Star Anise Thai Cuisine

San Diego, United States

3.6

Open now

20 reviews

Accepts Credit Cards

Contacts

QR code, vCard

Telephone:
+1 858-535-1668
Website:
www.staranisesandiego.com
Address:
8935 Towne Centre Dr, San Diego, CA, 92122
at Excalibur Way
University City
Nearby public transportation stops & stations:
0.4 miUTC Transit Center
0.5 miWestfield UTC
0.6 miLa Jolla Village and Genesee, San Diego
Categories:
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Bussiness info

Takes Reservations
Yes
Delivery
Yes
Take-out
Yes
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Good For
Lunch, Dinner
Parking
Private Lot
Bike Parking
Yes
Wheelchair Accessible
Yes
Good for Kids
Yes
Good for Groups
Yes
Attire
Casual
Ambience
Casual
Noise Level
Quiet
Alcohol
Beer & Wine Only
Outdoor Seating
Yes
Wi-Fi
No
Has TV
No
Waiter Service
Yes
Caters
Yes

Today

Today 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Open now
Local time (San Diego) 17:38 Thursday, 28 November 2024

Business hours

Monday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Tuesday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Wednesday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Thursday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Friday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Saturday 11:30 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Sunday 11:30 am – 3:00 pm
5:00 pm – 9:30 pm

Description

Specialties

Star Anise offers authentic, delicious Thai food to the beautiful city of San Diego. We have a traditional menu chock full of favorites that you’re sure to recognize and crave, as well as some surprises our chefs have cooked up that you’ll have to come yourself and enjoy. We pride ourselves on customer service, and our friendly and attentive waitstaff will take the best possible care of you. Our exotic desserts are also guaranteed to please!

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Nearby

Near this location:
60
ft
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8915 Towne Centre Dr
100
ft
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8935 Towne Centre Dr Ste 109
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20 reviews of Star Anise Thai Cuisine

