Meun Fan Thai Cafe Santa Barbara.com

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Meun Fan Thai Cafe 1819 Cliff Dr, Santa Barbara Phone: (805) 882-9244 Category: Thai Hours: Mon-Thu 11am-9:30pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 4pm-9:30pm Price: < $10 Serving: Lunch & Dinner Map Menu Write a review of this location!

Reviews by the General Public

Meh Thai food and poor service, 4/25/2013
Reviewer: Michael from Santa Barbara, CA
Cold overly sweet small portions with simplified ingredients. Abandoned by wait staff after food came to the table. It is a clean restaurant but with so many better Thai places in town I will go elsewhere.

Please take a pride and pay more attention on your service!, 1/18/2013
Reviewer: Rachel Rolland from Santa Barbara, CA
I have been here since this restaurant open because I love Thai food. This place is very close from my work; therefore I gave it a try ever since. The restaurant is always clean and peaceful. Their Thai food is better than other restaurants in Town. However, the service has been terrible. 3 years ago when I first started to try dinning at this restaurant with my co-workers several time, I was totally upset with the way they served us. I promised myself to take Togo Oder from then. However, Last couple days my family try to ask me give another chance, so i did. And what we experienced was another big disappointment in my birthday dinner. This restaurant wasn't improved anything about their service. Their waitresses and waiters are lacking. They mostly gather at the bar counter and chat to each other , play on their phone , or some time sit there and eat. Instead of greeting their customers at the front door and show them where to sit, the waitress still raise their voice from the the counter to tell you that take a seat anywhere you want which is very unkind and not professional at all. We didn't get our water until we asked for it. Although the restaurant wasn't busy at the time, but I had to wait too long to order our food. The waitress who gave me an upset feeling 3 years ago is still working there. After giving us the menu, she was going to sit at the other customer's table to chat while we were waiting for someone to take our order. Finally, a new face waitress who spoke barely English came to take our order. Normally when you come to others restaurant like this, the waitress pr waiters whoever serve your table at the time are usually say hi and welcome you. they will introduce them-self and they will serve at your table till the end. However, at Meun Fan Thai Cafe, we never got an chance to know any name of those waiters or waitress. They never say hi or welcome . they dont even bother to introduce about their food except " are you ready for your order?" We ordered some ice tea, beer for my family and a glass of Chardonnay for myself, but my wine never came out. At this restaurant, It seems like one time serve for the drink because the waitress or waiters never bother to ask or check if their customers need another drink afterward. Our ice tea and water weren't refilled. The other waitress whoever delivered food to our table never asked how is everything. Or If anything was be missing from our order. If she was care enough, she could find out that one of our main dish was missing, and one dish was a mistake .I will totally understand and can forgive for those mistakes if the restaurant was in busy time, but it wasn't. . Let talk about the food quality, Our Large size Tom Ka Goong soup cost 12.95 which we were told enough to share for 4 people, but each of us just has 2 pieces of shrimp with a few mushroom. The whole pot has only 8 shrimp. I also learned another experience that The price we paid for our bill was totally higher than the price we checked on their online menu. I don't know how this restaurant can keep their business if the owner wasn't care to improve about their lacking, unprofessional service, and be aware about the quality of their food. Although I do love their food, I won't give any chance to come back this place. I don't think I would bother to support them with my Togo orders.

delectable food AND phenomenal service, 12/17/2012
Reviewer: Nat from Santa Barbara, CA
I have lived in the neighborhood of this restaurant for well over a decade and finally ate here just a few months ago. The food is delicious! I dont know why it took so long!! Ive had tom yum gai soup, their AMAZING dressing (with the basic house salad) and garlic pepper tofu. Everything Ive eaten has been delicious. As for service, these people are great! I was driven to write this because I have had absolutely WONDERFUL experiences with staff. They make the restaurant feel like part of the "hood".

Great tom kai gai soup, hard to find parking, 10/7/2012
Reviewer: CaliGirlForever from Santa Barbara, CA
Stopped here to get food to go around 6pm on a Monday night. It was so packed and difficult to find parking. Had to drive around Lazy Acres lot for a while before found a spot. Almost every table was full and the food looked great that was going out. The waitresses seemed busier taking to-go orders and keeping things organized in the back than they were with the table service but then again, there were a lot of people ordering takeout. People waiting for their takeout orders were standing around the counter, and if I were seated in one of the tables near that area, it would have been distracting to try to enjoy a meal with people standing up just a few feet from the table. Their tom kai gai soup is so far my favorite in SB. A large order did not seem very large so we ordered 2 large orders because this is our favorite soup ever and we wanted a big portion to enjoy. Very friendly place and fun atmosphere.

