My husband and I went here on a date night, because of the great reviews. Our food was just okay, really nothing special. There are other Thai places that are much better. Maybe we were expecting too much?! read more

Get ready to have your mind blown this place it the best Thai food in town. Authentic fare that is far beyond the standard! Flavors that make you want to eat beyond comfortable, you have been warned... read more

The pandemic has clearly been tough on restaurants but scrimping on ingredients is no way to attract and keep customers. Went to the restaurant on recommendation from friends but on this day the good chef may have called in sick eating the bad chef's food. The Pad Thai was mediocre and the beef dish (Gaeng Panang) had less beef than you'd find in a dick's burger. It had lots of sauce and jasmine rice but that tasted bad as well ($17.00). To be fair the sample is small (two dishes) but nonetheless we were not impressed, especially for the price we paid. read more

Rally good food but a little pricier than it's comparable restaurants (and def. higher on the spice scale even if you specify "mild")

My wife and I like dining the last few years here as it is close to home and the food is fantastic! I'm very much hoping service get's a bit better, as it is hit or miss now. It seems the addition of Uber Eat's seem to put a strain on wait staff, often times letting tables wait over Uber drivers waiting for to-go orders. The last couple of times we didn't get part of our order, or the order is not quite right. This seems to happen more on weekends than any other time, Football Sunday seem to be the worse time. We're giving up on the restaurant, just hoping the service issues are straightened out. read more

This place is amazing! More authentic than anything else I have had in Seattle. Unlike most Thai restaurants, they do not overload their food with sugar. I loved the ambience and how small place is, it made for some very good service. It is my favorite Thai food restaurant in Seattle and my wife and I will definitely be returning! read more

Thaiku - Amazing! - Thai Near Me - Seattle, Washington

I need to do an update. My boyfriend wanted thai, so we decided to try again. My experience was much better, and we have even gone back! The waitresses were attentive and very sweet, the food was good, and I wasn't sitting facing a mirror this time - yay! The volume was much better - we could actually have easy conversations. I've been happily corrected! read more

Good phad Thai the place wasnt busy when I came so the service was very fast. Fresh ingredients. Tasted great. Would come again. read more

See all

Mai thaiku was the bomb So many fun things to try The best was pahd Thai This was my first time coming to this place and I was pleasantly surprised. Got the pahd Thai and the red curry dish with prawns. It was so tasty. Not to mention the Thai iced tea. The rice was purply and fluffy. And the water came iced! Unheard of in Seattle. Will be going there again for sure and can't wait to try some other yummy dishes. read more

Best Thai food I've had in Seattle, hands down. They also have great cocktails. Highly recommended.

A small place with amazing authentic Thai food. We got the chicken skewers, they came in a red peanut curry that was the perfect spice level. I ordered a side of pineapple to go with it which paired very nicely. There is both inside and outside seating so take your pick and enjoy! read more

My husband and are long time Thaiku fans and we were so excited to see their new digs tonight. I almost want to cry because they are not the amazing Thaiku we remember and love. Just like the other reviews on here, everything is small, pricey, and disappointing. When you first walk in the door they have a tiny entryway and a little five stool bar. Next is the tiny dining room that I can't imagine their normal Friday/Saturday night crowd fitting. At the table you are served with tiny cups of water and plates. Let me add the new diner ware they chose are stainless steel camp ware. We're talking cups, plates, and soup bowls... Remember the soup bowls for later on in this review. They have replaced their old menu of family style dishes to a tapas style menu with higher prices. We tried to order our old favorites: phad thai, crying tiger, and we wanted tom yum or tom kha gai soup. Apparently those soups don't exist any more. What we got was a $12 phad thai dish that was barely an appetizer for my husband and me, when it usually left us with leftovers for lunch. Next was the $8 crying tiger. This dish is nothing like I remember. The crying tiger dish USE to be cuts of marinated steak cooked about medium rare. Served with shredded carrots and cabbage and a delicious sweet and spicy lime sauce. Tonight, we got a few little charred nibblets on a tiny plate with a very salt fish sauce. Lastly, was the only soup they had on the menu for $12. I don't remember the name, but it was like a tom yum soup base with three pork rib bones. For a $12 soup you would expect a big bowl enough to serve a table. No, what we got was a bowl that held about two small cups full. The pork bones were really hard to eat, especially in a soup. You know how I told you to remember the soup bowls? Metal soup bowls + hot soup = OUCH! Not a good idea guys. My husband ordered a thai iced tea that was also served in the same tiny water cup. After our $40 bill and hungry stomachs, we had a disappointing and sad realization. Thaiku is nothing more than a distant delicious memory that we won't be reliving. Excuse me while I grieve and make another dinner. :*( read more

