Thai Diner has been around a while. It’s a popular place for students and locals too.

While it’s not like authentic Thai food in Thailand, it’s the second best thing we have in Lawrence.

Serving sizes are good and you can split entrees with your bestie or significant other.

We always get the fresh spring rolls and Pad Thai

I got the pad Thai and the vegetable stir fry with tofu. Overall the food was pretty good. Not anything spectacular, but what I’d expect when getting Thai food. My main gripes were the prices and portion sizes. I got the house special pad Thai, which was around $18. Very pricey, but the portion was decent. The vegetable stir fry, however, was tiny for costing $14. Worth going to if you want good Thai food, but expect to pay a lot for what you get.

Ordered Grapow, papaya salad, pad Thai and soft spring roll. Food was too salty, not proportionate to the price point. On a Friday evening, there was only a waitress. The people behind us didn’t even place the order and just walked out. The poor kid had to take care of all the tables, and the other was handling to go orders. Knocked off two stars for food quality and improper staffing.

Love coming to this place. The servers/hostess are very nice and amicable. The food is top notch! Especially the crab Rangoon. :)

Was a decent Thai place, now even better. Lots of new things on the menu, the food presentation is way better than before, and the portion is bigger, too. Photo below were taken within the last two months.

For those ordering delivery: consider dine-in or takeout instead for cheaper menu price. Delivery platforms take a cut from the sales.

This used to be my favorite Thai place in Lawrence but they raised their prices and in my recent experience, shrunk the portions along with quality. I wasn’t impressed when I recently visited. We got a Mild/as-is drunken noodles but it was almost too spicy for us to eat, and had tons of chili flakes. We are used to some amount of spice but we specifically got mild so we could share with our kid.

They also said our order wouldn’t be ready for 30 minutes, but when we picked it up it looked like the order had been done for a long time. The dishes weren’t very warm, and the crab rangoons were soggy :(

It used to be so good, and I still think they have the best Panang curry of anywhere in Lawrence. Hopefully next time I visit I can update this review to 5 stars.

Such a sweet place, nice and relaxing music, and awesome staff! Started off with an appetizer (Sweet Yam Sensation) and finished my night on the sweet note with the Thai Sweet Tropical (pictured)! Absolutely recommend! Delicious all the way! If you're a couple trying to figure out where to eat and can't stop asking each where your significant other wants to eat, I recommend Thai Diner! :)

I tell you that I really like eating here and the food is terrific. The problem that I have lately on my takeout order has been a kids size order and I'm a grown man. Yes I understand that its pay more lately and get less but this is really getting out of hand.

Love coming to this place. The servers/hostess are very nice and amicable. The food is top notch! Especially the crab Rangoon. :)

Food was fine, but service was amazing. They were nice and friendly. The decorations and music were so pretty!!!

This is a great restaurant with delicious Thai food, I highly recommend getting the Drunken noodles or the fried rice with the sweet Chinese sausage!

Best food ever the dumplings is the best thing in the world

I tell you that I really like eating here and the food is terrific. The problem that I have lately on my takeout order has been a kids size order and I'm a grown man. Yes I understand that its pay more lately and get less but this is really getting out of hand.

Excellent food with a good range of choices for spice levels. I can always count on a good meal here.

Portions are big and the food tastes like a warm hug. Got the lard na (one of my mom's favorites) it was perfect.

I've been going here for several years now and I am convinced it is the best restaurant in Lawrence. The quality of food and the service are exceptional. It doesn't have the location and venue that many downtown restaurants have but it outshines any one of them where it matters.

My favorite Thai restaurant. I eat there once a week at this point.

They are amazing! Food is always great and they always have great service, highly recommended 😀

Nick was amazing!!! Literally everything was so delicious. Will definitely be back.

Best Thai food in Lawrence!

Thai Diner has been around a while. It’s a popular place for students and locals too.

While it’s not like authentic Thai food in Thailand, it’s the second best thing we have in Lawrence.

Serving sizes are good and you can split entrees with your bestie or significant other.

