Karinya Thai & Vegetarian Cuisine

My wife and I went down to Mission Beach to get some Thai food and to our surprise, the restaurant is CLOSED! We were very very sadden by this.
This is the ONLY THAI restaurant in San Diego that has floor dining. The food is so delicious and the service is so attentive. We will miss this place alot!!!

I just found out that this place closed.
Big bummer, because it was always a great place for Thai.

My first time here was about a year ago and just had another recent visit. The restaurant seems to get the whole Thai-​style theme down. I love how the tables are set up: you sit on the floor but for comfort, your legs submerge inside the floor. The service is always super friendly. The chicken Pad Thai was pretty good but a bit sour. The green curry was tasteful and the Pad Se-​Ew was good with a mix of veggies. Also, the Thai Tea is perfect! Want to impress a group of out-​of-​towner friends for dinner? Choose Karinya.

BEST THAI FOOD EVER!!! I have not found a place that can beat them. Family operated. I love getting the panang curry. YUMM
Prices are great too. When their cost goes up, they even feel bad having to raise the prices by $ 1.

4 ½ stars.
I came here with a group of 8 girls including myself for my 20^th b-​day dinner. First of all, I love this place because there is a huge parking lot just a few feet away. When my friends and I came in, the waiter gladly seated us on a table. Since it was our first time there, we didn’t realize that there was another section in the restaurant that literally gives off that «thai» experience. So, I gladly asked our waiter if we could change our seating to the other part of the restaurant where you would actually be sitting and with that there were these very comfortable pillows.
The waiter was very nice about the change. Since there were 8 of us, we decided to just order a little bit of everything. We had 8 – 9 dishes and all of our food covered the seafood, meat, and noodles dish. Everything that we’ve ordered was delicious. Very tasty and the spicy-​ness was just perfect.
From what I can remember we ordered:
Volcano Chicken– my friends loved it so much.
Pad Thai w/​shrimp-​One of my favorite.
Siamese sweet & sour shrimp– Amazing. The sauce was so good.
Panang with Mixed Seafood-​A MUST!
AND A LOT MORE.
Since it was my b-​day, the waiter was so kind to make us this dessert plate full of banana fritters with coconut ice cream topped with a pink candle. Very cute. I love this place and the service was quite impressive. My friends and I were very satisfied and had a really good time. Great food w/​good company is always the best!
I highly recommend this place!

Good food, good service. Their hot is really hot– beware! The waitress did warn us so my fault for trying to a be a big man :)
Definitely check it out.

After a long day at the beach, we were both craving Thai food and thank goodness, we had a great recommendation for one in the Pacific Beach area.
We headed over to the restaurant after 8 o’clock on Saturday and were seated promptly in the quiet restaurant. The wait staff were so nice and gave us time look over the menu. I decided to get chicken and shrimp pad thai — noodles panfried with a delicious sauce and mixed with chicken, bean sprouts, shrimp and peanuts. My honey got this Chicken Ginger dish — I’m not sure of the name, but the sauce was incredible. They served it with white rice and we both ordered Thai Iced Teas to go along with the meal.
The restaurant is a great date spot… its quiet, great food, and nicely decorated. You can either choose to sit on the floor or have a table — which we got.
For dessert, we tried Fried Bananas served a la mode with coconut ice cream. DELISH!
Great recommendation! Great eats! I’m coming back here next time I’m in San Diego.
Cheers!

I have been here once and it was GREAT! The staff was so friendly and helped us with everything we needed. The food was amazing. I highly recommend the stuffed chicken and for desert, the sweet rice and mango
Also, I thought we would sit on the floor with our legs crossed and everything, but turns out there’s a secret cavity for your legs underneath the table! So you actually end up sitting normally. I thought this was really cool.

