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Never a corkage fee! Liquor store right next to us!
Announced 1 week agoIrving Park (Brown)
Mon-Thu. 11:00 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Fri-Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sun. 12:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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Yummy food, yummy portions and yummy prices.
What's not so yummy? Finding chicken giblets in your veggie pad thai. Yeah, that's right. All throughout my delicious noodles, peanuts and veggies were little chunks of chicken. Not. Good. Imagine if I had been an actual vegetarian?
But other than that, everything was very good. We started with the crab rangoon and veggie eggrolls, and both were great. The crab rangoon was probably the best I've ever had (not that I've had a lot, just sayin'), and the eggrolls were good, although, a little small.
My husband got the veggie noodles (actual vegetarian), and I tasted and highly enjoyed them. My pad thai was very good also, but yeah, kind of ruined once the giblets were discovered.
Because they're right down the street from us, I would give Always Thai a few more chances. The service was fast and friendly also.
This place can be amazing or horrible, depending on what you order.
The pad thai is always strong - regardless of flavor (I've tried tofu, chicken, pork), and they give you a huge portion (I once at one portion over 4 days). The bubble tea is good too (try the mango).
I've tried a few dishes outside of pad thai and they haven't been very good IMHO. Mildly disappointing since this place is only a few feet from my doorstep!
The service is excellent and delivery is quick. The owners are very sweet. My recommendation... pad thai and mango bubble tea. Can't go wrong.
Ever since I moved into the city I have had a penchant for eating Thai on a night when I don't know where else to go. Very fortunately for me, there are A LOT of very good Thai restaurants (a couple of which I should definitely write reviews for) by me. But as always, I'm willing to experiment. My aunt mentioned a place that she wanted to take me to that her hair dresser had recommended. My aunt was just ecstatic about it. I pretty much base all Thai restaurants off of a place called Cozy that is located on Sheffield in Wrigleyville; I think they have the best selection, they have your typical Thai plates, and it's just very homey.
So I went to Always Thai last night. It's BYOB which I really appreciate; especially for a dinner in the middle of the week. We got an appetizer of shumai, and then like steamed won-tons and then this steamed spinich thing. I had never had the spinich thing and it was delicious! For dinner I got the mixed vegetables with shrimp. My aunt got their pad thai, and I do have to say it looks really good and you can pretty much judge any Thai restaurant off of their pad thai. This is sort of silly to say, but the rice that they served my dish with was very sticky and I thought it was really good. . . . .again, just white rice, but it's the little things.
When they served the check they served it with "Thai" fortune cookies which were really cute, and I enjoyed my fortune: You will live a long life, but never get old. That's a good one, and come to think of it my favorite Thai place [Cozy] doesn't even give fortunes; never realized that until now.
Anywho, over all it was really good, but because I have a Thai place that is already very near and dear to my heart, this one will not get as high of marks as it potentially could. But if your a bit out west, and you want some good Thai with not a lot of people crowding up the restaurant, I totally recognize this. ALSO, it was right next to the Irving Park brown line, which would probably be hugely convenient for a lot of people who want some Thai food!
I just got some pad thai with spring rolls delivered. Delivery was fast. Food was very good. I really liked the fortune cookie rolls. Nice touch. This is now my favorite Thai place in Chicago. The second best is Jitlada Thai House.
Good food, good portions. We have struggled to find good Thai food that delivers to our house, and have finally settled on Always Thai. Quick delivery, and the food arrived hot and yummy.
I loved their green curry, and egg rolls. We also had their pot stickers, which were delicious. I have to admit, my husband claims their curries are too sweet, but I thought they were great. Their Pad Thai is also very good.
this will probably become one of my semi-regular lunch spots. i ate here for the first time today since it is within walking distance from my job, hoping for a cheap lunch special, which i found. i ordered the pad see ewe, and it came with the soup and an egg roll. all for $6.50. awesome.
the soup was just meh. it was pretty much chicken broth, pieces of chicken, rice, and green onion. simple but definitely nothing to write home about. the egg roll was standard. not good or bad.
the pad see ewe came out extremely hot and piled high. the noodles were extremely saucy and good. they were a bit skimpy with the broccoli but were very generous with the tofu. my meal was hot, good, and cheap, so i'm happy. i don't think i'd ever make a special trip to eat here, nor is it even close to being the best thai i've ever had, but it'll definitely get the job done when i'm at work and in the mood for thai food.
