Thai 88 Cafe

My family and I had our weekly dinner on Sunday night. I chose to go to Thai 88 in Plano by 99 Ranch. I had a friend tell me it's really good so I thought we'd check it out.

Thai 88 Cafe
141 W Spring Creek Pkwy, Ste 401
Plano, TX 75023
(972) 801-9676
Price: $

The place used to be a yogurt shop... you can tell when you walk in. haha. Pretty creative if you ask me. Bright and clean. A small shop for a restaurant though...a bit crammed. It's owned by a couple. The husband is Chinese and my parents talked to him when we walked in. He was really nice. His wife is Thai and does the cooking.

We ordered a bunch of stuff to share.
Thai Spring Roll (5) $4.25~ Pretty standard.

Tom Yum Soup (with shrimp) Bowl $5.95~ I'm not a big soup person (well, the broth kinds anyways). But everyone said it was really good. Very good flavors.

Green Curry (with vegetables and tofu) $8.95~ This is one of the staple items I have to get when trying a new Thai place. It was awesome. We ordered it spicy (3 out of 1-4 scale). It had good heat and was nice and creamy. And it was so fragrant. Reminded me of my mom's friend's Thai restaurant in Taiwan. Her husband is Thai and it's super authentic. I've yet to have something in Dallas that reminded me of those flavors. This is the first! I will for sure go back for this!!!!!

Pad Thai (with chicken) $7.95~ This is another staple to try. It wasn't as sweet as some other Thai places which is good. My mom and sister don't like pad thai because it's usually really sweet, but they liked this one.

Pad Kee Mow (with beef) $7.95~ Their Pad Kee Mow had a slightly different flavor than most other places. We all liked this one better. Not sweet at all. It was really good. Very authentic.

Ong Choy with Shrimp Paste (sauteed water spinach) $7.50~ I love water spinach. I'll eat it almost any preparation. This was done well.

Som Tum (Papaya salad) $6.95~ The papaya was a bit tough but not bad. My mom said it should've had more acid though. Not sour enough. I've had better at Royal Thai.

So we got there around 6:45PM or so. We were immediately seated and the place was about half full. It took us a while to look over the menu but from the time we ordered to when we got our food was about 45 minutes. Other tables that arrived when we did were finishing up and other tables that were already there, were all gone. We were getting hungry and confused. We didn't want to make a scene but finally my mom said something to the waiters. There were 2 young guys there as waiters and they both seemed a little confused. Nice...but didn't come by to tell us what's wrong with our order or anything. So after we called them over, they said it was coming out shortly, which it did. But turns out the order either got messed up or was never put in or something... The owner was really apologetic and said one guy was first day and the other was only 2nd day on the job. Geez... I can understand them being new, but if you see a table without food for 45 minutes, at least come by and check on them or inform them that it's coming... But whatever. They weren't rude about it so we just brushed it off. Later the owner came and gave us a bunch of Thai Teas on the house for our inconvenience. The teas were pretty good. (Normally $2 a piece...pretty good price!)

We also got some Curry Puffs (4pcs.) $6~ to go. All handmade...and they only sell these on Fri-Sun.

So the service was lacking but hopefully with a bit more experience that'll be fixed. But the food is legit. Very authentic, good portions and reasonable price. I find a lot of Thai places in Dallas are wayy overpriced and they taste the same as everywhere else. I definitely recommend this place. Go check it out. Spread the word and keep them in business! I'll be back in the future. I wanna try some different curries and also their beef noodle soup!

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