Top-10 Restaurants With The Best Thai Food: Newport Beach Guide

Thai cuisine is a godsend for those who want to try something unusual and exotic. Thai recipes are quite spicy because of using a lot of chilies, garlic, and ginger in it. However, some dishes will suit people with milder taste preferences.

The basis of Thai cuisine is rice. They use many varieties of rice and cook it in various ways. Noodles are also very popular. Rice and noodles are always dressed with sauces. It can be fish, shrimp, oyster sauce, and even some chili juice or spicy lime dressing. Thai dishes are mainly cooked with seafood or chicken. Thai cuisine is famous for its soups – spicy and sour, and they taste really good. The most common way to cook Thai food is deep frying in a wok.

If you are looking for some delicious Thai food in Newport Beach, this post is for you! Here are the best Newport Beach restaurants with Thai food, and some of them with vegan options. We also have a list of the most popular Thai dishes – a useful guide for those who want to try it for the first time.

Table of Contents

• What Are the Best Thai Restaurants Near Me?
• What Is The Best Thai Dish?

What Are the Best Thai Restaurants Near Me?

Here are our Top-10 places with the best Thai food, Newport Beach, CA.

1. Bamboo Bistro

2600 E Coast Hwy Ste 160, Corona del Mar, Newport Beach, CA

This is the best Thai restaurant in Orange County with takeout, gluten-free, and vegan options, like most other restaurants. Bamboo Bistro offers great service, delicious food, and amazing lunch specials. You should try their chicken noodles and a roasted duck from the specialties.

2. Mint Leaf Thai Cuisine

712 E Balboa Blvd, Newport Beach, CA

This is a Thai mint restaurant with reasonable prices and quick and friendly service. And it is also open on Sunday! The dishes have an amazing balance of sweetness and spice. You should try their summer rolls, crispy tofu, and Tom Yum Goong. They don’t serve alcohol but you can always take their Thai iced tea with the ideal ratio of sugar instead.

3. Zab Thai

4001 W Coast Hwy, Newport Beach, CA

This is one of the most popular Thai restaurants with vegan Thai food, vegetarian, poultry, beef, and seafood options available. They also have delivery and takeout. This authentic place is known for its drunken noodles and Choo Chee Salmon Specialty.

4. Silk Thai Cuisine

19690 Beach Blvd, Huntington Beach, CA

An excellent Thai spot in the shopping center with happy hours and delicious food. They also serve alcohol, so you can take a glass of wine with some Khao Pad or choose any other dish from the menu.

5. Bangkok Corner

2360 Newport Blvd, Costa Mesa, CA

It is a nice vegan-friendly place with healthy, authentic, and fresh Thai food. And they also deliver meals within 3 miles radius. It’s primarily a takeout place but they also have a couple of tables inside. Their yellow chicken curry and fried rice are absolutely the best. It’s worth trying!

6. Mai Thai Restaurant

17938 Magnolia St, Fountain Valley, CA

Many Thai cuisine lovers consider this place to be the best in the region. This Thai restaurant has very reasonable prices for the quality and portion size they offer. You can have lunch here or even come for dinner with friends. If you like it hot, try their Spicy Basil Crispy Pork, or take Papaya Salad for a milder taste. It’s a very pleasant small place with big taste!

7. Diho Siam Restaurant

1835 Newport Blvd Ste D154, Costa Mesa

Nice place of Newport Beach Thai food with a great selection of entry dishes, different sauces, and a good mix of spicy and mild. Unfortunately, they have no vegetarian or vegan menu. Anyway, the food is always good! You can take a lunch special here or just come for dinner. Try their Salmon Curry, Shrimp Red Curry, or Spicy Meat Salad.

8. Basil Thai Cuisine

9921 Hamilton Ave, Huntington Beach, CA

This place has one of the most legit Thai food. It’s a good takeaway restaurant with excellent meals and service. Thai cuisine lovers will probably like their spring rolls, beef Satay with peanut sauce, and fried rice. Go to check it out!

9. Madee Thai Kitchen

401 E 17th St Ste C, Costa Mesa, CA

The other Thai restaurant on our list is a small “mom and pop” place in the nook of the mall. However, it’s a great local spot with good food and homestyle cooking. Most people carry out to make their dinner easier but you can also have some dinner there.

10. Hanuman Thai Eatery

355 Bristol St, Ste U, Costa Mesa, CA

It is a very beautiful place with great food, quick service, and domestic craft beer. They will definitely impress you with the absolute passion and technical skills of the chefs. Start your acquaintance with this place with Pad Thai Boran or Tom Yum Kung. You can also take a side dish to your soup, for example, some white rice. Unfortunately, they have no special menu for their vegan guests.

What Is The Best Thai Dish?

It’s impossible to please everyone! Especially without knowing your tastes and preferences. Maybe you don’t like spicy food? Or what if you have a shrimp allergy? But here is the list of the most popular Thai delicious food. Hope you find something you’ll enjoy!

