Star Anise Thai Cuisine

Chic upscale-ish restaurant in UTC area (west of Westfield shopping center), catering to business lunch crowd. Indoor and patio dining (good view of duck pond). Very clean and well furnished. They even have plush pillows on booth seats.

Serving staff are very nice and efficient. Food price is okay. Portion size a bit smaller than most other Thai restaurants. Food quality is below what you would expect of the look of the place. The shredded salad that comes with lunch special is a trial to eat. It comes in a really small bowl and just spills every which way no matter how carefully you try to eat it (maybe better off asking for chopsticks... eating that thing with a fork just doesn't work). The main dishes are rather bland, though you can ask for the condiment tray and zest it up yourself. Pad thai noodle is weird. It's almost like they substituted a lot of soy sauce in place of pad thai sauce. The chicken was a bit burnt.