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collin

Best Thai in town This place has always been a favorite for me.

1 year, 9 months ago

wangyan

Nice place! I like the green curry!

1 year, 3 months ago

progressivemetal

Agree with above poster -- their green curry is great. Be careful ordering the Vietnamese-style noodles -- it is not pho.

1 year, 2 months ago

celine_24

7.5 out of 10 overall. With 7.5 out of 10 for venue and 7.5 out of 10 for food. Not a bad place and will probably come back.

1 year, 1 month ago

progressivemetal

Cool, I can give reviews now! I'd give this place a 4.

 

1 year ago

pixienic

What a lovely little place! The food looks and tastes like it has just been hand made for you, elegant decor.

Really nice shrimp cakes!

 

10 months ago

manuela

Love it. Cozy ambiance usually means you scrimp on style and flavor; not so here. The food is fresh and legit AND inventive. Maybe the best Thai I've ever eaten--said even after visiting Thailand.

8 months, 3 weeks ago

erimleb

Best thai in town.I am living very close to the restaurant.For that reason i am having dinner there once a week.Food quality is same every time(good),staff is really nice ,smiley face and good service.I really recommend to everybody that restaurant.Favorite dishes are Red Curry chicken with Coconut shots,Orange Chicken,Pad Thai they are really delicious.Price is really reasonable.

 

7 months, 3 weeks ago

gerrytubby

I've eaten here many times in the past 2 years in Beijing, and whilst the food is consistently good, my questions is where do they get their staff from??

How hard is it for staff in Beijng to carry a notebook and pen to write down a customer's additional order(s)?

This happens all over Beijing - not just Purple Haze, I hasten to add - but 9 times out of 10, the staff here forget something!

A campaign for better service, anyone???

7 months, 3 weeks ago

gerrytubby

Apart from my gripe above, the food still gets 4*'s.

 

7 months, 3 weeks ago

bj_expat37

great ambience and excellent thai food! The only problem is that once you venture out of the thai food zone and order the fusion or vietnamese dishes on their menu...well, the result is not so good. Don't ever get the pho, it's horrible. The papaya salad is also too spicy, it's suppose to be a little spicy but not burn-your-mouth-off spicy.

 

6 months, 3 weeks ago

siennapc

I love the beef satay and Thai orange chicken, but the service here is really awful. The waiters don't know the menu items in English, and even if you order in Chinese it's painful. They usually forget items or some things come really late. The food is quite good, but it's really a pity the staff is so badly trained.

6 months, 1 week ago

stonebanks

I second that Sienna. I once waited 45 minutes for my bill here. The service is despicable, which is frustrating because the food IS quite good.

 

6 months, 1 week ago

siennapc

four stars for food, but one for service.

 

6 months, 1 week ago

beijingvisitor

Consistently delicious Thai food but inconsistent service ranging from poor to good, depending whether you are seen talking with the manager of not.

 

5 months, 3 weeks ago

elsiecakes

Food here is delicious, ambiance is great, price is reasonable, and I haven't noticed unusually bad service - it's pretty much in line with the general range of "expat" restaurants you find in Beijing. My only gripe is that there aren't enough tofu dishes on the menu. I couldn't believe that they didn't have one single tofu curry, or tofu noodle dish!

 

5 months, 1 week ago

jiggerjuice

Purple Haze, for the past two years that I have been living in Beijing, has always had fairly delicious Thai food. The pomelo salad is an interesting dish that saves itself from its excellent profit margin by being covered in a sauce that just can't be duplicated. The duck salad is Purple Haze's best dish: a concoction of spicy duck, lettuce-wrapped to temper the explosion of flavor that will be sure to rock your face. After trying just about everything on the menu in the past two years, Purple Haze's general cooking philosophy becomes very visible - inexpensive ingredients sauced and spiced up to the max. The fundamental ingredients which the food is based on costs next to nothing, but it is unlikely that you can outsauce or outspice Purple Haze in your kitchen at home without Thai cooking lessons.

The venue itself is attractive. The good use of mirrored walls makes the interior feel twice as large as it really is. Tucked away across the street from the Gongti North Gate, it makes a great dinner stop on your way to the area's other close-by bars and clubs. My only gripe with Purple Haze is its "library" of books at the entrance. If you actually look at the books for more than ten seconds, you will realize that the entire library was just an embarrassing afterthought, with very little to actually read. Then again, who goes to Purple Haze to read Purple Haze books?

Finally, a warning to any Westerners thinking about dining here. The staff's general English level is what I define as incompetent. Branching out from there, other service mentionables would include the fact that I have rarely been served my white rice within ten minutes of the curry coming out. This is what I call the traditional Chinese spin on what should be a logical order to serving dishes - rice and curry at the same time. Also, ordering on the telephone is a nightmare. Out of the past 5 times I ordered from them (in the past two months), I have, at best, gotten 80% of my order correct, or at all. Forgotten items will almost always happen, even after the person you talk to on the phone repeats your order back to you item for item multiple times. Especially frustrating is the fact that the sauces that are essential parts to certain orders often fail to make an appearance. Ordering by phone for dinner is certainly not recommended.

 

5 months ago