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This place is a hidden gem in the middle of placita. Street parking is limited so you're better off paying $5 to park in the parking garage down the street. Our first time here there was a bad interaction with the hostess. We waited almost 2 hours before we never received a phone call for a table. When we returned to the restaurant the hostess had skipped us completely for no reason. The food is so good we still come back. Whenever we go we order the green curry and the drunken noodles. The green curry is thick and creamy. The drunken noodles are made with wide delicious noodles but the recipe could use Thai basil. It is important to understand the heat scale(1-5). I am a huge fan of spicy (ghost peppers, extra sriracha etc) but a level 3 is the most tolerable enjoyable spiciness. If you get a level 5 you're asking for all heat (intense heat) and no flavor.
The hostess is quite rude, beyond curt and gruff too. She rudely asked for our ID and and Vax card. She then told us we could only sit down the middle tables, where everyone and their brother walks by us. She once again told me rudely that we could only sit in the middle seats when I asked if we could take an end booth seat or the table at the back of the room. Only for parties greater than two. Yet they let two lovey dovey girls sit in a booth with no others in their party. Such a hypocrite too. We wouldn't feel so exposed if we had even 1 more person in our party. Our waitress, Patricia was also a bit short with us and asked for our ID and Vax card when she first came to our table. I told her we had already showed the hostess when we entered. The staff here need to get their stuff together and retrain on how to deal with customers in a better manner. Not even 5 minutes into the experience and I already want to walk out of this place. Kept our mask on until our food came out since so many people walk by us within less than a foot on either side of us down the aisles. I loathe the middle seats in this place so much. Rather limited menu for main entrees. I was feeling Pad Prik or even Pad Pak or red curry, but none of those are available here at all. These are pretty basic Thai dishes. Papaya salad is out and Patricia didn't come back for our entree order. Not much papaya salad for $14. The rice and salad doesn't even cover most of the plate. The papaya salad is tasty, not too fishy and nice heat too. The sticky rice is hard like a brick, seriously hard. The rice is not sticky or sweet at all, it's just unbelievably bland and hard and chewy too. The salad the better of the pairing. The rice is embarrassingly bad and hard and so boring too. The rice is so hard that it can't be broken up by a fork and can only be cut by a fork and a knife. It could be use as armor, it's that hard. The papaya salad was a 3-4, the side of rice was 0-1. Ordered green papaya salad to start since that's all we could order when tye waitress first came for our order. We had to wait until after our papaya salad was out and down the hatch before we could get our entrees in. We ordered the pad Thai with chicken and steamed fresh tofu ($4) and veggies ($5) extra extra hot (level 5), and green curry with chicken and steamed tofu ($4) and extra veggies ($5) medium spicy (level 2). $72.76. Patricia assured me the rice that comes with the papaya salad is supposed to be rock hard. That's ridiculous and insane. She seemed more attentive as time went by. They don't have any straws here at all. I won't drink my water without a straw at all, so no water or drinking for us then. They have the plastic chopsticks, not one time and disposal. Yuck. Plastic chopsticks are so dirty. Their pad Thai doesn't taste right at all. Doesn't taste like pad Thai at all. Not even slightly even. Tastes like they use the sweet Thai chili sauce as their base for their pad Thai here, it's all off and wrong. It wasn't at all what my husband and I expected. We eat a lot of pad Thai in the states, all over and even in Thailand too and have made it 100s of times too. Way disappointed in their rendition of pad Thai. Don't mess up a good thing. The pad Thai was a solid 2 at best. The green curry tastes as it should and is so-so. The sauce is decent and the tofu, chicken and veggies are decent. The side of sliced cucumber and onions in vinegar isn't bad, it's better than their pad Thai. Green curry was a solid 3. Avoid using the bathroom at all cost. It is as bad as a porta-John and the toilet doesn't even work or flush at all. It's a dirty cesspool here. Gross! I feel gross having been in this place at all. $72.76 for average to bad food.
We were very excited to try this place because we love Thai food and haven't gotten to have any since we moved to PR. The staff was very friendly, the restaurant was cute. However, it was the worst Thai food we've ever had (and we've eaten it a lot, all over the world). The dishes didn't taste the way they were supposed to, and we were disappointed. The best thing we ordered was the satay chicken. The worst thing we ate was the tom kha, which was super overpowered with some strange salty flavor (maybe a boullion/soup flavoring). The lemongrass salad was extremely bland and didn't taste like it had any lemongrass, spice, or real flavor. It was primarily shredded cabbage. On a side note, the police seem to be patrolling and giving out tickets to anyone parking on the street, even without No Parking signs. I recommend parking in the nearby $6 parking lot for restaurants.
