White Elephant Thai Cuisine

What has happened to this place, I wonder! It used to be amazing in both food and service. Slowly the service deteriorated — they would not come to take the order, it took forever to get the food and then the check. But we still didn’t give up because the food was great. So we lived with the service that went from bad to worse.
Today was the most terrible. We go in and the waiter seats us. He gives us the menu and asks if we would like something to drink in the meantime. So we said we would like iced tea. He brought us the iced tea and asked if we were ready to order. We ordered the Pad kee Mao tofu, which is supposed to be flat noodles with tofu. The guy said ok and you ordered an orange chicken too, right? So we said «no, you just came to take our order, how would we order orange chicken?» So without taking our full order, the guy ran back to tell the kitchen that we «don’t want» orange chicken.
We heard the head waitress say «if your customer changed their mind, they will still need to pay». So my husband walked to the counter to clarify that we never asked for orange chicken, we don’t know where the waiter got that. And the girl said, it’s already in making. We told her we just want pad kee Mao tofu and a green curry with chicken.
And then pad kee Mao tofu is served with 2 plates and the waiter asks, «can I get you anything else?» OMG! Can you guys stop messing up? We ordered a green curry too! And he said «oh its just coming». Ok, can we get silverware to eat? No silverware for 5 mins. i get up and get the silverware myself. We start eating and the flat noodles look like mashed noodles, with clusters of noodles and no limit to oil and grease! Such bad dish.
15 mins later, green curry is served with hardly any chicken… my husband had to stir it 3 times to see that there is a small piece of chicken. So we decided we r not coming back to this place again. What’s the point?
And then to avoid waiting for the check we walk up to the counter to pay. Guess what? Cherry on top — $ 1.50 transaction fee for credit card transaction. Doesn’t matter how much your bill is!
We used to be big patrons of this place but Definitely not going back ever. They just lost their repeat customer in us!

Felt like this restaurant had authenticity the way they welcomed us and also treated us. They were very friendly and hospitable. Has unique ambience and décor. I loved the pot which they served rice in. Green curry was very delicious ! Loved it and definitely will return !

I come here for the crab fried rice and coconut mushroom chicken soup, which are delicious. This place has a nice comfortable and roomy booth seating. It’s pricey for Thai food but it’s located in Thousand Oaks so that’s understandable. They seemed to have gone through a transitional period where it took too long to be seated, food ordered, or to check out but I have noticed that things were handled more smoothly in the last two visits.

So this place is actually cash only.
Food was fine, nothing amazing, and so not worth the hassle that comes with eating there.

It is one thing to have so so food, but another to be told to order a la cart instead of lunch special to get better food! I stop by white elephant after almost 2 years yesterday. We ordered 4 dish out of lunch menu. The pad thai was horrible where we didn’t even eat it. The garlic beef was cold and when I pointed it out to server, they took it and heated it up instead of making new one so it became though and could not eat it. the panang and sweet and sour was just marginal. Overall the food was 1 star at the most.
When I pointed the low quality of the food to server, she suggested to try ala cart next time…
To sum it up, service 1 star, food 1 star…
Will never go back

Has authentic Thai food, but on the pricey side. However, I am not giving it 3 stars due to the price. I recently placed a take out order for lunch– Spicy Fried Rice with Fried Tofu. The total was just over $ 15. Fine, I thought.
I walked into the restaurant after 15 minutes and went straight to the cashier to inform them that I had a pick up order. She looked up my order and was quick to ring me up. So far, no problems. I then asked for the spicy/​chili sauce and for the vinegar with chilies. I asked twice– the first time, the lady ignored me. The second time, she said, «No, we don’t have that.» I was looking at a table full of their condiments– which included all kinds of things along with the vinegar with chilies.
I was so stunned by her refusal to give me vinegar with one dish that I had paid $ 15 for that I walked out without saying anything. I should have asked why they can’t pack 2 teaspoons of vinegar in the little plastic container (similar to what was used for the chili sauce). The lady was extremely rude. I’ve been a customer here for over 3 years. I have never faced such an issue at this restaurant. May be there is a language barrier or she is new but the restaurant management needs to rectify this.
This is not what I would call good customer service. I’m sad because I had recommended this place to so many friends. I had another friend who accompanied me to pick up the order and her her reaction was the same… She said, «Why do you come to this restaurant? The lady was so rude and abrupt. I would give them 0 stars for customer service!!» So yeah… The food is good but is it worth the high cost and rude service?

My review just for food only not the service because I know how suck it is as I have been dining here for years, however I do like the waitress serving me today, she is very nice and polite.
Anyway, if u don’t mind to wait and ignore the service because they may forget you sometime and it take forever to order, you can come here and enjoy the delicious food, I don’t mind sometime because I rather to have good food than bad food and good service, of course I do like good food and great service but if I have to choose one I rather «best food».
Lunch special menu is a must try and Thai fried banana with coconut ice cream.

