Tim and I headed out to the Thai Cafe in Irvine. They are in the building that used to be El Conejo. El Conejo closed up all their shops a couple of months ago. In the newly remodeled space, Thai Cafe has a nice modern feel and you wouldn’t have known it used to be a Mexican food place. Thai Cafe is in the Arbor Shopping Center at Walnut and Jeffrey right off the 5 Freeway. The Arbor Shopping Center and the center across from it have about 95% Asian proprietors.

We got there just past 1:00pm and the place was fairly empty. We were seated promptly and offered a menu that surprisingly was quite limited. I didn’t inquire if this was just their lunch menu or if this was their entire offering.

I was bored with the food selection. I ordered the Pad Thai (I know…why the Pad Thai?) Honestly there wasn’t anything else on the menu that intrigued me. So I decided to order a dish that is quite common and see if they could WOW me with it. Tim ordered the Pad see ew with Pork.

Before our meals came we were each given a bowl of Hot & Sour soup. As you can see in the photo’s below, this is not the same as Chinese Hot & Sour. This soup felt and tasted like it was made the day before. The vegetables were soggy and the taste lacked any depth. I have a feeling if I had it the day before I may have liked it.

My Pad Thai was gummy. I think the noodles were cooked too long and if I had let it sit there for much longer it would have turned into one solid glob. The freshest items on the plate were the bean sprouts.

I’m sorry, but maybe this was an off day for them. I did not enjoy my meal. I will go back in a few weeks and try again and see if they can redeem themselves.

Thai Cafe
14715 Jeffrey Rd
Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 559-5382