I'd be lying if I said their Thai level 5 spice wasn't spicy! Jeez, their food is good and their staff is so awesome. As a vegetarian transitioning to vegan, Mai Pen Rai makes their menu easy to customize and choose from. I ordered the Green Curry at level 5 spice. My jaw was throbbing after a few sips, but damn, it was good. If I had to do it again, I'd go for level 2-3 spice to be able to enjoy the flavors even more. I'd take their spice levels seriously.
Street parking or a few parking lots near by. Quick seating even without a reservation. As leaving it was starting to get busy for dinner. Ordered garlic chicken wings. Crispy,juicy, not dried out. It had good flavor. I also got drunken noodles. My dish didn't have many noodles. It was level 3 spicy (level 1-5 options for spice) which actually had spicy so it was perfect. Meat and noodle were chopped down into small pieces majority of my plate. Idk if that was intentional or not. It made it seem more like I was eating stir fry than drunken noodles. It was still good. Service was quick and all waiters and waitresses helped eachother. Everyone was attentive and nice.
My favortie thai restaurant in Puerto Rico, thus far (there aren't that many on the island). I've eaten here twice and have enjoyed it both times, the first time for dine-in and the second takeout. The dine-in experience was pleasant, the service was friendly and the ambience was chill. It is also family friendly. The takeout experience was also nice. And of course, the food was tasty. I really like their crispy garlic wings, the drunken noodles, and the some tom (green papaya salad). The pad thai, prik khing curry and the bahn mi were also very good. I would say the only thing that was subpar were the chocolate wontons for dessert. I knew I should have gone with the sticky mango rice. Next time. The restaurant is located right next to the Placita de Santurce, a great hangout spot during the weekends at night. Perfect for eating and then going out to drink. The downside to that is the traffic around the placita during those hours, so keep that in mind. I'm used to LA Thai food prices so I was a little let down in that sense when I first went as I was looking for a tasty cheap meal. But the prices are normal for the San Juan Metro area restaurants.
Probably some of the best Thai food we've ever had! Let me start with saying the atmosphere is very fun- bar vibe- but also very trendy. We had the young papaya salad which is always a favorite of ours at any Thai restaurant. We got a a spice level 1/5 and it was still very spicy- and we love spicy! With our entrees, we opted with a zero spice and it was perfect. We got the green curry with chicken and pad see ew with beef. Only thing was they were out of thick noodles and had to use pad Thai noodles which was fun. Cocktails were good too- they make their own infused tonic water which was cool! Deff worth checking out this place if you love Thai! It's right in the heart of all the bars, clubs and restaurants near the market!
We went because the reviews looked good, but if you're looking for quality authentic Thai food - stay away! We ordered the drunken noodles, green curry, & red curry. The drunken noodles were the best out of the 3, but had so little noodles and way too many huge pieces of broccoli. The red curry is terrible, super watery and no flavor & again, way too much broccoli! The green curry was lacking in flavor and needed to be much better - again huge pieces of broccoli and thick pieces of broccoli stems and no other veggies. We ordered tofu/veggie as our protein options and they filled all the dishes with broccoli and broccoli stems and not enough flavors. Do not recommend!
What an absolute joy to find some amazing Thai cuisine here in town. I wish there was a vegetarian option for appetizers but was thrilled to see they had non-alcoholic spirits to make some gin and tonics! The pad see yew with tofu was AMAZING. Also, the tofu Pad Thai was wonderful. They were out of the sticky rice by the time we ordered dessert so will definitely try next visit. Highly recommend making a reservation no matter what day of the week you want to go. Look forward to returning again and trying more delicious food.
It was the perfect meal for our last night in PR. We ordered the Crispy garlic wings, Green curry, & Drunken noodles. Great utilization of aromatics in all the dishes by the chef. We also received excellent & friendly service from our server Alex. It is a definite must try for Thai cuisine.