A hidden gem in the heart of Thousand Oaks. Stumbled upon this place while shopping at the Whole Foods next door. Genuine, home cooked Thai food, as good as I’ve ever had anywhere. Great ambiance once you step inside. Don’t be fooled by the mini mall setting.

Yellow curry very good… thick, creamy n delicious… lunch specials good value…

I’ve been here a few times but after having Exotic Thai near Kohl’s recently, I realized I prefer Exotic Thai. On the last trip, we ordered the Pad Thai, chicken satay, and green curry. The pad thai and chicken satay was good, nothing amazing but still decent. The green curry was bland. Overall, flavors were lacking.

My review is based solely off takeout. We’ve been here many times but it was always to go. My boyfriend loves that Pad Thai, and it’s usually enough for 2 meals. I love the yellow curry. I usually get the level 3 because I tried the 5 once and it was enough to clear my sinuses for all of winter, and probably the rest of my life.
Other items worth eating:
Orange Chicken
Green Curry
Sweet and Sour Chicken
We love this place and will continue to go here.

They may be good but sorry they took 30 mins to get fried banana, that too it’s horrible. Spring rolls which cost in Panda Express for half the price of them are far better n good. The quantity they provided for fried rice is ok for one person and its far less compare to neighboring Thai restaurants.

This is one of my favorite Thai places in the area. The restaurant itself is small yet charming with its elaborate decorations. The food is a little pricey, but always delicious and fresh quality. The purple rice with curry is definitely a must!

Seriously, there are a few things that any restaurant needs to get right…
1) Friendly interaction with Customers… duh — they are paying for your service, right? How about treating them with some minimal amount of gratitude — even if you have to fake it…
2) Acknowledging the Customers waiting at the table to place an order. How about a glass of water, some utensils, or at least acknowledgement that there are live things waiting in your business… waiting to pay you… money!
3) Serving the order in the most logical sequence (appetizers first, entrees second-​bonus points for all at once or at least within a few minutes of each other).
The frosting on this shitcake was the waitress asking how we liked our meal while she handed me the bill. Are you kidding me? It was all I could do from breaking down in laughter and asking what kind of drugs she was on.
This was a strike three scenario. We should have just gotten up and left, but there was some level of diminishing hope that the experience would turn around, or at least with enough beer — wouldn’t be so abysmal. Wrong.
Why places like this stay in business is beyond me; but I will say they do excel at decorations (not food in case that wasn’t obvious).
Consider yourselves warned.

Total bust. –94 8684x stars.
Tom yum Soup and main dishes came out same time. All our food was cold (3 Phuc-​ing dishes). Sent the soup back, never to return! I ended up going to the front and told them to cancel it as we’re finishing our disaster feast of 2015.
The «grilled» salmon with broccoli. Straight up ice cold. And I paid 18ish for that?! I rather get a filet o fish from Mickey-d’s then that sorry excuse for food.
Veggie delight with tofu was warm-​ish, but not hot.
We asked for certain sauces right in the beginning of this disaster of a meal. Eventually after 10 – 15 minutes I got up and got sauce off a different table myself. Advice to management; hire some more people to help out and learn how to serve your customers properly!
I haven’t reviewed in years, I made an exception today on my car ride home from this nightmare.

I have now had 3 consecutive disappointing meals at White Elephant, the most recent was on Wednesday.
First «bad» meal our food took about 40 minutes to arrive at lunch time, the Mgr offered 20% off the check and explained several people called out sick that day.
Next time we came at lunch and they were not serving lunch specials, ordered a salad that came with very overcooked hard boiled egg (completely gray yolk) and burned tofu… sent it back.
Most recently… came with one friend, so table of two; no food came out for about 15 – 20 minutes, a little long for a lunch break. My order came out and after 5 minutes we asked where hers was. Asked again after 10 minutes. Around 15 minutes I walked up to the front to check as no one had brought my friend’s food or given an update. No answer. After 20 minutes my food is cold, friend’s food is not here, mgr (she’d intro’d herself as that on earlier visits) is leaving to make a delivery. I stop her to say I’d like her to inform her server that my friend still needs her meal but should not be charged as it’s been over 30 minutes.
Mgr agrees, speaks to server, leaves.
A few minutes later server asks if we’re cancelling friend’s order. I say NO, we still want her food, but I let your mgr know we shouldn’t pay for her food because it has been over 30 minutes since we ordered.
She says one of two dishes is not ready, I ask her to bring the one that is ready.
Server returns another 5 minutes later to tell me «they don’t have this rule, you still have to pay for food because there isn’t a 30 minute rule»
Except there is NO food. They still have not brought her order. Server then tells me the woman I spoke to is not the Mgr. But is unable to help me speak to the manager, if I want to talk to him I need to wait but I still need to pay for the food.
I literally said «What food?! It’s still not here.»
At this point I have eaten maybe two bites of my food as to not be rude to my friend, so it’s cold. We have been there for an hour without her food ever arriving.
This is simply the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had.