No registration required
Place rating: 5
Carlsbad, CA
Just extremely delicious. The squid of Thai and crab pad Thai is so great and don’t forget the sticky rice with mango for dessert it’s just soooo goodddddd
Place rating: 3
Reno, NV
It was alright. Not the best Thai food I’ve had. I got the pad Thai and asked for no chicken, and extra tofu. And they added no tofu and extra chicken. And it made the food gross. The place is tucked away a little bit and it’s really gorgeous inside, I would eat here again. But maybe not take out. Just eat at the restaurant.
Place rating: 1
San Diego, CA
Awful. Absolutely the worst experience I have had in my life with a restaurant — anywhere. Every, single order I picked up or had delivered was missing items and sometimes adding an item I never would have ordered.
Ordered Spicy Noodles with vegetables and shrimp — plus $ 2.00 extra for Bok Choy. Waited at restaurant for 20 minutes for them to prepare this, bc they didn’t understand the order submitted online. When I got it home the dish was loaded with chicken, almost zero vegetables and barely a trace of bok choy I paid the extra $ 2.00 for.
Tonight I tried Star Anise AGAIN, despite my previous bad experiences. AGAIN I received a sloppy and incorrect order.
This restaurant has forced me NOT to be a customer, ever again. I have never seen such incompetence. I honestly don’t know how this place stays in business.
Oh — the food itself, when can get what you order, is quite average. Either over or under seasoned. Nothing great. It seems the cooks are blindfolded when they throw the food together!
Place rating: 5
San Diego, CA
One of my favorite Thai places in SD! Have been eating here for years, primarily get delivery since we live down the street, but I love to eat at the restaurant too. The décor is high-​end, elegant with a nice wine selection. The service has always been wonderful, even when we do take out. The food itself is delicious too! I love to get the spicy Thai fried rice or the spicy khee mao noodles with shrimp or chicken. Coconut shrimp and chicken satay are delish too!
Place rating: 2
San Diego, CA
I used to like this place and have had decent take outs from here. But recently the quality of the food and taste both have declined. It happened twice, once on a dinner with my husband and once on lunch with my girlfriends. For the dinner, spring rolls were too oily and the curry was just about ok. Fried rice were also meh. For the lunch, their special lunch menu is a joke. The portions are too small. The salad that comes with it is almost non-​existential. The pad thai is the worst I have ever had. I live in the area and will have to find another go-​to Thai place for quick lunch and dinner takeouts. The two stars here are only for their service, which both the times was great.
Place rating: 5
San Diego, CA
Both food and service were good. It’s not the best I’ve had but it’s a nice place to have a nice meal with good service. I’m sure I will be returning to this place in the future.
Place rating: 3
Tustin, CA
The food is pretty basic. Lunch portions for mains are pretty okay. Have tried Pad thai and panang curry for my last meal here. Panang curry is flavourful and rich as promised. But i have had much better pad thai. Service is the weaker aspect for this place. Waiters are border line rude, atleast the ones that have served me.
Place rating: 5
Del Mar, CA
The food is always good. I asked my Thai friend who told me this place is as authentic as it gets (but what do I know?). My favorite is the marinated steak with lettuce. It is delicious. The wine list is very reasonable and the wine pour is generous. The servers are always super friendly. A 5* for sure. Thanks!
Place rating: 3
San Diego, CA
**20% off your total bill with Passport card**
Nothing that I’ve tried is particularly mindblowing but Star Anise is probably one of the only thai places to choose from in La Jolla so I’ll settle for it once in a full moon! Its got the standard dishes that you would typically find at any other thai restaurant for a reasonable price especially after the use of the passport card.
The curry is a bit on the bland side. I would probably go for the dishes that are hard to mess up such as Pad See Ew or Spicy Noodle. Even with the noodle dishes, i had to ask them for the extra spice rack so I could add in chili peppers to make it more flavorful. Come here for the convenience if you live in La Jolla and are too lazy to drive to convoy or north park to get your fix.
Place rating: 5
San Diego, CA
Very friendly service! The food was amazing. I git the yellow curry served medium spice and their wonton soup! I do recommend this place to those who love thai food!
Place rating: 3
San Diego, CA
Being one of the only thai restaurants in the UTC area, I would expect that their prices are high. But I also falsely assumed that they would taste better than the usual thai restaurants found off Convoy/​Miramesa/​Clairemont Mesa… and I was wrong.
I love that they deliver in the 92 122 area and still find myself ordering once in a while for convenience… but the amount of fish sauce in their food is so noticeable.
Pad thai noodles are really thin and is almost tasteless. But I really like their Thai Basil mix. Service is great, parking is horrible in this plaza, portions are extremely smal and food is just a-​ok (wish is was better though!!)
Place rating: 2
La Jolla, CA
I came here the other night for take-​out and ordered the chicken pad Thai and yellow curry.
Now let’s just get straight to the point. The food was edible, but definitely not enjoyable. The pad Thai had too much fish sauce in it and overpowered all of the other flavors. The other ingredients in it weren’t cohesive as well, it kinda tasted like everything was just thrown together.
As for the curry, it was bland and not sweet enough. Although the sweetness is not something I would dock a star on, since it’s really up to personal preference, but the issue I had with it was the blandness and the fact that the vegetables weren’t cooked thoroughly. The potatoes, carrots and onions were undercooked and still hard.
I likely won’t be coming back.
Place rating: 3
San Diego, CA
The food was just okay. I’ve had much better food in Hillcrest. Service was okay. But, they charged me extra for rice. Why???
I won’t go back.
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
This Thai restaurant that does not disappoint!!!