It's been a long time since I've written any reviews but I felt it was necessary to write this for people seeking to eat at this restaurant. Let me start by saying that I LOVE Thai food. I checked Yelp for a place that offered northern Thai food and Mai thaiku came up. My friend and I were seated promptly and were brought water and plates. I had my mind set on khao soi (which I've never had before). My friend wanted to take a look at the menu to decide. Our server, a 40 something year old lady with short hair, came by to ask if we we were ready to order. My friend asked if they had cashew chicken, to which the server said "we only serve traditional Thai food, it's not on the menu but we can make it for you". I ordered a Thai iced tea and she said she'd come back after we decided what to order. The menu seemed confusing because the names of the categories (apps, salads, etc.) weren't in English. It would be common sense to put that on there especially for people unfamiliar with the type of food. An alternative would be to offer to explain or answer questions we had about the menu, which we were never offered. My friend ordered a stir fried beef with rice and I ordered khao soi. The food was delicious! We both enjoyed it a lot. I asked for a dessert menu but was told there wasn't one. Another server recommended the mango with sticky rice so I got that. It was ok, not too sweet but quite filling. Then our original server came back with the bill. We asked if we could have separate checks. She said: "split it?" We said no separate, so each would pay what he ordered. She looked like we were an inconvenience to her, snatched the receipt off the table and took off. She came back with separate checks. I came to find out that my dessert was $12! That's pretty steep for a dessert of rice and a mango (btw my entree was also $12, which was totally worth it). I suggest either including the desserts on the menu with prices or let people know the price beforehand. Honestly, the food was so good I would definitely want to go back again. Only that time I will ask for a different server if I get the same one as she was rather rude and also ask for dessert prices before ordering. Update: It's been a year and I come here occasionally, most recent visit being today. Service has improved and food excellent as always! Thoroughly enjoyable experience each time! read more

My husband and I recently visited Mai Thaiku and were very disappointed. We visited on a Thursday evening at 7:30 and had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. The new location is very small and loud. We had a hard time hearing each other across the table. I was willing to look past the poor atmosphere for their good food. Our usual favorites of crying tiger and phad thai were disappointing. The portions were tiny. Phad thai was $12 and it came on a small appetizer plate. The crying tiger was just ok but not like what we remember. I don't think we'll be back. There's far better restaurants in Seattle that offer more for your money. $65 later we left hungry. Anyone expecting the old Thaiku will be disappointed. read more

Atmosphere is cozy (try to avoid the dinner rush or you'll be waiting a while for a table), but the service, food, and cocktails are all outstanding. read more

This is the best place in Seattle for Thai food. I got the pad-thai, and it was the most delicious and authentic that I've had anywhere in the city. Delicious, but a bit expensive for the portion size you get (minus one star), BUT plus one star for the most excellent customer service EVER. I drove to the location but had forgotten my wallet, they let me take my take-out home, have my chill Friday night and then come back later in the evening to pay my tab. I think that they sensed the fact that I had been having a terrible day, and they really brightened me up with their trust and love for their customers!! Please go to Mai Thaiku!! read more

Mai Thaiku specializes in regional Thai cuisine, particularly dishes from the northeast, an area called Isaan. Isaan food is famous throughout Thailand; there are many Isaan speciality restaurants in Bangkok and across the country. Mai Thaiku doesn't serve all the usual dishes you'll find in most Thai restaurants, but based on our two visits so far, they do a fantastic job with the sometimes familiar, sometimes unusual plates they offer. Phad thai isn't an Isaan speciality, but Mai Thaiku serves up one of the best I've had. Larb chicken IS a traditional Isaan dish and they do a great job with it. Have it with the excellent purple sticky rice--in Isaan they eat balls of the rice with their hands, scooping up sauce and other bits before popping the whole thing in their mouths--but you'll get a fork and spoon. For me the highlight of our meal the other night was a green sauce served with the grilled chicken. It was superb! I wanted that sauce on the chicken, on the rice, on everything. The mango and sticky rice (a different kind of sticky rice) also was wonderful--as good as I've ever had in Thailand. Isaan food tends to be spicy, so folks who don't like chili might need to pass on Mai Thaiku. In addition to the great food, the design of Mai Thaiku--a mashup of the medicine shop décor from Thaiku in Ballard and an edgy, urban Thai graffiti vibe--is fun and whimsical. In case you're wondering, the silhouette with a big question mark in the back is captioned "Who wants to share?" Folks who don't know about Thai regional cuisine may be disappointed not to find massaman or panang or other curries on the menu. But there are lots of great places for those dishes--try Thai Siam on 15th NW if you haven't already. Mai Thaiku is a different kind of Thai food experience. And if the smallish plate of phad thai costs $12, you're paying for top quality and a memorable experience. For us, because everything is so delicious, it seems like good value. One suggestion: maybe it would be helpful if Mai Thaiku management made a little effort to explain about the food for all those people who don't know Isaan, and to warn folks who can't tolerate any chili. But that's a minor point. We're excited to have Mai Thaiku in the neighborhood and look forward to becoming regulars! read more

