My wife and I come here often. I like the fried rice and she like the noodles. Fried wantons are good too

I came here my first time a year ago and have visited numerous times since. I always get their orange chicken and Thai iced tea and I love it just as much as I did the first time. Service is perfect here, and reasonably fast every single time. A very consistent happy experience. I recommend this place to everyone I know who is looking for a great place to eat at in Olympia. read more

Far East - Thai Iced Tea - Thai Near Me - Olympia, Washington

Dank af, the owner is such a delight and friendly, this place is a hidden gem in Olympia.

Pretty darn good East Asian fusion comfort food! My friend warned me that this wasn't a glamorous place and that it was small and family owned. Hey, sometimes those are the best places! We enjoyed peanut lover's surprise, Tom Yum soup, and General Tso's chicken. The peanut lover's surprise was excellent! I love peanut sauce and this dish with veggies, meat, and rice completely hit the spot. Friend had the others which were equally as good. Tom Yum soup had just the right amount of spice! Waitress was very friendly and thankful for our business. Prices were more than fair! A great addition to downtown Olympia. read more

Orange Chicken portion incredibly small portion and the sauce was watery. Pad Thai was almost bare noodles with a bit of crushed peanuts, nothing more. Very bland. The beef fried rice was pretty good but the pieces of beef were big tough chunks and not seasoned. First time trying this place so I probably won't order again. read more

I love the house chow mein with chicken. Noodles are tasty and vegetables carrot and broccoli are done perfectly. Total with tax was $13.06

Picked up a takeout order for the first time. Very friendly atmosphere, the people working were excellent! Due to the coronavirus pandemic, they were set up for takeout only, they had tables set up to go to to give your order and hand sanitizer available. I ordered pineapple lover chicken and general tso chicken along with egg rolls and cream cheese wontons. They were very timely in getting my order done even though they were pretty busy with other orders as well. The food was excellent, had great flavor and a good portion. The cream cheese wontons were fried perfectly and delicious! I will definitely be back! read more

Simple and fresh dishes are offered here in a small basic setting. Far East seems to be family run, nothing fancy, but the food is always tasty and the ingredients look so fresh. I have only been here for lunch so far. It never disappoints! A plate with rice is $5.35. Cheap and nutritious! Such great value! They even tolerate the mess my 2 year old makes! read more

Far East - Thai Near Me - Olympia, Washington

Excellent! Ingredients were fresh, with lots of veggies; we got the cashew nut, thai basil, and ginger with tofu. All were on the cheaper list on the front of the menu, which I believe are lunch-size portions but it was PLENTY of food for us (even my big guys). They had the COVID precautions perfectly in place with hand sanitizer right there and distance created by a line of chairs. I was really impressed. Also, and maybe most importantly, the woman who took my order and also greeted me on pickup was just lovely-- so warm and sweet. Thank you for being here! We are moving to the area and this place will be our go-to. read more

We picked this spot while visiting for work based on Yelp reviews and the menu, and we are so glad we did! The woman who greeted and served us was so welcoming and kind. The food was positively scrumptious. I had the chicken and mushrooms and my partner had the spicy garlic chicken and shrimp and we could not have been happier. We wish it was closer to us (we live in Portland) because we haven't found a place at home that we like as much as Far East. It is small and not terribly fancy but absolutely worth it! read more

A small restaurant with several small tables. We were greeted and sat right away. We shared the tofu with peanut sauce, 10/10 recommend!! The tofu was lightly fried to perfection. A warm crisp shell coated the soft tofu inside with a wonderful peanut sauce to top it off. I had the basil vegetable with tofu and brown rice - the dish was sweet and light, filling me up but not putting me in a food coma. The portions are perfect and the prices for all of their dishes are even better! I will be coming back ASAP, there are so many thing I want to try! read more

Thank you Far East! Recently we have been repeatedly disappointed with several of the previous best "go to" Thai restaurants in Olympia. Tonight we decided to try Far East on 4th Ave. We ordered Take Out ... Thai Chicken Curry (medium heat) with brown rice and Tofu Pad Thai. Both dishes were delicious. The curry had lots of fresh vegetables and tender chicken in a creamy curry sauce with a perfect heat. The Pad Thai noodles were well prepared with a flavorful sauce, bean sprouts and fresh lime. The woman who helped with our order was so welcoming, helpful and nice. After our dinner I called to compliment the restaurant. They deserve high praise for great tasting food that is reasonably priced. Feeling grateful to have found Far East! read more

As good as it gets for Thai food, especially in this area of Washington. Great summer rollls with good peanut sauce, and outstanding pad thai. Will definitely keep coming back! read more

I am giving Far East a 1 star review not because their food taste bad but because they have bad service. Far East shows that it is open at certain times on the google but it shows different times on their door. I would make sure it is open before you go. read more

excellent food after a weekend with the guys. very very good service highly recommend read more

