Thai Dara

I’ll Go into detail for those who care to read, but the short and sweet is that this used to be my favorite, but since the change in ownership, the service has gone to an unacceptable level.
First off, for background, I love thai food, and I especially loved that this hole in the wall amazing food was close enough to my workplace (7 – 10 min drive) to let me get spicy, tasty, amazing food within my hour break. I would visit here at least every other week, and at times one a week. The former owner’s staff would know what I was ordering as soon as I sat down and since I normally eat along chat with me about the business and their lives.
I’ve come back several times since the new owners took over, and while the menu changes and needing to request the check at the end of the meal were annoyances, they were not deal breakers.
The fist of my terrible experiences was with a waitress who initially seemed to be pretty good. The place was more crowded than normal so I could understand some delays, but she was prompt in taking my order. I ordered my usual Pud Se Ewe with Chicken (the food will always be amazing) and the lunch order comes with soup, and I asked for the chili paste and fish sauce at the same time (because I cannot eat food unless it burns my mouth). The soup arrived, but no chili past or fish sauce. I waited, hoping that the waitress would bring me the sauces, but she did not return and I determined that I would just need to eat the soup without sauce. When my Pud Se Ewe arrived, I again requested the sauces; however, she brought me the sauces which do not include the fish sauce, so I requested it again. She immediately picked up the sauces and walked away. I was disappointed with this, because I could have at least used the chili paste and flakes to begin «dressing» the dish, but I was left with nothing, so I did not touch the meal. I continued to wait and watch my waitress walk around the restaurant, filling water glasses, cleaning tables, and so when she was assisting the table next to me I again requested the sauces, to which she took the sauces from the table with people at it and nearly slammed it on my table, saying «fish sauce.» I apologized to the neighboring table and her trying to state that I was not aware that there was only one sauce plate with fish sauce, but she had already left. After this interaction, she did not return. Not to fill my water glass, to pick up my empty plate, or to pick up my credit card. All of which I had placed on the edge of the table in an attempt to get her attention. Due to my need to return to work, I walked up to the front counter to pay, where I was ignored, until I asked to pay. No words were said to me and no eye contact was made, which left me with a very poor reaction.
I have been back once more, and this visit nailed the coffin closed for me and Thai Dara. I arrived to find a large group of eight in the restaurant, but unworried because they already have their soups so in theory already have their orders in. I sat down and the waitress was about to bring me the menu when I said that I didn’t need it, because I knew what I wanted. She never approached me again. I sat at my table and saw that it was quite busy with deliveries being made, to-​go orders being picked up, and the large group. But it was crazy to me how I wasn’t never addressed again, was not brought water, and completely ignored. After about 15 minutes I finally approached the waitress as she stood behind the counter at what seemed to be a more quiet moment, and asked to order, to which she told me to wait another minute. I looked at her skeptically, because I had already waited several minutes, but when she implored again that it would only be a minute, I sat back down. After an addition ten minutes, I gave up and walked out.
I have determined that the new owners of Thai Dara either do not know how to higher staff that know how to do an appropriate job, or they do not value the repeat customers who have brought numerous coworkers and friends to their restaurant.
I will never return, and I will recommend anyone who asks to go to a different thai restaurant (there are a few within a stones throw of Thai Dara) because my time and custom is to valuable to be ignored for half an hour.

My go-​to place for lunch special, the food is good and the price is fair.

Good food. Terrible attitude. Looooooong wait. Forget to go orders. 1 hour PLUS! You’ll be starving by the time you get your order. I think we’ll go elsewhere for Thai from now on.

Some of the worst Thai food ever and service was horribly lacking. Thai Red Curry had No flavor and they tried twice. One table got the wrong food set down and was tasted by the table… Then picked up and delivered to the right table Yuk! Seriously wondering how their still in business! If you like good enough Thai food try Thai Paradise its probably the best we have to offer in South Orange County! BTW — Tom Kha was below average!

After months of my boyfriend raving about Thai Dara, and being on a huge Tom Kha soup kick, we ate here on a Sunday evening. He usually orders take out and I think we’ll stick to that in the future because while the food was good, and the Tom Kha soup was phenomenal, the service was slow and confusing. I’m not sure if its a language barrier, my quiet voice, or the waitress is hard of hearing but she was puzzled with everything we ordered… the tea, the yellow curry, the soup, and dessert. Not that she was rude, but rather aloof. Great food for a great price though, I just highly recommend take-​out, or patience.

Great thai restaurant best in south Orange county. Rich flavors great service highly recommend it. Spring shrimp rolls with peanut sause fantastic. Mandarin cury cant get enough of. Prices are very reasonable.