Don't order to go from here. I ordered drunken noodle to go and all I got was a handful of noodles with a bunch of veggies. Aren't noodles cheap? Not sure why they are being stingy with noodle portion. I can't believe I paid $20 for literally no food. While that tiny portion tasted good, it's just way overpriced for what you get. They need to change the to go container to a larger size if they are unable to fit the right amount of food. I was so mad that I tried calling to get a refund. They don't pick up the phone. Very disappointing and won't be coming back.
3 years ago
Food (4/5 stars): Thai is one of our favorite collective cuisines, so we had to try Mai Pen Ren. I was a little underwhelmed by their Drunken Noodles. We decided to share and it wasn't enough for 2 people. It also tasted like a Spicy Pad See Ew because the fish sauce was overpowering. But the spice was on point and the dish was still delicious. I'd recommend trying other dishes and keep in mind that portions are on the smaller end Experience (4/5 stars): * Price: pricey for the portions * Wait Time: minimal for a party for 2 on a Monday night * Service: our server Patricia was awesome! Very good and friendly * Ambiance: it's a very nice, modern, and beautifully decorated restaurant read more
6 months ago
This place is a hidden gem in the middle of placita. Street parking is limited so you're better off paying $5 to park in the parking garage down the street. Our first time here there was a bad interaction with the hostess. We waited almost 2 hours before we never received a phone call for a table. When we returned to the restaurant the hostess had skipped us completely for no reason. The food is so good we still come back. Whenever we go we order the green curry and the drunken noodles. The green curry is thick and creamy. The drunken noodles are made with wide delicious noodles but the recipe could use Thai basil. It is important to understand the heat scale(1-5). I am a huge fan of spicy (ghost peppers, extra sriracha etc) but a level 3 is the most tolerable enjoyable spiciness. If you get a level 5 you're asking for all heat (intense heat) and no flavor. read more
The hostess is quite rude, beyond curt and gruff too. She rudely asked for our ID and and Vax card. She then told us we could only sit down the middle tables, where everyone and their brother walks by us. She once again told me rudely that we could only sit in the middle seats when I asked if we could take an end booth seat or the table at the back of the room. Only for parties greater than two. Yet they let two lovey dovey girls sit in a booth with no others in their party. Such a hypocrite too. We wouldn't feel so exposed if we had even 1 more person in our party. Our waitress, Patricia was also a bit short with us and asked for our ID and Vax card when she first came to our table. I told her we had already showed the hostess when we entered. The staff here need to get their stuff together and retrain on how to deal with customers in a better manner. Not even 5 minutes into the experience and I already want to walk out of this place. Kept our mask on until our food came out since so many people walk by us within less than a foot on either side of us down the aisles. I loathe the middle seats in this place so much. Rather limited menu for main entrees. I was feeling Pad Prik or even Pad Pak or red curry, but none of those are available here at all. These are pretty basic Thai dishes. Papaya salad is out and Patricia didn't come back for our entree order. Not much papaya salad for $14. The rice and salad doesn't even cover most of the plate. The papaya salad is tasty, not too fishy and nice heat too. The sticky rice is hard like a brick, seriously hard. The rice is not sticky or sweet at all, it's just unbelievably bland and hard and chewy too. The salad the better of the pairing. The rice is embarrassingly bad and hard and so boring too. The rice is so hard that it can't be broken up by a fork and can only be cut by a fork and a knife. It could be use as armor, it's that hard. The papaya salad was a 3-4, the side of rice was 0-1. Ordered green papaya salad to start since that's all we could order when tye waitress first came for our order. We had to wait until after our papaya salad was out and down the hatch before we could get our entrees in. We ordered the pad Thai with chicken and steamed fresh tofu ($4) and veggies ($5) extra extra hot (level 5), and green curry with chicken and steamed tofu ($4) and extra veggies ($5) medium spicy (level 2). $72.76. Patricia assured me the rice that comes with the papaya salad is supposed to be rock hard. That's ridiculous and insane. She seemed more attentive as time went by. They don't have any straws here at all. I won't drink my water without a straw at all, so no water or drinking for us then. They have the plastic chopsticks, not one time and disposal. Yuck. Plastic chopsticks are so dirty. Their pad Thai doesn't taste right at all. Doesn't taste like pad Thai at all. Not even slightly even. Tastes like they use the sweet Thai chili sauce as their base for their pad Thai here, it's all off and wrong. It wasn't at all what my husband and I expected. We eat a lot of pad Thai in the states, all over and even in Thailand too and have made it 100s of times too. Way disappointed in their rendition of pad Thai. Don't mess up a good thing. The pad Thai was a solid 2 at best. The green curry tastes as it should and is so-so. The sauce is decent and the tofu, chicken and veggies are decent. The side of sliced cucumber and onions in vinegar isn't bad, it's better than their pad Thai. Green curry was a solid 3. Avoid using the bathroom at all cost. It is as bad as a porta-John and the toilet doesn't even work or flush at all. It's a dirty cesspool here. Gross! I feel gross having been in this place at all. $72.76 for average to bad food. read more