We always get the fresh spring rolls and Pad Thai

Our favorites are Pad Thai and curries, but we haven't had anything that wasn't delicious!

Food was fresh, flavorful and hot served by a friendly staff in a clean and charming environment. 😋

I absolutely love this place. Every time I'm in Lawrence or driving through, this is an essential pit stop whether I'm hungry or not!

I got the crab fried rice, I love crab and fried rice and was very happy with my order. My wife got the pad Thai she said it was pretty good. When I order they said 25 min and it was on time. I called a placed the order over the phone and was real easy. I didn't eat there but the restaurant look formal and nice.

Delicious, juicy and tasteful Pad Thai
Don’t be fool by how it looks outside
Great service as well

Best Thai food I've had in a long time.

Not what you would think.

Visiting from out of State. We were told this is the Best Thai place in the area so we tried the Papaya salad, Spring rolls, Phad Thai and a stirfry noodle dish. It might be the best in the area but it's NOT Good. Peanut sauce for the Spring rolls was weirdly creamy.
Papaya salad w/shrimp was gross. It tasted like spoiled fish, my guess is too much fish sauce. There was just nothing delicious about any of the food we ordered for $65.
Some might like the food, wasn't for us.

Ordered takeout (this was factored into the review)
Diner was very hot (glad we didn't eat there)
Prices are high (we were optomistic)
Ordered
Calamari
Crabrangoons
2 shrimp fried rice med heat
2 thai iced coffees (since they were out of thai tea by lunchtime)
The wait time was respectable
Got the food, got home ate.
Crabrangoons are small and doughy not worth 9.50
Calamari tested good even after travel but I don't trust that it's actually squid overcooked. Definitely not worth price listed
Thai coffee tasted like low quality pot coffee flooded with regular sugar and a dash of cream. It was un palatable, do not get, not worth the price.
Shrimp fried rice was decent, to small of portion for the $17.50, not very flavourful.

Overall if they lowered their prices it could be worth while, but where it stands they are not worth it. Hope they see this and improve. Would have loved to liked it more than I do.

It was so good
I like Mama's crispy chicken

Hands down some of the best thai food I've had in KS so far. Best pad thai. Good short ribs. Every other Asian restaurant in Lawrence should take notice ..

Massaman curry is fantastic!

The food was great and I could see the atmosphere being potentially fun. I was traveling solo and sat at the bar. The bartenders were attentive but seemed bored and gave off that vibe, stealthily checking their phones. Maybe I was just let down as two people in the NYC restaurant scene highly recommended this place and the vibe was very underwhelming.

Ordered Grapow, papaya salad, pad Thai and soft spring roll. Food was too salty, not proportionate to the price point. On a Friday evening, there was only a waitress. The people behind us didn’t even place the order and just walked out. The poor kid had to take care of all the tables, and the other was handling to go orders. Knocked off two stars for food quality and improper staffing.

Food is good but the “Thai tea” was horrendous, so bitter .. I ordered 2 to go with my food, and it was $10 just for the teas that I ended up throwing away

Yum!

A live mouse crawled across the dining room floor while I was eating my pad Thai.... This place needs pest control.

Please turn off your Menufy when you are closing early. I understand closing early for the super bowl but it has been very frustrating not being refunded after more than a day. This isn't the first time I have had order issues, great food but unreliable take out services.

Very good and very clean. First time going and now we will be regulars. Staff was amazing.

I got the pad Thai and the vegetable stir fry with tofu. Overall the food was pretty good. Not anything spectacular, but what I’d expect when getting Thai food. My main gripes were the prices and portion sizes. I got the house special pad Thai, which was around $18. Very pricey, but the portion was decent. The vegetable stir fry, however, was tiny for costing $14. Worth going to if you want good Thai food, but expect to pay a lot for what you get.

We had Basil Fried Rice, Thai noodles and spring rolls. Everything was good.