Far East - Thai Near Me - Olympia, Washington

It's a simple family-owned Thai Chinese restaurant I wouldn't walk in with absurd expectations about the correct color of pad thai. These people are gems and their food is read more

See all

I think that the fact that Far East bill themselves as a Chinese restaurant is proof positive and final that Olympia does not have any Chinese restaurants. The food is more vaguely Vietnamese and/or Thai than Chinese. Which is fine, I guess. But it's strange. And disappointing. But this place mines depths far below disappointing. I think that it can only be described as comedically-bad, and I'm not sure I've ever been to any other restaurant which so typifies what it means to be so bad that it's funny. This is not a good kind of funny, like the "Chinese-Polynesian" food that one must appreciate with a hipster's misguided sense of irony at places like South Pacific. It's not a good kind of comedy at all. It is a tragic and insane comedy. The food is badly-hysterical. I am thankful, I suppose, that they make it so easy to demonstrate this. They have a "Chow Fun" on the menu. This is a great Chinese standby, a dish which can be very simple, and can vary in very complex ways. It's also a great dish to order and to customize, changing the sauce or vegetables or meats which are cooked with it. A great dish. Which does not even begin to matter at Far East. What matters about Chow Fun is that its basic nature is right in its name. It is a stir-fried dish made with a specific kind of wide rice noodle. Beyond that, variations abound. But that's what it means, and thats what's universal about it. Far East is in a different universe. If it's stir-fried it doesn't show; it seems almost unto soupy. So that's one thing down, but it's almost excusable. The noodles tend to dry out easily and if you're not moving a lot of it, you can end up needing to cook it a bit wet to get them to come out with the right texture. The noodles should ideally show a little char, a little scorch, some sign that they've been kissed by the wok. Far East's don't. Which isn't nearly so much of a problem as the fact that they're the wrong kind of noodles. The Chow Fun is an outright lie. Instead they make it with banh pho, the "rice stick noodles" that go into Vietnamese pho. Banh pho are sometimes used in a dish not entirely unlike Chow Fun, the Thai dish Pad Thai. But this is not Pad Thai masquerading as Chow Fun. Moreover, Chow Fun appears in both Vietnamese and Thai cooking, in the latter case as Pad Sieu (with varying transliterations: also commonly Pad See Yew or similar.) It's the wrong noodle cooked in the wrong way. In a dish which is defined by the kind of noodle and how it is cooked. And there's no excuse for it; it would be simple to just not put Chow Fun on the menu. But Chinese food in Olympia is all about illusion, and that feeling of madness at being confronted with the impossible made real. It is difficult to even begin to translate the experience of Far East's Chow Fun to any other context, any other place, any other cuisine, etc. It is, I suppose, like ordering naan at an Indian restaurant and being given some kind of steamed rice dumpling instead. Not naan, no, tandoori roti. Tandoori roti says how it's cooked and what it is. But even that is not categorically wrong enough. And that's just it, Far East is a failure of category, a restaurant which raises all kinds of unsettling existential and ontological questions. If it is not a Chinese restaurant, and the Chow Fun is not what it claims to be, then what use are categories, what use is language? It is not a simple pedantic complaint, it is a fundamental question of the nature of consensus reality. When in Far East, if you hear hoofbeats, you are apparently supposed to think neither of zebras nor horses, but some kind of fish, or perhaps an inanimate object. Maybe Jell-O? I'm rating it one star, but not because I think nobody should go there. I just think that if you have your dinner, or your lunch, at Far East, you should plan on taking your dessert in a padded room. read more

Wow! Had a wonderful tasty lunch at Far East! Authentic Asian food at its best. The appetizers were out of this world great ~ we had spring rolls (with a wonderful dipping sauce) and tofu covered with peanut sauce. Our meals were just as tasty and good. My Taiwanese wife loved their fresh stir-fried vegetables, our son and I loved the Seafood Delight!! All came away fully satisfied!! I'm in a wheelchair and the restaurant was fully accessible. read more

This is the most unremarkable restaurant in Olympia. The food is fresh and cheap. That's all that can really be said in favor of it. There are no strong flavors. The sauce was light and rather flavorless. The request for spicy came out as a few red pepper flakes sprinkled on the veggies. The rice is just fine and comes in a ball next to the rest of your meal. The style is vaguely pan-asian. The cost is $6. Do not come here expecting any distinct regional flavors as you we leave disappointed and confused. Come expecting to spend very little and receive some lightly seasoned fresh veggies and you'll only leave slightly disappointed. read more

