Busaba Eathai Marylebone

My boyfriend and I have been traveling in England for about a week, and so far, the food has been fantastic– until we came here. I was craving Asian food and the tube was slammed so we opted to come here bc it was close. Bad idea. The service is HORRIBLE. You have to yell to talk to the person next to you. ALWAYS asking for water, wtf! I shouldn’t have to ask for water 4x and the last time I asked for water and the check as well, the waiter I guess decided to not bring it bc I had asked for the check as well. If you’re going to do the communal table, then they need to break into sections. There are way too many people for the service to be this shitty. The food wasn’t even ok. The saving grace was the tom yum soup. This spot is definitely not worth it and I regret not attempting the crowd for something else.

Another chain! You don’t say! I do say, and it’s a good one too. I love Busaba Eathai. How do you actually say it anyway?
I’ve eaten a lot of things here, and actually enjoyed every single thing I’ve tried. Something I love about this place is that all the dishes are very noticeably different, but they all taste great.
Some of my favorite:
crab fried rice, green curry, vegetarian curry, chicken butternut squash, chili prawn, phad phak
Honestly though, anything you get from here is delicious. It’s also a fun restaurant because the portions are smaller so you’re encouraged to get a few per person and share. The seating is communal so there’s a big table with benches, it can get noisy but it’s also kind of intimate in a way. And at the front they have incense which kind of puts you in another world as you enter the restaurant.

Visited a couple of years ago and remember really enjoying the food, happen to be passing by so thought i would do a revisit…
Had to wait anout 20mins for a table around 1pm. we were seated on their usual shared seating type table… the waiter eventually brought us our menus… and returned after more then 10mins to take our order… Good ambiance and you can see the chefs hard at work in the kitchen…
Had the calamari which was good… the phad thai… which was extremely oily and asked for a red chicken curry which they did not have but the waiter suggested the jungle curry which did not come with rice ao we ordered that as extra… the jungle curry was really disappoiting and the meat did not have the best of tastes… overall left with a really unsatisfied heavy unhealthy taste in my mouth… and when considering how much we paid was definitely not worth it by any standard. will not return… kind of sad as the food was really good last time i came…
To top it off it was a busy lunch time so service was poor as well…

At our first day in the city we got a little hungry and asked the first random person on the street for any recommendation. It turned out she was a food blogger and recommended Busaba. We had the lunch specials and were satisfied all the way. Tasty staters, a small main course assembled with some lemongrass tea in a very welcoming atmosphere.
Perfect place for a light snack or probably even a full meal.

Best Asian food I have ever had in London. The local is super nice as well. Definitely suggested!

Very good as always but they need to slow down when they serving the food, we ordered 3 starter and 3 main and all came in one shot, so the main was nearly cold when we finished the starter.
They have to change just the «Fast Food» attitude, the rest it’s impeccable.

I’m a big fan of Busaba, it is slightly on the pricey side for the food. But it tastes good and is well presented. There are lots of options on the menu for people that don’t eat meat and don’t like their food too spicy.
The restaurant is nicely lit with candles and incense is burning giving it a nice calm atmosphere and an authentic feel. The tables are communal style and it’s likely that you will have to share with other diners, but usually you can still have a audible conversation.
The staff were friendly and attentive and ensured we had enough tap water during our visit. I’m quiet excited that there is now an app and it offers loyalty points — yay my favourite.

The place is lively but the Thai is okay. Not the best Thai I’ve had and I have had a lot in the U.S. The pad Thai was nothing to die for but the chili beef and rice was very good. Their mocktails were interesting! May not got there again unless the food improves.

