This is my top favorite/first choice Thai food in Ithaca. If you're craving Thai, this will hit the spot. I always call in for pickup- no seating indoors here- but they have a big parking lot and easy to find off the main road. Pad Thai, spring rolls, and pineapple fried rice are my personal favorites. Really good portion sizes too! You'll likely have leftovers, or feel very full and satisfied if you eat it all at once. read more

I absolutely love this place. If you come here at PEAK hours expect there to be a wait. This place is popular for a good reason- they have impeccable food. The service is very friendly, but again- expect to wait 5 minutes longer than you want to in order to get your check or to get more water. However the quality of the food out weighs this negative aspect. ITS WORTH THE WAIT, just be patient with them. Ambiance: light & soft, high ceilings, a mix of modern & traditional art. read more

They make you order in a cramped, claustrophobic hallway and make you wait outside with no seating for your food. I didn't eat the food yet, but there customer service is so bad they they get 2 stars no matter what. read more

We stopped for lunch after hiking some of the parks nearby. Lunch included soup which was a little boring, but nice considering we weren't expecting it. Boyfriend and I ordered pad see ew (medium) and pad thai (medium). We were both crying and sweating after a few minutes- it was so hot! Despite that, it was delicious. Great service and a cozy little place. read more

Really yummy food! We takeout green curry, pad see ew, a duck dish, and sticky rice with mango. The curry sauces are delicious, and the mango on the sticky rice was really sweet. Really friendly, fast service read more

This makes me sad to write, as Tamarind used to be one of our favorite Thai spots. That being said, any time we have ordered takeout, we consistently are given noodle dish portions that are half full at best. That isn't a dinner portion. Period. It's not even a lunch portion. In the pictures we hadn't eaten a single bite, and slid the food over to the side so you could see how empty it is. Other places in town fill the containers...what gives?! Also, this time we got an added bonus of a literal fly in my soup. read more

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The Thai food was great! I came here for dinner with some friends and we ordered the pad Thai, pineapple fried rice, masaman curry with shrimp, sukiyaki, and the Thai custard with sticky rice. All of the dishes were delicious and had nice portion sizes! My favorite dish was the pad Thai. The sauce used was delicious and the noodles were chewy and perfectly cooked. The masaman curry was really good too! The coconut in the curry made it smell great. The only problem I had was that the service was really slow. There were only two people working for dinner that night. The table was a little small as well, we had trouble fitting all four dishes. I recommend trying the desserts though! The Thai custard was super tasty. I definitely want to come back again. read more

Excellent service! spring rolls and goyza were delicious.

Great Thai food. Great during the pandemic too. I opened my trunk and they came out and put our order in. We had Satays, Tom yum, pat thai, panang curry and everyone enjoyed it immensely read more

First time here. There are a few dishes which I would order to determine the authenticity and tastiness of Thai food. They are: Pad See Ewe, Tom Yum Soup, Yum Woon Sen & mango sticky rice. Overall, the food is average. Too salty overall, a little lacking flavors in pad see ewe and the ingredients and spices used are not too authentic of Thai dishes. read more

We've been to the two other Thai places and thought this place wouldn't be great because of its location and rating (why haven't we seen it on yelp before now????). We came at 9:30 because it was the only place open. The building is not appealing but this place is GREAT. The Pad Thai is really nice, the Mango Chicken is a favorite and the Spicy Basil is also great. GO HERE!!!!!!! If your experience is anything like ours you'll want to go again. read more

I have had their spicy noodles and their massaman curry. The spicy noodles are pretty good. Some of the pieces of chicken in my massaman curry was really hard. This place is pretty convenient since it's close to my house and good price for the portions. It can get busy for dinner and the wait is like 10-15 minutes. read more

From the outside, it looks like an abandoned laundromat. Inside is the BEST Thai food in Ithaca! They use fresh ingredients all sround, and the flavors and textures are a distinct notch above the rest. Intimate, clean. I've never had bad service there. On the contrary, always has been very polite and friendly. This is also the ONLY place I've had duck prepared well. read more

Very good! I had the staple chicken pad thai and they did not disappoint! Surprisingly, a lot of Thai restaurants around NY have disappointed me but this one has given me hope!! read more

Wait was said to be 15 mins. Ended up being a little over 40. They made it right by giving us an extra app. Food was pretty good.

