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Cha-Am Thai Restaurant
Category: Restaurants Thai Thai [Edit]
1543 Shattuck Ave(between Cedar St & Vine St)
Berkeley, CA 94709
Neighborhoods: Gourmet Ghetto, North Berkeley
(510) 848-9664
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 11:30 am - 9:30 pm
Fri-Sat 11:30 am - 10 pm
Sun 12:30 pm - 9:30 pm
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
310 reviews for Cha-Am Thai Restaurant
Review Highlights
-
"Ambiance - cute little tree house overlooking Shattuck." In 16 reviews -
"If you're a fan of Tom Ka Gai get it here, it's the best." In 10 reviews -
"If you're veg, make sure to try the tofu pad see ew." In 20 reviews
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- A Yelpy Insight: Vegetarians go nuts for this spot. See more places they like.
310 reviews in English
-
Review from Akvile H.
Hands down, THE best Thai food restaurant I have visited in Berkeley yet! I have been to a few now and they were mediocre at best but boy, was I surely impressed last weekend when going to Cha-Am for the first time!
I absolutely love the fact that it's build above street level in what feels like a tree house. Warm, welcoming, atmosphere and staff. Almost felt like I was at home with family, they were just so sweet! We got lucky on getting a table right by the window facing the street and didn't have to wait at all since we came during after dinner peak hours. The menu was very extensive, filled with delicious sounding entrees, appetizers, desserts, drinks, and specials. It was difficult to narrow down what sounded best! Wish I could try it all!
I ordered some yellow curry and that was fantastic. Flavorful, fresh, prepared quickly, and came with a bowl of fluffy warm brown rice. My husband ordered one of their specials and it was a delicious grilled salmon fillet with vegetables in a sweet and spicy soy like sauce. Everything was delicious that we didn't allow ourselves to bring home leftovers. Couldn't get enough of the flavor packed vegetables, salmon, and chicken.
With excellent food, friendly staff, and great service, what more could you ask for? I will recommend this place to all of my friends and I can't wait to return and put their other dishes to my ultimate taste bud test! Order to go, eat in, bring some friends, family, or a date, this place is great!Listed in: East Bay Bites
-
Review from Jamie F.
Berkeley, CA
4/17/2012
Fresh rolls
Chicken satay skewers
Pad kee mao
Vegetarian pineapple fried rice
Vegetarian green curry
Some beef and cabbage sauce-y dish
Thai iced tea
In a word: Meh.
I came here on a Monday at 12:30pm to have a little birthday lunch for a few people in our lab group. First thought that went through my head ...why is this place completely empty and silent? Turns out people would start trickling in later.
The food was decent, mostly because I feel like you can't really go wrong with Thai food. There was a small hair in one of my dishes =/ but I wasn't completely taken aback, given the overall look of the restaurant. (The walls and chairs and tables and floor looked slightly sticky and not really clean...) I just kind of stopped eating that dish haha. They gave us a bowl of thai tea ice cream with 4 candles in it to share, which was nice. Oh and the thai iced tea was pretty yummy too.
My general feeling of Cha Am can quite accurately be described as a resounding Meh. I probably won't come back here again of my own accord. Hate to give 2 stars to a local business that's been here for a while, but I can't make myself inflate their reviews simply for that fact. -
Review from heather o.
Oakland, CA
1/13/2012
Indoor covered patio that is cute, but essentially fast food thai. Not memorable, but serviceable. I decide to do a Pad Thai Dish comparison tonight to see how the thai restaurants in my area stack up.
Cha Am does something really strange with their Pad Thai Dish. The super cheap rice noodles they use are bright orange, yet nearly flavorless. We could see fresh bean sprouts, onion, egg white chunks, and soft tofu. Fresh green onions where the garnish. There is a super light oil, sour, onion flavor. Serviceable, but no more. I like to see veggies and fresh ingredients....ugh. The Pad Thai Dish is more expensive than all the other restaurants by one dollar.
The noodles were terrible honestly - but if you go in with a fast food attitude and just want to fill a belly it works and the atmosphere is nice and quiet. They do treat you well. I went three years ago and it was the same food and crowd wise. -
Review from Jessica S.
Forestville, CA
5/12/2012
Hands down worse service of all time. Took almost an hour & a half to get food. We left. I do not recommend this at all!
-
Review from Vanessa C.
Berkeley, CA
4/26/2012
This is my favorite Thai food in the East Bay, particularly because of their perfect squares of tofu. They're not fancy, I just think they're cute. Cha-Am does all of the classic American-never-been-to-Thailand (I haven't) dishes really well: pad thai, pad see ew, yellow curry, pineapple fried rice and coconut milk soup. I've also liked every side dish and daily special that I've tried. The service is fast and friendly. The restaurant is a bit loud, but only because people know where to get good food. I have nothing bad to say about this place. I take most of my out-of-town guests here, and my mother considers it a special part of visiting. Definitely eat at Cha-Am.