I went here tonight with two of my friends because my friend raved about how good their food was and he gave me fair warning the the service wasn’t good but the food was worth it. Unfortunately it was far from worth it…
It took them over 30 minutes to bring out my spring rolls and I was already finished with my main dish. There server never came in to check on us to see how the food was or to refill our drinks and when my friends tried to get her attention it took us waving her down. Mind you there was only one other table in the restaurant… I do not recommend this place ever.

IMHO, White Elephant has the best Thai food in the area. My absolute favorite menu item is the Panang Curry, which I ordered last night with tofu. It is so delicious! We also had the Wor Won Ton Soup, Chicken Pad Thai and Teriyaki Chicken. Yum! We have had other menu items during previous visits and have never had a bad dish. The food here is absolutely excellent! The restaurant is beautifully decorated, with twinkly lights and glass topped tables.
So why did I only give them 4 stars and not 5?
The service is hit and miss. Sometimes, it’s really good. Last night, it was abominable.
It was crowded when we got there, but the crowd thinned out later on. However, that’s still no excuse for waiting nearly 45 minutes for our order. Finally, we received our soup. When we received the three dishes we ordered, they were placed on the already crowded table with our plates, but nobody took away our empty soup pot and bowls until we flagged over a server (not ours) and asked them to.
Once our food was served, nobody came by to check on us. In fact, when my husband realized we were served white rice instead of the brown rice we ordered, he actually got up and went into the kitchen to flag our server to replace the rice.
Finally, at the end of the meal, the server arrived with her iPad so we could pay the check by credit card. The iPad gives you choices of several tip amounts with totals (15%, 20%, 25% and «Custom»). Note: The suggested tips are based on the cost of the meal including tax.
We are usually generous tippers, but we had already decided that she was not going to get a big tip because of the crappy service. But what really settled it for us was the fact that she stood over us, watching what we were doing as my husband was mentally calculating the tip.
After about two minutes of her standing over us (which was more than twice the amount of time she spent on taking care of us during the meal) my husband politely informed her that she should come back in a few minutes and we would settle the bill.
I was very generous in giving 4 stars, but that was mainly because of the food. If I could rate separately, I would rate 5 stars for the food and 1 for the service. That averages to 3 stars, but the food puts it over the top to 4.
Recommendation: Take out.

Just finished one of the worst Thai dinners ever. Overpriced, boring, bland food. I mentioned to the waiter that the Shrimp salad could use a little more salad and she said «I try not ask about it», Huh??? I said «well I’m asking» as she walked away. The servers are clueless to the needs of the patron.
If you’re looking for authentic Thai food go anywhere besides this place. Go next door to Whole Foods and get a frozen Pad Thai dinner and save yourself some $$$$
Never again.
PS. I forgot to mention that one of the waitresses was wearing daisy duke shorts when we arrived. For those of you that don’t know what «Daisy Dukes» are. They are short, short, short jean shorts that almost show your entire hoo ha if you know what I mean. I would expect this at a Vietnamese Coffee Bar, but not at a family restaurant.

Do not order delivery. It NEVER comes on time.
I really want to give this place higher stars but I can’t. The food is well worth five stars on its own but their customer service is one of the worst. I have never been so poorly treated and I gave them business often spending more than $ 50 each time with at least a 20% tip they did not deserve… When ordering delivery they say about 45 mins but expect two hours. The final straw I had with them was I ordered on a Friday night around 3:30 for as soon as possible so that they wouldn’t have to rush my order. I wasn’t expecting it to be there till about five. Around 5 pm I decided to call because it hadn’t showed and I hadn’t received a call yet. The lady informed us that they were leaving now with our order and should see it very shortly. We live only a 10 min walk from here but since I wasn’t feeling good we choose to do delivery. After 40 mins of it still not arriving we called again saying that around 5 we called in and she told us any minute and now its been 40! She calls the deliverer on another line and they start screaming at one another in another language. Then the lady informs me that she cannot find our address but wait! They have been to our apartment SEVERAL times before this. So the lady says we can either wait till the girl has dropped off the other orders and then drop ours off or we can just cancel. That is NOT customer service. She didn’t offer us anything! We decided to cancel the order because by that point our food was already cold. Food is NOT worth their appalling customer service.