Best Thai Restaurant Irvine Near Me

4worldlovers: Santa Ana’s 4th Street Market is a kaleidoscope of constantly changing flavors.

Keeping up with the turnover in the kitchens here is exhausting. One day, a stall serves tacos. The next day, that same stall has transformed into a Vietnamese cafe. Then, before you can go back for seconds, it has become a Thai street-food restaurant. And that’s just one of the many revolving-door concepts at the popular food hall.

That new Thai shop is called Tuk Tuk, and the menu is relatively short: a tightly-edited selection of fried rice, a few noodles and pad kra pow.

I’ve sampled a little bit from each category, and all of it is pretty good. The pad Thai is traditionally sweet and tart and highly fragrant. The drunken noodles get an extra punch from florets of young green peppercorns. But really the one thing everybody should focus on here is the spicy crab fried rice.

Fried rice with crab is ubiquitous in Thai restaurants in California. However, I don’t recall anyone else serving a version better than what emerges from the wok at Tuk Tuk. The crab is fresh and plump, generous chunks of it folded into the rice (along with a few unavoidable bits of crab shell), which is made deeply spicy by default with fresh green chilies and dried red chili powder. If you can’t handle the heat, it’s on you to speak up when ordering.

Tuk Tuk is run by the same team that operates The Chicken Rice, a Thai-inspired chicken-only restaurant no bigger than this one just a couple blocks away. “I work there for lunch and come here for dinner,” the owner tells me.


Despite the short menu, this is not fast food. Everything is made to order, and it can take a while because — like a true street-food vendor in Bangkok — there’s only one person, a grandmotherly figure in a hair net, cooking everything by herself, multiple woks clanking in unison. Much of what she cooks is packaged and readied for a never-ending stream of Grubhub drivers. “Thank you for being so patient,” the owner says when my buzzer finally goes off and the steam is billowing from my rice.

4worldlovers:
Siam Station Thai Street Food proudly serves delicious food to the greater Irvine community.

Loved the food here. I haven't been able to find Thai food in Irvine that has impressed me but this place has won me over. I got the crab fried rice, green curry and a thai milk tea. All of them were flavorful and miles better than the other places I've tried in Irvine. I'm...

Been open about 4 mo, reasonable prices, quick service. No lunch specials at this time. I had appetizer chicken satay, 5 skewers! Moist and tasty with peanut dipping sauce. My sis had green curry with tofu. Asked for spicy, she thought it could have been spicier. Comes with white...

I visit this excellent restaurant many times since I like the special air that is exist in this restaurant. The staff is exceptionally loyal and professional. The service is impressively quick. Not to mention, the food you eat is good. I ate there many times and I was always...

Mmmm the food is so good here. We've been back a couple times since first getting takeout. The curry and Tom yum are really flavorful, everything we've had has been great. Go to Thai place now!

This spot is amazing and spacious, the food was enchanting and the rates were very reasonable. quickly, effective service and very welcoming staff. I highly recommend this place.

This is the best fried rice I've had in Orange County... So Impressive! There were like 3 different bites where I just was like... "wow..."! The...