I have been to Karinya for years now and this place is amazing. My favorite entrees are the Yellow Curry and the Pad Thai with a refreshing thai iced tea and for dessert the sweet rice and mango never disappoints! It’s great being able to go to a restaurant that serves delicious food which doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
I recommend sitting on the floor to get a real feel for the culture and just find it more comfortable than sitting on chairs.
If you are looking for a nice night out with a group of 25 or just going out on a date, this place is defintely one I recommend to anyone.
And I agree with everyone else, te parking lot behind the restaurant is extremely convinient and the host will give you a ticket for free parking.

I haven’t been to too many thai restaurants, but of the few, this ranks really high.
For their appetizers, the chicken satay and tom yum soup is SO GOOD.
Entrees, I drool over their red curry and spicy fried rice. The pad see ew is also freaking delicious.
Service wasn’t that great and I do remember getting super confused with finding the place after I parked in some random lot. But for the food, definitely WORTH IT.

I have had quite a lot of Thai food in my lifetime and Karinya definitely ranks high up! Since we live nearby, the boyfriend and I go here all time to both dine in and take out. I absolutely love all of their curries. My favorite is definitely the yellow curry (maybe it’s the Japanese in me). My boyfriend also loves the three-​flavored fish. The sauce on it is awesome! Sweet and tangy, with garlic and chili (the best combination).
We have been coming here for years and have never had a bad meal. The staff is always so kind and happy to help. It is a nice atmosphere for a date, but also for family dining. It is also quite good for large groups, they have a pretty big table on the floor seating that seats about 6 or 8, I believe. One of the ladies that work there also told me that they can host large parties in the dining room on the other end of the restaurant. They also have wonderful desserts! The coconut ice cream is so creamy and goes well with the friend bananas. But if you’re not into fried desserts like my boyfriend, the mango and sweet sticky rice is to die for! I would go here alone for the sweet sticky rice mmm…
Anyways, Karinya will always hold a special place in my heart and hopefully it will do the same for you! Also, there is a validated parking in the lot in the back, which is definitely a plus!

If you’re spoiled by good, cheap Thai food from Thai Village (like me), Karinya isn’t really worth the trip. But then again, if you’ve ever been to Thai Village, it’s completely a no-​frills place while Karinya has more spunk to it.
The interior design isn’t anything to brag about but it’d be a cute little place to take a date within the first four dates or so (if you last that long). It has that «cute-​sy» feel and there is a lot of pink going on. Definitely not a place to come with your «bro-​hams.»
The food wasn’t anything to write home about — pricey especially compared to Thai Village. I think my vegetarian laht na was $ 10.95. To add chicken was like another $ 2. To add scallops was giving up naming rights to your first-​born. Am I just sounding like a cheapskate and being a princess? Probably.
In the bigger scheme of things, what’s another $ 2 right when my mortgage is $ 1,300? $ 2 is nothing but when you’ve been spoiled with the cheap, extra goodness of Thai Village, $ 11 for laht na is expensive.
Anyways, the portions were very good and it came in a — for lack of a better term — «cool-​looking» serving dish; it looked like a big gravy boat. If no one was looking, I’d probably take the gravy boat and slurp it directly like how I do at Thanksgiving dinner. I love gravy and somehow when I see a gravy boat, I get really excited. I love gravy so much sometimes I think I was raised by The Colonel from KFC.
The free validated parking is +++ especially in the parking-​starved family of Garnet, Grand, and Mission.

This was the very first restaurant I went to in SD and it holds a special place in my heart. Time and again it’s really come through with flying colors.
PROS:
*vegetarian!
*polite service
*excellent ambience (décor, in-​floor seating)
*A+ on essentially all dishes, especially the critical pad thai (although recently I noticed that some of their curries became a bit watery and their rahd prig became a bit soggy – perhaps new management?)
*comped, ample parking
*a huge glass door entrance that could probably accommodate an elephant
*inoffensive classical music playing instead of shitty Top 100 radio stations
CONS:
*medium price
*it’s in Pacific Beach (PB), a disgusting cesspool of STIs, bros, hos, and general inferiority
Karinya is always a crowd-​pleaser, though, even for some of my friends that don’t even like Thai food!

