Tom Yum Koong

No one acknowledged us when we walked in the door. They were out of a lot of ingredients… I think I asked for 3 or 4 dishes before we found something that they could make that night. The giant TV on the wall, blasting sports, was overwhelming in such a little dining room. And there was a significant language barrier between us and our server.
The food was decent and fairly priced, but I won’t be returning, especially with 2 Thai places on Goldenwest that are much better.

Out of the Thai food places in Westminster/​Garden Grove area, i really enjoyed visiting Tom Yum Koong, named after their popular soup. I usually get pad Thai from here and the Tom kha (coconut soup). They have always been super pleasant there and the food has tons of flavor. very delicious. I called today to place an order for pick up, like i normally do, but this time the phone # was disconnected.
i went to their website and the page is no longer there. =;(totally bummed out… i went to Chai Yo thai café off westminster and OMG that place SUCKS! the food has no flavor at all… ill review the restaurant itself in a bit, but totally going to miss TOM YUM KOONG!

Fantastic Thai food! I’ve been all over looking for a place closer to me with food this good but have to come back here for the best.
It’s inexpensive, tasty, clean, friendly and delicious!
I come to this place whenever I want great Thai food. I go to others when I’m hoping to have good Thai food.
Every dish has been great. Try their namesake soup you’ll love it.

I met up with a friend at Westminister mall for some girl time, catching up, and shopping. After some intense throwing away of our hard earned money, we were famished. Looked around the food court and nothing really appealed to me, so I Unilocaled it and looked for the closest Thai place with good ratings.
The outside sign looks a little sketchy, it’s in a little strip mall with a liquor store and a smoke shop (nothing wrong with that, but it’s not exactly fancy). The sign says THAI FOOD with Tom Yum Koong written in smaller font. Once you get in, the atmosphere is actually quite nice. I like the booths which give privacy so we can get our gossip on, and the booth chairs were pretty comfortable. The paper lanterns hanging across the ceiling is a nice touch.
There are 2 lunch specials, 5.99 with just an entrée, and the lunch special that my friend and I got, which comes with 2 cream cheese wontons, a thai iced tea or thai coffee, and an entrée. (I think 7.99?) She got the Pad Si Ew with shrimp and a iced coffee, and I got the green curry with tofu and a thai iced tea.
I asked for the green curry to be spicy, and she didn’t ask for a level of spiciness (which was okay, since I can handle spicy). Woooo boy. It was definitely spicy, it wasn’t even green anymore!
Definitely delicious though. One thing: I love bamboo shoots, and I wish there had been some more in there, there was barely any :(
The cream cheese wontons were good, they seemed to be homemade, but not sure. Those things are so bad for you, I’m glad there was only 2 small ones, because if there was more I would definitely have polished them off. My thai iced tea wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it was good. I have a major sweet tooth, and this thai iced tea was on the not-​so-​sweet side. The more I drank it though, the more I liked it! I may be a convert to not-​sweet thai iced teas now. :)
Btw, we were the only ones in the restaurant but it took over 20 minutes to get our food out. I think it’s because there was a large to-​go order placed before our order was. It’s not a big deal, but we were so hungry we’d complain every 5 minutes saying, «why is it taking so long!!» The waitress was nice, nothing wrong with the service. Overall a great meal and a good atmosphere for not too much money.

Best Thai food around. Best Flavor and they really know how to spice it up!
We go there 2x a week for lunch. We usually get Thai Pineapple Fried Rice, Phad Thai, Phad Ke Mow, Pad Se Ew, Phad Ka Prow, etc and once in awhile their soups.
The only down side is that they do not accept credit cards. I don’t understand this and there are other places like this as well. Cash Only! Either way, we still come back.

I give this place a solid 3.5 out of 5. Its a hole in the wall with nice ambiance once you get inside. I compare every Thai place to when I lived by Thai Town in LA, so I’m really picky. That being said, this place is one of the better Thai restaurants that I’ve been to in the OC since I’ve moved here. The prices are cheaper than all the other Thai spots around that look nicer, but have shitty Americanized-​Thai food. Tom Yum Koong would probably be middle of the road in Thai town, but its pretty high up the scale in this area.
When we got there, we were the only ones in the joint, so service wasn’t an issue. We ordered the yellow curry, pad kee mao, Thai papaya salad & some steamed rice.
Yellow curry — Its pretty good here. It was our favorite dish that we tried. It reminded me of the yellow curry my mom would make, but with a slight spice difference (expected because I’m Filipino). To me it was a total comfort food dish. It was still very good the next day over rice as well.
Pad kee mao — I’d give it a 3.8 out of 5. Not nearly the best that I’ve had, but out of all the ones I’ve tried in the OC, its probably the best rendition so far. (Note: I don’t have a Thai «go-​to» dish, so I haven’t tried all the pad kee maos arount). It was definitely not lacking on the spice, which I love. The sauteed veggies didn’t cook long enough, in my opinion. They didn’t have a chance to meld with the other flavors. Seasoning was good, and the pork wasn’t dry.
Thai papaya salad — Probably should’ve ordered the Lao version reading the reviews now. The Thai one was a bit wilted. And it was missing peanuts. It had about 10 in the whole dish… and usually the peanuts mixed with the sauce add some flavor and texture that it really was lacking. It was okay, but to be honest, out of the 3 dishes, we liked the others more to the point where we didn’t even bother eating much of it & didn’t want to take it home either.
We got everything «medium spicy» as I do whenever trying out a new Thai joint. Everything had a nice bite to it, but wasn’t really as spicy as most legit Thai joints when you order «medium,» hahaha. I think I’ll get the next level up next time since I love spicy food. A-​OK spot. Not great, but better than the other local Thai alternatives.

