I’m sorry to say I had an unpleasant experience with this food truck. Our order took over 40 minutes. To top it off, The PadThai was cold and “fishy”. It was thrown away. Needless to say, it will not be a truck of choice for the next visit.
Roger M.
Bummer. What a huge, huge bummer. This was--by far--the best Thai in CT. We're gonna miss East West Grille so much. I'll keep typing so that this will be long enough to be a review, but all I can say is bummer. Gigantic bummer.
Kevin Ryan
Our favorite resturant in West Hartford. Thought it was closed foe vacation like last summer. Was happy to see parking lot and front patio under repair. Shocked to see a new resturant coming soon sign in front of the diner building. There is some indication that a food truck venue for east west grill will continue. How do we connect - food truck, other resturant? Please advise.Missing great meals and staff!!
Amber G.
It's so sad that this place is closed. This is where my husband and I met for the very firs time....we brought our baby daughter there last year not knowing it was closing down. I hope it will reopen so we could bring her back there again.
Katie Z.
I am heartbroken to learn that East West Grille closed!! there was nothing else like it..ever.. the food.. the people.. the place..the plants.. it felt like home.. so much character and so so special.. have never seen anything like it.. anywhere!.. I hope it will reopen again!! SO so sad. Why?
Amy G.
This business is reported CLOSED on its website! Hence the one star, I'm bitterly disappointed.
Judith R.
Just got word that this wonderful restaurant is closing as of 1/1/19. So very sad, thank you for 19 years of wonderful meals, atmosphere, and smiles. Manola, you got our names the first time we ate at your place, and we were greeted by name every time since. Success and all good things to you and your team in the future.
Dan R.
The East West Grille may have been one of the very first bookmarks I ever bookmarked when I joined Yelp in 2011. So I'm not exactly sure why it took me seven years to finally get there, but hey......maybe we can just agree to call it a Christmas Miracle. They take Asian Fusion to the tenth power here by offering food dishes from Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. In the mood for breakfast? They offer Asian and traditional American breakfasts too. It's a very cool looking eye-catching building -a repurposed old diner with a white picket fence, red railing on the stairs, a red and white checkerboard exterior, and a fire engine red roof. Signs on the building and in the parking lot entice you with a phrase you don't see every day - "Lao - Thai Restaurant". The interior is just as interesting, as the red and white theme carries over to bright red counter seating (not stools but real seats with backs!), red chairs at the tables and red bench seats at the booths, red stripes on the white walls, and red curtains. They even have a red and white clock on the wall. One real nice feature we saw were fabric drapes acting as a "wall" between the row of booths, giving you some degree of privacy. That was nice. Now...on to the menu and what a menu it is. You could eat here every day for a year and never duplicate a meal. Check out these choices for your pre-meal appetizer, salads and soups. Twelve Thai appetizers (when did you last see Skewered Tofu Satay?), nine Laotian appetizers (when did you last see Smoked Salmon Rangoons or Lao Wok Roasted Mussels?), four Thai salads (ever see Thai Som-Tu with papaya and anchovies?), six Laotian salads (Kowpoon anyone?), and nine soups including Po-Tak (Thai hot and sour) and Gao Lao (Laotian Beef Soup). See what I mean, Bubba? Was I lyin' or what? The menu continues to impress when you dig deeper -six fried rice styles multiplied by seven protein choices. Isn't that like 250 possibilities for fried rice alone? Nine noodle styles multiplied by seven protein choices- you do the math on that one. The beat goes on with ten Thai Stir Fries, seven Laotion entrees (next time I want to try Laotian salsa!), five Thai curries, eleven seafood entrees including the provocatively named Hot Hot Fisherman, plus a children's menu and an international smorgasbord of breakfast foods from both sides of the Pacific. And they have lunch specials too -which is what we zeroed in on yesterday. They offer a "Lunch Tray" for $9.95. You get a salad, a big cup of Chicken soup with clear noodles, and a choice of one entrée. The salad was very good with lettuce, tomato, shredded carrots, basil, peanuts, and bean sprouts. Everything was cold and crisp and super fresh. The soup had sliced zucchini and onions, plus plenty of chicken and noodles in a light broth. I really enjoyed it. I went with the Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodle) with pork for the entrée and I loved it. It was a just right portion of spicy flat rice noodles stir-fried with onion, green beans, bell pepper and basil leaves. The spice level was perfect for me. My wife stayed on the lunch menu and ordered a Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe) with chicken for $8.95 How gorgeous is this? And it tasted great too. Service was "leisurely", but the food and entire East West Experience kind of made up for that. Our lunch ran just under $18 before tip and that was an excellent value. One note of advice- don't mistake the plastic squirt bottle on your table for Hoisin Sauce (like I did). It happens to be maple syrup. Anyway, a squirt of it into my soup didn't really hurt it much.
kelly m.
