Siam Orchid

Friday night looking to try some Thai. Walked in and no wait staff to be seen, so we stood there for a minute until someone came out and motioned us to sit at the table where we were standing, then disappeared again. Ambiance is silence — no music and the few patrons here were just speaking quietly. While waiting the 10 minutes for the waitress to come by to take our order, another couple came in, also waited a minute then sat themselves down– left after a few more minutes.
Food was meh — extra tangy on the Pad Thai sauce, dry chicken in the curry and extra oily on the fried rice.

So I am really picky with my Thai food, and how could I not be with places like Sala Thai! So we tried them for catering services at my company and they were just ok. I thought their Crab Fried Rice tasted terrible (REALLY fishy). They had soggy dishes (which is common place among catering). They don’t put a lot of the veggie dishes over rice so our vegetarians were much less than happy. We did order through a 3^rd party for delivery, but certainly we were not impressed at all with the taste of the food.

For the price you pay, you expect good quality ingredients but it’s all mediocre. The ingredients are also an odd combination — like, you have a red curry dish on a big bed of cabbage and egg. Of course it’s to make the dish look bigger, but these are weird ingredients to add to a curry dish… Portions are very small for what you pay (all entrees are 20+).
Service: nice servers but not very attentive

This place does serve good food (especially their curry dishes) and the service is in general courteous. My only concern is that during summer/​spring time, the inside always has a couple of flies around, trying to land on your dish any minute, and do manage to do so easily unless you’re constantly fanning them away from your dishes.
The restaurant owner should really do some thing to get rid of those annoying flies not only out of health concern, but also out of good business sense. I know quite a few of my friends who decided not to go there any more as they’re disgusted by the flies around even though they like the food.

This place was short a server when we came and we made reservations, the food was great but it was expensive and very minimal, the service wasn’t great because half the time the waitress did not understand anything we were saying. Food was delicious just needed more for your money especially in the Bay Area plenty of places with a great quality and quantity so yeah I give this place a 3

A gem tucked one block off University.
I’ve lived in three major urban areas before coming to Palo Alto, and this has been, hands down, my favorite Thai restaurant to date.
The vegetables are always fresh and the meats high quality, while the menu includes authentic Thai dishes seldom found on standard American Thai menus. There are also some fun dishes, like the pineapple fried rice – served inside a pineapple with juicy chunks of the fruit infused with a hint of liquor – and the pumpkin curry – served inside of, you guessed it, a small pumpkin. My personal favorites are the kway meow skua gai (wide rice noodle dish available at lunch) and the various eggplant dishes.
The lunch combinations are a great bargain for the University Avenue area, and the intimate family run atmosphere is another refreshing break from the typical fashion food operations of the University Avenue strip. Here the owners, a young Thai couple, prepare your meal themselves, and it is good.

This has the potential to be a really good restaurant — the food is varied and tasty — but it falls short on some key points.
First, while the menu says that many dishes can be converted into veg dishes, it would be better if there could be a veg section of the menu which spelled out the potential selections.
Second, the portion sizes are very small, and the prices very high. The soup for 2 cost $ 15, which is excessive; and our $ 17 entrée had merely 7 – 8 cubes of tofu with a very small amount of sauteed peppers and herbs in a sea of sauce.
Hence, while it was all very tasty, I’d rather go to one of the many other good local Thai places that give clear veg options and more bang for one’s buck.

We have eaten at Siam Orchid 8 or 9 times over the last year. On each occasion the food was superb. Fresh organic ingredients, layered rich and subtle Thai flavors, beautiful plating and gracious service. The best part is that you can have a wonderful conversation over dinner as the restaurant is quiet.

I’ve eaten here 3 times now and every time the experience is more incredible than the last. This is some of the best Thai I’ve ever tasted!
Every dish is remarkably unique, perfectly balanced and is absolutely delicious. Everyone should try the Phanaeng Gai, the Kari Gai and the Gaeng Thong Gai curries. Gaeng Thong Gai is actually served in a mini pumpkin! The organic chicken in the Kari Gai is so tender it melts in your mouth. Be sure to get the coconut rice. Yum!
This is by far one of the best restaurants in the bay area. Check it out!

