Thai Noodles House

This place perplexes me. On the one hand, they have probably the best Pad Thai I’ve ever tasted in Austin at a reasonable price. Props to the chef, whoever he/​she may be.
On the other hand, the service can be terrible if you ask for accommodations or don’t tip higher than 15%. While I never tipped below that percentage, I have seen the owner rudely reprimanded my friend for her «low» tip. The other reviews seem to indicate that that’s normal behavior for them. As someone who have worked in the restaurant business for many years, I understand that non-​tippers suck. But it is absolutely unacceptable to kick someone out for not leaving enough. Good tipping correlates with good service. Treat your customers right and they will reciprocate with repeated visits and decent tips.
Parking and ambiance are lacking too.
Because of this, I don’t recommend you to go here.

I have been going to Thai Noodle House for over 10 years. The staff are great. The food is good. I particularly like their pork dumpling appetizer. The curries are good. Overall this is a great place near campus. Prices are very reasonable. You almost never have to wait for a table. And it is one of the few places near campus that has free parking.

A guy name eddy (who happens to be the chef) served me. He was really knowledgeable about the Currys and even made me a custom order that wasn’t on the menu. Im glad i found this place and I’ll be back.

Been coming here the last 13 yrs literally. Back in ’01, consistently to today, i order A8/​A9 depending on mood, which is Tom Yum Noodle Soup (tangy, salty, and a bit sweet with wide rice noodles, veges, etc) /​Yen Ta Fo (i think., tomato based tangy deliciousness with thin rice noodles). Their Pad See Ew is also excellent, not too sweet, very addictive.
All over the world and across this country, I cannot find better Thai food for these 3 dishes. I don’t get anything else here. Seriously.
The 5 stars is for food only.
Service is a 1 star. Mostly from the grumpy older thai woman who may be the owner. I’ve been asked to leave when lingering over my tom yum soup on my ipad mini several times or when it got crowded. I believe a lot of other reviewers stories of rudeness. The rest of the staff seem humble and lovely, but she quite often comes across terribly rude. I wish she would change and learn some manners.
However, i cannot get enough of the food. Now that i have moved to WA state, i come back and get my fix of their delish 3 dishes as often as i can. Those dishes are that good.

it’s difficult to enjoy good food when you’re treated like a problem from the minute you enter the door until the minute you leave. the food is not the problem here; the waitstaff is.
we had an older waitress who was rude, confrontational, and impatient take our order. when we were paying the check, she came over and saw that no tip was included on the receipt itself (we were leaving a cash tip), so she chastised us angrily. we were pretty much taken aback, so both of us told her not to do that to future customers –you don’t demand a tip before they’ve even gotten a chance — and left a 10% tip. we left pretty irritated and in disbelief

I have been coming here for four years and the food is delicious. Most of the complains seem to be about the staff and I have only had trouble with the staff very few times in the past.
This is the best pad ke mao I have ever tried!

Think home-​cooking and not fine dining and you’ve got the vibe of the place and food.
No frills Thai food. Ordered two noodle dishes in broth 1) thin rice noodles with beef in broth 2) flat, thick noodles with chicken, shrimp and mushrooms that were simple and good.
Reading the other reviews on Unilocal,many of the complaints seem to be about the waitstaff, in particular a specific older wait staff woman who is confrontational and impatient. This was not our experience. We found the wait staff to be friendly, smiling and treating us warmly. They felt like sweet moms.
Honestly a three star, maybe even a three-​and-​a-​half star restaurant, but its hard not to think less of it once you find out about the widely reported rant the owner posted to Facebook concerning the Newtown elementary school shooting.

Horrible experience. Although some of these reviews might say that there is great customer service, I cannot think of any place that has worse customer service. Waitress was horribly rude to my group of friends, and we were rushed to finishing our food. Finally, as we were ready to pay and leave, the manager came by to tell us that we «MUST ADD 15% TIP» since this was America…
With the service that we received, THEY should be paying US to eat their food. Worst attitude of staff I have ever met at a restaurant, and used the pretense of being in America to try and get more tips.
I will never go back to this place again, and I would definitely not recommend anyone else to go if they would like to be respected and treated like a true customer.

So I looked at all the negative reviews of this place, and some of them seem pretty fair. If you’re looking for a nice restaurant to take a date to, or have serious dietary restrictions, this probably isn’t the place. That being said, my S.O. and I love going here for lunch (we work on campus) when we want to just have a nice cheap lunch together. It is away from the street in a sort-​of run-​down spot, but it has outside seating with plenty of shade and no exhaust. The food is consistently tasty with a good spice level (could be spicier, but at $ 7, I won’t complain). C9 with tofu is my favorite. Thai tea is a nice sweet treat.
I will continue to come here, regardless of how everyone else feels about it. It is good and cheap! That’s hard to find around UT campus.

THEY offer THE MOST delicious tom yum noodle soup. Their tom yum is not spicy and red and oily. It’s a clear soup with lotsa punch. If anyone knows what this style is called/​have a recipe please tell me. I just hate when the mushrooms are really dirty. I can stomach a little dirt but seeing bits of it is unsavory.
I just don’t get the crazy tyrannical rules here. One time they asked a man sitting in the corner of the restaurant to not pull a dining chair next to him to put his backpack on. She said it was in the way and she had to walk there. what the heck? She never walks there! They asked me to put my bottle drink away one time. It was a free Snapple I got from the drag and I didn’t want to put the glass bottle in my backpack. I wasn’t even drinking it. Luckily I’m on their good side. One time one of the ladies (I don’t remember which one, I get them confused) complained to me about two girls looking at their phones while looking at the menu. Jeeze Louise! They really need to relax and not get so worked up over small things. The two ladies are old and really stuck in their old ways.

