• Thai Smile

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  • White Veg-options
Thai
Take-out
Non-veg

Serves meat, vegan options available. Thai food place. Mostly meat stuff but does offers several vegetable/vegetarian main entrees including a pleasing sprout and a veggies trio. Other dishes could be substituted with tofu upon request. Open Mon-Sun 11:30am-9:30pm.


Venue map for Thai Smile
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15 Reviews

First Review by sfvoyage

SoCalCal

Points +1713

Vegan
28 Jun 2024

Dependable, consistent, vegan options

I'm not sure when ownership of this restaurant changed, but it's definitely for the better. No longer are there cloth napkins and uppity servers, replaced with friendly staff and good, dependable, consistent, and tasty food. There's a vegetarian section in the menu that is actually all vegan and I believe all of the curries are, or can be made, vegan, also.

On this trip, I ordered the Veggie Trio, mild. I'm not a fan of super spicy food, and mild definitely was workable for me. The large portions and the tasty food always brings me back when we've been on Arenas drinking and need to eat somewhere walkable!

Pros: Friendly and helpful staff, Vegan options, Tasty food

angrywiener

Points +51

Vegan
15 Nov 2021

Skip it.

Last time I tried to order the wait staff had no clue what was or wasn’t vegan in their own dishes. The vegan prik king was made with shrimp paste based sauce.

Cons: Garbage food , Poorly managed, Uneducated wait staff

x0elliot

Points +70

Vegan
07 Nov 2021

Bad service

Words of the waiter “I don’t cook so I don’t know whats in the sauce”. Just go somewhere else if you are vegan.

Pros: Vegetarian options

Cons: No body knows what’s in the ingredients , Not very friendly , Service like in a McDonald’s

WillaBroderick

Points +212

Vegan
21 Aug 2021

Chicken in my vegan pad thai

came late in the evening as the only option open nearby. the soft tofu was good but the pad thai not only had hardly any vegetables but there was also a chunk of chicken in it. definitely wish i had read the reviews and that there were more options in the area.

ErinCarter

Points +38

Vegan
26 Mar 2021

So good all around

I’d give it 5 stars if it was all vegan, but it deserves the 4! There are not a ton of vegan options but those that I tried were great. I was in town 3 days and we went 2 times- we just couldn’t stay away. Plus the staff was so kind and made the experience that much better.

Pros: Dedicated vegetarian menu , Great portion sizes, Great service

D&M_Happy_Users

Points +72

Vegan
27 Jul 2020

Very Poor Food and Service

We ate here last year and it was not good. We asked about ingredients in the vegetarian options menu and the servers were impatient, not friendly, and responses seemed deceptive, like they just wanted us to order; it felt weirdly dishonest. We were suspect about the dishes we received and upon further inquiries, we learned that they used fish sauce in everything, including the "vegetarian" menu options. We did not go back last year and will not this year during our stay in the area. The food was not good either. It was over sauced, too sweet, and the ginger dish literally had no ginger.

Pros: None.

Cons: Poor service, Bad food, Deceptive menu

johnschrom

Points +25

Vegan
26 Nov 2019

Decent food

It’s not clear what their definition of veg*n is. I asked if I could get the tofu pad thai from the “vegetarian” section made vegan (“no eggs, no fish or oyster sauce”), and the server dismissed the request as redundant (“yes, no egg. It’s on the vegetarian menu”). Reading the other reviews make me question if what I ate was even vegetarian, but I have no first hand knowledge otherwise.

The pad thai was alright. It was a bit syrupy/sugary, but overall was alright. Tofu was good. Staff was friendly, and ambiance was nice.

rimanadine

Points +127

Vegan
25 Oct 2019

Hearty Lunch!

Thai Smile had a delicious lunch special. Vegan items aren’t marked but they will accommodate. I had the spicy tofu with salad and rice. Make sure to specify vegan/no fish/no oyster sauce. They accommodated and provided a vegan salad that came with the lunch special (normally containing meat). Just talk with your server before ordering. Overall it was a tasty and hearty meal.

nonplanar

Points +87

Vegan
07 Aug 2019

BEWARE VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS

Choose for yourself but I’m staying away from this place.
They claim they don’t have coconut milk to make their Thai Iced tea vegan. They’re a Thai restaurant for crying out loud: of course they have coconut milk.
Their “vegetarian” section is a lie: most everything has fish sauce in it they can’t leave out. The waitress still claimed is was vegetarian. I ask her is she thought fish are vegetables. She didn’t know. I left. Ugh.
Thai House, a short walk away is where vegans can have a great vegan Thai meal. AND vegan Thai Iced tea. That’s where I’m going now.

Pros: No pros only cons

Cons: Nothing vegan OR vegetarian

NeøHøtting

Points +34

Vegan
06 Nov 2018

I did not like the food. No vegan options, fish sauce in every dish.. bleh

I did not like the food. No vegan options, fish sauce in every dish.. bleh

caroesner.gmail

Points +44

Vegan
30 Jul 2018

Conflicting statements from staff

I stay away because I don’t know who to believe

Pros: Quick service

Cons: Some servers say there’s fish sauce in all dishes, Some servers say there is not, I don’t take the chance & I eat at Peppers Thai

Eric Andrew

Points +24

Vegan
27 Nov 2016

very disappointing

Not much to like about this place. Very slow to be seated. Pot stickers came out frozen in the middle, sent them back, and the next batch came out frozen in the middle, sent those back as well. Main entrees then took another half hour to come out, and several of those were luke warm. I asked twice for them to serve my son with the sticky rice dessert he ordered, finally gave up and cancelled that when we asked for the check, which they brought along with the sticky rice and a puzzled look of "huh, you didn't order this?". Stay away, far away.

mickeythemystic

Points +54

Vegetarian
23 Apr 2015

Vegetarians beware!

The menu has a vegetarian section, which was appreciated. However upon questioning the waitress we learned that several of the entrees in this section were prepared with fish sauce. Overall, we found the food we ordered to be below average.

Cons: Not a good choice for vegetarians

SarahAlam

Points +27

Mostly Veg
10 Feb 2015

Best Thai food

I and a friend of mine was driving back home so we stopped by this place and just had takeaway from here. We both love Thai food and this was really good. We were so impressed by their service and the quality of food as well. We will definitely be coming here again and more often I will recommend it for all Thai lovers to visit this place. It’s a good one.

Pros: Best Thai Food, Good food

Cons: Nothing

sfvoyage

Points +141

Vegetarian
03 Feb 2015

Good lunch spot

We ate here for lunch 3 times and enjoyed all our visits. They have $9.95 lunch specials, including a salad with peanut dressing (the soup is not veggie), a main, and iced tea.

All the mains can be made with tofu (soft or fried). They claim not to use fish sauce, shrimp paste, oyster sauce, etc., but you should ask them anyway. Soft tofu is more safe, even though they claim the fried tofu is fried in the morning, before they re-use the oil for meats. Make sure you ask them to clean the wok and utensils, so that meat doesn't accidentally get stuck or transferred to your food.

Good service. Popular place. Right in downtown Palm Springs. If you are hungry, stay away from curry mains, which come in a small bowl.

I didn't eat here for dinner, so can't comment on their dinner service.

Pros: good food & prices, all dishes can be made with tofu




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