08/09/09

I used to love this place.

by JRPDX

I started coming to Sivalaya around 2001 and it was one of my favorite Thai places. The owner would always greet us at the door. I returned from Korea last December and took my wife there on our first night in the US. The food was great but the energy of the place had vanished.

Yesterday I went and it was the worst Thai food I have ever had. The Rad Na (favorite dish) was bland and oily. The Tom Yum had freezer burned shrimp. I don't remember if there was ever a lunch menu, but we had to pay full price for our awful food. My wife even felt it was worse than Wong's Garden - it has to be really bad for her to say it's as bad as Wong's.

• Pros: Free Thai coffee or tea and sticky rice.
• Cons: Major decline in service and quality.

02/09/09

Save your money!

by rifraff

My husband and I just got home with our take out: veggies in peanut sauce and pad thai. Both were beyond terrible, the peanut sauce was thin as water and tasted oily, no other flavors, just oily. The pad thai was also only oily tasting and had nothing but noodles, oily noodles. The veggies in the "peanut sauce" were barely thawed, not fresh at all or cooked. We were so disappointed since we rarely eat out. We would have had much better Thai food buying something frozen from the market. I just threw it all out, sad sad waste of money.

04/20/08

Very good food, great prices, fun friendly service

by thaifamily

Try these dished: Rainbow, Cucumber Salad, Yellow Curry,

We tried Sivalaya Thai a number of years ago becuase they'd taken over our previous favorite Thai restarant (Thai Touch). The owner, Jose, definitely takes you off guard at first. But he is so friendly and funny it's hard to resist him. His somewhat loud personality is an unusual contrast to most soft spoken Thais. We go to Sivalaya about 2x per year because of the distance from our home in outer SE County. Jose remembers our names every time. The food is good. Our favorites are some that have been mentioned in reviews before... a veggie dish called Rainbow, the spicey sweet,Cucumber Salad, Yellow Curry, and the sticky rice dessert with papaya or mango. This is a small restaurant with a casual atmospher. If you want the expense and stuffy atmosphere of places like Thaiphoon, then by all means go there instead and let the rest of us enjoy Paradise... Sivalaya!!

• Pros: Good price, friendly service, casual, easy to try new dishes
• Cons: None

01/02/08

Mouthwatering Thai food in record time!

by experiencednibbler

I am hooked on Sivalaya! The service is great and you won't have to wait long for your food at all. The waitresses know my boyfriend and I since we go so much and they bring us as much free ice tea, soup, desert and rice and we can eat (we always end up leaving a big tip)! Dishes have big servings and come with heaping bowls of steamed rice. The drunken noodles and fried eggplant are my favorites. This is a small family business that i definitely support and will keep coming back to!

09/05/07

Service too fast?

by kendrakw

Upon entering we were greeted enthusiastically and seated immediately. The iced tea was free but we were just a bit disappointed to find out they don't serve beer. The service was fast and friendly almost to the point of being insulting. When we received our appetizer, soup, a huge bowl of white rice, main dishes, and (unordered) dessert all within a minute of each other, we felt as though we were being rushed. The food was okay. The topper was when they went to dish our leftovers into boxes. We figured we'd be going home with a pile of rice. But the waiter came back with only two small containers. We wondered where the rest of the rice must be going. Not long after that moment I saw one of the waitresses head back to the kitchen, scoop a bowl of rice back into the rice cooker and place the now empty bowl on a pile of other bowls next to the cooker. I'm really really hoping that wasn't our leftover rice, but that sight combined with the rushed service will probably keep us away from Sivalaya in the future.

04/30/07

The Best Thai Food for the Money

by wienermama

I love this place! I have gotten take-out from this place for a year, but recently came with my family and I dined-in. What a wonderful experience! Great service, great food, great value. We will definitely be return visitors. What a wonderful restaurant! I suggest the hot and sour soup! So substantial and so fulfulling!

• Pros: great value, great service
• Cons: ambience so-so

01/23/07

Interactive experience plus freebies.

by paropa

I live a block away from Sivalaya and I eat there at least once a week. The owner Jose is super friendly but can be (can be as in always) loud and personal but not to mention really funny. Example: If your name is John be prepared to be called John Wayne the rest of you meal. So be in the mood for a personal experience. (Jose is great with groups btw)

Sivalaya is best with curries and soups and really inconsistent with noodle dishes. They always give free drinks (thai ice coffee, thai ice tea or green tea) with free refills as well as a free desert (usually sweet rice with mango.) I'm pretty thrifty and I think the price is right for what you get ($8 - $11 is average.)

I recommend the crunchy basil chicken, surprise curry and the Tom Kah Kai soup. I would avoid the pad thai.

12/30/06

Over-the-top service, underwhelming food.

by flaviuspdx

As others have commented, the owner is friendly in a kind of pushy way. We went there for the first time and, sure enough, got free tea, crispy roll appetizer, and dessert. The owner helpfully recommended several menu items. We went with one of his suggestions, the green bean dish, and a green curry as a sort of thai standard. We also ordered the salad rolls and tom yum (hot and sour) soup.

Here's the breakdown:

Crispy roll appetizer: Not bad, but not remarkable either. B.

Salad Rolls: See above. The peanut sauce was a little different than the usual, and almost seemed pre-made. The roll contents were very mundane. B-.

Tom Yum Soup: Tasted like the chinese version. Too sweet, very skimpy on the lemongrass. Edible, but not at all what we had hoped for. C-.

Green Bean Dish: O.K., but VERY salty. C.

Green Curry: The best of the lot. Well balanced and tasty, but also a bit on the salty side. B+.

Mango Rice Pudding: The mango was good, the pudding seemed pre-plated an a bit dried out. But I don't remember having had this before - maybe it's supposed to be like that. C+.

It wasn't terrible for the price, but it wasn't exceptional, either. We still dream of Thai Thai on Hawthorne (back when they were really good), and measure all other Thai places against that standard. Exuberant service notwithstanding, "Paradise" fell short of the mark. They also don't serve beer. :-(

• Pros: Wacky owner.
• Cons: Average food.

12/25/06

kinda crappy food, lying owner.

by gingerrogers

I went there with a vegan, and asked for food with tofu. The food was insipid, standard thai food, better than carts, but not much more than that. But we found chicken in it.

11/29/06

JAMES BOND SCREAM AT YOU!

by robotdeer

The guy is crazy and nice... to customers. To his workers he was rude and still crazy. He named me James Bond, which weirded me out. I thought to myself crazy people make the tastiest food so this should be wonderful! It was first of all, I got the most meager portion of food! I don't even eat that much! I was still hungry after leaving. It was really pricey compared to the portions, and the food didn't even taste that good.

• Pros: The crazy guy will make you laugh...
• Cons: The crazy guy will make you uncomfortable...