The Orchid Thai Fusion Cuisine

We came here on a Friday evening, with a Spotted Fox voucher in hand! I've been to this restaurant for lunch with friends before, so this was my 2nd time here.

My husband ordered:
- Crispy calamari for appetizer: this dish was OK, calamari pieces were rather small and the breading around it was a bit dry. 3 stars.
- Pad Thai with shrimp (he asked for spicy): this dish was also OK, only contained 2 shrimps, a little on the greasy side. 3 stars.

I ordered Pad Kee Mao Noodles w/ chicken (Hot and spicy rice noodle with egg, chili, onion, bell pepper, and sweet basil leaves). I enjoyed my dish and would give it 4 stars, although I must say that the entrees here are on a pricier side for dinner time. Portion size was decent.

My husband's coworker also ordered: Pad Kee Mao but asked for broccoli in the dish instead. The restaurant gladly arranged for that (nice of them!)

This new location is just too "blah" for me. Our server was just not very friendly (almost sort of icy), and the decouration around the restaurant makes you feel like you're back in the 90s. Also, definitely don't bring any young children- we brought our 10-month-old son, and while he has been commended for being very well-behaved at other restaurants, he got "the evil eye" from other customers here because the whole restaurant was so quiet you could hear a pin drop!

Yes, the menu has shrunk (no sushi or wine menu), but that isn't really what bothers me. The spicy eggplant and tofu stir-fry is seriously SUPER greasy. My husband's dish (I believe mango chicken?) was tepid and just "fine," as he said.

I don't really know exactly what rubbed me the wrong way, but I don't think I'll be driving out to California Ave for The Orchid again. I prefer Blue Elephant.

I've been looking for a good place to get my thai food fix in bakersfield, so i thought id give this place a try!

I found it strange that they sold sushi..and thai food. i dunno...i just get wary when a restaurant tries to be good at very distinct cuisines...or has too much on their menu.

the interior is very spacious and clean, and the darkened room with purple walls was pretty and interesting. Right when you walk in, they have a display of various cakes..right next to their sushi bar. (again...wary...)

My favorite Thai dish is pad see ew, and i couldnt find it on the menu at first. I looked at the descriptions and found it under "soy sauce noodle" or something. I confirmed with the server that thats what i was looking for. They bring out a plate of small veggie egg rolls with sweet sauce and individual salads, which i thought was a nice touch.

My dish was pretty good: a little sweeter than what im used to, but it had a good mixture of carrots, broccoli, and chicken in there. The only strange thing is that the noodles were all.. disintegrated. really. The flat noodles that are usually so chewy and yummy were all in little pieces and a little mushy. I overlooked it in my desperation to convince myself i had found a good Thai food place...but..really...do you really want to eat disintegrated noodles??

My friend's spicy noodle was pretty yummy (although as disintegrated as mine was) with a more herb-y kick.

Pro: they had a good range of hot sauces. that deserves a star in my book. Another pro: the server was really really nice.

The flavors were pretty good, texture, not so good. But until I find a good Thai place to satisfy me, i'll probably be coming here.

I ate there one time and my orange chicken was cold.,the
Owners son came to the table swirling a glass of wine and asked me why I had ate so much then( which I didn't). I will never eat there again. The other owner tries to clean it up by giving me desserts. I do not recommend this place.

Oh my word...what happened? This place really needs to get their act together. This was once a fabulous place in Bakersfield to grab a bite and some wine, but now the food is barely edible. The mac and cheese recipe was completely changed. Not only was it obvious to me, but other patrons were complaining as well. The hostess mentioned that they were doing some menu changes. WHY? It was perfect the way it was! Not only was my meal cold, but the cheese tasted like white american cheese with half frozen chunks of fishy smelling lobster. I could not even finish it...and I eat everything! When we were finished we mentioned to the hostess that things were not nearly as good as before and she offered a gift certificate to compensate our meal. The only problem was the owners were not available to sign off on the g/c, so we gave her our phone number instead. We waited 10 days before we called and inquired; they said they would call us back. It's been 8 months, and we're still waiting...

