Restaurant Review: Soi OB Thai Street Food

Soi OB Thai Street Food
1916 Cable St.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
619-230-5885

By Judi Curry

There are two Thai restaurants in Ocean Beach that I am aware of. Both of them are very good; very tasty; and have a very extensive menu.  Last night Steve and I decided to go to the Soi OB Thai Street Food restaurant dinner because although we have taken food home from there (and I did two earlier reviews of the takeout food), we had never actually had a meal in the establishment.  And we were so glad that we did.

Parking is easy because we parked in the lot that also houses CVS on Santa Monica.  (The same lot where there is parking for the laundromat.)  We walked a very short distance from the lot to the restaurant and walked in to a relatively small facility with approximately 12-15 tables and a welcoming counter.  We were greeted with smiles and handed two very large menu’s.  (I won’t go into the menu, per se, but there were 17 appetizers, 8 salads, 5 side orders, 3 soups, 5 curry dishes, 3 Pan Fried noodle offerings, 3 noodle soups, 7 Rice dishes, 9 special meals, 2 desserts and 7 extra items.) There was a separate menu for drinks which included wine, beer and other drinks!  Got the idea of the definition of “extensive?”

We were told we could sit at any of the available tables, which we did while we looked over the menu. After making our decisions, Steve went back to the counter and gave our order.

Steve selected the Pineapple Fried Rice entrée at $17.95.   It was a stir-fried jasmine rice with chicken, shrimp, egg, raisins, cashews, onions, peas, carrots and pineapple.  And he even let me taste it! It was delicious!  It could be ordered mild, spicy, or VERY SPICY. Steve ordered his meal spicy, and even added spice to it after it arrived. (I think he realized after a few bites that that was not necessary!)

I ordered the Crab Fried Rice, also $17.95.  It as made with fried rice with white crab meat, crab paste, cilantro, egg, peas, carrots and onions.  It too was very good, but for my taste it was a wee bit too salty.  (Because of medical conditions I seldom use salt and I am not sure if it was salty because of the crab or because of spices in the meal.)  None-the-less, it was very, very good.

Now here is an interesting aspect.  Steve and I thought we would have an appetizer while we were waiting for our meal so we ordered Shrimp Wings.  They were golden crispy shrimp spring roll served with Palm sauce.  They were very reasonable at $9.95.  And they were so good!  But…..we were both served our meals and had not been served the shrimp.  We asked both the waiter (who was the same person that welcomed us) and the waitress if they forgot our appetizer.  We were told that they were still making it and to be very honest, EVERYTHING we were served was very hot and very fresh!  So….even though the Shrimp came at the end of the meal it was very tasty and added to the meal.  The nice thing for me was because it came so much later in the meal I took home 4 pieces and had it for lunch today!  If you look at the picture of the shrimp, you will see that the tail was intact, and a coating was wrapped around the shrimp.  I would order it again.

The service was excellent.  There was a tip jar on the counter but there were so many people placing/or picking up orders, that we left ours on the table.  And there was a constant flow of walk-in traffic.  Some people stayed; some people had called in orders and were picking them up; and some were giving orders for takeout.   And one more thing – Steve drinks a lot of water with his meals.  His glass was never empty.  Even though orders were taken at the counter, the waiter (sorry I did not get his name) kept Steve’s glass filled!  Would we go here again.  Definitely!  Would we continue to use their take-out service? Definitely!  Soi Ob is a winner.