Ordered the Pad Thai with Chicken and Beef Panang (very spicy requested). Pad Thai was ordinary. Panang a little better but not spicy at all. Wanted to try a new place but won’t be returning.
Cash only.

Instead of going to Thai Nokorn on Beach Blvd, decided to try a different thai place. Looks nice and well decorate inside but sketchy on the outside. Don’t be scared, walk-​in. They are pretty nice in there.
We started with the meat filled fried wontons (not the cream cheese one) and it was pretty good. We asked them to bring out the food as it came so they promptly brought out the wonton along w/​one of the entrees.
Pad see ew was decent. Had a lot of chinese broccolli. Needed more seasoning, but wasn’t too bad. They waitress concerned us when we said we wanted medium spice, she said she could do mild and bring extra spice to add. Turns out mild is not even hot at all — quite bland. Next time we can go for medium. I like a little kick, just don’t want to sweat.
Third dish was the thai boat noodles. The noodle are the pad thai size noodles. I usually like thicker noodles — I’ll need to specify next time. The broth was alittle on the sweeter side and again not spicy enough. I thought I told her medium, but I think she may have made it mild. Next time I’ll order medium spice and let her know I like my soup spicy.
Huge servings so share if needed. We took home the soup and some pad see ew between the two of us and we were very very full and stuff!
I would go again!

Do yourself a favor and ignore the divey strip mall that contains this charming Thai restaurant. It’s actually quite nice, tastefully decorated on the inside, and the food is among the better Thai in this city. As for the service. Absolutely delightful!
Tom Kha Kai: very good, a little sweet, and generous with the chicken and the mushrooms: 4.5 stars
Pad Thai: pretty standard, my sweetie thought he sensed a touch of curry: 3.5 stars
Pad Krapow Seafood: hearty dish that includes Oysters, calimari, scallops, Krab with a K, and peppers’n’onions. They top it with an egg for some reason: 3.5 stars.
Pad See Ew: good, heavy on the beef. My sweetheart claims the bok choy makes it sharper than usual in this dish from TYK. I like sharpness, he doesn’t, so 4 stars.
Spicy Beef Salad: Impressive meat, proportions perfect to the rest of the salad. I love the herbs they mix in there. The dressing is a bit on the sweet side – next time I’m asking for it on the side. 5 stars
Apparently you can ignore what the menu says under «desserts“‘ because there is only one dessert available, which is the mango sticky rice. According to the young lady writing my takeout order, that’s not even every day, but only when the chef has time to make it.
Despite what the Unilocal page says, you must bring CASH. But at least there’s an apologetic sign on the door that makes that clear before you walk in, complete with directions to the nearest ATM over by the bar.

Total: 3.5÷5
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Decent service. Sat down when there was not many people. And food came out promptly, but not exactly super quick. A little issue is that you can hear the bass from the bar next door.
Food: ³⁄₅
Food was okay. Tom Yum Koong, which is the name of this place, is too salty and just wasn’t the best. In fact it probably falls into my worst 5 Tom Yum Koongs. The Larb was just okay too…

Great food, great service.
Has both thai and lao food. The portions are very generous. Prices are good for the amount of food you get. Most of the entrees are about 7 – 9 dollars and are big enough to share. Try their thai iced tea! AMAZING. I usually get a Pineapple Curry Fried Rice with chicken and cream cheese wontons! And the Tom Yum Koong soup is to die for, I mean it’s what the restaurants’ named after.

