The Thai Bistro

We decided to give this place a try since our hotel was nearby and it did not disappoint. We ordered the regular Pad Thai, Panang Curry, Singapore noddles, home style Pho & dumplings-- overall everything was delicious. As in service, staff was nice but the wait on the food was a bit long. We had to wait longer after they told us a certain time the food was going to be ready for pick up, thankfully they had 2 couch chairs to sit.

The Thai Bistro is one of the very few Thai restaurants in El Centro. I was very curious whether I could get my fix on authentic Thai fare here. The first evening I attempted to visit, I was surprisingly turned around because the waitress had left work early. The second time during lunch hour, we got lucky. The waitress is extremely friendly and the overall interior of this restaurant is roomy and comfortable.

We both tried the Penang and Mansan curries. Both were notoriously ill representation of Thai curry. Please avoid their curries. They are prepared too starchy thick in consistency and lack flavor. The waitress was kind enough to swap the awful curry in exchange for something else. I tried their salt and pepper dish which is under their Chinese menu. I highly recommend you try their salt and pepper fish though!

The Thai tea is also a no go for me as it's a bit on the diluted thin side.

The food is fine. Not bad, not amazing. Where the one star comes in is on their pickup and delivery service. Every doordash order from this restaurant seems to take longer and longer. Pick up just took 65 minutes for it to be ready despite the estimate of 30 minutes. The delivery before that took 90 minutes. Like I said, the food is fine, but nowhere near worth the weight.

This is great for vegans. The food is so good and big quantities too. It's a nice place to try. I hope they stay for a long time. We need a place like that here.

We waited exactly an hour for appetizers. Once we saw other people leave, who were there before us, we left. Take one look at their disgusting kitchen and you can see why food takes as long as it does. Best of luck to them.

I am so happy that I found this wonderful Thai gem in El Centro! I have been coming out here for work for many years and have found the Asian food options are mediocre.

I finally drove around the backside of the Fairfield Inn and found this amazing little Thai bistro. The portions are very good, I got Pad Woon Sen with Shrimp, very flavorful and delicious with a lot of big shrimp. Fried tofu appetizer with a yummy sweet & sour dipping sauce was a great starter. I came in right before the dinner rush. The food was prepared very quickly. The service was very friendly and courteous, I would highly recommend this place. Looking forward to trying some other menu options on my next visit.!

Our new go to place when going through El Centro!!! I found their original restaurant "the exotic Thai bistro" on Yelp. I called to find out if they were still in business because someone said on the review that they were closing. Then when phone call came through it says they have a new number but unknown. I didn't give up and decided to Google them. Low and behold, there they are with with a new location and slightly new name: Instead of the Exotic Thai it is now the The Thai Bistro. We found this out because the photo of the owner and original Chef was front and center on their website.

My detective work was well worth it. We went to their new location on Dandenburg, and, wow, the food was pretty incredible! We had their pad Thai with shrimp ( very nice), and their red curry with shrimp and scallop was scrumptious; shrimp snd scallops were perfect and not over cooked. We ordered brown rice, which they charged extra, but it was not a problem; they give you large portions same with the rest of the food. We also ordered their green salad with ginger dressing. It was made with all very fresh veggies and their ginger dressing was delicious.

I ordered my normal hot water in place of cold and they didn't even charge me extra (lol). Seriously, this place is wonderful. Food is super tasty and authentic. And the service was outstanding. Kimberly was our waitstaff. She is super friendly and made us feel welcomed. She gave us a little of the story on the change of location and name. Then the owner came out (the one in the photo of their website) and talked to us a bit.

They have mainly all in door seating and is very pleasant and very roomy. I had the opportunity to use their restroom facility--it's nice and clean.

Well, as you can see, we love this place and highly recommend it to anyone in El Centro or anyone going through El Centro. It is now our go to place on our way to Sun City AZ, which we go through often. Enjoy and tell everyone else on Yelp about it!

Tried this place for the first time. Exotic Thai was always my go to till they tragically closed. Ordered takeout. Employees were nice. Good service. The food was beyond disappointing. Mushy white rice. I mean. If you can't cook white rice then something is very wrong. The pad thai was flavorless and the noodles were all struck together. The chicken in all the dishes was as hard as rocks. The fresh rolls with the peanut sauce were good but that wasn't six rolls. It was 2 rolls chopped into 6 pieces. So the price was too high for that shenanigan. So sad to say but I will not be back.

I have NO IDEA how this place has 5 stars. My only guess is the people who reviewed it haven't had decent Thai food. You can look at my other reviews, I NEVER give unfavorable reviews. A place has to be extremely bad for me to give a bad review. I was originally looking for Pho but since I couldn't find a single Pho restaurant in El Centro I tried my luck with somewhere that "served" pho. Well, I could just tell by the menu the pho here would not have been good so I opted for Thai. This place is a hodgepodge of different Asian cuisines. Well, it started with my drink order. I ordered Thai iced tea. The waitress came back and said they didn't have any. Then I ordered Tom Kah soup and Green Curry Chicken. The Tom Kah came out first and was "meh". Then, after quite a bit of wait the waitress came out and said they messed up the rice so she offered me noodles with my Curry. YOU'RE AN ASIAN RESTAURANT, HOW DO YOU MESS UP RICE!?!?!?. The curry came out and didn't look like any Thai curry I have ever seen, "soup-er" watery and not thick and rich like it is supposed to look. I can not remember the last time (if EVER) I sent something back and refused to purchase it. By this time I was just DONE with this place. I've had Thai food all over the US and this was BY FAR the absolute WORST!!!!!

When it comes to Asian food, by fault, I can be a little picky. I works say this is the best Asian food in the IV.