So good!! This place plays thai music and feels a bit old but that's how you can tell it's authentic lolll. Each dish we had was good and recommend each one! We had chicken bbq which was cooked with a little curry, seafood combo fried rice, shrimp tom-yum, shrimp pad thai (), and green beans with garlic sauce. The staff is nice too! Will come again soon! read more

Visiting from LA, 2nd time here. Quaint place, Delicious food, fast service. Didn't find old man grumpy, more like timid. Seemed like he didn't speak much English. Don't think it's worth taking off a star. Bottom line, food was delish! read more

Just relocated to Pacifica and am pleasantly surprised with the food here. Ate in once and had takeout twice. Food taste and portions were above average. The older man is not mean or anything. He is a man of few words but he seems to have a big heart. He smiled and played with my young child to her delight. The chef(woman in back) is super friendly and gave me shrimp chips with my to go orders which are addictive as heck. I ordered the ginger cake with coconut ice cream and it was devoured by my family. Lastly, from the comments I read I'm not sure what people are expecting. It's a very good family establishment with traditional Thai decorations inside. It's not a fancy schmancy place with cutting edge recipes and interior. All in all I'm proud to support their business. read more

Okay, the food is great here, and the scenery, but one of the servers fell asleep in mid-work. I didn't know what to do. They were asleep for a solid 15 minutes. I do understand it might have been a busy day for them, but they better step it up. Probably never visiting again read more

We've lived in Pacifica for over five years and hadn't been to this place yet, for some inexplicable reason. Anyway, our kitchen is getting remodeled and we just wanted to have a simple meal [i.e. comfort food] so we figured we'd try this place. The atmosphere itself was a lot like some of the places I went to while I was in Thailand and Singapore. Really cozy, and a cool display of King Bhumibol on the wall near the back of the restaurant. It felt like a place where you could actually sit and enjoy a conversation for a while, which we did. For an early dinner on Thursday night, it was a little busy, but still no wait for a table and not much of a wait for the food either. The staff was nice, and kind enough to let us be while we talked after dinner. I'll be honest and say that we didn't get too far into the menu before seeing the Pineapple Rice & Chicken Satay and decided that was the comfort food combo we needed. Definitely not the most elaborate meal we could've got there, admittedly, but it hit the spot. For such a simple combo, I'd say that both definitely lived up to my expectations. Compared to some places, they actually had a really generous amount of extras in the rice (plenty of shrimp, chicken, pineapple and veggies), and the Satay was great. We went in hungry, but still left with a small box of rice [which reheated great the next day!!]. Overall, I'm happy that our kitchen remodel caused us to find this place. We will be back again. read more

I really wanted to love this place, but damn Grumpy Waiter is grumpy!!! Bad service - hovered over me and made me uncomfortable. Clearly pissed I didn't order Special and brought super bland food despite asking for spicy. Tofu Tod app fair but entree meh. read more

Another perfect meal: Pork done in a red curry with a basil edge to the flavor. Corn cakes, won-ton wrapped shrimp. tofu with spinach in peanut sauce (my companion wanted something like that and Joy quickly obliged.) Fried bananas and ice cream. I'm mystified by some of the reviews of this place, they cook great! read more

Couldn't make it into the city due to traffic so we turned around and stopped her for an early dinner on the way home. We read the yelp reviews in advanced so we were prepared for the waiter :-) Perfectly harmless. Very friendly to our 1 1/2 year old daughter. He made a couple of suggestions. I took him up on it and my girlfriend did her own thing but he recommended a better version of what she wanted. A couple of things. I'm a pescetarian (seafood no chicken/beef) and my girlfriend doesn't do beef. I also don't go for crazy hot so my review is based on my own taste which is a hint of kick. I had the recommended panang-nuer but substituted tofu. Awesome red curry with a nice blend of hot and sweet with the basil. My girlfriend had a special which was salmon in a brown rice. Thumbs up on both dishes. Not a drop of left overs. The Thai ice teas were also very tasty. We'll definitely be back. You're definitely coming here for the food. Just keep that in mind. read more

