Thai Garden House

This is one of my favorite restaurants of all time. It started out as Thai Garden House in Hoover Commons, but it moved to Southside in downtown Birmingham within the last year. The new location is less convenient and inviting, but the smaller size is probably more manageable and appropriate for the number of people they typically serve. The old location was massive and had way too many tables. It was rarely even half full, and when it was the small number of employees had their work cut out for them. The menu has stayed the same; I wasn't there during the first few months after the move, so I'm sure there were some considerable growing pains like those Anonymous had to weather. But I did takeout for lunch recently, and it looks like they've got their act together now. The Pad Thai was awesome as usual, as were the egg rolls. The Super Crunch is the best sushi dish I've had there. Other entrees to go for are the stuffed chicken wings, bbq chicken, and the ka prow lamb. The one cautionary piece of advice I would give is I tend to not get too adventurous with the menu selection. I have found several things that are very good, and I stick to them. If you want to go out on a limb, be prepared for that limb to be very thin. Maybe order a familiar dish as a backup.

Having read the only review of this restaurant some months ago we refrained from visiting it. But our years in SE Asia, and our love for Thai food prevailed today, and we chose to have lunch there. We were seated immediately, and offered a menu. The food came in a timely fashion, and was attractively served. The soup was delightful, and the spring roll was superior. The pad Thai was excellent, and the pineapple chicken curry was quite good, though I might have preferred it to be a little spicier. Our waitress seemed a bit shy, but was quite attentive to our needs. The lunch portions were modest, but so were the prices. I sincerely regret not having checked out this place sooner, and we will dine there regularly from now on. We love the Emerald on Highway 280, but the prices are steep for older folks on limited income. The Thai Garden House reminded us of humble family operated restaurants we enjoyed so many years in the Orient.

One of the horrible experiences so far. Very bad service. Got to hire more staff and improve on cleanliness. No one was there to even take notice of us to get seated. We being a group of 5 needed a bigger table and we had to arrange that ourselves (literally lift and move the other table and chair) after a wait of 10 minutes for any ackowledgement of our presence in the restaurent (no "Please Wait requests/suggestions). Menu cards appeared 15 minutes after we got ourselves seated around tables. Food was okay though amount was meager (also had to ask and wait 10 minutes for extra rice). Tip was almost unnecessary (for the "service" we got) but I would have given tip if it wasn't asked in a very insulting manner (with very few harsh English words - you eat, you pay, you tip). In all, food really wasn't worth the whole experience. Would never go there nor recommend.