I ordered tomyum soups, it nothing like actual tommyum that I have been eat before, and all you have is water 4 shrimps and mushroom

This was not our first time eating here tonight and normally the food and service are great. The dumplings were good, wings were over cooked and the Pho was so watered down and tasteless we were so looking forward to it. Last time the broth and meat had so much flavor and tonight it was like they didn’t have it ready and had to rush to throw some soup together when they should have said they did not have any. We sat at our table ready to go and we finally went up to the counter to ask for the check. We will go back eventually in hopes the pho 🍜 is how we remembered it. Spicy, steaming and full of flavor!

The yellow seafood curry is one of the best dishes in Lawrence. The massaman curry is also incredible. Highly recommend that dish for vegetarians!

It was very good for a first time Thai food experience. Will definitely be coming back. 10/10 would recommend going to! The reviews did not lie about this place being good

It looks a bit rough on the outside but the food is great.

30 minutes after the latest pickup time the food was not ready. People who came in to sit down after the latest pickup were served first. Thumbs down on service and professionalism.

Best red curry ever!!

Tremendous taste bud experience with the food. Excellent service with a wonderfully sedate environment.
Great for also calling ahead and picking up or for delivery.

Great food. Always a friendly smile. Will continue to patronise this wonderful restaurant!

The food is great, but they really make you pay for it. An order of curry is almost $20 and the amount of curry they give you is equivalent to a small tea cup with all curry and only two very small slivers of chicken. Again the curry is tasty, but I don’t think it should be that expensive for such a small portion.

Love having Thai food in Lawrence. They do a big take out business.

Delicious.

Great Thai food in Lawrence!! Our first time here the food was excellent and so was the service! We will be back!!!

Great food!

Awesome smallish "mom & pop" restaurant great food great service

It has a very unassuming appearance from the street, but inside it is cozy and pleasant. The staff are very friendly and attentive. Tried the panang curry with tofu and really enjoyed it. Khob khun khrup!

Super delicious panang curry! The Thai Hot 🔥 was just perfect.

I distinctly remember pad Thai having peanuts in them since forever. It had none! other than that it was satisfactory.Flies were inside being a constant pest and made me lose my appetite. The server and cashiers were nice. Overall, I can not recommend this place with its flying tenets. I will never come back here.

The prices here are not worth the food. It's too high priced when I remember their items being at least five dollars cheaper during the pandemic. You should go somewhere else.

I go every Thursday

The outside does not reflect the inside. Clean and modern inside. Not to mention the food. In a word "Fantastic". The tiger beef is a must.

This was my first time trying Thai Diner. The pad Thai was good. Spicier than most... A medium heat level was firey and I shudder at the thought of a hot. No complaints tho and the service and decor were the nicest I've seen in this location (which has gone through several other kitchens here). Hopefully this one will be here to stay

My partner and I eat here multiple times a week. The waitstaff is wonderful and accommodating. The food is amazing ! I also have celiac and never even a single time have had an issue with their food being reliably gluten free

They were willing to customize the entree.

Great food, however we found a piece of hair in the food when we were there last time. We didn’t say anything because the food was amazing and the servers were nice. Today we went in and they messed up the order but blamed me for ordering “tofu” when I said pork. The server came out with a new order and she went “now you told me tofu” in a very rude tone, then walked away. Maybe instead of assuming what a customer says, she could’ve considered that she heard the order wrong. Will never be back again🥱

The food taste good, but the portion is way too small; it’s too expensive.

BYOB. Can make some vegan stuff. Not much though anymore. All the curry is no longer veg and no more soup of the day

Amazing!

Popular restaurant. Good food, adjust food to requested spice level. Many menu choices.

Very good quality food with nice atmosphere.

Had a fantastic meal with a perfect amount of heat and flavors. Highly recommended!.
One suggestion is that the exterior is shabby and unattractive. The landlord needs to get on that.

Green curry with extra vegetables was $22 after tax.

In Thailand it would cost about $3.

The taste is far inferior to Thai Siam.

Food is good and stuff, portion size could be better but I heard horror stories about my brother working there, how the owner treats her employees awful. No respect, feels the need to treat everyone like they're expendable and worthless, I'm not going to eat at a place where they don't treat their employees the respect they deserve.

