up with the owner as well, she doubles as the cook. If you’re a regular, she’ll remember you and will always come out and say hello when she’s not frying up the wok!
I hope this move suits Arunee and brings in more customers! Good luck!

THIS BUSINESS IS CLOSED.
The fact that their food was mediocre at best, and that they seemed to have some ethical problems with honoring prices printed on their menus, none of that matters now. They gone. Bye-​bye.
It’s too bad. The Arunee restaurants had a long a fairly well respected history here in Los Angeles. The first Arunee location on Vermont was the very first place I had Thai food back in the 1970’s and I learned to love that cuisine there. But when we tried this most recent location — four different times — we were always disappointed.