Finally some legit Thai food in the South Bay! The Great Thai BBQ is National City’s latest Thai restaurant to open. Ever since moving South to CV, we’ve been craving the great Thai menus we used to be near: Sab-e-lee (Linda Vista), J&T Thai Street Food (near USD), Amarin Thai (Hillcrest), or Taste of Thai (Del Mar).
So, check this out. A HUGE Thai Iced Tea! Better yet, it was really good in flavor and the perfect sweetness to half/half ratio. I’d definitely order again and again.
This was their version of Tom Yum soup (a popular Thai soup that combines both sour savory). Unfortunately this wasn’t the best we’ve had and we’ll definitely skip next time. We are interested to see how their Tom Kha soup is next time.
So whenever we visit a new Thai restaurant, we usually gravitate towards ordering certain dishes. First up is the Pad See Ew noodles. This is a favorite of our daughter’s and combines flat rice noodles with some soy sauce, a little sweetness, and usually Chinese broccoli and beef. The dish was served nice and hot and hit all the elements perfectly flavor wise. The beef could have been a touch more tender, but overall the flavors and noodle texture was spot on.
Since we’re not on a low carb diet, we also opt’d for the Pad Thai noodles. This a traditional dish you will find thousands of variations of as each restaurant makes it a little bit different. However, there is usually a combination of sweet and savory elements to this dish extracted from tamarind, fish sauce, spices, and scallions. We choose to add chicken to ours and it was cooked nicely. This version was excellent and I’ll keep ordering this one as well.
The nice thing about this restaurant is that they have Thai BBQ chicken! I love this dish when it’s done right. The chicken had a decent flavor from it’s spice rub. It’s served with a sweet and sour type sauce which compliments it well. The dark meat was nice and tender. The white meat was flavorful for sure, but slightly dry. Luckily adding the tangy sauce to it made me quickly forget about that.
You can order the chicken by itself, but we decided to get the BBQ chicken combo with their Java Fried Rice. Delish! The rice had a wonderful rich flavor and even held 2 large shrimp inside.
All in all, I’m super stoked The Great Thai BBQ has opened up. The atmosphere of the restaurant is modern and comfortable. 4 out of 5 things we tried were really great and the portions are generous. I’ll definitely be stopping by here every couple weeks to get my Thai BBQ Chix & Pad Thai fix!
Oh yeah, it’s a touch hard to find initially since it’s sandwiched in between a couple businesses, but just know that it’s a couple doors left of Manila Sunset (National City one). Parking can be a bit challenging during busy times like lunch, but you could always park across the street and walk over if needed.
Let me know what else you try here and what you think!
The Great Thai BBQ Restaurant
925 E. Plaza Blvd., #106
National City, CA 91950
619-512-1500
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Great-Thai-BBQ-Restaurant/461490674003809
