Osha Thai

Osha Thai
4 Embarcadero Center
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 788-6742


Category: Thai
Neighborhood: Financial District
2/5 star rating
4/7/2008

Food rating: 2/5...AWFUL...just AWFUL!
Ambiance: 4/5...beautiful and clean, but the food is horrible.

Even though I personally don't like Thai food, I know what is good and authentic (having friends of the ethnicity). EVERYTHING we ordered was strangely sweet - like they over did it on the sugar or plum sauce or something. In any case, the food was a wreck and OVERPRICED.

Mango Salad: decent, but not spectacular. Definitely not worth the $10 for this small plate. It costs about $4 anywhere else.

Sea Bass Salad: decent, but not worth $12 considering that the fish smelled really fishy - the mark of UN-freshness. Further, this wasn't even a salad. The presentation was akin to mini lettuce wraps with a tiny morsel of fish and noodles per lettuce cup.

Pad Thai: HORRIBLE. Ever heard of sugar gravy? Well, this stuff was probably dipped in something similar before it was served. It looked like a plate of hodgepodge leftovers that were thrown together at the last minute.

Angry Shrimp: the only thing angry about this shrimp dish was the way it made me feel. The sauce tasted like cheap, sweet Mexican chicken mole sauce that you can buy in a $3 jar next to the Tapatio. The prawns are large and butterflied, but the sauce is like Nutella gone bad.

Tom Yum: Normally one of my favorite soups. Here, the broth is brownish red and tastes like chocolate syrup mixed with too much dried chicken. Trust me when I say this is NOT your mother's tom yum. BTW, I sent this back because I almost gagged from the sweet factor. The waitress (none of them speak/understand English) said they would re-do it NOT sweet. Lo and behold - round 2 comes out sweeter than ever.

Skip Osha - this pretentious wannabe Thai restaurant that caters to fancy folks who don't know any better. Chances are, if you love PF Chang's, you will like Osha. Otherwise, you can find good Thai food elsewhere at the standard $6-$9/entree price range.