I love East West and the food is always top notch. The Lao food is excellent, the Thai food is superb. I have had most of the appetizers and recommend the calamari, the spring rolls, the satay, and the egg rolls. The larb is good and along with the papaya salad is you like spicy, I also recommend getting that with sticky rice and having that as a meal. But my issue is the service. I do not like how they have one waiter for the entire restaurant and then have runners who just stand around waiting to get told to clear a plate or bring food out. The last time I was there, when it wasn't event busy, the two of us were there for nearly two hours. An appetizer and two meals should not take that long. The way they have this service set up does not make sense and it slows down the restaurant immensely. As much as I love the food, I cannot deal with the dinner service. I'll resort to take out in the future.
Natalie W.
Still one of my favorite breakfast places. I actually came to this page because I wasn't sure I'd reviewed it - I have... twice. Do yourself a favor and go get a Nuevo Burrito. The house made Lao sausage and tomato rice will make your day.
My last two meals at East West have been off from their previous quality. Seems there has been a change of hands, possibly in the kitchen or management. Either way it is very disheartening to experience after so many years of fine service & top notch Asian cuisine. Our most recent meal was ordered via the GrubHub online connection. This was a terrible experience. We ordered 3 PadThai at 6:45 pm, estimated delivery 7:34 pm. GrubHub showed up at 8:10 pm with the 3 orders of Pad Thai, but each were cold and extremely dry.
Rae Tattenbaum
Always fresh food
Yanique T.
Was crazy craving pad Thai today , and after doing some yelp searches this spot came up as high potential. Let's just say it stopped at potential , the shrimp pad Thai was lacking flavor. Tasted like water and noodles to be honest. So much potential , but I probably won't come back.
Hibeh D.
This is a little diner with a large selection of Asian fusion dishes-mainly Laotian and Thai. Lots of Knick knacks and the decor is gaudy in a charming way. Potted garden plants all over the back. We share an order of Tempura-a little in the bland side; perhaps the batter could have used a little more seasoning. I ordered the vegetable Yum Yum Tom Yum with wide rice noodles. It had very little broth, a reasonable amount of noodles and plenty of vegetables.it was very flavorful. My husband had the fried rice with pork. Overall we found the food as well as the service good. We were going to a movie after and they had no problem getting our food out to us promptly. Good spot-I would definitely go back and try other things on the menu.
Vani P.
Hands down my favorite Thai place in the area ! They have tons of options for vegans/vegetarians to choose from their menu. The place is decked up so cutely with handicrafts and traditional Lao Thai decor. A+ for the friendly staff who are always happy to help you with your questions. Recommend dish - Kowpoon (Lao style curry salad)
I’m sorry to say I had an unpleasant experience with this food truck. Our order took over 40 minutes. To top it off, The PadThai was cold and “fishy”. It was thrown away. Needless to say, it will not be a truck of choice for the next visit.
Bummer. What a huge, huge bummer. This was--by far--the best Thai in CT. We're gonna miss East West Grille so much. I'll keep typing so that this will be long enough to be a review, but all I can say is bummer. Gigantic bummer.
Our favorite resturant in West Hartford. Thought it was closed foe vacation like last summer. Was happy to see parking lot and front patio under repair. Shocked to see a new resturant coming soon sign in front of the diner building. There is some indication that a food truck venue for east west grill will continue. How do we connect - food truck, other resturant? Please advise.Missing great meals and staff!!
It's so sad that this place is closed. This is where my husband and I met for the very firs time....we brought our baby daughter there last year not knowing it was closing down. I hope it will reopen so we could bring her back there again.
I am heartbroken to learn that East West Grille closed!! there was nothing else like it..ever.. the food.. the people.. the place..the plants.. it felt like home.. so much character and so so special.. have never seen anything like it.. anywhere!.. I hope it will reopen again!! SO so sad. Why?
This business is reported CLOSED on its website! Hence the one star, I'm bitterly disappointed.
Just got word that this wonderful restaurant is closing as of 1/1/19. So very sad, thank you for 19 years of wonderful meals, atmosphere, and smiles. Manola, you got our names the first time we ate at your place, and we were greeted by name every time since. Success and all good things to you and your team in the future.