As a Thai, this place deserves 1 star, pretty much in both primary aspects — the food & the service.
Food was bland. We had papaya salad, and it was the worst papaya salad I had since… umm… GOD KNOWS WHEN.
Service was kinda weird… the last time I dined here (and it will be literally the last time) we had all our food except for one. So I mentioned to the waitress about the left out dish (we were the only table there at the time).
The reaction? She said, «Oh, I thought it came out already.»
???
How? Did it flew out of the kitchen by itself? She was the ONLY waitress and we were the ONLY table there!!!
‘Nuff said…

Haha I use to drive by this place cuz its on the exit on my way home and I live right behind it and always never wanted to go in… Little did I know it was owned by my home girls parents! I only found out cuz I was invited to eat there and they closed that day for us to party! LOL for like a whole year I never knew so sad…
Ok lets get down to the results. I’m not just rating it high because I know them its because its really good. There is a hidden menu like In-​N-​Out that people don’t know about because its owned by Laos folks so if you ask they will make it the way you like it… JUST THE WAY MAMA MAKES IT!!! :)
Now I go in all the time Ill get me the Thai boat and ask them not to make it so salty for my hang overs. Ask for nam kow tawt its hella bomb diggity!!! So is the the Laos style papya salad with sticky rice… BOI!!! Its making my mouth water thinking about it AHAH

The thai food here is on par. It’s difficult to compare to Thai Nakorn and some other thai restaurants. Below are some of the dishes which were ordered.
beef lahb — okay, could have had more ground rice and spices.
beef salad — unique dressing wasn’t quite expected, bit too tangy
chicken curry — pretty good with rice and I’d have to say the best of the dishes ordered
shrimp fried rice — okay
chicken pad thai — okay
The place was empty when we arrived. It was empty our entire dining experience.

Summary based on 1 dinner:
–has both Lao and Thai food
–pretty good. I got basil mint chicken and Lao style papaya salad with only somewhat stinky kapi (shrimp paste) and crab. (Used K.D.‘s review as a guide.) We discussed spicy level and I asked for medium, which came out mild.
–large portions
–good service (place was empty on a midweek visit)
–cheap
–easy parking
–area only remotely sketchy
–no Beerlao at the adjoining liquor store
–credit card machine broken
Sit away from the adjoining loud, bass-​through-​the-​walls bar.

I hate to give this place the only single star. The lady doing the serving, busing the tables, greeting, taking the orders, bringing the drinks, answering the phones, and maybe helping to cook (she was in the back for some time) was extremely pleasant and one of those genuinely nice people.
Furthermore, anyone that knows me will know that I’m the first person standing in line to pull for the start up or the little guy trying to make it against the bigger names, especially in this economy.
So this review does trouble me, but unless I were to be disingenuous, this place deserves a single star.
From the posts here, as well as the article in the Times, we were expecting a rival to Thai Nakorn, on the other end of Garden Grove Blvd. TYK sits in a strip mall on the other side of the tracks, next to a nasty sports bar, OC Tattoo and if you have a half decent arm, you could throw a roll of $ 1 bills and hit Larry Flynt’s Hustler club. Bring blindfolds for the kids if you visit.
So we park under the brightest lights in the lot and head on in. First thing you notice are the 4 tables that haven’t been cleaned off and the 2 parties waiting to be seated. So we wait and watch. There’s this one lady just running around and doing everything. It was bizarre to the point of wanting to go help the poor thing. So we wait a bit more and are finally seated. She’s spraying down the table with a cleanser, and flying to serve the next table.
We ordered the chicken satay, tom yum koong soup, BBQ chicken, papaya salad, and the pad thai. The whole process takes forever and the whole time we’re watching the other people waiting on their food, or standing around waiting to be seated. One table would finish, and she would shove the dirty plates on an adjacent table, spray it down, then seat people. Our drinks come out, then the food.
Portions were generous. With the exception of the soup, the rest was a disaster. The soup had great flavor, full of shrimp, and was a decent portion. While another table had the fire in the center of the soup pot, ours was missing it. By the last helping, it was already cooled down. The chicken satay… awful. It had to have been microwaved. You know how thin slices of chicken on a stick turns to jerky when nuked too long? This was the chicken jerky on a stick.
The Pad thai was pasty and lacked flavor. We didn’t finish it. The BBQ chicken was just so-​so. They advertised a whole chicken, but we got all legs and one wing portion.
Through all this, that lady kept doing everything… serving, seating, refilling, cleaning, moving, answering the phone, speinding time in the back (hopefully washing her hands).
By the end of our meal, there was only one other couple there. Every table not occupied (9 out of 11, not including ours) was full of dirty plates, some piled high. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera, it was that bad.
Nevertheless I tipped her well for her service and spirit, but you don’t eat either. Unfortunately, I won’t be giving them another chance, which is a shame.