Foods are seriously great, they are the best Thai food not only in town but also in the area. Great food along with great service.

We headed for dinner the other night to Thai Diner, located on 23rd St in a strip shopping area near Louisiana St. The dining area is small, but comfy. Mostly tables of 4 that can be moved to accommodate large groups. The menu is varied, includes lots of different appetizers, fried rices, stirred-fryied dishes, curries, and noodles. We ordered tofu for appetizer. It was excellent and was served with a lovely hot sauce, For main dish, I ordered Phad Thai Gang Dang, excellent dish of the Phad Thai with chicken and shrimp. My partner ordered Phad See Eew Noodles; it was freshly prepared with a good mix of broccoli, noodles, not excessive spicy, very tasty. The staff was very attentive and helpful. A definite place to visit for dinner or a meal with friends.

If you spend $17 on volcano stir fry at least fill the container all the way up instead of 1/3rd.

Certainly a unique place that is hard to find in the midwest.

Good place for asian food, but a little pricey.

They make my pineapple fried rice how I like it!

Kinda pricey but I understood everything went up.

Never had Thai food before, but it was actually pretty good.

Best Thai food I have found. Gotta drive from Topeka for it, so worth it.

Ribs & Fishy Goodness

A delightful and delicious meal.

overpriced Thai food in Lawrence. Portion was so small and food was bland. Owner was having lunch with her shoes off within guest view. Which was a turn off. One scoop of ice cream cost $7. When we paid our total went up when we split it in half which was also weird it wasnt much but still was weird thay our total was 32.24 but ended up getting a split check of 32.28.

Still love this restaurant. Food is always excellent and the staff are always amazing.

This used to be my favorite Thai place in Lawrence but they raised their prices and in my recent experience, shrunk the portions along with quality. I wasn’t impressed when I recently visited. We got a Mild/as-is drunken noodles but it was almost too spicy for us to eat, and had tons of chili flakes. We are used to some amount of spice but we specifically got mild so we could share with our kid.

They also said our order wouldn’t be ready for 30 minutes, but when we picked it up it looked like the order had been done for a long time. The dishes weren’t very warm, and the crab rangoons were soggy :(

It used to be so good, and I still think they have the best Panang curry of anywhere in Lawrence. Hopefully next time I visit I can update this review to 5 stars.

Nothing special. Food was average.

Absolutely the best Gapow I have ever had. The Pad Thai and green curry were equally amazing!!!

I love eating here. The food is delicious and I can request the heat level so The food isn't too spicy for me.

Best Thai place in Lawrence, always got good service and great food for a fair price. Definitely recommend the drunken noodles.

Best Thai in Lawrence. Love that you can BYOB if you dine in.

Best Thai Food in the US let alone KS

The food here was perfect I plan to stop by next time I'm in town and every time I'm in town. We experienced great customer service.

Celebrated wife's birthday at one of her favorite places (we come from Olathe). It is now also our daughter's and mine. Many thanks!

Is very good Thai food!

I had the Tom yum soup and the flavor was excellent. Service was very nice and kept our water glasses full.

Dont miss the ice cream!

Very impressed! The hot spice level was perfect and the ingredients tasted fresh.

Good little Thai restaurant. Will be returning when I'm in the area. Not overpriced or overspiced.

It shouldn't take 3 minutes to be
Great after you have been looked at twice.
Then take up to 15 minutes and yet still not be approached to order...
I get it, I am what you would call in Apperance African American.
This needs to stop, closed minded people & closed mindedness needs to end. I thought we where all American.
Guess here I am not.
Please don't use the fact that I was a new customer as a excuse.
She offered water as a drink as if that was my only choice.
Really didn't want to offer any other types of beverage.
Since she poured a water I left her a dollar tip
GOT UP AND WALKED OUT....

Edit: I wrote a 3 star review when I first moved to Lawrence. I think I was just very attached to my favorite Thai restaurant in my home town.