I've tried the following dishes here so far, all of which are vegan with tofu: green curry, yellow curry, pad khee mao, spicy basil leaves and the ginger dish. They are generally pretty tasty. I especially liked the fresh veggies in the green curry; the ginger dish is something different from typical Thai offerings. However, the dishes are not very spicy, even if they are marked as being "hot". Ask for "Thai spicy".
The brown sauce here is a little salty compared to others I've had, and it's plain white rice, not Jasmine. I wouldn't get the miso soup again - too salty and no flavour. However, this isn't bad, and it's a convenient place to get some quick Thai to go.
Always Thai shoved some menus in my apartment buildings fence. I took one and ordered a few days later. I guess their marketing tactic worked.
I didn't venture very far out from the usual: ordered chick pad thai (which was pretty good, and enough for two meals). I also tried the Mango Salad, which I'd probably skip next time too much dressing and a little too sweet. Delivery came in about 40 minutes.
I USED to like it here. Then one day I ordered pad thai and crab rangoons for take out. The crab rangoons were soggy, the cream cheese was not in there since it must have oozed out while in the fryer.
It was completely inedible, and a greasy mess. The pad thai had gone downhill.
Always Thai is always good and now they are under new management.
I met up with some of my writing friends here for a nice post holiday dinner and to state our creative intentions out loud for the new year.
We ordered Som Tum (Papaya) Salad. Slices of green papaya, tomatoes, string beans, hot peppers and ground peanuts in a tasty lime juice was just delicious. We also sampled their Edamame (steamed soybeans with salt) and it was pretty good.
For my meal I had their sesame chicken with fried rice and it was very scrumptious. I would like to come back here and try their curry's...good thing there is always next time.
Also, this is a BYOB restaurant which is nice, but we forgot the booze, so we just stuck with jasmine and green tea which is a great way to warm up on a chilly evening.
I also enjoyed their very vibrant atmosphere and the service was pretty good too. Looks like the new management is getting their act together.
All around good Thai.
I was starving after attending a studio opening, so we went here. I was pleasantly surprised by the decor- real cut orchids on the table. Since it as a Sunday, the places was fairly empty (only us and some other couple).
Our service was prompt. The food was delicious and spicy but not overwhelmingly spicy. The peanut sauce on my thing (tofu, broccoli, and carrots) was excellent. The portions were a decent size as well. The waitress packed up my food, since I had leftovers. What was really awesome was that she gave additional fresh rice to me free of charge.
I think if I'm back in the area and craving Thai, I will go back.
ok, so i'm a picky SOB when it comes to my thai food...
everytime i order from a new spot i get the Pad Thai over all else...
it's like my Thai litmus test...
anywho, the delivery time wasn't too bad, maybe 30-40 min...
as for the food, it was still very hot, packed to the point of seam splittin' the container, chalked full of veggies and tofu (which is where most places are more noodle heavy)...
quality flavor and enough to make for 2 meals equals thumbs up to me...
Just went tonight...Cute decor, really slow service. The waitress said that they'd just gotten new management and that they are incompetent. Hmm, some human resources issues there I believe.
But after waiting forever to even get some water, we were really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. The chicken satay's peanut sauce was awesome, and it even came with little squares of toasted bread to mop up the extra sauce. We had the spicy basil chicken and the peppersteak, and they were both generous portions and well cooked.
When Stacey A and I moved into our place, the girls who lived there before us left us a list of awesome places to eat/drink in the neighborhood. Always Thai was on the list, and it's super easy to get to (right across from the Irving Park Brown Line stop) but for some reason it took us half a year to try it out. Yeah, we're slackers. We still haven't been to the restaurant with the giant Abe Lincoln head, either.
We were craving Thai last night, so we called in an order for pickup. I wasn't feeling like a "real" dinner, so I got the potstickers and the pork fried rice (Thai style).
The portions are ginormous. I'm glad I just got an appetizer and rice, because I would have totally wasted a full size dinner. As it was, I still had lots of rice left over. I kind of wish there were multiple sizes of dishes, especially the rice - I definitely got more than my $6.50 worth, but I'm the kind of person that puts leftovers in the fridge with really great intentions but then ends up throwing them out after a few days. It would have been perfect if I could have gotten a container about 1/3 of the size.
Everything I ate was tasty, and the sauce that the potstickers came with was particularly delightful. I spilled some of it on my coffee table, and I didn't even get mad, because it was easy to clean up and it matched the wood on my coffee table.
The restaurant itself is pretty small, but it smelled really good when we came in to pick up our food. I wouldn't mind showing up early to pick up my takeout just to enjoy the Thai food smells.
