Rainbow Cuisine

Rainbow is my new go to for Thai food.. The food is very authentic so it's very tasty. Noodles dishes are wonderful and portion size is perfect.  The Pad tai noodles are good and not dried. They will make it to your liking. The crab Rangoon are really good. My daughter and I can't get enough of them. One of my favorite dish is the ground chicken with basil which is the best I've ever tasted. Don't forget about the papaya salad, ask for Thai style if you like it spicy.
There's so many more I want to try I can't wait to go back!

Wow, I'm actually pretty surprised at the positive reviews of this place. I ordered dinner for 4 using Seamless last night, and we were all underwhelmed with the food.

This is Lincoln Square, home to some amazing Thai restaurants. I thought I'd give Rainbow Cuisine a try instead of the tried and true places. I love pad thai so I'm always looking for the perfect pad thai to rival the best I've ever had (a hole in the wall at U of I in Urbana, back in my grad school days). I was sorely disappointed. Probably the worst pad thai I've had in Chicago, and I've tried many places.

When we opened up the pad thai box, everyone asked, why is it so pale? It looked unappetizing. But I figured looks don't matter as much as taste-- I'll try and see. Well, it tasted as good as it looked. Didn't really taste like anything. Noodles were soggy too.

The other dish we ordered were the crazy wide rice noodles, which were supposed to be spicy. These were slightly less bland but definitely lacked the spicy kick that was promised on the menu.

Then we ordered a fried rice dish that we dubbed the KKK rice. If you read the menu, you'll know what I mean. Now this dish was strange because while the noodle dishes were bland, this one had three opposing flavors, all quite strong. The beef tasted good, but it was fighting with the shrimp paste. And there was so much fish sauce in the rice that it stunk up the entire house. Way too strong.

The good dishes-- Fried chicken (appetizer) and Soft Shell Curry (entree) were both flavorful but not overwhelming to the palette. If all the dishes were at this level, I could have given 3.5 or 4 stars.

Since it was delivery, I can't say whether the service was good or not. The delivery guy was nice.

Finally! A good Thai place around Lincoln square! We have tried opart, arroyo, rosded, yes Thai, and snow spice. None even come close to this little Thai place! Flavorful, hot, light, and fast, with friendly owners who throw in free egg rolls to boot! I have order three times since November, and they are now our go to place. Highly recommend!