We were not treated well. My boyfriend has very serious food allergies and the owner of the establishment told us when we asked about potential allergens in her food that she didn’t «think» she used any of the ingredients we mentioned but if my boyfriend were to die as a result of eating in her restaurant it was «not her problem».
We should have left then.
Not wanting to be rude we again requested that if she knew that whatever he ordered could make him sick that she inform us so we could choose something else. She didn’t. Thinking nothing was wrong we ate, paid, and left a decent tip. About half an hour after that my boyfriend started having a reaction to the food and was sick for the next two days.
Regardless of how her food tasted we will never eat there again.

I rarely leave the Drag proper to get lunch whilst on campus and Thai Noodles House is certainly worth the (pathetically minimal) extra distance. Ignoring the now infamous comments of the owner that earned the deluge of 1-​star reviews, this place offers a decent meal. I’m a big fan of their Poor Boy Noodles, which costs less than $ 7 for a generous helping of food. Thai Noodles House feels more authentic than other nearby Asian restaurants and their food is certainly less salty.
Service is extremely efficient but utterly impersonal.

Despite the potholes surrounding the parking lot for Thai Noodles House, I come here from time to time to enjoy good food. I haven’t tried many dishes yet. For some reasons, I was always drawn to A8 Tom Yum Guey Teaw. It is a combination of all the things I love in Thai food. Sweet, salty, sour, spicy, hot bowl of noodles and shrimp and chicken. You can get it with broth or without. It comes with a side of green salad and crispy fried wonton. This is by far my favorite dish here.
On the dessert side, I’d pick the warm Ruby Rice Pudding. Perfect for a cold day.

I have eaten at Thai Noodle House and find that the curry is rather bland and the Pad Thai is so very oily. I prefer Madame Mams if I am by campus. Thai Fresh in South Austin is the best bet because they have a superb wine selection.
The only good things to say is they have free parking which is rare on campus. Also, their patio is nice and Madame Mams does not have outdoor seating.

Before I begin, let me just say that writing this review has been much delayed.
Our entrees were served in about five minutes time — perhaps because the place was empty… on an afternoon — and yet strangely we never got one drink refill. The food tasted fine to me (I ordered pad thai), but it left much to be desired by my friend…
Anyway, my friend (let’s call her Abby) did not believe the service warranted a 15% tip, so she settled for something like 10%. Just as we were getting up to leave, the waitress actually stopped us and proceeded to harass Abby until she tipped more. I was mildly amused simply because I’ve never seen waitstaff do that before, but it did seem unprofessional, and quite honestly, a bit desperate of her to do that. I haven’t been back since.
The reason I’m giving this place one star is twofold: 1) because of the rude waitress, who demanded more than what she was being offered, and 2) because the restaurant owner’s comments regarding the Sandy Hook victims still leaves a bad taste in my mouth even to this day.
For those of you that are questioning the validity of the latter, the story made headlines. Here are a couple links for your viewing/​reading pleasure:
1)
2)
Quite frankly I’m surprised that this restaurant is still standing. Madam Mams, can you kick it up a notch?

No hot sause to go. No Thai chilis.
Really good pad thai. Not as good as Little Thailand though.

Before you eat here, go watch the movie, «Slacker.» The film was shot in Austin before the tech boom, when the city was a much weirder and less polished place. The main college strip was full of independent coffee houses, head shops, record stores, and odd ball characters. Money and corporatization has flatten Austin out a bit. The genuine weirdos have been thinned out and much of the dingy charm has been scrubbed away.
In that context, Thai Noodles House makes sense. You can get a satisfactory meal for an inexpensive price in a down-​around-​the-​edges setting from a lazy waitstaff. The parking is impossible, so the place must survive on the UT student foot traffic.
It is a throw back spot to an era now gone. If you feel nostalgia for your college student days, you can fulfill your jones here. You will leave thinking, «Well that was nice, but I am glad I have grown up and left all that behind.»

My favorite Thai place in Austin. It’s unfortunate that all of these negative «reviewers» ate at thai noodle house and decided to place negative reviews on the same day. It’s very unfair to the fantastic employees that work hard at good customer service there.
The Pad Thai is simply fantastic. The service is great. They are always very friendly and serve you food quickly. Thai Noodle House has a great atmosphere, relatively quiet hidden a bit from campus in back of a couple other restaurants. The outdoor seating is fantastic on nice days and nights. This is definitely one of the few places where you can sit outside in Austin and find it enjoyable.
Also, the spicy beef broth is also fantastic. Very tasty.
Fake reviewers should be ashamed of themselves.

Dear sweet Thai Noodle House,
Thank you for the continued 5 star hospitality, service and amazing food. I’ve never been let down once.
I’ve eaten here numerous times and have never had a bad experience.
My favorite meal is the Poor Boy Noodles (no broth) with shrimp. Delish and esasy on the wallet too. We usually always get the spinach dumplings as an app– think tasty little pockets of spinach and seasonings with a delectable peanut dipping sauce. Nom. Nom.
Each time I’ve been, my drinks are always refilled without having to ask and the wait staff is very attentive.
One of the best places to eat in Austin, in my opinion.

I lived pretty close this place in my sophomore year of college and went there whenever I craved curry. Not owning a car while in college was one of the reasons I tolerated this place.
The food was good, but the people working there not so much.
Let me list out all the negative experiences I’ve had with this place (Yes, there is a list!)
1. You cannot just accompany a friend and sit with him/​her and not eat. EVEN if the place is empty.
2. You cannot ask for an additional plate to share food.
3. You will be screamt at by the old lady, if she thinks the tip you left is too less. Me and my friend were walking out and when she saw what we left as tip, and she ran out and started screaming her lungs out.
I have never stepped foot in that place again after incident number 3.
Stteee-​rike 3. You’re out!!!