Olinda M.
Yelp
After reading the reviews here I decided to try it out since I live nearby. I avoided this place when it was Full Moon Thai (really terrible food). I understand there were new owners after it became Issaya Thai last year so here we go.
TLDR: Decent Thai food for Richmond Beach/Shoreline but if you drive a few minutes longer you can find better Thai food.
Re: the one Yelp review who said the food is comparable to Seattle U District's Thai Tom - I completely disagree - no comparison! This is solid Shoreline quality food, ok in quality but you can find better in North Seattle or Edmonds/Lynnwood.
Pad Thai - as I saw the red/orange color noodles, my heart sank. I kept thinking, "Please let there not be ketchup in this". Good Lord, I didn't pay $15 for ketchup pad thai...but I did. Too sweet and ketchupy and the chicken was bland and was in large flat pieces that I had to cut up to fit in my mouth.
Smoky Noodles - the noodle part had the faintest hint of wok hei (smokiness and char) but the chicken again was BLAND BLAND BLAND and in big flat pieces that I had to cut up. It was difficult chewing on the bland big pieces of blanched chicken, like trying to eat bland cafeteria food, trying to not think about it and just make it go down the gullet.
Crispy Chicken (Crispy Garlic Chicken w fried basil leaves). I've had much better at other Thai places. It was crunchy but had a fried coating like General Tso's or other westernized Asian food would have. My non-Asian family members enjoyed this more than I did. Reminded me of something you'd find at Panda Express but it would be tastier at PE.
Yum Woon Sen. This was my favorite dish of everything I ordered. It's a glass noodle seafood/ground chicken salad with fish sauce/vinegar dressing and veggies - the dressing, garlic, noodles and veg worked well. Except when I got home and opened the take out box I saw there was no seafood, just ground chicken. This was a $20 salad, assuming because of the seafood, of which there was none. I called the restaurant to ask if there was a mistake and they admitted that they forgot it (!) and made me a new one to pick up. To their credit they cranked it out, I live 5 min away and picked it up but would have been not cool if I lived further. The guy was very apologetic and nice, +1.
Overall, it was good, but with me being picky about eating as close to genuine Thai food as I can get, this was alright. It won't replace my standby in Edmonds which is a small hole in the wall, difficult to place an order, and has a very small menu. If you live nearby and have a higher tolerance about westernized Thai food (some blandness in the proteins, sweet/ketchup in Pad Thai), you'll be okay.