I heard excellent reviews about this place. I have ordered Veg spring rolls, Thai spicy noodles, Red curry and Thai iced tea to go. The order was ready within no time. Tea was great. I got fresh rolls instead of spring rolls. The noodles was really good. The red curry was a disaster, though. It looked like as if there were a couple of tofu pieces floating in a sea of oil. I had to throw away like 90% of the dish, which I usually hate doing. read more

Tamarind - Thai Near Me - Ithaca, New York

Best thai food in Ithaca. The food is much better in person than delivery, but it has a really great and fast delivery service nonetheless. I always order the pad see ew, spring rolls, and thai iced tea. Reasonably priced for good food! read more

Tamarind - Pad see ew with thai iced tea - Thai Near Me - Ithaca, New York

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Places an order for take out. Took 30-45 minutes Get home and it's wrong After explaining my situation to 4 separate people, they don't offer any solution NEVER AGAIN. read more

Service was pleasant and attentive but very slow. Only 7 tables filled in the entire restaurant yet our whole visit - 3 people - took an hour and a quarter. Food was okay; nothing amazing. Sukiyaki was good but cabbage was so large in the soup it was difficult to eat. My table mates said the pad Thai was greasy, the Tom Kha soup was strange, and the pad See Ew was fine. In all, aside from the super slow service, it was fine, but I'd probably not return. read more

My third or fourth experience dining here recently was takeout. I'd had lunch a couple of times before and had really boring, bland unexceptional food experiences and average service. Unfortunately, the recent takeout experience was quite poor. We ordered tom kha soup, pad see ew, and red curry. The pad see ew was bland, but unflawed, lacking good wok quality, but having relatively fresh ingredients. The tom kha soup was listless, tasting like coconut milk straight from the can with some fish sauce added and some wilted vegetables in it. Kinda gross and uninspired. The curry was the greatest sin, an inedible stew of burnt and metallic tasting sauce, bitter and searing. I was surprised they served it, it was completely unpalatable. read more

Some of the worst customer service I've ever received. I'm not sure what the standard of quality is for thai food in Ithaca, but this food was subpar. The ingredients are not fresh, the chicken is always dry, and to top it off, their customer service was less than decent. After giving us pineapple fried rice without pineapple, the manager proceeded to tell me I was incorrect in assuming the dish was wrong because I had ordered the dish without vegetables. I had actually told them to withhold the raisins, onions and cashews. How much sense does it make to order pineapple fried rice without pineapple? She then proceeded to insult me and assert that pineapple was indeed a vegetable, while regurgitating the line "pineapple is a vegetable, you are wrong!". She also continued to ignore the fact that I never told her to withhold the pineapples while specifically giving her a list of what I didn't want. She said she would not issue any refunds or provide me with a replacement dish. When asked to speak to her supervisor, she simply said no and hung up. If I want decent Thai food, I'll be sure to make the drive to NYC next time. read more

Beautiful restaurant. The service is kind of slow but all of the staff is nice. The food was to die for!!! I got pat see ew and spring rolls. However the plates they serve the food on are chipped.... read more

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The outside of the building looks terrible. The inside is small but very sweet and has good air circulation. The service is pretty good. I ordered the spicy fried rice--perfect portion and it was delicious! Mango sticky rice is perfection too. I've been here twice in one week now, it was that good. read more

Nice quiet spot for lunch! The server was so professional and knowledgeable. He was very attentive (but not overbearing) and asked questions to be sure exactly how spicy we all wanted our meals. The fresh rolls were so nice, as were the sauces served with them. The red curry was also great. Bravo on the Tom Kha soup--not watered down at all, very coconutty! read more

I've eaten at the restaurant before and the quality and portions were very good. Unfortunately my delivery order was dismal. The curry was more like soup wih a couple of pieces of chicken and potatoe. The appetizer wasnt in the order at all. I paid for delivery fee and had tipped. When I called, the woman had zero customer service skills saying they just do it differently for delivery. I really wanted to have a better experience and tried several times for her to turn it around. But she was more interested in getting me off the phone. Ir was not representative of the quality they have delivered in the past. We host a lot of airbnb guests and influence purchasing decisions often. Maybe the management needs to make some staffing changes. Folks I'm going back to Taste of Thai Express. read more