If you have to (for some odd reason) eat here, stick with the Papaya salad.

Their dinner menu has shrunk considerably from their previous location on Brimhall. I went for dinner over the weekend and while my food was tasty (honey jalapeno chicken), the meals the rest of my family ordered were just so-so. My chicken was grilled and had a sweet sauce and was served with noodles and slices of jalapeno. Despite the name, it wasn't very spicy.

Their lunch menu seems to be about the same as before and offers good value. I prefer the Singha Thai restaurant which is walking distance from this place. I do give this place kudos for trying something different with the fusion aspect of their menu, but if you were expecting the same dinner menu as their previous location, prepare to be disappointed.

Pretty foul.

We walked in right when it opened and it was dead. Even the staff was dead --- pretty unfriendly. I said "hi" first to some guy behind the counter and he didn't say one word to me, he just looked at me like I was crazy.

Another guy came out of no where and lead us to our table. He handed us
three menus:
1. a hard cover bound menu
2. a flimsy coil bound paper menu
3. and another flimsy coil bound laminated menu

Hmm... this is really confusing!

It turned out the hard cover menu featured their fancy thai fusion menu (they had mac and cheese on that menu -- say what? Mac and Cheese at a Thai restaurant?), the second was the sushi menu (say what? Sushi at a Thai restaurant?) and the third was the lunch special menu. So confusing!

Food was -- eh!
We got a complimentary salad --- basically the salad in the bag that you find at the grocery store.
I ordered the drunken noodles, but they called them spicy noodles. It was alright, pretty oily though. The larb was way too salty, I had to mix it with rice so it would be half way edible.

Please don't waste your time or money!

My sister really likes this place and she really really wanted me to try it. So here we are. The place is a nice joint, and it seemed like a chinese restaurant in that everyone was loud in it.

The best thing I had that night was the Almond Cream Cake. But since I love Chinese Almond Tofu, it hit me just right. I thought most of everything else we ordered was okay. The Orchid Crab Cakes weren't very memorable. The Chicken Satay skewers, though juicy, weren't especially tasty. The Pad Thai was good, but a little sweet for my tastes. The flavor was good on the Trio Flavor Eggplant, but pieces tended to be on the chewy side.

My biggest regret was getting the Crispy Sea Bass. I thought I was ordering something similar to the chinese baked sea bass that is so tasty and tender. Instead, we got something that was battered and deep fried. It was juicy and cooked well, but I just didn't care for the flavor.

I continue to vacillate between 3 & 3.5 stars, but ultimately decided that since everything was just okay and the bill was kinda high, I'd settle for 3 stars.

Oh, and Thai iced tea comes in a 1/2 carafe.

I don't drink any alcohol, which means that this place really isn't my cup of tea (which I don't drink either.)

I think that their portions are small relative to the prices they charge. I don't feel that their food is good enough to be upscale. I don't think their ambience is nice enough to justify the higher costs, either. The waitstaff has been inattentive in my experiences at The Orchid as well.

All those things being said, I don't think the food was bad. I didn't think it was memorable, either. Which is why I have only been two or three times now.

If you're looking for Asian cuisine, there are other places that do it better and will charge you much less for the experience. If you're looking for wine at those other places, though, I suspect you'll not find it at most of those.

Their bar does look nice and inviting. Maybe I should order a drink next time I go here because a friend wants to try it out.

Fusion? Yeah right!

Went here for a late lunch today, and pulling up this place looks fairly glamorous, but don't be fooled, very dark and gloomy on the inside, and I don't think the air conditioning was even on.

The food was very mediocre. Had spring rolls and calamari for appetizer, both had good presentation, but tasted like they were soaked in oil not fried. Main dish was a tad better with a Thai peanut pasta, the dish had flavor but the source was way too thick and made the dish heavy.

I think this place needs to some work in the kitchen and actually have fusion dishes on the menu. Otherwise, just a MEDIOCRE Thai restaurant with decent presentation.

On a plus! The service was good, and the food was served quick!