I’ve had my fair share of Thai food, and the Pa See Ew that I ordered must have been the worst I’ve ever tasted. It was not authentic and tasted nothing like what Pa See Ew should taste like. It was also way over priced, I get it’s all organic and stuff but still. I can’t believe this place is still around. Fail…

We were beyond pleased with our meal here! We used the two entrée, appetizer and wine Groupon. Our waitress was very sweet and attentive, and service was quick. We had one of their appetizer specials, a chicken curry and the Gai Phad Med Mamuang Himmapan.
After reading some mediocre reviews, we didn’t have high expectations, but everything was truly great. Wonderful flavors, meat perfectly cooked and delicious coconut rice! Definitely get the Groupon if still available — our meal would have been over $ 80 otherwise!

Overpriced for sure. Makes sense only with the Groupon (honoring the groupon was no fuss at all, so that’s good).
Food — not very good. Green curry chicken was too hard, yellow curry chicken tasted of too much raw turmeric. Edible, not ‘fine dining’ food.
As such there are not really good Thai places in Palo Alto, one more is off my list.

The food is Ok, not spicy enough and they have some American style dish mixed with Thai sauce or more, it is not outstanding at all.
I don’t think I would pick this place my first choice as there are many more great restaurants close by in downtown Palo Alto.

I walked in and immediately enjoyed the atmosphere. Quiet with some music, and nice setting. The dishes were pretty expensive. $ 20 a plate for not a lot of food really irked me, on top of that, the waitress asked if I would like rice with my meal, and then charged me 4 dollars on top of my meal. I left paying 30 per person for tasty food that didn’t give enough portions to fill me up. Customer service was good though. I enjoyed that. Ooh and hot soju.

I don’t know why it has this low review on Unilocal.I would definitely recommend this Thai restaurant! All of their food are organic, so it is healthy! Also they have good deal on groupon, it gets cheaper when using groupon deal. Service is also fine, and I notified them that we have the groupon. They still treat us nicely!
What I ordered: Tom yum soup, very strong taste, I would recommend it. Small size is enough. Cashew but chicken, very tasty, one of the top menu items. This would be better to eat with rice. Eat it alone would be too salty. Lobster tail pad Thai, daily special. Very fancy look! Pad Thai noodle is so delicious!
This restaurant is awesome for delicious and creative Thai food as well as nice service!

Having read the reviews before coming here, I definitely got to order the best dishes. They were as amazing as the previous reviews said. My boyfriend and I went on a Friday night. Thank goodness we made a reservation because every table was full.
Both the dishes we ordered were amazing and the service was incredibly sweet and friendly. They definitely class up the restaurant with their nice bathroom and attention to aesthetic detail.
I guess what made this place a 5-​star was that they were willing to accommodate our coupon even though it had recently expired. They couldn’t, understandably, give us the whole discount, but it was close enough to not make the difference a heartache for us since the place was pretty pricey for two college students.
Compared to what other reviews have said, my boyfriend and I both came out very full and happy. We only order two entrees and 2 sides of rice and it was plenty. And trust me, my boyfriend like to eat quite a bit. Yes, it’s a bit more expensive and we can’t afford it normally, but with the coupon it was great and we’d love to come back if we can find another. (:

We went on a Saturday night and the restaurant was full so we had to wait a while but let’s start with the positive aspects. The food quality was nice, not spectacular, but certainly good.
The small soup ($ 8) was Tom Kha Gai (Spicy coconut milk soup served with organic sliced chicken breast, galangals, homegrown lemongrass, homegrown Kaffir lime leaves, organic tomatoes, organic mushrooms, roasted dry chili, and organic cilantro) and fairly good, although it came out with our main course.
We also had the chicken satay appetizer ($ 10). Very small for the price (more on the pricing later).
Pananeng Gai ($ 17) was one of our curry entrees (Organic sliced chicken breasts sautéed in Phanaeng curry sauce with organic red & green bell pepper, topped with coconut milk and shredded Thai basil leaves). This was above average and we would probably order it again.
The best entrée we tried was Gai Phad Bai Khaprao ($ 16) which is Sautéed organic chicken breast with Thai basil, chili, organic onion and organic bell pepper. Very good.
Throw in Jasmine rice and drinks and the food quality was good.
BUT…as other Unilocal reviews have noted, most items are priced too high. It’s a small restaurant and limited space (almost no space for waiting). Service was slow but friendly. It seems they could have used at least one more server.
Even though it’s not on University Avenue (it’s on Hamilton), the location may partly explain the high prices but realistically for these prices, one should expect a higher fine dine experience.
I agree with many other reviewers they would benefit from lowering prices to increase demand. Although the food was good, not sure I would return unless it was with a special deal.

I totally should have listened to my boss when she said the service/​prices will get you upset. We specifically ordered from the LUNCH SPECIAL menu with the waiters assistance that states to order 1 appetizer and 1 entrée for $ 18.95, why did we get charged for 4 items a la carte? Wow it came out to $ 60! And when I brought it to their attention, they said that is not how we ordered. What?! They did not even offer
to amend their mistake. From seeing other reviews, seems like they do this on the regular. The waiter was the one who helped us order, which is wrong the manager/​waiter would swindle us like this. I knew this was going on Unilocal=That is not good business practice, especially since we did not order a la carte! $ 60+ or lunch?
I don’t mind paying if that what I ordered, but seriously the principle alone is bad
Unilocal kharma!
I knew there was something about this place since I keep seeing Groupon/​Living Social offers to wrangle more people to come in. The food is ok, not worth these prices.
Do yourself a favor, skip Siam Orchid.

Food is great and I feel the quality is good. Unfortunately the price is too high compare to other restaurant. I would give a 5 star on the food quality, but 1 star on the price which is extremely too high. Is very quite location which is not located on the university.
Not to forget to give a thumb up on the Thai Ice Tea, is perfect taste and worth it for $ 3
I will consider to come back again

Due to so many daily deals circulating for Siam Orchid, I decided to give them another try with an Amazon Local voucher. Behold, the most epic disaster diner ever.
We are seated at a pretty table with only one other couple across from us in the restaurant. We are comfortable and nice music is playing in the background.
I inquire about the prawn salad ($ 15), asking if it’s an entrée. Insert huge miscommunication. 30 minutes later, I am brought a plate with 5 prawns placed in 5 spoons. Wait, what? I ask the waitress (different person than who took our order) and she apologizes profusely for the mix-​up. She says he did not explain the dish properly and its their fault. I order a new dish. I can hear her yelling at the gent who took my order back in the kitchen. Yikes.
In the mean time my boyfriend has finished his beef curry entrée, which was absolutely delicious, albeit overpriced for the small portion.
To make up for the error, they comp me another glass of wine (sweet!). Finally, out comes my salmon. Beautifully presented along side a small salad and three onion rings, I go to take a bite… and it’s completely raw.
It gets sent back and again, the waitress (who I’m assuming is the owner) again, apologizes profusely. Finally another 10 minutes goes by and out comes my perfectly cooked salmon. Fortunately, it was insanely good. Easily one of the best pieces of salmon I’ve ever had.
To apologize for the disastrous evening, they bring out a complimentary dessert of fried bananas drizzled with honey and sesame seeds. It’s delicious.
Will I come back? I’m not sure. Did they put in a great effort? Definitely.
I wish them well, as they are excellent cooks (when things are cooked), but they might do better if they lowered their prices and sped things up a bit in the kitchen. Also, don’t advertise something as a salad when it is anything but!
To be totally fair, without the freebies, this would have been a 1 or 2 star experience.