The other reviews were not kidding about the service at this restaurant. I walked in and the man, who I'm assuming is an owner, never welcomed me in and just stared at me until I said "just for 1". He brought me a menu,m and literally 30 seconds later, asked for my order. He then proceeded to talk with the other customers with a sweet persona and returned with my food without looking at me; he just dropped off my plate and kept walking towards the door--there was no one at the entrance since I was in view of it. Luckily, the woman also working there eventually asked me how I was and my perception improved, but I just wish I hadn't felt unwelcome to be there in the first place. I ordered a Chicken Pad Thai, and while it's not the best, the taste was satisfactory. The dish seemed to be more oily than other Pad Thais I have eaten. read more

We love the food here and often just go and get 2 large to ka Kai soups. So good. Add a couple of Thai teas and it's a great meal with leftover soup for lunch the next day. I've never had a bad meal here and we've been going here over 25 years. read more

Best Thai spot and so happy it's so close to me! If you want authentic Thai food, come here! The red curry and eggplant basil is a must every time. They always give free shrimp chips too. read more

The funny thing is although I'm rating it 3 stars, we finished all the food and all the while, we're taking seconds and third helpings. We ordered our standard fare when we hit up Thai spots-- appetizer was fried chicken wings with chili sauce, sour tom yum soup (we usually go with coconut milk), chicken pad thai and garlic basil beef. As a whole, it was actually very good. Individually, the soup itself had too much stuff in it, it was surprising that it was labeled as soup. The soup was more sweet than sour but alright to sip between bites of the fried chicken. The "angel wings" were just fried and then the chili sauce was set on the side, very similar to banana sauce, not quite thick and sweet as it usually is at other spots. The pad thai was standard and good and the beef flavorful. This place is good for the area, as there are no other Thai restaurants nearby. Good when you have a craving and don't want to leave Pacifica. read more

It's okay... Let's see, good things: * varied menu (there's really only a couple pages -- it just looks like more cuz there are two different menus that repeat the same items) with a number of daily specials * good flavor to the dishes which are prepared with well-made/-prepared ingredients * large proportions for a Thai restaurant Bad things: * grumpy, abrupt waiter * non-stellar service (slow preparation, problems understanding our order, and had to ask for water refills repeatedly) * food seemed hit-or-miss read more

Well if your one who likes Applebees, McDonald's and Elephant Bar (sorry E-bar had ta say it) then this place might tickle your stereotypes a bit too much. It's almost a full cultural experience with muffled 70's music and the token-slow Thai guy serving the meals. I've eaten lots of Thai in my days including Thai in Thailand and I gotta say this place is extremely satisfying. Joy, Noy, and dude's name I can't remember are very swadika! Excellent tasting food, and super authentic recipes. Love, love, love this place Pacifica Thai! read more

Went for the first time tonight. Picked up for take out. Food was excellent. Tasted fresh, not greasy at all. One thing to mention is that we had quite the opposite experience as some with the "grumpy old man." He was kind and helpful and even entertained our 2 year old while we waited for our food. You get what you put out there, folks! Chicken satay was great, tender and flavorful with great sauces. Pad thai was good, not the best I've had but solid. Red curry chicken dish was excellent. The chicken salad we had was also very tasty. Definitely looking forward to coming back at eating in the restaurant. read more

So so food it was not the best or the worst, we have had. There was plenty of food and we were hungry. Our waiter was the infamous old man, who said no more than three words to us. We won't be going back. There are so many better choices for Thai food nearby in Daly City and SSF. read more

This place is a hidden gem. I'm sure if more people knew about it there would be a line out the door so I have mixed feelings about sharing the secret. The food is so flavorful! It's my favorite Thai place in the Bay Area. I come here often but today was especially wonderful. I asked the owner (it's a family owned restaurant) on very short notice if they could accommodate my huge family for a post funeral repast. They were so wonderful. The sectioned off the restaurant for us and set it up beautifully before we arrived and had the food ready for us. Everything we ordered was delicious. Everyone in our 20 person group was very impressed and is eager to come back. The chef and co-owner is lovely and super sweet. She even packed me a few mangoes for the road to go with our left over sticky rice (because some weirdos in our party ate all the mango by itself). It's nice that they are near the beach too so you can walk off the desert afterwards. :) read more