Delivery order arrived with incorrect spice level. We called the restaurant to bring this to their attention. The person who answered the phone was rude and argumentative and then told us "not a big deal" and hung up. read more

Wost. Service. Ever. Waited over an hour for our food, an hour and 20 minutes to be exact. Asked multiple times if they had forgotten about us but were assured it was only because the duck I ordered takes a long time..........really? Only when I finally stood up and asked to cancel my order did someone go back and realize our plates had been sitting out for, judging by my cold duck, at least 15 minutes. This didn't stop them from telling me that it was fresh out. Here's a tip: when you forget someone's order, just say so and offer a discount and a free desert. You could have had a 4 star or even a 5 star review. Instead, I hate you. read more

I've been extremely happy every time I've gone to Tamarind. I'm actually surprised they only have 3 stars at the moment. If you come here and don't order (1) larb, and/or (2) choo chee duck, you're doing yourself a huge disservice. read more

Tonight I experienced a piece of heaven when I bit into a dessert called "Thai custard over sticky rice." They were giving it out for free as a fathers day promotion. While no one at the table was a father, we did appreciate the reminder to call our dads (happy father's day dad), even though its hard to remember anything besides the wonderful meal I just ate. The dessert was creamy, sticky and sweet but most importantly it had just the right salty kick! Nothing elevates a desert like salt. Oh and this is not to say that my Choo Chee Duck got out-shined. The Choo Chee Duck is still the best Thai dish in Ithaca! Yep tonight I died and went to heaven ... twice! Is it fair to give a restaurant 5 stars based on two dishes? No, not really, but I'm doing it anyway. Now if duck doesn't float your boat other solid choices include any of the Thai soups and any of the Thai noodle dishes. And folks, please refrain from ordering Korean, Chinese or Japanese food at a Thai restaurant. The service is kind of slow, so be warned of that in advance and just take your time and relax over some great Thai food. read more

A pleasant experience. Delivery was an hour wait which is crazy but I read the reviews so I knew to expect that. B+ Spring Rolls. The spring rolls where standard but good. The sauce they came with was super spicy and awesome D+ Duck Salad. Not a good choice. The duck was really gamey and I spit out 2 pieces because of gristle. And it's on top tiny slices of red onion and one giant lettuce leaf which looks like it was meant as garnish. Not much salad here. Nice concept but really poor execution and ingredients. B+ Chicken with Cashews. Excellent quality chicken and mixed vegetables. Crisp and fresh. Wish there were a few more cashews;I counted 6. The sauce was a little watery. I asked for spicy and they delivered on that. Even though the Duck Salad was a bust I felt it was a value at $29. I'd order from here again when I'm in town. read more

I give this place three stars, because while the food was great, the service was just not. Came with my friends. We were five and were promptly seated. However, it took forever for our food order to be taken. Then, once it was we waited around an hour for food. We saw other parties who came afterward and got served before us. We asked the waitress when our food would be brought out and she said that she would check. She went to talk to another waitress and then they exchanged a look which led us to believe that they forgot to put our order in in the first place. The other waitress comes over and apologizes and says that because we are a large party, it will take a while for out food to come out. I'm sorry, a large party? A normal sized family can be five people. I would have appreciated if they instead apologized for not putting our order in. Anyway, save your time and go to Taste of Thai to get friendlier and more efficient service and, I would say, better food. read more

The food is very good - I almost always order the Crispy Vegetables and Thai Spicy Noodles with tofu. I LOVE the food in fact, and we order from them about three times a month. On occasion, we eat there. Recently, we took some out of town guests there for dinner. As usual, the food was excellent, but the service was very poor. Our food took a very long time to be brought out. Additionally, the staff seemed flummoxed when we had requests. Very disappointing to me is the fact there are no free refills. (I could understand this if the sodas were in cans or bottles, but it appears to be from a fountain.) Even worse, though it took such a long time to bring out our food, the staff snatched up our credit card in less than 3 minutes. It was also uncomfortably cold in the dining room. In sum - a great place for take out. Skip the dining in unless you have lots of time to spare. read more