1 year ago
We were very excited to try this place because we love Thai food and haven't gotten to have any since we moved to PR. The staff was very friendly, the restaurant was cute. However, it was the worst Thai food we've ever had (and we've eaten it a lot, all over the world). The dishes didn't taste the way they were supposed to, and we were disappointed. The best thing we ordered was the satay chicken. The worst thing we ate was the tom kha, which was super overpowered with some strange salty flavor (maybe a boullion/soup flavoring). The lemongrass salad was extremely bland and didn't taste like it had any lemongrass, spice, or real flavor. It was primarily shredded cabbage. On a side note, the police seem to be patrolling and giving out tickets to anyone parking on the street, even without No Parking signs. I recommend parking in the nearby $6 parking lot for restaurants. read more
I'd be lying if I said their Thai level 5 spice wasn't spicy! Jeez, their food is good and their staff is so awesome. As a vegetarian transitioning to vegan, Mai Pen Rai makes their menu easy to customize and choose from. I ordered the Green Curry at level 5 spice. My jaw was throbbing after a few sips, but damn, it was good. If I had to do it again, I'd go for level 2-3 spice to be able to enjoy the flavors even more. I'd take their spice levels seriously. read more
Street parking or a few parking lots near by. Quick seating even without a reservation. As leaving it was starting to get busy for dinner. Ordered garlic chicken wings. Crispy,juicy, not dried out. It had good flavor. I also got drunken noodles. My dish didn't have many noodles. It was level 3 spicy (level 1-5 options for spice) which actually had spicy so it was perfect. Meat and noodle were chopped down into small pieces majority of my plate. Idk if that was intentional or not. It made it seem more like I was eating stir fry than drunken noodles. It was still good. Service was quick and all waiters and waitresses helped eachother. Everyone was attentive and nice. read more
1 year ago
6 years ago
My favortie thai restaurant in Puerto Rico, thus far (there aren't that many on the island). I've eaten here twice and have enjoyed it both times, the first time for dine-in and the second takeout. The dine-in experience was pleasant, the service was friendly and the ambience was chill. It is also family friendly. The takeout experience was also nice. And of course, the food was tasty. I really like their crispy garlic wings, the drunken noodles, and the some tom (green papaya salad). The pad thai, prik khing curry and the bahn mi were also very good. I would say the only thing that was subpar were the chocolate wontons for dessert. I knew I should have gone with the sticky mango rice. Next time. The restaurant is located right next to the Placita de Santurce, a great hangout spot during the weekends at night. Perfect for eating and then going out to drink. The downside to that is the traffic around the placita during those hours, so keep that in mind. I'm used to LA Thai food prices so I was a little let down in that sense when I first went as I was looking for a tasty cheap meal. But the prices are normal for the San Juan Metro area restaurants. read more
3 years ago
Food is amazing! So flavorful! Brutal!!! Excellent service. Ambiance is nice. Not too loud so you can enjoy a conversation. Overall will definitely be coming back! read more
4 years ago
Probably some of the best Thai food we've ever had! Let me start with saying the atmosphere is very fun- bar vibe- but also very trendy. We had the young papaya salad which is always a favorite of ours at any Thai restaurant. We got a a spice level 1/5 and it was still very spicy- and we love spicy! With our entrees, we opted with a zero spice and it was perfect. We got the green curry with chicken and pad see ew with beef. Only thing was they were out of thick noodles and had to use pad Thai noodles which was fun. Cocktails were good too- they make their own infused tonic water which was cool! Deff worth checking out this place if you love Thai! It's right in the heart of all the bars, clubs and restaurants near the market! read more