I would HIGHLY recommended the puff pastry appetizer that is savory and filled with deliciousness with a nice sweet sauce. The money bags are also yummy.
I’ve tried the specials they usually have and change often, and the meat and sauces are pretty good.
Pad Thai is filling with a good serving of veggies too!
Place rating: 3
New York, NY
A very pretty place, but that’s about it.
I’ve always seen heavy advertising from this place, and my apartmentmates even pinned their menu on our fridge door because of free delivery…#emergencyfood. I always longed to go to this place sometime soon as a few friends told me that it was pretty decent, but slightly more on the pricey side.
After Sun God, my friends and I decided to come here for a late dinner. I already knew that I wanted the Tom Yum soup as any type of soup sounded good (hangover, much?) at the moment. The moment you step into the restaurant, you realize how unnecessarily fancy this place is! There’s linen tablecloths and smartly dressed staff all around.
We quickly ordered and thankfully the food didn’t take too long to come as we were STARVING. The chicken tom yum soup was really good, and I loved that it came in a metal pot with a small fire holder, to keep it hot as you ate. That was a very nice touch. The other food that was ordered (pad thai, pad see ew, drunken noodles, curry, etc.) wasn’t bad either, just slightly oiler than I liked. The taste of the noodle dishes were alright, but weren’t phenomenal. I do wish there was a little bit more flavor in their dishes as I thought it was missing an extra kick, like in Sab-​Ee-​Lee or Chaba Thai.
Service was not bad either, but waiters were a little slow, which was really surprising as we came at 8pm (almost closing time). I felt the vibe that they were trying to kick us out, but it was saddening to see waiters chilling or cleaning up rather than paying attention to our party.
Overall, this place is not that bad and their food isn’t that bad either. But, that’s the gist of it: it isn’t that bad.
15⁄100
Place rating: 5
Boston, MA
As my time in San Diego is coming to an end, it is my mission to test new places and hang out with old friends. That said, when my coworkers and I were looking for a place to eat lunch at, we decided on Star Anise because of their positive past experiences and because it’s close to our work.
And the main reason that we picked this place? It’s lunch specials! They offer a variety of dishes (pat thai, curries, noodles, etc) withe the prices varying depending on your choice of protein (tofu, chicken, shrimp, etc). The order also comes with either soup or salad, and a friend appetizer.
I ordered the Veggie Panang Curry with salad. This was $ 7.95 and it comes with 2 curry puffs. I asked for the dish to be just a Little spicy (knowing how Spicy thai dishes can get) and it was perfect for my taste palette! I asked for brown rice and got white rice. but whatever, I really wanted white rice anyway haha…
Not sure if the portion is less during lunch or if it’s b/​c I just couldn’t stop inhaling the curry, but I didn’t have any leftovers to take home so that’s the only downside I can think of.
All in all, definitely would come back for lunch! (and would ask for a patio seat if the weather permits!)
Place rating: 3
San Diego, CA
I am an avid thai food lover, and for a thai spot hidden in UTC, this place will hit the spot! I was hungry one day and decided to order take-​out as I was too lazy to drive anywhere else.
I ordered both the spicy kee mao noodles and the panang curry at the spicy level.
While the spicy kee mao noodles were disappointing in their lack of evenly spreaded flavor and scarce meat, I thoroughly enjoyed the panang curry. It definitely satisfied my craving, and I would go here again.
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
Tucked in one of the worst designed plazas in la jolla is this great little Thai restaurant. I have only gone here for lunch and every time it has been very tasty. Parking will be a difficult challenge so the fewer cars the better! The lunch menu here has very generous portions. It comes with soup/​salad, some fried spring rolls and wontons. You can also get little appetizers on the side for about $ 2-​$ 3 like potstickers or fried tofu!
Pad Thai Lunch — probably some of the best pad thai in San Diego honestly. The sauce was flavorful without being overwhelming. I could eat this all day! I usually get it with just chicken but it is probably great with shrimp as well.
Spicy Fish — this is a chef special lunch that is «grilled tender white fish with caramelized spicy tamarind sauce and pan-​seared mixed vegetable». SO good. It comes with rice so you can mix it with the delicious tamarind sauce. It isn’t particularly spicy either so don’t be scared! I will say that it feels like the fish more breaded than grilled but it is still great.
Note — there is a 4 credit card limit per table so if you are coming with a large party, make sure some of you brought some cash!
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
I come here all the time because it’s the best Thai restaurant on the La Jolla UTC side. There’s usually no waiting to be seated which is a definite plus, and they are great for pickup orders.
Everytime I come, I always order the Suer-​Rong-​Hai aka Crying Tiger because it is a burst of different flavors and textures in one dish. Although if you don’t like sour flavors, stay away from this one. It has grilled steak with marinated tamarind sauce, sticky rice, and papaya salad. Like I said, everything you could want in one dish: carbs, meat and vegetables. BAM!
My other favorites at this place are the roasted duck curry and goong mah-​kam (grilled shrimp with tamarind sauce). For those of you who hate having to go through the extra effort of peeling a shrimp before eating it (I know I do), this shrimp dish is awesome because you can eat the whole thing, shell and all! Delicious!
I would definitely recommend this place!
Place rating: 4
San Diego, CA
Stopped here for lunch just before noon with some co workers. We split an order of the curry puffs. They were good, but came after we received our entrees. The waiter was apologetic and comped us for the delay.
I went with the yellow curry with chicken, medium spice. Good thing, because any more spice would have been to much. The portion was a good size and also came with 2 fried won ton stuffed with peas.
If you’re in a hurry, I wouldn’t recommend coming here, but if not, no worries.