Jasmine Thai
1330 Niagara Falls Blvd, Tonawanda, NY 14150
Web: Jasmine Thai
Phone: 716.838.3011
Rating:    [learn more]
Pros:

Some of WNY's very best Thai food, with strong flavors and nice portions that we'd rate very highly from appetizers on through desserts; hard to go wrong on food, most of the time.

Cons:

Dishes sometimes come out different than expected, without explanation. Occasional unforgettable hiccups in service and billing practices have left bad tastes in our mouths; be careful.

See More Restaurant Reviews For:
Amherst Thai

"A combination of poor table service and a shifty attempt to stick a table of 5 people and a silent, four-month old baby with an 18% gratuity led us to angrily slash our tip in protest."

Once, in recent memory, Thai restaurants were rare. Then, during the early 1990's, Thai cooking developed ravenous fans as restaurants sprung up in every major city across the United States. Jasmine Thai was Buffalo's first, offering an admirably broad menu that was complete with most of the fiery, sweet, crunchy, or soft dishes that so markedly differentiate Thai cuisine from its Chinese, Korean, and other Southeast Asian peers. Despite challenges from numerous competitors over the years, its food remains truly great today, though a checkered history of table service occasionally detracts from what would otherwise be consistently outstanding meals. Takeout meals are predictably good, and pricing is extremely reasonable given Jasmine's portion sizes and quality.

The Story: Best known for three things - rich yet gently sweet noodle and meat dishes, a liberal use of powerful sauces or spices, and menu options that vary from piping hot to only room temperature - Thai cooking was arguably the first Southeast Asian cuisine to offer Buffalonians a complete alternative to the area's perennially popular Chinese restaurants. At one point, there were two Jasmine Thai restaurants: the original on Niagara Falls Boulevard and a highly similar sequel called Jasmine 2 near the Walden Galleria. Today, Jasmine 2 is gone, but the Amherst location retains the same generally high culinary standards that have kept it relevant for years. As one of very few local Thai restaurants to still serve Mee Krob, a superb sweet crunchy orange noodle appetizer that other restaurants have dropped due to the difficulty of its preparation, Jasmine Thai also prepares a huge variety of authentic dishes extremely well. In the past, we would have given the local Thai crown to The King and I, but Jasmine is today a strong rival.

Highs: We have yet to find a truly bad item on the Jasmine menu. From the nearly ever-present Soft Shell Crab, which generally manages to keep tasting good even when not in season, to the menu's several high-quality Thai curries, meals almost always arrive tasting exactly as they should, which is to say delicious. Our photos show Fish with Green Curry, a surprisingly huge portion of steamed fish and vegetables drenched in a delicious gray coconut milk-based sauce, and the orange Chicken with Matsumun Curry, also heavy on the coconut milk but generally more mild and sweet. The soft traditional noodle dish Pad Thai is always good, but not as memorably strong or colorful as we've had it elsewhere, while the duck dishes are surprisingly generous in quantity, if not as near-ideally sauced as at Hertel Avenue's Taste of Thai.

Another favorite, the Yum Nua, is a spicy beef salad that Jasmine renders near-perfectly - heavy on the beef, mixed with lime juice, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions - while its competent Summer Rolls offer fresh shrimp or vegetables mixed with rice noodles, wrapped in soft rice paper and served with a somewhat light dipping sauce. Thai Iced Tea, an old standard, is always a good accompaniment to a Jasmine meal, and the restaurant's combination of Banana Coins - honey-drizzled, rice-paper wrapped fried banana slivers - and coconut ice cream is one of the very best desserts in all of Western New York right now, assuming you can appreciate something without chocolate.

Lows: Though Jasmine's kitchen does a legitimately great and consistent job of turning out savory food, we've had odd experiences - recently, even - with dishes coming out completely differently than normal, most likely due to new chefs whose inexperience is unfortunately being passed on to customers. Additionally, though we don't often complain about service in restaurants, Jasmine has experienced some notable hiccups over the years, and they haven't completely gone away. Years ago, the restaurant lost our family's business to local competitors after a problem with its credit card service, and last month, a combination of poor table service and a shifty attempt to stick a table of 5 people and a silent, four-month old baby with a mandatory 18% gratuity led us to angrily slash our tip in protest. For whatever reason, Jasmine Thai's competitors have done a much better job over the years on the human side of the dining experience.