We went because the reviews looked good, but if you're looking for quality authentic Thai food - stay away! We ordered the drunken noodles, green curry, & red curry. The drunken noodles were the best out of the 3, but had so little noodles and way too many huge pieces of broccoli. The red curry is terrible, super watery and no flavor & again, way too much broccoli! The green curry was lacking in flavor and needed to be much better - again huge pieces of broccoli and thick pieces of broccoli stems and no other veggies. We ordered tofu/veggie as our protein options and they filled all the dishes with broccoli and broccoli stems and not enough flavors. Do not recommend! read more
What an absolute joy to find some amazing Thai cuisine here in town. I wish there was a vegetarian option for appetizers but was thrilled to see they had non-alcoholic spirits to make some gin and tonics! The pad see yew with tofu was AMAZING. Also, the tofu Pad Thai was wonderful. They were out of the sticky rice by the time we ordered dessert so will definitely try next visit. Highly recommend making a reservation no matter what day of the week you want to go. Look forward to returning again and trying more delicious food. read more
5 years ago
4 years ago
It was the perfect meal for our last night in PR. We ordered the Crispy garlic wings, Green curry, & Drunken noodles. Great utilization of aromatics in all the dishes by the chef. We also received excellent & friendly service from our server Alex. It is a definite must try for Thai cuisine. read more
2 years ago
Don't order to go from here. I ordered drunken noodle to go and all I got was a handful of noodles with a bunch of veggies. Aren't noodles cheap? Not sure why they are being stingy with noodle portion. I can't believe I paid $20 for literally no food. While that tiny portion tasted good, it's just way overpriced for what you get. They need to change the to go container to a larger size if they are unable to fit the right amount of food. I was so mad that I tried calling to get a refund. They don't pick up the phone. Very disappointing and won't be coming back. read more
One of my favorite thai restaurants... anywhere. I go to Thailand every year so the bar is crazy high for my thai food. Any new city i travel to i always seek out thai food, no matter where i am. Back to Mai Pen Rai: I came here a few years ago but never since and finally was reminded this place existed. First thing i did was order the staples: Pad thai for my friend and for me: Prik King curry (i always get panang which they dont have, so i settled on this one). Another way i judge thai food is by ordering "Thai hot" on the spicy scale. If im not in pain, its not authentic. Anyways, they made it authentic, and TRUE thai hot, i could barely finish it. This honestly compares to some of my favorite curries in Phuket/Bangkok, you name it. San Juan is lucky to have such a great, authentic thai place here. By far one of my favorite restaurants in all of the isla del encanto! read more
3 years ago
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3 years ago
We made a reservation and we're seated promptly. The service was good and the food came out in a timely manner. I ordered Thai iced tea and green curry while my friend ordered the pad siyu. The green curry tasted great but the pad siyu was just soy sauce...all salt. The Thai iced tea also had no sweetened condensed milk in it. A big let down :/ I would recommend making a reservation, getting the curry and coming with low expectations of authentic Thai flavors. read more
3 years ago
3 years ago
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5 years ago
Such flavorful Thai food!! Probably one of the best, or the best, Thai food in Puerto Rico! The spice level in both the dishes we ordered was good too! Definitely would recommend read more
6 years ago
So I don't usually post due to limited time, and if there's ever an issue I try to handle it with the restaurant, because things happen. However, in this case, that didn't even help. They were sooooo incredibly rude at handling my concern- they even hung up on me. I waited for over an hour for food to be ready when I was told half that time and when I finally picked up my food, arrived home (after a very busy day at work - I'm a surgery resident), the pad Thai was noodles... literally JUST NOODLES with pieces of chicken. I squirted the life and put the peanuts to make it better, and eventually put sriracha so it wasn't just noodles with nothing. Even the worse pad Thai in the states is 10 times better than this - just plain noodles with no sauce. AVOID this place if you're looking for Thai food (I wasn't even looking for great Thai food more so than I was just craving pad Thai, but this is terrible). I feel badly posting this but had they not hung up on me once I would have considered letting it go. I asked if I could pick it up a replacement the day after tomorrow, and even take this one full back, and they said I only could today. Honestly, me driving is probably not the greatest idea because of how tired I am I could easily fall asleep driving (and I even expressed this to them). read more
4 years ago
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More info about Mai Pen Rai
Calle Canals 303
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00907
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(787) 998-6338
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http://www.maipenraisanturce.com
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