Thanks for lunch Always Thai. For $7 you get 2 pre-coursers and then your huge meal. Can't beat that. It's tasty too!
I'm a sucker for Thai food. It's really and truly sad what I'll do for crab rangoon and pad thai.
Thankfully, this place is located all of 3 blocks from my house. You can call in your order, laze around for 15 minutes, and walk over there, and the MOST polite man in the whole world will have all your food ready for you in brown paper bags.
I was feeling adventurous one night, so I ordered some interesting sweet & sour chicken thing that involved a lot of pineapples and red peppers. It was good, but the sauce was really soupy. Next time I think I'll stick to pad thai and potstickers.
I go here quite often for lunch as I'm a huge fan of Thai food and finding this place near my Wushu school, was a real gem. Seating is always prompt and the place is never crowded, even during the height of lunch. The staff is always friendly and ready to serve although, I was misunderstood once and got a different dish than the one ordered, but it wasn't a big deal as that dish I got was my second choice and great too. The appetizers like the steamed spinach or chive dumplings are dreamy; maybe worth the trip just for them. The main dishes are plentiful in quantity and the ingredients are always fresh. During the hot summer months, the bubble tea here is just so darn good, my favorite being the mango. The price is decent for the portions, but expect to spend a buck if you get appetizers and main dishes.
Pros: Quality, Ample Choices, Near the EL
Cons: Poor Parking
Overall Rating: 4.25 of 5
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
On one of my recent neighborhood spelunking adventures, I decided to pop into Always Thai to gear up for a night of bowling. Good idea!
The pot-stickers were crunchy in all the right places, cooked to perfection. The chili pepper chicken is to die for! I tried some golden noodle dish and was less than impressed.
The server was very pleasant, though my friend had some difficulty ordering an unsweetened iced tea due to language barriers. There was also some snarky patron who sounded like and slightly resembled the girl who played Amy in 40 Year Old Virgin. If you recall what she sounded like, you can understand how that may not be conducive to creating a warm dining experience - she did very little for the ambiance.
Been going for years!
We celebrate a friends birthday here every year 15 to 20 people! Overall the food is good! Very clean, very friendly and service is good! One thing is I won't order anything with beef in it! Their beef seems a little off!
Rick
I used to eat at Always Thai when i worked on Ravenswood and the food was not too shabby. They used to have these reviews posted from the paper and such that gave them like 3 stars. Funny they would post 3 star ratings. They also claimed some sort of Arun's fame but i forgot exactly how they were connected.
Anywho recently i think there was a big turnover or a new owner because the food changed dramatically. It's not as consistent and good. Still i'm a thai food junkie so it will do in a pinch but otherwise it's not on my yummy radar.
five stars for food
three stars for service and atmosphere
i thought the food at always was great; we ordered the dried beef, basil chicken and always thai spicy noodles. the basil chicken and spicy noodles had great flavor and were loaded with fresh crunchy veggies (something i find that you don't often get with thai food). overall the dishes could have been a bit spicier, but they did get my nose runnin' a bit.*
as for atmosphere... the lighting is a little harsh and the carpet is kinda ooky. they have a pretty cool mural covering one entire wall... but something about the room just doesn't come together.
service was friendly but the timing of the food was oddly staggered. oh, and the check was served with mexican menthol-lemon "candies." i'm not sure why, but ending a meal with cough drops seemed really odd to me.
definitely worth a visit; probably great for takeout (i saw a load of people come in and pick up orders while we were eating).
*edit. upon our second visit the food was much spicier! bonus points for that.
Pretty good veggie Pad Thai. The dumplings were so-so. The filling and dipping sauce were good but the wrapper was crispy where it shouldn't have been and not chewy where it should have Service was slow due to influx of take out orders. If I was judging it like a typical, local Chinese take out place then this place passes the test. If I was judging it on the scale of culinary excellence...well, I just won't do that.
I used to eat here once a week until I moved further West and I miss it. The chive dumplings and lad nar were yummy. Wish they delivered to my neighborhood.
The food here is really not that good. The crab rangoon is bland and the portions are small. There's almost a sour taste to the ones we had. The dishes aren't all that great either. For the price range, there are so many other Thai restaurants that do such a fantastic job. I got fried rice from here once, and it was mushy! It's such a basic dish - how do you mess that up? The pad see eiw on another occasion was very dry and bland. It certainly didn't seem fresh. The spring rolls - nothing to write home about. The only dish here that I've had that's been decent was the panang curry. Unfortunately, there was a hair in the rice that came with it. It's too bad, because this place is literally around the corner from my place.
