OBAO
“The service is fast and the selection is priced right, especially down here in FiDi where even the simplest dishes tend to be overpriced.”
“It's a little pricey but if you are complaining about prices in the financial district then look for a cheap food truck or maybe bring your lunch.”
“Then for my entree I hit the chicken pad Kee Maow which is flat noodles, egg, tomato, onion, bell peppers and fresh basil in chilli basil sauce.”
OBAO
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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OBAO is underwhelming as a lunch option, especially for a corner store. It has nice variety and decent-priced Lunch Boxes, but the food just isn't that great. I got a Box with 2 entrees, the Green Curry and Beef. It's usually hard to mess up curry, but somehow it was so bland that both the Curry and Beef tasted the same. The beef was overcooked as well. Relatively cheaper and faster than other stores but not really worth it. Maybe give the noodles a shot?
Good quick take-out/delivery place for Vietnam food. I usually get chicken and shrimp dumplings + pho through seamless. Items are solid and delicious compared to similar options in FiDi. All that being said, its my least favorite OBAO location due the lower quality and less variety of items on the menu. The midtown OBAOs offer way more variety of food (dishes, apps, and drinks) on their menu as well as better dining ambiance.
Would love to see OBAO team putting in more investment in this location!
I have came here couple times for lunch for couple reasons:
1) the lunch special – the amount of food they gave is pretty generous.. no small portion of lunch
2) fast service
3) pretty reasonable price – $9++ for 2 entress and $11.50 for 3 entrees which was not as bad..If I am feeling lazy for the night I will order 3 entrees and just saute some vege to go with it.
4) food is just ok.. I haven't tried other items besides lunch special.. They have a special everyday.. It's like Thai take out place instead of Chinese..
but hey.. can't complain much!!
Friendly service both over the phone and in person. Beef in green curry was tender and flavorful. "Veggie delight" was less pathetic than it sounds, and certainly not bad for the only vegetables I had to eat in a day.
If you've been to its Midtown West location, you will know that THAT OBAO is know for its romantic decor, trendy menu options, and attractive waiting staff. This OBAO is literally the opposite, no frills, but equally as yummy beef pho noodle soup and the most authentic Vietnamese/SE Asian cuisine I've found in this area. The serving is super hearty and flavorful without being too heavy for lunch.
It gets super crowded during lunch. My advice? Order on Yelp so you can jump straight to the pickup line.
I RARELY EVER give a place a 1-Star Review, as I've done enough Yelp research to avoid those places. And Obao's website looked sharp, menu looked good and it had 3-stars on Yelp, so seemed good enough.
But, even good research doesn't take the place of going and actually trying a place.
I mean, maybe I just hit it at an off-time or off-day or off-dish or off-chef, but I thought it was downright TERRIBLE.
I guess I should've known as it's billed as a "Thai, Vietnamese, Asian Fusion" place, and as you know, 'Jack of all Trades, Master of None', so if you do too many things, you can't be an expert in one. Should just stick with a Thai place, or a Vietnamese place, but not a Joint one.
Ordered the Beef Pad See Ew, literally took 3 or 4 bites, realized how bad it was, packaged it up, threw it away and walked out the door. It wasn't like if I complained they would've made me a better one over again. It's just their style of cooking, and to me, it sucked, big time.
The dark soy sauce was too sweet (when it should be more salty), thick and gelatinous, and had a horrible 'burnt' taste. And the beef was mushy, almost like it had been soaked in soy sauce all night.
Now, I've had my fair share of mediocre Thai in the city and other parts of the country, but this was beyond worse than mediocre. Even the Thai place in my tiny hometown in West Texas is better, lol.
I paid over $13 for my dish and was very hungry as I missed breakfast and it was 2pm, but it was so bad, that I couldn't eat it and threw it away…and then went to McDonald's next door. That's how bad it was.
I really, really dislike giving places 1- or 2-Stars cause I know there's an owner with a family and workers there who need jobs, but when it's bad, it's bad, and I can't help but give it a low rating to save other Yelpers the time & money of coming here.
And, hopefully the owner or manager reads these negative reviews (it's not just mine) so they can change it before they go out of business.
Just my opinion obviously, as there are people who like this place. But if it were me, I'd pass.
Busy day at work today so I had to order delivery…
IDK if I was overwhelmed with work or extremely hungry but my meal today from OBAO was delicious! I had the Vegetable dumplings and the shrimp basil fried rice. The delivery was exceptionally fast to the point that when I received the call I thought it was because there was an issue with my order, not because the guy was downstairs waiting for me to get my meal.
This served me well and I am VERY satisfied!
P.S. There's not many thai food restaurants in the FIDI area but it's good to know that I can depend on this place if I'm in ever in the mood for thai again 🙂
One friend really wanted curry. They said it was pretty spicy but also very tasty. They kept raving about it even after we left.
I went with the BBQ steak with rice noodles. It was yummy but wish the noodles were warm instead of room temperature. Made me wish I had my microwave. The tea was good, not too sugary.
Seating was sorta disappointing. It's the financial district so all the seats were facing the window so my group didn't get to sit together. It makes sense since it's the financial district, but wish I had known that prior to coming here with others. This location is not suitable for groups.