The food here is fresh, satisfying, and you do walk away feeling somewhat virtuous because your meal wasn't cooked in a vast quantity of oil or covered with (delicious) carcinogenic charring. I love that you have the option of white or brown rice. With that being said, while the food here falls somewhere within the Asian cuisine category, it is not Chinese. These dishes lack oomph and any sort of contrast in texture or flavor that would make them memorable, with meats and vegetables braised or sauteed in various sauces that tread a very narrow range of mellow savoriness. Everything is cooked well, if in the wrong technique for Chinese, but there is no tang, no acid, no spice. The various lunch specials are very affordable and well portioned and the owners seem quite sweet. I would return but only when I am not craving Chinese, because these kinds of amorphous stir fries are quick and easy to eat on a busy weekday lunch. read more

It's official: there is no Chinese food in Olympia. I ate here based on the number of good reviews, but I was very disappointed. I must agree with the low-star reviewers who noted the food here is bland. It is bland. I don't think they own a wok. Everything I tried seemed boiled, or steamed. The vegetables were fresh and not overcooked, but again, just bland. I wondered if they ran out of fish sauce, chili paste and soy sauce. The server was a very sweet woman. The place was clean. The food wasn't gross. I do not understand the rave reviews. This food was meh. read more

Their Pad thai was decidedly disappointing. Weirdly pink and garnished with just a pile of ground nuts and a lime wedge, It was... underwhelming and tasteless. The other dishes we had were also disappointing. We had a mixed seafood that had a couple of shrimp and some fish fragments. We also had a pea-pod dish that had an insufficent amount of pea-pods to be eponymously named as such. I liked that they had hot sauce on the table, we needed it. The service was good. But i just can't recommend. read more

I love this place! The owners are some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. Food is delicious and inexpensive. I often come at lunch for the lunch bowls. It's $6 and you can substitute some of the best brown rice. I get the thai basil bowl and I can't ever skip the fresh spring rolls. I get them with shrimp. Their peanut sauce is delicious and they have basil in them rather than mint which is a huge plus for me. Only dish I didn't enjoy was their chow mien. Other than that, always delicious. It's so nice to have this place as a local lunch option. read more

First the positive: They are friendly. It's a nice cozy little place. Prices are medium to medium-low The vegetables were of decent quality. But my issues: The food was not exciting or interesting. It seemed like it had been dumbed down to where there was very little flavor left. The Mongolian Beef bore no resemblance to any Mongolian Beef that I had ever seen before. It was mostly vegetables. It appeared to have been simmered rather than cooked in a wok. The beef was pale and not appealing. The thick sauce (which there was a lot of!) had almost no flavor or spice. The cashew tofu dish...at first I thought it was the wrong order because no cashews were apparent...but then I did find several hiding down near the bottom. Again, very little flavor at all. The meal was not too salty and probably had good nutritional value, but I don't think I will be going back. read more

Food was good, servers polite and efficient. No frills. The amount was perfect and we would eat there again.

This place is by far my favorite restaurant I've been to in Washington. It's a very quiet and small space right in the middle of Olympia. My boyfriend and I go here constantly for our date nights. Amazing food, our favorites are the chicken pad Thai and the orange chicken both with Thai iced teas that woman that says if you want good orange chicken go to panda express is obviously smoking something hahaha Awesome service, we get waited on by the same sweet lady everytime. And the food always arrives pretty quickly AMAZING prices. You get the entree sized orange chicken which is a huge plate of amazing thin cut chicken and a big bowl or brown or white rice GO FOR THE BROWN! For about 8 bucks! The Thai iced teas are good enough for the trip down to Olympia any day! Far East is just soooooooo worth trying. You totally won't regret it! read more

WHAT AN EXTREME DISAPPOINTMENT! We will never go back!! On 11/15/2015 we ate at the Far East Restaurant in Olympia for the first time. It appeared to be neat and clean, and the woman who served us was very polite. But it's a restaurant and we expect the food to be tasty...but it wasn't at all! IF YOU WANT REALLY GOOD ORANGE CHICKEN GO TO *PANDA EXPRESS!!* We ordered: 1) ORANGE CHICKEN ~ APPEARANCE ~ When it arrived it was a monochromatic plate of food...white rice and deep fried very thin beige strips, and absolutely nothing more -- no diced onions, no colorful strips of peppers, just a bland looking plate of food. TASTE ~ I took a bite of the deep fried chicken and initially put no soy sauce on it. It had ABSOLUTELY *NO* TASTE AT ALL and had precious little sauce! In fact, if I were told it was thin won ton strips which had been deep fried in a batter I would have believed it. There was NO chicken taste, NO chicken texture, and just shy of NO orange taste in the sauce in the slightest! I put some soy sauce on it hoping to give it some flavor or taste, but it didn't add much so I put more on it. But why would I want to put soy sauce flavoring on 'deep fried won ton' strips? 2) PEPPER STEAK ~ APPEARANCE ~ It was colorful and appealing. TASTE ~ The problem was that after a very few bites there was NO MEAT left. For most of the meal it was nothing but a vegetarian dish of diced onions and peppers. Some of my chicken was then mixed in with the vegetables, but the chicken had NO taste and NO texture, so it was like nothing had been added. IN THE END IT WAS TOTAL MONEY WASTED! I ate 5 or 6 bites and no more. My friend tasted my chicken and agreed that there was absolutely NO chicken taste and NO orange taste at all. I took about half of my meal home in a carry out box and ultimately threw it all in the trash. WE BOTH LEFT FIRMLY CONVINCED THAT WE WILL NEVER EAT THERE AGAIN!! HEALTH RISK ~ Of note is the fact that the unwrapped Chinese fortune cookies were brought to the table in the money/credit card tray along with the bill and potentially with change.. Don't they realize how FILTHY money is? That's a terrible health risk!! Going out for Asian food has long been my favorite, but the FAR EAST RESTAURANT WAS AN EXTREME DISAPPOINTMENT!! read more