One of the better Thai restaurants in SD.
The portions are a bit small for me but the food is pretty good.
I’ve ate here a few times and the curry (I forget which, it looks green) is great.

I’ve been to Karinya twice in the past week. The first was a delightful dinner with my housemate and his girlfriend. We shared the Karinya Sampler, Tom Yum soup, Prawn Cee Eu, and Chicken Panang. Portions were generous, and the dishes were uniformly delicious. It was a solid, four Unilocal-​star worthy, dining experience.
The rest of this review is about that fifth, sexy, star.
The other night I biked down to PB to watch a sunset that was even more stunning than usual. That’s when things got crazy. Within seconds of getting off my bike, a decent looking blonde struck up a conversation and then proceeded to kiss me.
Not sure how to act, I suggested that we (and her alcoholic friend who had picked up two Navy boys in the meantime) go grab some dinner. The first close place that popped into my head? Karinya.
Before I proceed with the gory and horrifying tale that was my Sunday dinner, I’d like to give you some background info. I consider myself a very polite diner. My parents taught me good manners: to make eye contact and say «please» and «thank you» every time I speak with a member of the waitstaff, never raise my voice in restaurants, etc.
The rest of the party turned out to be some of the rudest diners I have ever had the displeasure of eating with. My blonde was loudly voicing her dislike for anal sex, her friend was touting the merits of her brand new boob job, and the navy boys were prank calling people they knew.
IN A RESTAURANT!
While I mouthed silent apologies to nearby tables, the slightly embarrassed (and justifiably so!) waitstaff continued to act with grace, poise and aplomb. I hope I never have the opportunity (read: misfortune) to discover that another restaurant I frequent has such stunning service.
Four very tasty stars and one sexy, anal-​phobic, surgically-​enhanced, fifth star. You earned it Karinya!

There are many Thai places in San Diego, and in order to distinguish itself from the herd, Karinya has to rely on a gimmick. In this case, the chair-​less floor sitting. Which isn’t a bad way to go about actually.
I was worried how a white boy like me would handle sitting cross legged throughout an entire meal, but turns out the fears were unfounded. While the tush is firmly planted on the ground, the legs actually go into a cavity underneath the table. So the experience is more akin to dining on a very wide bench, but still enjoyable.
The upside is all the footsy games one can play under the table, which makes Karianya a good place to take a date who’s not particularly a culinary expert.
Which brings me to the second half of my review. The food itself was nothing to rave about. It was solid, standard, rather mildly boring Thai fair. Unlike most Thai places, their hotness ratings were actually dialed down. A medium spicy dish tasted a lot more like a mild, and a mild dish was very bland.
Overall, a good place to hand out, since it offers a unique dining experience and a good view of Garnet, but skip the foody cravings for something more bold.

Karinya is one of the better Thai restaurants in San Diego but still not thoroughly impressed. The food was ok and the service was ok but nothing exceptional. I believe I had some drunken noodles and penang curry and it was fine. I was was excited by the authentic seating arrangement (minus the dangling legs part). However, the food did not live up to my expectation.
Do your homework before going to this place.
1. Get a pedicure: The large room with an elevated floor seating is interesting and can leave an impression on everyone around you– literally! Be prepared to take your shoes off.
2. Hope you have a great posture: As other reviewer mentioned this semi-​floor seating can be painful. Make sure you get a table with back support or it probably will force you to rush through a meal.
3. Lastly, note that we eat with our nose first, eyes second and mouth third. I am not even trying to be funny but really boy and girls make sure your feet are clean and stink free. I can’t say that enough! Be considerate to your company and others around you.
Great plus about the location, after dinner there are plenty of places on Garnet to go drinking, hooka-​ing, contracting STDs, ooorrrr just meet up with your friends for a night of dancing.
Overall — this is A-​OK! but I probably will go back again for a second try.