thai food in london? yes why not?
ordered:
*pad thai– 8.50 YUM. definitely a hit to this Unilocalers eye and tummy! when it was bought out i didn’t have very much expectations but i loved it!
*songkhla red curry w/​beef– 10.90 — surprisingly really good!!! i totally recommend this dish if you are a fan of curry. i totally licked this bowl clean. it was SOOOO yummy in my tummy. there’s not a lot of beef FYI.
*ginger beef-9.50 this is a very small portion made with very little beef. i felt like there was more mushrooms if anything. but overall the ginger beef was okay. nothing super special in my POV
*rice set green curry w/​grilled chicken– 9.90 this dish wasn’t bad however because the red curry was so good that i can’t say i would wanna recommend this.
*jasmine rice– 2.50 which really is a small bowl of rice
overall, portion size is quite small. as you can tell we ordered 4 dishes to do a family style between the 4 of us. at least the hubby and i felt a little hungry still. so i would probably suggest that you don’t do family style. everyone should just eat their own dish. i wasn’t a huge fan of the table layout. imagine a picnic table type. so you’ll probably be sharing a table with others.
tips:
*separate male and female restrooms. female restroom has tons of stalls.
*located on a corner.
*indoor seating only.
*street parking
*this is a chain restaurant.
*does not have thai ice coffee or thai ice tea
*free wifi
*serves alcohol
*cash and credit cards accepted
*they have gluten free options
*10% gratuity is is added to the bill
*they have a wall where you can hang your jackets and put your strollers
*they make you put on an umbrella bag if you have a wet umbrella.

Nice environment, decent pad thai, will try again next time~

Recommended by a friend, we decided to try this chain.
I loved the ambience & seating arrangements of the place. We came at an earlier dinner time, so it wasn’t too crowded.
We ordered the calamari, pad thai, and fish curry dishes. We aren’t into spicy so got mild for both mains. We got the pad thai and fish curry first. Mmm. They use thin noodles for the pad thai which was awesome. So delicious and not drenched in sauce like many Asian fusion places I’ve tried. The fish curry was also very delicious, so soft and well paired with the curry.
They brought the calamari as a side rather than as an app for some reason, but it was also quite delicious — a decently large portion, too.
Top notch Thai food, a bit on the expensive side, though I’d love to come back here again.

Very good and authentic Pad Thai. Chicken satay is excellent. Service is always consistently outstanding.

I normally would’ve given this place 4 – 5 stars, but I went twice in one week and the inconsistency is terrible. My first meal was sooo good! Probably the best thai place I’ve eaten in London. I swear all ethnic food is a bit rubbish! But I was so glad I stumbled upon this spot between Oxford street shopping. The first time, I decided to get a noodle dish; my favorite is pad thai or pad see ew, but I saw they had this starred version — which included crab meat. Obviously, it was clear to me to splurge. I went home and was pleasantly surprised that the noodle was a good consistencies, the spice was a good level and had plenty of shrimp and tofu! (not so much crab meat, but that was expected)
My second encounter was last night, I was famished from shopping. I was looking forward to eating this in the comfort of my home tonight so I decided to order more (and for 1 — lonely, I know). I got the regular pad thai and green curry + rice. The pad thai was the biggest disappointment, it wasn’t spicy at all! Complete 180 from last week’s dish. I was scrambling to see if I had any hot sauce in the hotel cuz it was soooo bland. Secondly, the green curry didn’t have much substance. It had very little corn and peas — I’m used to the regular bamboo shoots, bell peppers version. It was bad, but definitely did not give enough rice for how thick the curry was. The spice level was medium, but it definitely lacked vegetables or something to add to the dish. All in all, I’m pretty disappointed that I wasted stomach space for this. Definitely try something new next time.

Erst haben wir’s gar nicht gesehen. Aber der Italiener an der Ecke zeigte auf diesen schwarzen Klotz dort drüben, das sei ein Restaurant. Also liefen wir skeptisch rein, und wurden sehr positiv überrascht!
Ein edel-​anmutendes Ambiente, eine gute Speisekarte, und schneller Service. Wir bestellten Tee (Ingwer-​Honig-​Tee unbedingt probieren!) und Curry mit Reis. Reis und Curry kamen separat in Töpfen, und so waren wir zu dritt mit Curry und Tee von diversen Töpfchen umgeben und genossen jeden Bissen.
Wenn ich das nächste Mal in London bin, muss ich unbedingt wieder hierhin kommen!

