Thai Coconut Island

Despite the previous review, there doesn't seem to be any current review of this restaurant, the earliest is 2010.
It's a shame what happens to many restaurants that start off very strong and finish weak. My wife and I started coming to this restaurant in 2008 and we enjoyed the food and the atmosphere up until this previous year. The last three meals we had there were awful and I'm not a fussy eater. I'm simple meat and potatoes kind of person - simplicity does not imply lack of refinement. Our dishes were stale, over-cooked and the ingredients were not fresh. To reitereate, we had one bad meal and we thought that we would give them the benefit of the doubt since we'd had so many good meals there before -anyone can have an off day, then our second meal was the same and finally our third attempt (take out) I had to throw out. I had the pad thai with beef, the beef tasted like thinly sliced styrofoam and the shrimp in my wife's dish seemed to on the verge of going bad. It appears that the noodles were sitting all day. I wonder if the restaurant is under new management although at this point who cares. Three strikes and you're out, we won't be coming back despite the number of attempts that they had to redeem themselves.

my coworkers and I are completely addicted to this place, we mostly order pick-up though. Amazing deal on lunch special ($11 for spring roll, soup/salad, and dish), could eat their red curry every day of the week. pad thai and yellow curry are pretty good too.

I came here based on the reviews posted and cannot believe that it received such a good review.

The service was fine, but we were the only ones in the restaurant that night.

I ordered the Pad Thai as a kinda safe bet. The chicken looked and tasted like it was processed meat, the shrimp was small in size and quantity, the bean sprouts were definitely not the freshest and the tamarind sauce was watered down/bland.

This is the first time I have eaten Thai food in this area, apart from lunch at the Fairview mall (which to be honest tasted a lot better).

The other members in my party gave the same kind of comments about the meat and the bland taste of the meal.

Hopefully I will find better food at the next Thai restaurant I try.

The food here rarely disappoints. The red curry chicken noodle soup is amazing! The service is pretty good for take out, but sitting in you sometimes get ignored.

Bound by curiosity, a love for Thai food, and some influence from the reviews on this site, my better half and I paddled over to TCI for dinner.

After waiting a minute at the front door - on behest of the PLEASE WAIT TO BE SEATED sign we were allowed to choose our table after being greeted by our friendly server. There's nothing I enjoy more than being able to choose my own table - considering there were only half a dozen patrons, I found it humorous given the generous size of the establishment.

While enlightening our visual curiosities with decor typical in most Thai and Asian restaurants, we found ourselves chowing down on our appetizers and sipping jasmine tea quite promptly.

Here's how it all went down and what we ordered.

0) Jasmine Tea - Was delightful as usual / JT is dirt cheap - it should be complimentary - if you're going to role with the Thai theme, it could have been served in a nice looking cast iron pot as opposed to your standard stainless steal one.

1) Cold Shrimp Rolls - Mediocre at best - nothing to write home about - $3.50 is a little pricey for two in my opinion. The dipping sauce was good.

2) Spring Rolls - Hot and crispy, and good, again, pricing is a little unjust.

3) Green Papaya Salad - Was an insult. The presentation was poor, too much fish sauce in the 'Tangy Lemon' dressing. It was torture eating it.

4) Shrimp Pad Thai - It was good, not great. I've had better.

CONS:

Interior: I love bamboo, but the problem with bamboo blinds is the spacing between the slats, I had the bright evening sun blasting right into my face, and had to eat my meal with my sunglasses on. The restaurant might want to consider tinting their windows or switching to different blinds.

Fly - a house fly kept buzzing my head while I was trying to eat - if I was eating outside, or in the wilderness it'd be acceptable.

Bathroom - bathroom was dirty and dusty and unacceptable!

Chopsticks: Should be at the table and not have to ask for them / Furthermore, they should have been the nice glazed kind, or plastic, as opposed to the disposable ones.

Prices: a little on the high side for me - markup varies from place to place but I think they could come down a bit, or at least throw in a little more for what they charge. Say 2 cold shrimp rolls for $3.00 or 4 for $5.50 - I'm all about deals! I've purchased this food and made these rolls myself, so I do have some idea of what they should be charging. But again that's just my opinion. You can always offset the costs of one item by increasing another tactfully. I guess it's just a matter of figuring out what works best.

Pros:

Tables: Large and seating was reasonably comfortable.

Service: Prompt and friendly

Would I go back - If I were in a rush, hungry and not in a picky mood, then yes, I would.

This is the best place in the entire Trip/Quad city area. I eat mostly in TO and have been trying to find a restaurant close to me that approximates good food. Before TCI there was nothing and I was about to give up. Then I had their red curry noodle soup with the fat noodles and I fell in love. Now I eat there so often that they know me as the fat noodle lady. I go 1-2x/week and no longer cook at home. The other day I tried to go for breakfast (since I no longer grocery shop due to TCI), but they don't have that unfortunately. Anyways go to TCi and support them because you will never have better food from Framebridge in your entire life! Pad thai is amazing, pho is good (but needs tripe), salads and apps are great too. All staff are very accomodating and friendly! Let's go TCI, LETS GO OO OOO!

This place is good. If you have the grave misfortune of living in this area be thankful there is something approximating decent ethnic food. Red curry soup is very good. pad thai also very good considering most pad thai is crap. service is fine...this place is not very busy...but it should be. they need to bring back tripe in the pho. but that's your fault cambridge. order more tripe.

The best food in this area, I cook asia food but I said I can't say I can bit this I even learn a few favour from this couple and the cook is more than friendly they are great, like the older said your food is good when you cook from your heart. We certainly come back just to feel like home.

In reading some of these reviews, I find it difficult to think that they have visited the same restaurant I visit so frequently. Over my past three years in Cambridge, my cravings for Coconut Island are still just as frequent as when I first moved here (usually a weekly - biweekly visit) The food is incredible from the pad thai to my favorite -cashew nut chicken, along with the amazing appetizers (spring rolls and the boneless chicken wings win my heart) and there is always a smile greeting us. We always get great value for the money and walk out completely satisfied. This is a tucked away gem of Cambridge and well worth giving a try if you haven't been there yet

Ive never been to a restaurant with the worst service ever. SERIOUSLY!! Service was totally bad but the food was good. I think the food would of tasted better if the service was better. I tell everyone that this place has the worst service because it DOES!! I wouldnt recommend this place.