I don't know what took so long to visit Mai Thaiku. We loved it's previous version. The house and garden is lovely and inviting. I love when homes are turned into businesses. We came for happy hour and I had a Bangkok Mule (?) it had spiced Thai rum in it. We also shared chicken satay and a beef dish with coriander,lemongrass and a rich sauce. The rice they serve is a mix of brown and white rice, which I enjoyed. My husband was disappointed they didn't have. Tom Ka Gai on the menu any longer but the server offered to make it off the menu. It was delicious! The service and food were fabulous and we will definitely come back again. read more

This place was bummer-ville. We tried it and were excited for a new Thai place in the neighborhood, but were sorely disappointed. I do not recommend it for vegetarians-- most Thai places in Seattle seem pretty vegetarian aware, and ask questions like if fish sauce is OK or if you want your tofu fresh/fried. This did not happen and when I heard the girl behind me ask the "which dishes are vegetarian friendly" question, she got different answers than I did. Hmm? We also didn't get asked questions about any sort of spiciness, so when our waitress walked by right after we had ordered, we asked to make the food spicy. She then brought it out with a dish of crushed pepper flakes since it "was already done that way." Bye, wasted $40. read more

Picked-up to-go order. Menu was unclear. I mistakenly ordered 2 soups: eggplant and 3 mushroom soup. Both were very sweet. My friend was looking forward to red or green curry; not on the menu. The soups were under their specialties section. 29.00 for 2 soups which were only filled up half-way. What a disappointment. read more

The food was not good. I got a yellow curry and asked for no spice, it was more like a 3 out of 5 for level of spice. My husband got the pad see iew and it was a super small portion. The only thing great was the actual setting. It was roomy inside. Not going to be returning. read more

Food quality OK; service very so so; portions small for the price. Don't recommend this restaurant.

Glad they're back! The menu has changed -- new small plates , Thai salads, and khao soi noodles! The crying tiger, phad thai, and phad see ew remain. They were still smoothing things out this first week but the food was excellent. read more

Everything was delicious! I haven't been that happy with food in a long time. It's true that the portions are smaller, but I found them to be a perfect size and the quality seemed better than when thaiku was in Ballard. The menu was intriguing with items like pickled fresh water crab, a salad with pummelo and they also had a few old favorites. We will continue to be regulars here and are so excited they reopened in a beautiful cozy space. read more

It saddens me to write this review. Back when Thaiku was in Ballard, it was a place I often frequented and brought my friends. I'd impress them with Thaiku's unique menu and crazy drug imitating cocktails. I can say that this was a favorite and I was genuinely very upset when they picked up shop and closed their doors. Imagine my delight when a friend texted me "Britt!! Really important news! Thaiku is back open". I couldn't believe it! It really did seem too good to be true. And in reality, it was. This time around, I skipped out on the cocktails because I have a job, people! I can only imagine what their yohimbe-packed drink would do to me if I had work the next day. I went with the classic pad thai because it's an easy go to. I was a little surprised it was priced at $12 because I don't remember it being that expensive but I went with it anyways. My friend and I ordered the same dish but with different levels of spice. When our meal came, not only was it very small (one of the best parts of Thai food is the generous portion that allows you to double it up as lunch the next day, amIright??) but there was a pile of chili flakes on the side of my plate. Naively, my friend and I mixed the flakes into our dish assuming that they were measured to our requested spice level and I can assure you, THEY WERE NOT. It was a flake catastrophe. My friend got a flake in her eye ball and I ruined my small portion of pad thai with spiciness I couldn't handle. I don't want to be a stickler and maybe it was an off night but we were both disappointed with the experience. If I'm being honest, I'm assuming we'll both come back if we're hankering for a unique cocktail but I'm not sure I will order food from Thaiku again. read more

My wife and I were excited to try a new thai place and had the order to go. We were extremely shocked at how minuscule the portion sizes were. In the takeaway boxes the food was barely touching the sides and can't have been more than an inch high. The boxes were small too. Basically, if you are hungry for more than a snack at best, I wouldn't recommend going here. I don't write reviews and I don't ask for refunds but I felt I had to do both in this case. read more

The service here is great! I've had a few 'non-traditional' items on the menu and would stick to the items I had when I was in Thailand going forward. But I'm kinda a Thai-snob. Definitely would go back. read more