This place is a complete disaster for multiple reasons. The Cornell Daily Sun reported that in 2008, this place was cited for violating human labor rights. Food-wise, this place is only slightly cheaper than far superior places such as Taste of Thai and Thai Cuisine. Nevertheless, even if you disregard the slightly cheaper price, the food quality is extremely poor. This place uses poor ingredients and the dishes are not prepared to a level of even semi-decent Thai standards. I ordered seafood tomyum soup (which should have scallops and squid) but astonishingly, they prepared a soup that contained chicken and cut in a way to imitate squid and scallops. I was simply appalled by this maneuver (they should simply inform us that they are out of seafood tomyum). The pad see eew is sub-par, with the beef horribly cut and horribly overcooked. The papaya salad was overly salty (so salty that I did not even eat much of it. Many of my friends also complain about this place; including a shady tactic where they turn the thermostat extremely low down to 60 F in order to save money. When asked why it is so cold inside, they'll claim that the heater is broken...but they'll say the same thing 3 months later into winter. read more

Recently most favorite thai place in Ithaca. Service is a little bit slow sometimes, especially dinner time. Almost all food I had in here are yummy and fresh. my favorites: - Papaya Salad: best thai papaya salad ever, hands down. I usually order 3 stars. - Thai Chicken BBQ: love it, served with sweet and sour sauce, but I usually asked for theu BBQ duck sauce (homemade sauce) yumm, I suddenly crave them as I write this review. - Hainan Chicken Rice: clean flavor, though you can still taste delicate aroma of chicken. read more

Food is awesome. Flavorful, authentic, and on the cheaper side. They also get your orders out really quick. They are really busy though. A lot of people order takeout from there. Feel bad for the front desk lady. She has to do everything herself. But overall awesome place read more

Tamarind was surprisingly satisfying. Nothing really outstanding or unique but very good. I will definitely return. The website and exterior do not represent the quality inside. The interior is smooth with hardwood floors with light green walls. My girlfriend and I had fresh rolls and Tom Kha to start. The fresh rolls were good but similar to almost every other fresh roll I have had or made. The Tom Kha was exceptional. It had a nice even spicyness to start but was well complimented by a sweet taste after a few seconds. I had the Thai spicy noodles and my girlfriend had the Pad Prik Khing Duck. Both were very good. The spicy noodles had some tomatoes that gave the dish a good acidic taste along with the subtle smokeyness and spicyness. The duck was just barely crispy and the portion was generous. Overall, I liked Tamarind. It was fairly cheap for two people to eat and the food was satisfying. read more

New blood in the Thai delivery market! Yum. As far as selection and freshness, this place is marginally better than Thai delivery places around the Commons. Oddly, it takes longer -- even though it's way closer to our house. Oh, and be prepared to spend slightly more. We're paying up now, mainly because it's new -- not because it's great. UPDATE: had actual dinner here last week. Surprisingly un-seedy, nice casual dinner ambiance. BYOB/W! It feels weird to eat dinner without an alcoholic beverage -- you'll want one, trust me. read more

Decent food but small portions for the price. And don't get me started on our waitresses. So horrible! And catty! Someone had left a glass of water on our table before the four of us sat down. It wasn't removed or replaced or even acknowledged. Gross! NO ONE WANTS TO DRINK YOUR SKETCHY LEFTOVER WATER, TAMARIND. read more

This used to be one of our favorites. On 07/18/21 I bought carry-out meals for four. We were disappointed. The small servings of soup were insipid, the portions were about 2/3 the amount that they they used to serve and while most of the meals were tasty, they were carelessly prepared. E.g., the basil was not broken up; it was a long string of plant tissue. It would be a shame if this once great little Thai restaurant fails to meet its old standards. read more

Passable as Thai food, but it really could have been so much better. Ordered pad see ew, felt that it was under seasoned, and tasted a bit bland, was no longer warm all the way through. Service wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. You can have a far better experience elsewhere. read more