I ate here with a party of ten on a recent Friday night and I enjoyed it. I don’t venture out to PB often, so we came prepared to deal with the parking situation by allotting time for that. Little did I know was that Karinya validates parking for two hours in the parking lot behind their restaurant.
We had reservations at 7:00, but some of us were running late. They were still accommodating when we finally got seated closer to 7:30 (it wasn’t that crowded to begin with).
Our party sat in the room where you have to take your shoes off to sit on the floor. You’re sitting on the elevated floor, but once you sit down, your legs dangle under the table. =) Sitting on the floor lacked back support, so some of us were ready to leave after an hour! Other than that, I liked how the restaurant was nicely decorated with cool stuff from Thailand. However, this is another restaurant that only has one stall for the women’s restroom. If it were crowded that night, I can see this being a problem!
I had the pad thai with shrimp and was happy I ordered it… it was really good! I tried some of my friend’s grilled beef and his portion was pretty generous (good stuff too). I think my pad thai cost $ 11.95, a little pricier than what I’d pay at other Thai restaurants, but it’s all good. I liked how they left carafes of water at the table so we can pour our own refills.
I’d go back because service was great and the food was awesome. If you go, take advantage of the 2-​hour validated parking they have available, we lucked out with finding street parking on Garnet during this visit, but it’ll save you a lot of time if you go and check it out for yourself!

I took my authentic Thai stepmother to this place after graduation (mine not hers) for some awkward bonding. I was pleasantly surprised by the sensations in my mouth and the apparent satisfaction of my palate-​picky companion. I have since gone with others and have not been disappointed. If you’re wondering why I would take my sweet unsuspecting stepmother into the heart of Bro-​tastic PB next to a club where someone got shanked, please read on.
1. The food is excellent. The mango and strawberry colada smoothies are delectable as well as the summer roll appetizers. Almost every entrée is offered with a tofu option and a spicy sauce option ranging from 1 – 10. Options are good, even if you order the same thing every time like I do. It’s comforting to know they are there. Also, they offer a fabulous mango and sticky rice dessert that rivals those sampled in Bangkok.
2. The servers are super polite and attentive. I never had to ask for water refills or the check. They just materialize at the slightest sign of need.
3. There are two seating sections, one with tables to accommodate tall folk with chronic back problems and another area with floor cushions and tables sunken into the floor. In this area, shoes must be removed in the presence of Buddhist statues as a sign of respect, so make sure you’ve showered recently.
And that brings my grand total of Restaurants that Begin with K Reviews to 2. Enjoy Karinya. I just talked myself into eating there this weekend.

The servers here give the option of ordering dishes on a scale of 1 – 10 on a spicy scale. Our intrepid hero ordered a ⁷⁄₁₀ Tom Yum soup, a ⁷⁄₁₀ plate of drunken noodles, and (just to be bold) a ¹⁰⁄₁₀ three flavor scallops and shrimp plate. When the food arrived, the soup definitely tasted like a 10 instead of a 7. It was like drinking from a bottle of Sprite that someone had filled with Bacardi 151 instead. Be forewarned, they use very fresh chilies in the soups, so it’s best to order them mild unless you want to desensitize your palate for the later dishes. Their three flavor house specialty scallops and shrimp were excellent and the scallops were huge! It tasted more like a 5 than the 10 that was ordered, perhaps because the soup was so strong.
PROS:
— They don’t fool around when they say «spicy», particularly in the soup.
— Excellent frequency of table service, not to often to be bothersome and not to infrequent to leave you wondering where your server went.
— Really cool elevated dining room where you have to take off your shoes on the left side of the restaurant. This is a great room for birthday parties or a larger get-​together with a dozen people.
CONS:
— They didn’t warn me how spicy it would be. I think my tongue is scarred.