THE BEST SOM TUM IN TOWN! Their papaya salads (especially tum Laos and papaya salad with salted crab) are just TO DIE FOR. If you want to know how they do it in THAILAND. This is it. This is how they throw it down and chow down in THAI TOWN! As authentic as it gets. SMALL portions but man do they taste good. Get it with sticky rice and Moo Ping (pork skewers) and grilled squids and you got Thailand on a plate. LOVE that they serve it how they WANT you to eat it. No two stars, three stars BS. Just straight up spicy and sexiness. Yes it'll burn but it burns so goooooood! Get their lychee juice if you're pregnant Mee Hang is delicious. And so is their Khao Soi (wish it was a bit spicier and comes with fixings like lime and extra shallots and ) read more

This is the best Thai good I have ever eaten. We literally had takeout from here two nights in a row--it was that good. Amazing spices, each dish tastes unique and excellent, and the spicy fruity salads are the best. Do not walk, run to this restaurant. Don't miss out! read more

Slow service, pricey items, small portions, inattentive waitress, overall the experience was not worth the price.

pros: "holy shit" good. all menu items ordered were solid. interior decor was very warm and aesthetically reminding of thailand. cons: menu is a bit confusing if you aren't comfortable with thai terms, restaurant is small and not good for large parties--if you have a bunch of people, definitely call ahead to see if they can take care of you. yisssssssssssssssssss. overall, my party split 4 menu items and they were all tasty tasty tasy tasty gooooood. i don't agree that this place is pricey based on the quality of food they serve. perhaps their menu is pricey based on the neighborhood and space they occupy, but the food is ridiculously good for the price. SOM THAM THAI: the shredded papaya had a strong crispness to the bite and the sliced cherry tomatoes were fresh, not squishy. definitely not enough for a full meal, but a nice addition of freshness to cut through the heavy curries. GAENG HUNG LEI: i want to fill a bathtub full of Thaiku's Gaeng Hung Lei and do naughty things to myself. fatty pork belly in 5-spice curry, with no shame around the size of pork cuts wrapped in dripping fat. maybe it's the cold weather, but i love how knockout strong and savory this dish was. KHAO SOI: i've honestly only tried khao soi a handful of times, and never during my time in thailand, but this shit... is the shit. if you actually take a few moments to taste the khao soi curry, it's amazing how complex the flavor profile is. very happy. BA ME HANG: i don't know if seattle just has too many sub par thai restaurants, but even this simple stir fried noodle dish is a step above. the noodles were springy, the vegetables retained a good amount of original texture and the chicken still had crisp bits of char. read more

The Khao Soi is outstanding! Worth a trip just to try this amazing curry with fried noodles and pickled mustard greens. You'll need to order a side of rice, it's so rich and flavorful it is nice to have something to soak it all up. Portion size was perfect. Glad I live down the street! read more

This place is amazing! I had the pork belly entree. The waitress warned that it would be fatty. My eyes and smile widened and gleefully said yes, I'll take it. It did not disappoint. The dish came out with tons of flavor, and the fat is what you would expect from eating pork belly. Apparently some people are shocked with the amount of fat in the pork belly. ummm then maybe get a salad next time! read more

Authentic, delicious Thai food that comes with a relaxing and quality atmosphere, and friendly customer service. And by delicious, I mean that it's in my top five restaurants, and my top choice for Thai food. read more

Nice place, the price is a bit expensive compared to the the dish size . We spend $57 for two people

Fresh and authentic northern Thai food. Nice take on n their cocktail menu. Eat here often and always leave satisfied.

I've been here twice now with my wife and daughter (less than 2 years old) and both times have been a great experience. Although there were not many other kids there either time we went, the staff was very accommodating of our little one and seemed to genuinely enjoy seeing and interacting with her. The cocktails are excellent (especially the one with mezcal, which I don't normally like), and the food is tasty and filling. I'm not an expert in Thai food, but it seemed much more like Pestle Rock's Isan Thai menu than the more usual run-of-the-mill Thai places. Unique menu offerings, good presentation, and in comparison to Pestle Rock more food and more homestyle cooking feel. We all left satisfied and happy. I look forward to coming here many, many more times. read more

Price is too high for the food quality and quantity, you can get the same or better food and service around university area for half the price. read more

Overall the food was very delicious. Portions were smaller which made it feel like I was in Thailand. Excited to see a different type of thai food available in Seattle. read more

Stopped by to try the kao soi and found it to be too watery with none of the complex flavors I usually expect from this dish. The curry tasted very much like yellow curry powder bought at a supermarket. And it was way overpriced for lunch. For reference, I really enjoy Pestle Rock's kao soi. read more