What an experience! We sat down, and then a man in a worn-out jean jacket approached us. He positioned himself by our table, dropped two menus on our table, did not say anything, and left. He came back, positioned himself by the table and everything he said was: "Number!" I told him I need more time, so he came back later and convinced me that a meal I want is not good for me, that I won't like it. :) This is not a problem, since I like to get a recommendation anyway. My food was bland with burned out egg. But, my partner's soup looked cute (served in a nice mug with a real flame) and was actually very tasty, so TWO stars. Restaurant is dirty, menu will stick to your hands just like a sticky rice sticks together. read more

Really want to love this restaurant. Food is not bad Hygiene needs to be improved and I hope the owner does something about it. We had a cockroach climb onto our table, and you could see it on the wall. Hope the owner sees this review and make some improvement. It is a pity as the food is not bad here and would like a good Thai restaurant in pacifica. read more

I don't know how the rating got as high as it did, but I really regret not reading the recent reviews. I don't have anything new to add, just to reinforce what has already been written: The food is OK not great, but the old man completely ruins the experience. In spite of the fact that there are not many restaurants in Pacifica and I live just a few blocks from this one, I will definitely never go back. read more

Best Thai food in town. Very authentic and you can always ask to adjust the spiciness.

we were visiting a friend in pacifica. we used friends computer to find what restaurant we might go to. Yelp have a mix review of Pacifica Thai Cuisine, so we gave it a try. we were immediately seated, provided with the menu, ordered our drinks and the waitress gave us ample time to decide what we wanted. we could not decide what we wanted so we went for the more expensive ones on the menu with the thought that "the more expensive, the better". I had the hot-plate seafood combination and my friend ordered the deep fried snapper pla-rad-pick. service was really good. i was not happy with my food. The mussels were hard and tasted nothing like a mussel. there's more of the calamari, a couple of prawns (shrimps) and I did not notice any scallop. i did not finish 1/3 of my food and so with my friend. they boxed our food happily and off we went. we may come back sometime to try the other food on the menu like the barbecues and the desserts. read more

Could have a lot of potential but unfortunately the grumpiest, non communicative elderly man was the only one working (?) As someone else stated.. i was really looking forward to a good pad Thai as that's why I stopped . But it was the worst I've ever tasted.. too sweet, and no lime or lemon. Have to add that the bathrooms smelll strongly of urine. In bad shape. Do yourself a favor and avoid this spot read more

I have enjoyed LOTS of Thai food over the years and this rates on the lower end of average. Pacificans don't have much choice though as this is the one and only Thai restaurant. Patiently waiting for some SF peeps to open up a place down here! Oh. Also the guy that takes the orders is rude and has no smile and it appears I am disturbing his day by ordering food. But if the food was good, I wouldn't care! read more

Baffled how this place exists.. Mute unattentive waiter. Basil chicken tasted like a terrible greasy Chinese takeout stir fry. Basil could have been spinach. Tom kha gai soup was passable. read more

We get food to go and its pretty good. We like the pad thai, pad see ew, and green curry.

Wow. I just had an entire meal without the server speaking one word to me. No hello, what can I get for you, thank you, goodbye. Nothing. He just walked up with pad, took order and went away. And after serving my food, again zero communication, he went and sat down with his glass of wine. Curry was decent which is why any stars are being given. Not a place I will revisit. read more

Grumpy man took order and I had my usual. He doesn't listen and didn't get my order quick right but I let it go. He left my bill on my table & overcharged. I brought it to his attn he didnt act surprised at all didn't look at the "mistake" and immediately wo hesitation "ok ok" as if he was doing me a favor when I handed him my phone with calculator mode to show thenmath of adding the price of my dish and the tax. No addl items. Not only dude is immensely grumpy he is not so honest either. No bueno esp if u pop in on occasion. Not sure how I'd feel about supporting a crook. read more

This place is like a cozy hidden gem. The food is pretty average for a Thai place, but the atmosphere is great. It's a very small restaurant but always has plenty of space. If you're looking for a simple night out, I'd say go take a walk on the beach then check this place out. read more

