Thai China Siam Restaurant

First things first: This restaurant has delicious food, and some of the friendliest staff of any restaurant that I have ever been to. Take a date here, and he/she will be extremely impressed and most likely will have a wonderful evening. I moved to Tucson from Seattle about a year ago, and while Tucson may have great basketball, it has horrible Asian food. Only a few places are worth while, and often times they are overpriced, or seem to have lousy service. Thai China Siam breaks all of these ideas. The first thing you will notice as you enter the restaurant is the wonderfully friendly service. The moment I walked in, the waiter greeted me like I was an old friend. He was sincere and kind, open and warm. The food arrived quickly. Water was never empty. Best of all, conversation with the waiter was easy, but he never interrupted the conversation at the table. Other patrons knew his name, laughed and joked with him, and almost everyone seemed to be having fun. The menu is HUGE, and carries a wide variety of items and flavors. I'd like to write a review on the individual items, but this would take way too long. Basically, the menu is divided in two sections: Chinese food and Thai food. Both are delicious, but the Thai food is what really won me over. The ingredients are added perfectly, as to not overpower one another, and each flavor comes out distinctly with each bite. The spiciness level varies from one to ten stars, and, like the menu says, seven to ten are very hot. The thing is, though, the heat does not take away from the dish at all, but instead adds another layer of taste. The soups are thick and huge! The appetizers are well portioned, but not overwhelming. The main entrees are giant, and it always seems like there's enough for leftovers. The prices are good--not extraordinary--and match the quality and amount of food. Beer and wine is served, with a large array of choices. The sake is delicious as well, and a variety of choices is available as well. I've been to this restaurant a number of times, and usually order take out. Finally, after about my sixth or seventh time in the restaurant, the owner (i think) offered me a free desert--green tea ice cream. It was great, and a really cool act of gratitude for my patronage. I love this restaurant. I will take any family or friends that visit to this place. It's good for a date, be it the first time or a marriage of 40 years. No matter your tastes, this place has something to offer. Go. Try it out just once, and I swear, you'll be hooked. Pros: Simply amazing service. Great Food. Cons: Moderate prices, a little out of the way. more

I'd first like to point out that the service here is very friendly. Perhaps maybe even too friendly. We ordered green tea and filled up it every time they passed the table. This sounds pretty nice, except for the fact that they even filled it up when it was already filled. The service was okay but for the price the food was not very good. A lot of it lacked any flavor at all. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant if you want to get good food for a good price. more

My wife and I just relocated here from San Francisco. We are vegan/vegetarians.\r Thai food is our favorite for dining out. I am so glad I spent more than 45 minutes reading reviews about the other Thai restaurants in Tucson. This is the one we decided to check out. Within 30 seconds of walking in we were greeted and seated. The ambiance was tranquil with traditional Thai music and low lighting. Excellent for a romantic evening! The booth we sat in was comfortable. The waiter was attentive and understood vegetarian cuisine. Our dinner was custom made so to speak, a combination of other dishes. This was possible because meals are made from scratch according to the owner, who by the way poured my beer every time my glass became half-full. The service in this place is EXCELLENT! Being former restaurateurs ourselves, there are some habits that they have.....or should have. I went to wash my hands before eating and the restroom was clean. To a restaurateur that means the kitchen is usually the same. All the smells were pleasant and fresh. The spring rolls have mint leaves inside of them...and they must have just picked them from their plant in the back. That's how fresh the food was. Though we were there around closing time the owner Chuey offered me another beer which I accepted...and told us to relax and take our time. We will definitely dine here often. (decent wine and beer menu also). Pros: This food is FRESH and well seasoned. And, plenty of it. Cons: Nothing more

I was VERY impressed with Thai China Siam Restaurant. Our party of 5 started with Chinese soups-Large Eggdrop and Large Hot and Sour soups. They were both spot on in taste and freshness.\r \r My entree was the Phuket Delight-a wonderful seafood combination-delicate scallops, shrimp, a small 1/2 lobster tail, muscles & etc served in a fun clam shell bowl. This dish is spicy! I ordered a ""Thai 7"" (out of 10). It was at the top of my tolerance even though I like a LOT of spiciness! My partner ordered a Thai 3 and it was a little too spicy for him. Note that the spiciness is very authentic, so it may be better to order milder at first.\r \r Two of our party had Chinese favorites: Lemon Chicken and Sesame Chicken. One of our party who sampled the Lemon Chicken said he'd rather the breading be a little thinner, but the one who ordered it thought it was wonderful (and I agreed). The Sesame Chicken was flavorful and nicely spicy. \r \r The atmosphere is wonderful in that the owner comes over and often serves you personally. He's a jolly man who engages in conversation and even the occasional teasing.\r The owner's cell phone rang a couple of times during the meal. He always took the call in the back of the restaurant, but it still distracted us a couple of times. (This is why it got 4 stars instead of 5.)\r \r It's not ""fine dining"" as they do serve their meals on melamine (or a reasonable facsimile). Some of the prices for the Thai dishes surprised my party at first until the quantity of food and the freshness of the seafood was evident. (My Phuket Delight was $14.95-it was loaded with tasty seafood, so I feel this is a fair price even for Tucson.)\r \r Our bill for a party of 5 with soups and (non-alcoholic) drinks and entrees (of which most of us took 1/2 home) came to around $85 (before tip). If you stick with the Chinese or typical Thai dishes, you can easily spend under $10 per person for dinner and $7 for lunch. Pros: VERY fresh, good tasting food. Owner is friendly and engages customers. Cons: If you don' like spicey ASK for mild! more

We decided to go in on a Sunday afternoon, after finding out that the place we normally was closed. We were greeted a little slowly by an extremely friendly and polite waiter. Our meal choices for the evening were as follows: Thai Curry (with beef, at a blazing 8 spicyness level), Pad See Ew (with beef), Pad Ladna (with beef and chicken), hot green tea, and some delicious Sweet Rice with mango (minus the mango). Everything was absolutely delicious and the wait staff was polite, very friendly, and conscientous. They didn't even mind me asking my strange questions about how to determine dark soy sauce from light soy sauce, and even let me have one of the very pretty sake bottles that were displayed out front. \r \r The service is amazing, the food is great, and we intend to become regulars there as often as our budget will allow. Which will be very often, even though we're cheapskates. :-) more