Pad Thai

Pad Thai is a kind of traditional food in Thailand. You can find this signature dish in any Thai restaurant, regardless of the price range. The most famous variations of this edible are chicken pad Thai and pad Thai noodles. The traditional recipe includes rice noodles fried with shrimp, bean sprouts, eggs, tofu, and onions. Before eating, you need to sprinkle the dish with a bit of lime so it can fully reveal its amazing taste.

Tom Yum Goong

It is a spicy, hot, and sour soup with shrimps that is famous all over the world. The unique combination of shallots, fragrant lemongrass, red chili paste, lime juice, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, and prawns is considered the epitome of the taste of Thailand! Also, it can be a great food when you feel sick.

Noodle Soup

You can also call it Guay Tiew Reua. This soup is a very popular dish in Thai street food culture. It comprises rice noodle that is cooked with meat broth with some Thai spices added. You can choose the type of noodle soup depending on the meat you would like to have in it. Besides chicken and pork, it can also be seafood.

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

The original name of the soup is Tom Kha Kai. It is similar to Tom Yum Goong but with the chicken meat instead of the prawns and without adding a red chili paste. Tom Kha Kai has a creamy texture due to coconut milk which blends with other ingredients. That gives Thai Chicken Coconut Soup a tender and mild flavor.

Tom kha kai could be the best Thai food for people who are not so keen on chili dishes and could also offer them the same quality taste of Thai freshness.

Red Curry

Red curry paste serves as a basis for Gaeng Daeng which is the other name for Red Curry. It is made from crushed Asian chili pepper mixed with garlic, ginger, lemongrass, and shallots. Sliced chicken breast is fried with the paste, saturated with taste and aroma. After that, it’s time to add coconut milk and fresh vegetables (usually tomatoes and eggplants). Then the edible is left to simmer over low heat. You should also add kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil for better taste. The dish is served with jasmine rice.

Green Curry

This dish is a finding for fans of spicy food but seems to be too much for people with sensitive taste buds. Gaeng Keow Wan Gai is based on green chili paste. This paste has a higher spice level than the one that is used in Red Curry. That’s why Green Curry is considered to be the spiciest curry in Thailand. Despite the difference in severity, all the cooking processes are similar. Coconut milk, vegetables, and meat are also used here. Thai people usually cook it with chicken, but there are also variations for beef and seafood lovers.

Yellow Curry

This one may be very good food for children. Also, it’s the best curry for those who are on bad terms with spicy food. Yellow curry paste is not as spicy as green or red ones because it mostly consists of turmeric and not chili pepper. It has a creamy taste because of the coconut milk. You could also taste shrimp paste, garlic, lemongrass, and shallots while eating. Yellow curry is usually cooked with chicken.

Thai Spicy Fried Rice

You can find this great Thai food called Khao Pad in almost every Asian restaurant. It consists of rice, garlic, onion, eggs, and meat. The type of meat depends on your choice. It can be beef, chicken, shrimp, or even crabmeat. And it is easy to cook too! All you need is to heat up the oil in a pot, put all the ingredients and fry them until complete.

Khao Pad Sapparod

This dish deserves to be on the top thanks to the incredible combination of pineapple, fresh shrimp, and jasmine rice. Fish, oyster, and shrimp sauces that are also used for cooking pineapple fried rice make the taste of the dish unique and complete.

Pad Kra Pao Moo

The taste of this edible is an example of a good balance of sweet and spicy. It is a popular order in Thai restaurants. To cook it, you need to fry the onion, garlic, and chili pepper. Then you should add the minced pork to the pan and leave it to fry and fill with the taste. After that, you should add Thai basil leaves, fish and oyster sauces, and a little sugar. This minced pork stir-fried with Thai basil can be served as a separate dish or with jasmine rice. You may also be offered fried egg with it.

Khao Soi

This dish consists of egg noodles and curry broth with pickled vegetables and onions on the top. Drizzle it with lime juice before eating for better taste. This Thai coconut curry noodle soup is popular, especially in the northern part of “The Land of Smiles”.

Spicy Green Papaya Salad

This amazing mix-it-all-in-one-bowl salad is also called Som Tum. It is not only easy to make, but also very satisfying to eat. Traditionally, it consists of unripe papaya, tomatoes, and carrots with adding garlic, peanuts, long beans, chili, and palm sugar. The dressing of Som Tum is fish sauce and lime juice. This salad combines several flavors at once. It is salty, sweet, sour, and spicy at the same time.

Yum Nua

You will love this salad if you enjoy hot food. To make the spicy beef salad, you need to mix striped fried beef with sweet tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, cilantro, and Thai mint leaves. The spiciness is provided by chili juice, which is soaked in the salad along with lime juice, stevia, and fish sauce.

Spring Rolls

This light and hearty dish comprise rice paper with the filling inside. It can be meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, herbs, or fruits, just choose the one you like and enjoy! Spring rolls are served both raw and fried (grilled or deep-fried).

Khao Niao Mamuang

And here is very good food for some sweet tooth! This traditional Thai dessert made from sticky rice, ripe mango, and some condensed milk is going to blow you away!