This place has the best Thai food I have ever had, not high brow fancy, just down home cooking. Try the Tom Gha Kai, coconut chicken soup. The best. Good with veggie or seafood too. Joy is the chef and she makes all of the food from fresh ingredients. Besides that, she is a bodhisattva and will make sure the food you eat is healthy for you, customizing ingredients if you ask her...ask for no sugar if you want, vegetarian, vegan, whatever you need, she will do it for you with love. Don't be put off by the grumpy "old man", he's a dear heart. I have literally been going here for 30 years. Don't forget to have some scratch made ginger or lemongrass cake with coconut ice cream. If you are lucky you will get some shrimp chips as a gift! Oh god I want that cake right now, go to go get some! bye read more

family owned restaurant with good thai food,

When one craves Thai food, no other cuisine will suffice. The interplay of tangy sweet and spicy heat all combine with a fresh crispness to make it, for my taste, the most delicious of the "ethnic" dining experiences. Pacifica Thai, however, doesn't deserve to fall into this category. A Bangkok homeless shelter wouldn't serve this dreck. I don't expect elegance on a lunch menu but I certainly don't deserve Mrs. Paul's fish sticks crumbled atop iceberg lettuce to be called a calimari salad (Pha Muk) nor do I anticipate ground Jimmy Dean sausage drenched in hot grease to pass as "sautéed slices of pork and green beans in chili sauce" (Moo-Pad-Pick Khing). Thai food is delicious. Pacifica Thai is not. read more

I wish I had the pleasure of trying the food to write a review about how shitty it was. With a friend and his 3 family members as well as a service dog (due to his cousin's physical disability), we only got about 7 steps into the poorly decorated, piss-smelling restaurant. The dead plants lying around were more welcoming than that sorry excuse for a server. He was an old man and I see many people have already complained about his people skills (and the lack thereof) as well as his seeming inability to perform simple math. He was rude and glaring at us and shouted at us to go into another room in the restaurant before we quickly left. We left and he did not seem very sorry for this loss of business. Would not recommend in the slightest. read more

Always tasty and fast! The staff is friendly and the food hits the spot, I love their Penang curry the most.

Got take out Monday night it was priced right but almost completly tasteless no Thai herbs not even basil. Just another piece of crap rest in Pacifica. Too bad and its time to get rid of the grumpy old man. He would be ok if the food was great but its not. read more

Just get what grumpy tells you too and you won't be disappointed! I seriously only get whatever the old guy says and it's always good.

i've been coming to this place for approx. 20 years, since high school, i've become friends with Joy and tom. Through the years they watched my girlfriend and I grow, become husband and wife, have one kid, then another. My son calls him grandpa tom, they are kind and friendy people. The food is the best thai food i have come across. I am quite a foodie and I don't have any thai restaurant in my area in san mateo that can even substitute for PACIFICA THAI when i dont feel like driving out to pacifica. Depending on your tastes, they have something for everyone when you have a hankering for thai food. The staple pad thai, and papaya salad is great, i have been here hundreds of times and i rarely deviate from my normal order. Their pad thai is the moistest tastiest pad thai I've had. I always order the TOM YUM TALAY, the hot and sour seafood soup to start, on a cold winter day this will make you want to do a back flip, it has a sweet yet savory taste, a little spice. we continue with the corn cakes, crab rolls ( which are not on the menu, not to be confused with crab cakes.) it is crab and other ingredients wrapped in a tofu skin roll, sliced thin and then fried, DIZZAM, you just have to ask for it., we also order the todd munn (fish cake). For entrees, the crab or salmon fried rice is awesome, the play -yang if you want fish, and the garlic shrimp is a must. I also order the kai bai tong, the chicken wrapped in banana leaves. But it is not just a piece of chicken, it is diced, then mixed with lemon grass and other stuff then molded into the banana leaf. This may not be on the menu either. I don't think there will be another thai place that can top this small mom and pop joint. TOM, JOY, AND JODY, we love you and your food, this review is long over do, apologies. read more

This went from a 4 star to a 2 star, I'm almost tempted to give it a 1 star because I am pretty disappointed and upset but I'll be fair. The food is pretty good, everything was delicious and came out fast and hot. The service was the infamous grumpy old guy everyone else keeps talking about, so if you like him fine, if you don't whatever I don't really care either way. The reason why the stars went down is because we used a groupon deal to eat here, trying to save money because girlfriend and I eat every meal like it's our last and it gets pricey. The groupon deal was 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, and 2 drinks. We ordered the beef skewers, the fish panang, the sizzling pork plate, the pad sew yu, and 2 thai drinks. It turns out the fish is considered seafood and not part of the entree, and the pad sew yu is considered noodles, also not part of entree. He charged us for both even though the groupon had the entrees priced at up to 12.95 per entree. He also didn't tell us this at the beginning of our meal, so we ended up not getting our second entree, having to pay for both the fish and the pad sew yu. The least he could have done is taken one off since we already paid for the groupon deal, but instead he just said we made a mistake of not ordering another entree. Didn't even feel like arguing with the grumpy old man (who hung up on me on the phone too when I asked about the groupon deal) Ended up paying 28 dollars there and 21 for the groupon deal, extremely disappointed. All I can say is enjoy your nice tip despite the fact that we got screwed out of our entree, stay classy. read more