The East West Grille may have been one of the very first bookmarks I ever bookmarked when I joined Yelp in 2011. So I'm not exactly sure why it took me seven years to finally get there, but hey......maybe we can just agree to call it a Christmas Miracle. They take Asian Fusion to the tenth power here by offering food dishes from Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China. In the mood for breakfast? They offer Asian and traditional American breakfasts too. It's a very cool looking eye-catching building -a repurposed old diner with a white picket fence, red railing on the stairs, a red and white checkerboard exterior, and a fire engine red roof. Signs on the building and in the parking lot entice you with a phrase you don't see every day - "Lao - Thai Restaurant". The interior is just as interesting, as the red and white theme carries over to bright red counter seating (not stools but real seats with backs!), red chairs at the tables and red bench seats at the booths, red stripes on the white walls, and red curtains. They even have a red and white clock on the wall. One real nice feature we saw were fabric drapes acting as a "wall" between the row of booths, giving you some degree of privacy. That was nice. Now...on to the menu and what a menu it is. You could eat here every day for a year and never duplicate a meal. Check out these choices for your pre-meal appetizer, salads and soups. Twelve Thai appetizers (when did you last see Skewered Tofu Satay?), nine Laotian appetizers (when did you last see Smoked Salmon Rangoons or Lao Wok Roasted Mussels?), four Thai salads (ever see Thai Som-Tu with papaya and anchovies?), six Laotian salads (Kowpoon anyone?), and nine soups including Po-Tak (Thai hot and sour) and Gao Lao (Laotian Beef Soup). See what I mean, Bubba? Was I lyin' or what? The menu continues to impress when you dig deeper -six fried rice styles multiplied by seven protein choices. Isn't that like 250 possibilities for fried rice alone? Nine noodle styles multiplied by seven protein choices- you do the math on that one. The beat goes on with ten Thai Stir Fries, seven Laotion entrees (next time I want to try Laotian salsa!), five Thai curries, eleven seafood entrees including the provocatively named Hot Hot Fisherman, plus a children's menu and an international smorgasbord of breakfast foods from both sides of the Pacific. And they have lunch specials too -which is what we zeroed in on yesterday. They offer a "Lunch Tray" for $9.95. You get a salad, a big cup of Chicken soup with clear noodles, and a choice of one entrée. The salad was very good with lettuce, tomato, shredded carrots, basil, peanuts, and bean sprouts. Everything was cold and crisp and super fresh. The soup had sliced zucchini and onions, plus plenty of chicken and noodles in a light broth. I really enjoyed it. I went with the Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodle) with pork for the entrée and I loved it. It was a just right portion of spicy flat rice noodles stir-fried with onion, green beans, bell pepper and basil leaves. The spice level was perfect for me. My wife stayed on the lunch menu and ordered a Banh Xeo (Vietnamese crepe) with chicken for $8.95 How gorgeous is this? And it tasted great too. Service was "leisurely", but the food and entire East West Experience kind of made up for that. Our lunch ran just under $18 before tip and that was an excellent value. One note of advice- don't mistake the plastic squirt bottle on your table for Hoisin Sauce (like I did). It happens to be maple syrup. Anyway, a squirt of it into my soup didn't really hurt it much.
I love East West and the food is always top notch. The Lao food is excellent, the Thai food is superb. I have had most of the appetizers and recommend the calamari, the spring rolls, the satay, and the egg rolls. The larb is good and along with the papaya salad is you like spicy, I also recommend getting that with sticky rice and having that as a meal. But my issue is the service. I do not like how they have one waiter for the entire restaurant and then have runners who just stand around waiting to get told to clear a plate or bring food out. The last time I was there, when it wasn't event busy, the two of us were there for nearly two hours. An appetizer and two meals should not take that long. The way they have this service set up does not make sense and it slows down the restaurant immensely. As much as I love the food, I cannot deal with the dinner service. I'll resort to take out in the future.
Still one of my favorite breakfast places. I actually came to this page because I wasn't sure I'd reviewed it - I have... twice. Do yourself a favor and go get a Nuevo Burrito. The house made Lao sausage and tomato rice will make your day.
Restaurantji Recommends
My last two meals at East West have been off from their previous quality. Seems there has been a change of hands, possibly in the kitchen or management. Either way it is very disheartening to experience after so many years of fine service & top notch Asian cuisine. Our most recent meal was ordered via the GrubHub online connection. This was a terrible experience. We ordered 3 PadThai at 6:45 pm, estimated delivery 7:34 pm. GrubHub showed up at 8:10 pm with the 3 orders of Pad Thai, but each were cold and extremely dry.
Always fresh food
Was crazy craving pad Thai today , and after doing some yelp searches this spot came up as high potential. Let's just say it stopped at potential , the shrimp pad Thai was lacking flavor. Tasted like water and noodles to be honest. So much potential , but I probably won't come back.
This is a little diner with a large selection of Asian fusion dishes-mainly Laotian and Thai. Lots of Knick knacks and the decor is gaudy in a charming way. Potted garden plants all over the back. We share an order of Tempura-a little in the bland side; perhaps the batter could have used a little more seasoning. I ordered the vegetable Yum Yum Tom Yum with wide rice noodles. It had very little broth, a reasonable amount of noodles and plenty of vegetables.it was very flavorful. My husband had the fried rice with pork. Overall we found the food as well as the service good. We were going to a movie after and they had no problem getting our food out to us promptly. Good spot-I would definitely go back and try other things on the menu.
Hands down my favorite Thai place in the area ! They have tons of options for vegans/vegetarians to choose from their menu. The place is decked up so cutely with handicrafts and traditional Lao Thai decor. A+ for the friendly staff who are always happy to help you with your questions. Recommend dish - Kowpoon (Lao style curry salad)