Bua Thai Cuisine

My husband & I always went to Bua in the late 90’s with a group of inline skaters after skates and it was one of our favorites! We were surprised it was still open and my husband was in the neighborhood today & stopped in to surprise with takeout of my all time favorites: rare beef salad and green papaya salad!!
I asked him if he had eaten some of my salads because the small containers they came in looked half empty!!! (See picture) He had not even tasted them so apparently that’s all you get in an order. That alone wouldn’t have caused this poor review but both my husband’s pad thai and

This is the cutest place. Very clean, the ambiance was great, the service was great and the food was tasty. I'll definitely return.

11/13/21: Sat. night.

Service was FLAWLESS. Had menu and waters w/in one minute.
Drinks were fairly quick, apps delivered timely, and entrees were nicely spaced out time-wise. Solicitous wait staff. Plates cleared in a timely manner.

Crispy Basil duck was great. Spring rolls were good.
FYI: house wines are $7.50, Long Island Iced Teas are $7.00 (!).
House Merlot was at least adequate; Long Island Iced Teas were above par.

Table cloths were a nice touch, but napkins are paper.

Go there. Enjoy.

On Saturday night, 10/2, we made reservations for a table for two. We were greeted immediately and taken to our seats. From there it went downhill. We sat for 15 mins without anyone acknowledging us, no waters were offered (outdoor seating), and when someone came to clean the table next to us, they skipped our table and went to another table to get them refills. It did not seem particularly busy that night having only 6 tables filled up stairs out of the 20. Do not recommend.

Great food. Great service. Super fast. Reasonably priced. Centrally located. Definitely will return.

Excellent excellent excellent Thai food. The real deal. Everything from beef curry to cashew chicken was outstanding. And our son’s chicken fried rice was really really good, too. Love finding small restaurants with caring owners. This place won’t disappoint!

I ordered Pad Thai with shrimp for lunch and got soft shell crab for later. The Pad Thai wasn't bad but very very small portion for 13 bucks. The Thai tea was pretty good costly (3 bucks) for a medium sized cup. The young man that took my order didn't greet me or treat me the same as other non black customers. I'll try the vegan place next door next time.

Great food! Lovely and Kind staff! Felt like home when eating here. Real authentic Thai cuisine.

Service and prices are excellent, particularly at happy hour. They also use no milk in the kitchen (just because Thai food generally doesn't) which is nice because my GF is allergic.

I live across the street and it's My go to place at least once per week for the past 10+ years . I love everyone here-always polite and accommodating

Delicious food and the most prompt and kind service. Loved sitting on the roof deck. Thanks for a great meal!

Food was extremely subpar and the service was even worse. We were told to leave the restaurant exactly at 10pm despite the fact that we were still eating our food. When I asked the server for a plastic bag to carry my leftovers in, he responded "the bags are downstairs." I had to assertively ask him to go get me one. I do not go to establishments to pay for service + tip to be ushered out and told to fetch things for myself.

Delicious food! Great dining on the upper deck patio. Service was great! We loved everything from apps to mains. Try it out yourself!

I want to support my neighborhoods family owned businesses but this restaurant disappointed me every time I tried. Their ingredients were not fresh and I had to throw away the food I ordered the last time after the first bite.

Just off DuPont Circle is this friendly and Thai place with excellent food.

Started with a bowl of salad with peanut dressing. Salad was crisp and dressing peanuts enough.

The crispy duck Panang curry was special! Duck was crispy with meat and skin on every slice. Cooked so that it was still juicy. And the curry was thick and plentiful.

I will be coming back for this dish!!!

TL;DR: Service was very friendly. Food was eh.

I hate to write a not so great review about a place that had very good and friendly service. But the food just did not satisfy. We came here with a party of 8 around 7pm on a Saturday night. The place was relatively empty, so we got a table immediately.

They do have good happy hour appetizer and drink specials. And the wait staff was very accommodating and friendly, especially since we only had 10 minutes left to order happy hour items.

Drinks: White russians, pomegranate mule, margaritas: were all good and the happy hour items were $5.

Food

Good Thai cooking, but not great. The happy hour drink and appetizers are an excellent deal. Service good. If I am in the area, will stop in again.

This restaurant is quite the disappointment. I came here because they serve Khao Soi for $9.50 during lunch time, which is much cheaper than other Thai restaurants in the area for this specific dish. It's a small restaurant with an outside patio, but the style is old as is the building.

The good: The Thai Ice Tea is good and refreshing. Servers are nice and welcoming.

The bad: The Khao Soi, which lists on their menu as a Traditional Northern Thai red curry egg noodles soup with chicken, topping with pickled cabbage, red onions, crispy noodles, and scallions, was the worst Khao Soi I&apos

On the cold winter day, if you are looking to eat hot and spicy, this is surely a good local option. I asked for something with lemongrass and they recommended spicy soup. I ordered with thin rice noodles, vegetables, tofu and garnished with cilantro, bean sprouts and scallions as take out. The soup was very yummy and raw vegetables tasted great in the soup.

This review is based solely off of the pad Thai (decided to compare pad Thai from 4 places on a Friday) - I don't typically like to review places after having one dish, but I don't see myself coming back to Bua.

The pad Thai didn't have much flavor, was served with a lemon (?), tasted like it was burnt somehow, and the pieces of pork weren't the best - not dry, but just not juicy. Pricepoint is a little lower than others which helps, but it's just not a dish I want to order again.

The restaurant itself was a small shop on the ground floor - there were a few people inside

Great place for when you are craving some Pad Thai. The dining room is nice, though I usually get carry out. Good service and tasty food!

We dropped by for happy hour since we had an hour to spare before our dinner reservation at Sushi Taro near by.

Happy hour (5-7pm everyday) -- why don't we have more places like this in Chicago?!
$5 cocktails
$3 wine
$2.5 beer
$4 apps

Since we were headed to a Michelin star restaurant, we were good and just had 1 drink each (mango martini for me) and no apps...but otherwise, we would have sampled more things!

We've yet to find a good American Thai spot that is our go-to. I don't remember trying Bua Thai before but bae is convinced we have. Either way, we thought we'd try this (maybe again) to see how we felt about it. It doesn't have the best reviews but its close by, is decently priced, and we were open to this being our local spot.

We kept it simple and just ordered chicken pad thai (one medium and one spicy). It tasted good but neither of the orders was spicy at all. I get that typical customers are probably not able to handle spice but there should at least be a difference

Looking for Thai takeout? Try some noodles from Bua Thai!

We ordered over the phone and found it strange that although everything on the menu is numbered, we couldn't order by number and had to instead try our best to pronounce each dish. It would be a lot easier if they would take order numbers and cross reference at the restaurant! We ended up getting a wrong dish which was very disappointing, but we had already walked all the way back so it wasn't worth going back. Other than that, no complaints. The food was ready really quickly (20 minutes) and the portion sizes were decent for

Me and my boyfriend love this place. They have a great happy hour and drink and appetizer specials. I've also been there for lunch and they have a great lunch menu. The food is great and the drinks are better! It's a perfect place if youre looking for a small quiet bar to go to.

Above average Thai food for DC. Excellent service! Although this has been a long time local restaurant, it continues to provide visually pleasing dishes. Duck rolls are a must!