I went here again and this place was very tasty. Great panang curry! Will stop in again

Don't order noodles to go. I ordered soup with noodle and was packed in one container. Quite obviously, soup was gone and noodle was so saturated it was breaking apart upon touch. It was a bowl of mush! This should be common sense "no-no" for any Asian restaurants. Although I am a loyal customer and usually love the food and service here, I was literally shocked by their insincerity in packaging their food.

Good food and friendly service.

Wanting to try something new we ventured out of our regular comfort zone of offerings around the Lawrence area. Unfortunately the last 18 months has been excruciating for the culinary industry and we have lost so many wonderful restaurants. We popped in this evening and tried our best to keep our expectations low. The atmosphere while attractive and peaceful was horribly lit with cool temperature LED bulbs that make it nearly impossible to read the miniscule font on the simple one page paper printed menu. In fact I had to use my flashlight on my phone just so I could see it. These cool temperature low wattage LED bulbs should never ever be utilized in a dining space they are so unwelcoming cold and dark. We eat with our eyes first the lighting should be warm bright and inviting. The music definitely didn't seem to fit the atmosphere of the space. I definitely did not appreciate the strange modern dance music that seemed oddly out of place. To say I was disappointed that they didn't have my very favorite Thai dish, Khao soi on the menu would be a little bit of an understatement but I settled on Mama's crispy chicken. The dish was presented beautifully and had an excellent flavor. The only negative thing I can say about the dish was that the chicken most certainly must have been prepare ahead of time and reheated to order with the remaining fresh ingredients and sauce. More chewy than crispy and certainly dry all the way through I couldn't help but think to myself this dish would be exquisite had this been prepared to order in its entirety. My wife's dish a combination of stir fry cashew and chicken was very much the same. Well prepared lovely presentation horribly overcooked dry chicken. The starters we ordered steamed shrimp dumplings and crab rangoon were nice the dumplings were presented beautifully and had an excellent flavor. The crab rangoon however came out barely much more above room temperature and were served with an obviously refrigerated saucethat was still cold. Dipping the crab rangoon into this cold sauce was less than appealing. Typically crab rangoon is served piping hot so much so that the cream cheese inside is nearly molten lava hot. The service seemed inexperienced at best, we were never actually greeted sitting at the table she simply appeared with water, neglected to actually take a drink order and only followed up with us one time. An opportunity to upsell drinks or dessert was never taken advantage of. Overall the experience was lackluster not that any one thing with glaringly bad but nothing about the place seemed to really stand out and catch our interest. I can tolerate mediocre service and even a weird atmosphere if the food is exquisite, I will even tolerate mediocre food if the atmosphere is fantastic and the service is outstanding. Sadly this place didn't fit the bill in any of these facets. Mediocre at best and it's sad to say this because I know with a little bit more effort this place could probably be something very special. You have the tools and you have the ingredients it's execution is where you are lacking. Best of luck.

Ordered the lard na noodle, I thought I’d bitten into a root veggie as the waitress suggested it was, until I further ID’d it as being big hunks of the starch they used to thicken the broth. Waitress was very nice and asked the kitchen but they said it was supposed to be like that. Starch balls are definitely not a part of this dish, feel like they just dismissed our concern as Americans not knowing any better. They had also substituted half the broccoli for regular broccoli instead of the Chinese broccoli advertised in the dish. Flavors were good but hard to love this place when they also gave our table the wrong dish and didn’t correct that matter either. Not worth what they are charging for these dishes.

Excellent service, food was fantastic! Will eat here again for sure!

Absolutely fantastic! Friendly staff and very clean.

Amazing Thai food!!! Following the initial COVID lockdown, thai diner had a change in management and their service was rough at the time. In recent months, however, they have fully bounced back to their fast service and delectable food. Also, their bathroom is the cleanest i've ever been in and it smells absolutely AMAZING in there.

Fantastic food, good menu, very friendly staff and nice atmosphere. Only complaint is the door dash app chimes when a new order comes in can ring for an eternity before someone comes from the back to acknowledge the new order. It'd be great if they could move it behind the kitchen doors. No one wants to hear that incessant chime.