Great food, horrible service every time, 10/1/2012
Reviewer: Michaella from Santa Barbara, CA
I recently found out about this place..since than, I have been here about 4 times. Every time the food has been amazing but the service has been terrible. Except the one time I went with my feyonce and the owners were there, they were extremely friendly and great about customer service. When I went there at about 5:00 with my whole family one day, all of the waitresses were standing around/sitting at the bar talking and doing something on their cell phones, they did not greet us they just said across the room "(sit anywhere)"we were the second group in the resturant, no music playing, one of the waitresses was eating at the bar so all the customers could see and when she walked up to our table it looked like we were bothering her and like it was a chore for her to help us, she said "do you guys know what you want to order or do you need more time?" No smile or anything. I was so imbarised with the way we were treated and so disappointed because I had been ranting and raving about this restraunt to my family. Than as more people came into the resturant they finally turned on music and started "working". All of the waitresses have bad attitudes and they hardly ever smile, it makes me not feel welcome and like I am hassling them. I think I will be ordering to go from now on.

EXCELLENT Hidden Gem, Fabulous Service & Classy Decor, 9/15/2012
Reviewer: Candace from Santa Barbara, CA
This place was right by my boyfriend's work so we decided to try it one day. What a find! It's tucked right off the street so it's a little tricky to get into the parking lot. However, once inside the environment is so clean, classy, and cute! The service is usually very friendly (we've only had one unfortunate experience with a female waitress before in all our times going) and the food is PHENOMENAL. I always get the drunken noodles or Chicken Basil dish. The rice soup is also amazing. My boyfriend and I both are now graduated and leaving SB, but we will certainly be back :)

Good food and service, 9/8/2012
Reviewer: Rachael from Santa Barbara, CA
We decided to try out Meun Fan tonight even after reading some of the reviews about poor service. We were pleasantly surprised! I had the panang curry and it was delicious and my husband had the pad thai- also very good. The food was ready SUPER fast and the wait staff was at our table frequently refiling our drinks. Great service and a delicious meal. We will return!

Always Amazing Service, 5/25/2012
Reviewer: Natalie from Santa Barbara, CA
I wanted to say that the review about bad service is just totally off. I dine here all the time and the ENTIRE staff is so kind, thoughtful and attentive. The only thing better is the amazing food. Not sure what was wrong with the review from 5/16 and it is just not accurate or indicative of how amazing their team and restaurant is.

Shouldn't we be honest more when we leave our complains here
Reviewer: Ginger from Goleta
I understand we have the right to complain when we all feel unhappy. However, I don't think everyone in here seem fairness to leave their complain without mention specific time or day they ate here. Moreover without mentioned specific name of waiters or waitress whoever served them and made them unhappy, this won't only help for improvement, but this will also turn out very tough and cause a bad affects to those who did their job well done. I came here often on Friday and Saturday lunch with my family and I haven't got a bad services at this place ever. I felt sorry for the waitress sometimes when she had to deal with some picky customers like us while she had handle up to 9 tables that arrived at the same time by herself. Please everyone , life is already tough, so sometimes we should put ourselves in other people's shoes to make life easier for everyone somehow.

The service is too horrendous for us to return
Reviewer: Jack from Santa Barbara, CA
This is an example of a business that just doesn't get it. Food is good. In fact, sometimes it is very good (although by no means excellent). However, as others in this thread have noted, the service is beyond bad. They just don't care about making this a pleasant, interesting or respectful experience for their customers. Never said 'welcome' or 'hello'. Never made any suggestions. Never asked how we liked the food. Never even asked if we wanted a beverage. NEVER SAID THANK YOU!!! It was just crazy. If you go, don't say that we haven't warned you.

Unforgetably fabulous!
Reviewer: maureen quill from rutland, mass
My husband and I visited in Santa Barbara several years ago and eating at Meun Fan was right at the top of the list of excellent memories of that trip. As we sat in the warm, inviting dining room with family and friends eating plate after plate of incredibly fresh,tasteful food, I thought this was one place I won't forget. The service was spectacular and the owners J and H coudn't have been more helpful with their suggestions from food to wine. They are a gracious and hospitable couple and it just adds to the spectacular menu - Huge flavor, but seemingly light and healthy also.... Go there -bring your family and friends - YOU'LL BE HAPPY!

Exceptional Thai Dining Experience
Reviewer: Susan from Santa Barbara, CA
I absolutely love dining at Meun Fan Thai Cafe! The food is exquisite, made to order, with sophisticated and subtle flavors. The service is excellent and delightful... I would highly recommend it as an exceptional Thai Dining Experience...

BEST Thai in Santa Barbara
Reviewer: Chris from Santa Barbara, CA
Love the Spicy Ground Chicken with Sweet Basil, the Panang Curry Chicken, and the Chicken Satay. AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. Above and beyond any other thai place in the city. I always have gotten takeout so I don't know about the service in the restaurant but they're always nice and helpful when picking up food to go.

Best Thai Food In Santa Barbara
Reviewer: Howard from Santa Barbara, CA
Excellent food, great spices but not too salty. I can't think of a better Thai restaurant in Santa Barbara, or for that matter, Southern California.

Best Thai in the county
Reviewer: Eric from Santa Barbara, CA
As the title says, I've eaten at every Thai restaurant in the county (except the food truck, I refuse to use twitter - get a real web site) and this place is hands-down the best. Delicious food through and through and though the service can sometimes be a little slow, I've never experienced anything like some of the other reviewers have complained about. I guess everyone has bad nights but I've yet to have one at Meun Fan. See you in an hour Meun Fan!

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