Happened upon this place on the way to the airport. Had the yellow curry with chicken. Sauce was awesome!! Was coconut. Delicious! Piping hot on a cold snowy day. Way more food than I needed. Probably meant to be shared. Rice was cooked perfectly. Server was super sweet. Wish it were in Fresno :( read more

Far East - Yellow curry chicken. So delicious! - Thai Near Me - Olympia, Washington

Been going here since 2008 and still love it! Great food for a great price. The owners are so friendly and warm. Our usual order is always remembered. Best tofu hands down! read more

I ordered the orange chicken special, which was $5.75+tx. We also ordered the cream cheese wontons. The orange chicken was cool because the chicken pieces were thin and fried in a delicious batter, making it crunchy. It comes with a good serving of sticky white rice. The wontons were awesome and I really enjoyed the sauce that came with it. Not sure what it was, maybe an authentic sweet and sour. It looked like honey, but it had a ginger taste to it. It was a good time in my mouth. I've been searching for a good Chinese restaurant since moving to Olympia, and I think this place is going to be a great replacement for our favorite place in Nebraska. The staff/owners were super friendly and sweet. read more

This was absolutely delicious! Very picky about my Thai food and this did not disappoint. The green curry & pad thai were the best ever. Definitely coming back! read more

The Thai curry was excellent, and our waitress was super nice. We showed up five minutes before closing and she was still very gracious. Would definitely recommend this restaurant. Though I won't be ordering the spicy garlic chicken next time. It wasn't bad, but not as spicy as I had hoped. read more

I was hesitant eating here given the older suit the restraunt. I ordered the Thai curry (yellow, chicken) and was surprised by the quality and care put into the dish. It was very delicious and I highly recommend if you are looking for a good hole in the wall Thai fix :). read more

The Misses and I decided to eat our way down 4th street for four once a week date night we starting on the west end. Far East was our first stop and we were a little concerned when we walked up to the door at seven on a Friday night and the place was empty. We decided to chance it. It was well worth the risk they have the freshest food anywhere. read more

Far East - The sign of good food - Thai Near Me - Olympia, Washington

Over a year later and still the same deliciouss chicken pad thai and spring rolls. Prices are still affordable and the portions are a perfect size. My go to whenever i want a chill place and Delicious meals. read more

I love Far east. The owners are the nicest people. The food is different from what you usually get at Asian restaurants. It is so fresh and clean. The flavors are sharp and bright. Mmmmm lemongrass. Nothing is gloppy or overly salty. They have BROWN or white rice, and everything I have tried is great-my kids looooove the orange chicken and my guilty pleasure is the general tso's chicken-which is made with chicken breast!! read more

I've been searching and searching for a restaurant similar to one of my favorites up north. I'm sad that I hadn't tried this place sooner. I ordered the chowmein with tofu, and the flavor was spot on. I like that they didn't overdue it with the veggies such as cabbage, celery, and onion. Everything tasted amazing and my boyfriend enjoyed his meal. It seems like it would be easy to pass by since it's right at the corner in downtown, but seriously I would recommend this if you're vegetarian but still want to try good, authentic Asian food. read more

I would have totally walked by this place if I hadn't been looking for it. Thanks Yelp. Anyway, the restaurant is pretty bare bones. But I was met with a smiling face, excellent service and delicious food. Definitely more Thai inspired than Chinese. In a word: yum read more

I adore this place. We usually get the Pad Thai and the Thai Curry. Both are very good. The owners are wonderful. Takeout service is quick.

I had, without a doubt, the best yellow curry (with chicken) that I've ever eaten! My waistline would be in danger if Far East were within easy driving distance of where I live. The place was empty when we walked in so we got the best of service. ;-) My wife had a very good stir fry dish but she almost wished she had ordered the curry. Sweet but not overly so, brown rice which I added to the bowl made it even better. The chicken was tender and plentiful too. We'll come back the next time we're in Olympia, despite the plethora of seafood places. read more