I love the food taste here!! Absoulety the best!! But recently items have become so expensive and quantity has been reduced drastically. I hope they do better in the future! This is $15 😳😏

Great tasting food! A little expensive though

Really great food!

My now-husband and I love Thai Diner so much, we decided to host our rehearsal dinner here. The accommodated nearly 30 people easily and were SO polite and professional. The tables were set beautifully and the food (including gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options all served family style) was absolutely delicious. Their purple yam ice cream is one of my very favorite desserts, and they made sure everyone got a taste! I would absolutely recommend Thai Dinner for anything from a quiet week-night dinner to a special occasion. Thank you!

Delicious, even made a special recipe not on the menu, spicy without being too hot.. friendly service.. Large portions, great leftover.

Great food and service coupled perfectly with a quaint hole in the wall vibe.

Very nice and attentive staff, awesome food.

Really good Thai food, a nice option for take out!

Literally everything we've tried was so good!

Best thai restaurant in Lawrence very friendly fresh ingredients food is awesome

Delicious Food! Tasty sausage!

Great thai food, tiger beef is delicious!
This really is the best thai food in lawrence. Not cheap, but you pay for quality food, and this is it.

Fresh delicious food

This place is AMAZING! The dumpling sauce is so good! A little on the pricy side, but so worth it! So grateful! Thank you so much!

Awesome service and food was DELICIOUS. My husband and I went in for a quick weeknight meal and left so satisfied and pleased with our experience. They really get the flavors and spice perfect. We will be ordering here again.

Love their food! Staff is quick and friendly!

Was a decent Thai place, now even better. Lots of new things on the menu, the food presentation is way better than before, and the portion is bigger, too. Photo below were taken within the last two months.

For those ordering delivery: consider dine-in or takeout instead for cheaper menu price. Delivery platforms take a cut from the sales.

Cute Thai restaurant. My husband loved the curry he ordered. I got the Pad Thai and it was just average.

$12.50 for egg drop soup?
“But it’s 16oz.”
Bad service, worse management.
Thai Siam is excellent.

Basa pad thai, is absolutely delicious. Friendly service as well.

Love this place!

Best Thai food so far!!!

Too overpriced. A small bowl of soup costs 15 dollars.

i love their food but they keep raiding prices like crazy and have not increased food portions….very upsetting

The best Thai food in Lawrence. Consistently great food and excellent, friendly service. No alcohol service so bring your own. No corkage fee.

Darn good chicken Pad Thai. Medium spice level really hit the spot.

Excellent food, extremely clean bathrooms!

I really enjoyed my green curry (they are really good at listening to preferred heat levels and if you want HOT they'll happily oblige! 🤩).

I was there with a large group of people (11 of us) and the wait staff managed everyone beautifully, always there with water refills and timely service.

We enjoyed many of the appetizers, including the calamari, pork bites, chicken skewers and spring rolls (which were my favorite -- Crunchy, fresh and rolled up tight -- with a very tasty peanut sauce that must've been homemade).

The entire party couldn't stop commenting how good the food was. We'll be coming back every time we're in town!

Great atmosphere, very friendly and helpful staff. And entree was delicious 😋

Very good food.

Best restaurant in Lawrence

Great food, great service!

Favorite place in Lawrence to eat 🤤

Best thai in Kansas. You have to try the Thia iced tea with cream!

Really, really, really good. Highly recommended!

Yuck...

Good service and good food

Outstanding Thai dishes, all 4 of us got different dishes and each was excellent. Service was great as well.

I have tried both the red curry and the pad thai here so far and both have been so delicious! The online ordering system makes it quick and easy to get my order in for pickup. In case someone from the restaurant is reviewing these... can you tell me where you get the sweet sausage from? I was hoping it was someplace local because I'd love to buy some!

This is the GF place. prices are good and food is good. not many specials so read ahead if you want to impress the GF and yeah you do.