Flavorful, generous portions, reasonable prices and will kick your spicy ass like you ask for.
Let’s talk about the important thing: food.
Basil Mint Chicken — Delicious. Comes with a fried egg (well that’s a first I’ve seen). I didn’t really see much basil, but the chicken was moist and peppers were cooked perfectly. Loaded with julienned bamboo shoots. It’s a must get.
Papaya Salad (Lao Style) — Now I asked the waitress what the difference was. She said the Thai style had dried shrimp and the Lao Style had Spicy Crab and «mam» (aka shrimp paste). I’m Vietnamese so I’m a «mam» girl fo sho! OMG, my mouth was on FIRE! The perfectly shredded papaya and cherry tomatoes were delicious, not too soggy.
Pad See Ew — Generous amount. Could have been sweeter. The brocolli and carrots threw me off a bit. I’d say pass on this dish.
We requested everything spicy and holy mother of hell that papaya salad kicked my ass. And I think I eat spicy. Never have I had a Thai restaurant in OC actually make it spicy. I always ask for super spicy (aka 10+) and still it’s just a-​ok. I was dying and had to order a Thai Ice Coffee.
If you plan on coming here, I really highly advise bring at least 3 (4 is better) people with you. The portions are far too large for 2 people to eat w/​o only having to order 1 – 2 plates.
I wish they had a bit more variety on the menu like a whole fish dish but hey, what they do have available is pretty darn tasty.
Maybe I’m ghetto but I really didn’t think the location nor place is that bad. Granted it’s in a deserted strip mall next to a crackhead bar but hey, the place itself is spacious, mostly booths and clean with a dim atmosphere.
With tip, it was ~ $ 30. Not bad at all, considering that coulda went to 4 people instead of 2. I ate so much I almost wanted to bust and I STILL had a shit load of food to bring home.
Check this place out, and once your done, hope on over to DejaVu so you can get a lapdance. It’ll be the best time spent on Garden Grove Blvd. EVER! :)

I would never think to come eat here because it’s hidden in an ugly plaza that’s right by the freeway, but I’m so glad my sister and I decided to give it a shot because the people here are so nice and they even give you complimentary dessert.
I’ve only tried their Pad Thai and that’s the only thing I order here, the portions are huge and the price is reasonable; just keep making your Pad Thai the way you do Tom Yum Koong Restaurant and I’ll be back :) Oh and the décor is pretty nice too, very modern with an Asian feng shui twist to it.

Went here last night for dinner with the girlfriend. We were both in the mood for thai food, and usually we would go to Thai Gulf, but this time around I decided to go somewhere a bit closer to my place. Looked up on Unilocal and decided to come here after reading some solid reviews, and glad I did.
The place is right off the 22 freeway on Goldenwest and I had always drove by it but had initially dismissed it because of the appearance on the outside wasn’t too appealing. But you know what they say… never judge a book by its cover! The inside is really nice and SPACIOUS. We had been so use to Thai Gulf with their small space and area so it was really nice to have lots of room to move around. There was only one other couple in there besides us around 6:30 PM so it wasn’t at all busy.
For dinner we ordered the blanket-​wrapped shrimp for appitizers, beef pad thai, and pork pad see ew. The one thing I wish was that the appitizer came out first instead of the same time with our other dishes. That being said though, the blanket-​wrapped shrimp was pretty good. It was shrimp wrapped in an eggroll shell with a side of sweet dipping sauce.
For dinner, my girlfriend had the beef pad thai. It came out in a really nice large portion, compared to Thai Gulf which is half the portion size with the rest made up with rice. Flavor was nice, my girlfriend perfered Thai Gulf with its sweeter taste to it but I kinda liked it. For myself, I had the pad kee mao with pork and it was really good. Portion was perfect and served on top a bed of green lettuce. I really like their pad kee mao over Thai Gulf’s because it’s has the spice like its suppose to be! Thai Gulf’s version doesn’t has the spice kick to it really, but here I was sweating after about the third bite!
We also ordered the Thai Ice Tea, it was good but a little watered down with too much tea and there isn’t unlimited refills.
Overall, I really like the place and it’s a great alternative to Thai Gulf. I prefer the food size portion and taste here whereas my girlfriend enjoyed the Thai Ice tea of Thai Gulf along with their diversity of food with their soup, salad and dessert. I would defintely come back to this place and is a great contender for a place for me to eat thai food. Hopefully they pick up more business cause its a nice place!
On a side note, my girlfriend had left her phone there and when we called they had it there waiting for us.

I agree with Dan q. The food is really good but they really need to do more marketing. I noticed they recently remodeled, so maybe they will start attracting more people.
But for now, I’m going to keep enjoying a little bit of the quiet dinners when I go. We did ask them about hosting a semi-​private party there, which we ended up having and it was great!
They gave us a good deal because we had so many people. Everyone loved the food and we will definitely be back. Especially to try more of the LAO FOOD! It’s awesome. Maybe Thai food is fast becoming so 2009 and Lao food will be the next «cool Asian» food.
It really is a rare gem in this part of OC. It’s not where you go to see and be seen but rather where you go if you want REAL Thai and Lao food in a chill atmosphere. Great food, great service, great prices.
That’s enough for me, especially since I gotta tighten up the purse strings now.