Great food, excellent prices. The chicken wings are the best in town. It is the best place for a quick lunch after shopping on oxford street

I really really really liked this place! to the extent that I was actually there the night after this check in too!
Really busy and quite noisey but it had its own vibe which was nice. The food was tremendous and they also served some really nice ginger tea. I had the squid, broccoli and salmon teriyaki which was really nice. Don’t judge me, I run miles and miles and miles every week, I gotta eat too!
How refreshing to stumble across a place that didn’t look like much from the outside but was unreal on the inside!
Definitely will be back.

For one of those informal, mix it up type of places where you share bench seats and big tables, this place is still really stylish. Great lighting — low enough to be complimentary and mood enhancing, but good enough to see what you’re eating.
And what you’re eating is pretty impressive, considering BE is a chain. I’ve been to one of the other branches in Soho and the food didn’t compare with this. This is really decent cooking. Not perfect but good enough to find yourself thinking about it the next day and planning a return visit.
Thai calamari (why oh why they felt the need to use ‘calamari’ I’ll never know — squid would have been fine, after all, it’s not a Thai/​Greek restaurant) was good but a little over-​cooked. Mango & chilli salad was fab — fresh, lime zesty and tangy with enough chilli to wake up the senses but not overpower them.
Satay chicken was seriously good. The thigh meat was incredibly succulent and moist — much tastier than breast in my opinion — and cooked to perfection. The lamb curry (similar to a Massaman) was to die for. Th lamb was delicate and perfectly tender, next to big chunks of potato in a rich, creamy sauce that had a gentle kick. Sticky rice was way too sticky — think they’d overdone it — but underneath the curry sauce, it got away with it.
Another visit very soon I suspect.

We were shopping at Selfridges during «the» sale, which obviously made us famish! Headed over to Busaba for lunch. The 3 of us shared a table w/​4 other people. Initially, I wasn’t sure if it would be too difficult to have a conversation. We were fine.
We ordered:
— Pad Thai
— Green Curry Chicken
— Jungle Chicken
— jasmine rice
— coconut rice
The pad thai was nice. Not too sweet, nor too sour — just right. Jungle chicken was really nice with the aubergine/​eggplant. My personal favorite was the green curry — nice and tastey. Coconut rice definitely was flavorful.
Would recommend going — but just be aware that you’ll probable be sharing a table!
Cheers!

Tasty Thai food!
Pros… The food is well seasoned and flavoursome. (spicy)
The classic dishes are, Thai green curry and pad Thai, loving there style of calamari.
The drinks are lovely especially the Guava Bellini. (small in size but packs a punch).
The Cons… Sharing a big table with various other diners. (stop looking at me) lol
I must admit over the years they had more of a wide range menu, but the menu has been limited to the various classic dishes.
One of the drinks they used to offer was Cherry bollen soda, love it! Has been removed.(Not happy.)
Overall it is one of my spots to go to in west-​end after a long day shopping, to catch up with my friends and enjoy some tasty dishes.

Always happily surprised by Busaba.
Trendy, attractive interior decoration
Plenty of choices — originial yet not too sophisticated thai food
Great portion sizes (option to ask for a doggy bag if you have left overs)
Good service
I guess I have been lucky because I never experienced a line.
I take one star off for the communal tables which are great for conviviality but not too much if you want something more intimate.
In a nutshell: more 5 stars than 4 really. Wish 4.5 were an option

I always remembered this place for having great food from my uni days, and on a recent trip back to London I was craving the spinach and tofu. The line, around 9:30, was almost out the door, as usual.
When we sat down to order they didn’t have the spinach and tofu. We then tried to order the broccoli and was told again that they didn’t have it. We ordered the silken tofu, pad Thai jay and Morning glory. Thought all was good until our waiter came back to tell us that they were out of silken tofu. They offered us a free dish. Food wasn’t the same. I’d still go back to try for the spinach and tofu, but maybe hit up the one on Wardour Street. I’ve had better service at that location.