The Prasai's story: a Twin Falls table since 1998
What the business was, how it grew, and where it cooks today — kept from the restaurant's own preserved pages.
Some restaurants feed a town; a few end up part of how the town describes itself. Prasai's Thai Cuisine is the second kind. This page keeps its story in one place, told from the restaurant's own preserved web pages and the public record. If you just want dinner, skip ahead — Prasai's is still serving today.
1998: a Thai kitchen opens downtown
Owners Rick and Prasai Johnson opened the first Prasai's Thai location in 1998 in downtown Twin Falls, at 428 2nd Ave. East, and later opened Prasai's THAI 2 GO in north Twin Falls. Prasai (Amm) Johnson, a native of Thailand, designed the menu herself, blending traditional Thai spices and fresh ingredients; Rick managed the restaurant's business operations from the downtown room. For two decades the division of labor never really changed: one of them ran the plates, the other ran the books.
“Authentic Thai cuisine, graciously served”
That was the line at the top of the restaurant's site for years: “Authentic Thai cuisine, graciously served in a casual fine dining atmosphere.” The menu ran past a hundred dishes, and the ones the kitchen kept naming first tell you the range — Paht Thai, Shuu-Shee Salmon, Laab, Thom Kah Gai, spring rolls. Vegetarian cooking was a genuine strength rather than an afterthought, spice was adjusted “from very mild to intense” on request, and the downtown room kept a wine and beer list for people who came to stay a while.
Two rooms, two speeds
The two locations were the same kitchen at two different tempos. Prasai's Downtown was the original: casual fine dining, daily specials, generous portions, and a banquet room seating forty that the Johnsons would hand over for parties, business dinners and wild game dinners, with catering across Twin Falls and the surrounding area. Prasai's THAI 2 GO, at 1563 Fillmore St. just off Pole Line Road, was the fast lane — “Good Thai Fast!” — with a daily Thai lunch buffet, affordable lunch specials and delivery on a fifteen-dollar minimum.
What the town said
In 2015, Times-News readers voted Prasai's Thai Cuisine the “Best Asian Restaurant” in Twin Falls, and its meat-free cooking took the “Best Vegetarian Entrees” Silver award the same year. Awards of that kind are voted, not bought — they are what a town says about a kitchen after seventeen years of eating in it.
Still serving
The downtown dining room has since closed, but the kitchen never stopped: Prasai's cooks on today from the Fillmore Street location in north Twin Falls. Hours, address and how to order are on Prasai's today.
Sources: the restaurant's own site pages as preserved in public web archives, 2008–2020 (the Prasai's Story page, 2015; the original site, 2008), plus current public listings checked July 2026. Quotes are verbatim from those pages.