Wow!!! What great customer service & great food! My husband & I were looking for a place that was open on the 4th of July. We came across this little hole in the wall place. Don't let the outside fool you! The owner was the nicest & most accommodating host! We asked to have some more of the crunchy appetizers thingys to take home. We expected just a few, but he gave us a whole bag! Also, we asked if we could take one of the water glasses home because it looked really cool, & he gave us that too! What an awesome guy!! The food was DELICIOUS & very reasonably priced!! It's not often when you can walk out of a place & say, "What a great experience." We will definitely be back! read more

I came here with three of my friends after school around 4:45 PM on a Friday. As expected, the place was empty, and the grumpy waiter mentioned on yelp was there to "greet" us. I must say that people tend to exaggerate on yelp. I read up before going, and contrary to most peoples opinions, the bathroom isnt dirty at all. its your typical chinese restarant bathrrom, except cleaner. it just smells bad, and the toilet paper wasnt replenished. but i just needed to wash my hands anyways. The waiter isn't all that grumpy; hes more rude. he tends to expect you to know what hes asking for or giving you by the motion of his hand. that was kind of rude, but since i had read up on yelp before going, it didnt bother me too much. I was there for the FOOD after all. and that is what gives this place a 3-4 rating. My friends and i ordered the Chicken Kai Pa-nang Satay (BBQ grilled chicken: $8.95), the Panang-Nuer ( beef in red curry with sweet basil: $8.95), the Shrimp Pad Thai: $8.95, and the Chicken Fried rice: $8.95, and the Thai Iced Tea: $2.50. We also had rice, and the waiter aparrently gave us a free plate of the large shrimp chips (the kind that sticks to your tongue). I thought that it was nice of him to do that. Everything came within 7 minutes, was to be expected since we were the only ones eating in. I started with the Pad Thai, since that was what i ordered. It was just like any other Pad Thai, but better probably since i was craving it. (side note: all the dishes seemed a bit small for the price, but they were more than enough to feed 4 hungry teenagers after tennis practice). I liked the texture of the noodles, and how they weren't too spicy or salty. there wasn't enough bean sprouts, but i'm sure that could be requested, along with extra heat. The Curry was our absolute favorite dish of the night. although it didn't look like much, the flavor was so rich with the coconut milk and the mellow spices and sweet basil. a few spoons of curry with a good amount of rice could have satisfied me for the night. The beef complimented the curry well, and i suppose my only complaint would be to make the sauce less salty. The chicken was excellent as well. it was grilled/BBQ'ed perfectly; still juicy, with a hint of seasoning with it. I thoroughly enjoyed the spicy garlic and sweet chili sauce that went with it, for they complimented the flavors of the chicken quite well. The last dish, the fried rice was slightly disappointing. i expected more of a Chinese style uniformly diced fried rice, but the veggies were still in big pieces, like the ones you get from a frozen bag, and the chicken didn't have too much of a presence, but that could have been because it was overrun by the rich flavors from the other dishes. Lastly, was the Thai iced tea. nothing to really write home about. The Vietnamese Cafe around the corner has a better version of it for a little more, but with boba (pearls). The pricing would be my main gripe and reason for dropping a star. the total without tip came out to be $12/person for 4 people. a bit much when compared to the $7-8/person average of other asian cuisine restaurants, and that the dishes aren't very large for the price. My overall verdict: i would go there again, because the food is delicious, but if you have a tight budget, i wouldn't order take-out from here often. And if you aren't as local and are concerned about parking, they have a lot almost twice the size of the restaurant that is almost always empty. i hope this review was informative and encourages fellow yelpers to give the place a shot. read more