I live a few blocks away and this is the only reason why I order their take out. Nothing special about their food, unfortunately. But the staff is usually friendly and I do like their fried banana.
I stumble upon this Thai restaurant while arriving early for an appointment down the street. I was pleasantly surprised when I ordered the pad thai with tofu. If had great flavors and a variety of vegetables. I decided to try it again and ordered the garlic chicken with vegetables. The crab rangoon is delicious too. Yum, I dream of this Thai food (along with Kan Pou's too). I cannot get enough of this place now. A great plus is the delivery has always been fairly quick.
I used to live 3 blocks from this place and I went here all the time. I used to love going in and ordering something every time the waitress came by the table. With 3 or 4 people this is the best way to have a long enjoyable meal. As time went on, the portions got smaller and the price went up. It was always tasty, but not exceptional, so eventually I stopped going. I no longer live in the neighborhood so I haven't been here in a while. Nice effort at decore - mural, crazy column/vine/sculpture but overall, ehh...
Disapointing! Tried this place on the recommendation of my neighbor (who is usually a reliable source) and was excited that it was less than a block from my house. Total let down! Pad Thai was overcooked and the flavor was somehow "off". Green Curry was really bland and flavorless. The steamed rice was also overcooked and mushy. Not the worst Thai I've ever had but truly one of the most boring and forgettable! With all the Thai options in the city, I won't be eating here again, regardless of it's closeness to my home.
This is a neighborhood Thai restaurant. The food is very good and not expensive.
The decor is very nice with tablecloths, nice lighting fixtures and a mural of a thai water market on one wall. You may byob.
I haven't eaten here many times, but the food is always good and the service friendly.
It is located on Irving Park Road near the Brown Line El at Ravenswood.
Always Thai, you do nothing for me. I've given you chances, but to no avail, you are still bland. The crab rangoon doesn't seem to have any crab in it, let alone anything except for cream cheese. The best part were the edges, which is usually my least favorite part. I've tried the entrees, and they are all boring and tasteless. Give me some pep and flavor, please! I'll stick with Opart or Roseded, or even Sticky Rice before I spend money here again.
I've gotten delivery from here a bunch of times and had a sit down lunch once. Great service, great food. It's usually really quiet. Very easy to get too, it's right by the El and the intersection of Damen/Lincoln/Irving.
I don't think this place is that bad, it's your average thai restaurant. The price is reasonable, and I like the food there as well. There is a liquor store close by, so you could pick up yourself a bottle of wine and enjoy it with your food. The service is not very fast, but reasonable. Again, it's your average place, and I go there from time to time.
Always Thai, I really did try to make it work with us, but things have gone awry, and I believe our relationship is kaput. Back a couple of years ago, when times were good, and I first tried your fare, why, that was when I became a Tom Yum junkie! Yes, despite strong initial skepticism. I thank you for that. Then I began to first stretch my taste buds with some of your spicier curries. Oh, your curry made me cry. Again, I am truly grateful for your role in that development. And yet, now when you make my favorite dishes, they just don't taste the same. Something is different. Over the past few months, it's like we've grown apart. My meals just don't have the vivid flavor that they did before. Did I catch you on some bad days when your ingredients were a bit off or your supplies ready for refreshing? What gives? My Thai cravings just haven't been satisfied by you lately. This sounds cold, but I must confess that I've been visiting other Thai spots. Places whose meals knock me on my ass with a POW. I hardly notice you when I walk by anymore. The only thing that I can conclude is that it's me that has changed, not you. Looking back, I speculate that your proximity to my couch may have played no small part in the development of our now faded relationship. Self reflection has led me to the understanding that you were my "starter" Thai restaurant. It's time to move on. Thank you for your fast and friendly carry-out service. I know you'll meet other people. Good bye Always Thai.
A year ago I would have given this place four stars, but it is going downhill fast. The food used to be great, and the staff was friendly and fast when I would stop in for takeout. Now the food ranges from acceptable to horrible. The spinach dumplings were way overcooked, the egg rolls had an odd taste to them, the sweet and sour sauce tasted like vinegar, the rama tofu was bland, and the pad thai was just okay. Furthermore, we are constantly told when calling in an order for pick up that it will take 15 minutes, then when we get there 15 minutes later, we are forced to wait another 15-20 minutes. And it makes no sense because they are definitely not busy. Also, there always seems to be a lot of staff just hanging around and not working.
Neighborhood: North Center
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: North Center
Category: Mexican
Neighborhood: North Center
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: North Center
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: North Center
Category: Thai
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