When Food Triumphs Over Decor But Dessert Disappoints: Osha Thai Noodle Cafe, SF

Osha Thai was recommended by our friend and Met member, Roro. We chose the original location at 696 Geary Street because it happened to be the closest one to our hotel. (There are a total of 5 Osha Thais in SF.) When we first walked in we thought maybe we had walked into the wrong restaurant. It wasn't the clean modern style restaurant, more like a neighborhood Thai hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Not so much a cool hole-in-the-wall like Tokyo 7-7 (see past blog post), but more like a "hmm...should we eat here? It looks a little sketchy. Not so sanitary. Perhaps they could bust out the Formula 409 more often. "

You walk in and it's not so bad...dark wood tables with bench style seating, the bathroom was a bit unbearable with graffiti all over the wall (and I'm not talking Banksy-style, I'm talking downtown LA tag style).

Nice touch was having all the sauces and peppers at your table.

We decided to give it a try and based on some recommendations from yelp, we ordered the crab fried rice, green curry and green papaya salad. The crab fried rice was amazing, it was made with real crab that was tossed in with the rice and even included a couple of crab claws. The pieces of crab were mixed in well, the dish wasn't too salty and no taste was too overpowering. Sammy was in pure heaven. I can OD on crab fried rice pretty easily so it wasn't my favorite dish. I enjoyed the green curry.

The green curry had just the right amount of spiciness and was perfectly balanced with coconut milk. The basil leaves gave it a little kick and over rice it was pure heaven.

The green papaya salad used fresh green papaya and bits of dried shrimp blended with bits of tasty garlic. The whole peanuts took away from the dish a bit but it was a good spicy level and the subtle lime taste made the salad an excellent compliment to our other dishes.

I'd give this place a 4 star rating, if only we hadn't ordered dessert. Still glowing from the satisfaction of the entrees, we ordered the mango sticky rice thinking the place could do no wrong. What we got was mango sticky rice, the mango was perfectly ripe and sweet, the sticky rice sat in a sweet...AND SALTY milk. SALTY?! When we asked if this was normal, they said the salt helps keep the rice together.

We complained and they brought out an order of the coconut ice cream and fried bananas. The ice cream was tasty with bits of yummy coconut, however the bananas were more like donuts, more bread than banana. Strike 2, buddy!

Overall: All in all, this restaurant has great food, with the exception of dessert. It's open late, till 1 am during the week and 3 am during the weekends. The yelpers say the original location has the best food, but after looking at the pics of the other locations, I would be willing to take a gamble on the quality of the food for a nicer setting. Or you can always get take-out.

Sammy, happy and full. Two thumbs up hubster!

Tips:
+ Get take-out if you go to this location.
+ If you need a place to go for some late night grubbin, this place will work. You won't notice the griminess so much in a drunken haze.
+ Try out the other locations, I'm sure if you were in a better environment it would be an awesome experience. The other four, based on their website pictures, look hip and happenin.

Who Should Go?
+ People who want to eat badass Thai food. You almost start forgetting where you are, the food is that good. (Almost.)

Osha Thai Noodle Cafe (Yelp)
696 Geary Street
(between Jones St & Leavenworth St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.673.2368

Osha Thai
Neighborhood: Financial District
4 Embarcadero Center
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.788.6742

Others on Yelp