I just don’t know why anybody would go to this place when you could go to Thai This right up the street.

Our family has been eating here back when it was «Thai That» (funny dig on Thai This” up the street). We have a love/​dislike relationship with this place. They have really good food and fair pricing. But the service (takeout or dine in) is always the worst. I can think of nothing that I or my family might have ever done that warrants such rude customer service, but we get it every time. So much so that we are starting to debate paying more to go to «Thai This» up the street and they are much closer to us anyway. I have resolved that either we are just unlucky in catching the «lady» in her moods or someone in our family looks like someone they don’t like. It’s kind of like a «Soup nazi» situation for us. We love the food, but we are scared to go there. ;)

Very mediocre food. Ordered Pad Thai and it was bland, not flavorful at all, undercooked noodles, too much noodles in proportion to the other ingredients. Disappointing.
On the bright side it has nice ambiance and is cozy.

Perfect Thai food! My husband just returned from Thailand and he said it was so authentic and the owner confirmed that they get all their spices from overseas. Try the sample platter appetizers, Tom ka soup, and green jungle curry with chicken. Fantastic! Pretty little place with 8 tables inside and 2 outside. Best Thai in Dana Point!

I went here after a long day at the beach and was super excited to have Thai food! The decorations and ambience set a really cool thai feeling and vibe. We had the pad thai, which was sweeter than i like it. The chicken was super tender and delicious though! We also had the tom yum soup, which was absolutely delicious, but it didn’t have enough of a lemongrass taste. It came in a cool metal fire donut bowl thing which was really neat! Overall the food was kinda decent, but I think I would rather go to chronic tacos!

Yummy, yummy! We have been to every thai place around, and this is the best. We had fried tofu, pad se eu, crying tiger, wonton soup, honey chicken and fried rice. We wanted the yellow curry, but forgot to order it! Oops. Was going to tell the waitress, but we were so stuffed by the time our last dish came out. For desert we had the sticky coconut rice with coconut ice cream. This one is usually served with mango, but they happened to be out of mangos today. Bummer, but the ice cream was equally delicious. Clean restaurant and good service.
Will be back again!

I live down the street and love this place, it’s fresh, portions are a nice size and everyone is always so kind. My favorite is green curry, spicy noodles and crying tiger! Visit you really won’t regret it.

We enjoyed great food and atmosphere. The Seafood Pad Thai was magical. Defiantly will come back when will be in the area again.

This used to be our go-​to for Thai takeout. It was really good! The last time I ordered from them, I realized immediately that they had changed their Pad Thai. It wasn’t awful, but it was NOT Pad Thai. It was drenched in some weird sauce that was… weird. It’s a bummer. Now I’m in search of a new favorite for Thai food. My Thai food craving was not quenched that day.
Come to think of it, they have also forgotten our rice on more than one occasion.

Great service
Great lunch special
The most popular thai dish pad Thai is not that good
There yellow curry and shrimp fried rice is delicious tho!

This place is awesome! The service is great! The atmosphere is great too. It is a small room and dark with a lot of mirrors. The servers dress in their Thai outfits and are very nice.
The food portion is large and if you order meat they give you a good portion.
Even if you are a vegetarian this place would be great for you as well. I would recommend this place to anyone. The price pays for everything! Thanks Thai Dara

2 stars is generous. The place is very cute. The servers seem very clean and appropriately dressed.
I went in alone to have a little dinner… the owner/​server asked me if I might not want to just have take out. How rude. I had already been seated and given water. Thanks for rushing me out. So unprofessional. I didn’t come in to eat an appetizer slowly and leave. I came in for dinner. So rude.
Thanks for making me feel horrible.
Oh yeah, and the food wasn’t that great either.
If you’re gonna be a snob, make sure you have a reason to be.

2.5 Stars: Bottom line, the food was somewhat above average, portions medium, the service was terrible, as the place was not even 50% occupied and the waiting and lack of attention was not professional, also they mis-​charged for an item and forgot to serve an item as well, so all things considered, it could have been a better experience. I would have liked to give them a better rating especially because it is a family run business, but not this time.

I’ll be the first to say that I don’t know much about thai food. I couldn’t tell you if this place is really authentic. I can tell you that portions are good, prices are reasonable, and there are a good amount of vegetarian options. I got the panang curry (with vegetables and tofu). Comes with a box of jasmine rice. I appreciated that they asked how spicy I wanted the curry – on a scale to 1 to 5. I said «3» and it was still pretty spicy. If you really don’t like spicy, say 1 or 2 :)
I’d say one dish feeds one person, unless you’re a light eater – then you can probably split a dish. The appetizer sampler platter is good as a starter!