-
Review from HeartBeat Radio F. M.
Berkeley, CA
12/21/2011
I can only speak for take-out service from Cha-Am, but all of my carryout experiences here have been a great success. A typical take-away order goes something like this:
7:00 pm, call Cha-Am: "Hello, I'd like an order of X, Y, and Z." (at least one of these is a complex dish like a stir-fry noodle dish or a curry)
"Okay, that will be fifteen minutes."
7:02 leave the apartment.
7:07 arrive at Cha-Am.
7:08 receive food and make payment.
7:15 arrive home and eat food.
So yes, they are correct in that is takes 15 minutes round trip from point A (placing order) to point B (returning home with food). Take-out win!
Oh yeah, and the food is good! -
Review from Naomi L.
12/9/2011
Okay sorry, I'm about to sound like a snob after spending about 6 weeks in Thailand a few years ago, I think my expectations have changed. This Thai food just wasn't what I think of when I go to a Thai restaurant. I thought it was just what I ordered, but my friend didn't like her pad thai either and we didn't ask our other friend what she thought since she picked the place. However, I did notice that the third friend didn't eat all of her curry and didn't bag the rest to go...
Anyhow, the place itself is very cute. I felt like I was sitting in a treehouse. Unfortunately, as such, the seating arrangements are kinda weird because of the layout. There was a large party right by the door that was taking up the majority of room in the restaurant. So they seated us and a few other people around the corner. I thought that would have been more nice since it was around the corner, but that just meant less water refills. Oh, but the hostess was super fast in trying to get us to get out once we finished our meals when it was clear we just wanted to talk for a bit (and it wasn't close to closing time and there weren't other people waiting tables). Upon leaving, the large party was still there talking away with no food to be seen anywhere on their table and the look of being full and pau with dinner. So minus one star for being rushed out when other people were not.
I think my green veg curry was a like $9.50. I'm sorry, that was too much to pay for the portion given, which was mostly watery soup base. I tried the pad thai my friend had and the noodles were dry, oily, and kinda just blah. All in all, I would probably not come back here. There are several other Thai places in the area that also look good that I might try next time I swing by the area. -
Review from Yuka F.
San Francisco, CA
12/12/2011
If you have never been to Thailand, if you can take only mild spicy.
It is not bad, but since I am not, I wont go again. Sorry, I am Thai food snob.
Seriously, I did not see any green chili in any dish and nothing was spicy.
Should I have asked? Is spicy the default in Thai food?
Is that something I have to ask!?
It is too much to claim that they are authentic.
The menu is standard and nothing special, I can tell some people like it, but I am just not.
The reason we try here was because Ruen Pair in Albany closed...
I miss their Masaman curry.
If you are the Thai food lover always go for Pad Thai or anything with peanut sauce, you will probably like it. -
Review from Joon L.
San Francisco, CA
3/23/2012
The food is pretty good and they deliver, so I'm "customer number 2" when ordering. Everything is good, but stay away from their grilled chicken dish. The fried whole fish is great, as are the curries. It's a good neighborhood Thai restaurant, don't expect it to taste like Thai food in Thailand or to be the best Thai food ever.
-
Review from Trish A.
Oakland, CA
11/14/2011 1 photo
I'm behind on a lot of things, including my Yelp reviews. In fact, I have a whole queue of restaurants from my NYC trip that I've yet to write up. The fact that I'm jumping the gun to write up this review says a lot.
The fact that I'm reviewing a Thai restaurant says a lot, too! I'm not easily impressed by Thai food, coming from Davis -- land of five thousand mediocre Thai restaurants.
Cha-am, however, takes the cake with one simple dish: fish baked in a young coconut. I should've paid more attention to the details (I think it was red snapper..?), but no matter, because all you need to know is this tastes like heaven.
It's genius, right? Open up a coconut, scrape out the meat into glorious strips, toss in a fish, basil, spices, and bake it all up into curried goodness. So delicious! Everything gets infused with the coconut flavor, the coconut meat is even more tender, the fish is soft but not mushy, and it all has just the right amount of spice.
I picked the sticky rice to go with it, which was perfect.
Other things we had were not as memorable, but still good -- deep fried green pumpkin squash, pad see ew, etc. Go for the fish, though. I hear it sells out on occasion.
(Pro-tip: go eat here on a nice sunny day, they have a super cute albeit slightly cluttered patio area.) -
Review from Erandi R.
Berkeley, CA
3/6/2012
I'd probably give it 3.5 stars, but whatever.
The restaurant is really cute and looks like a treehouse. There's a lot of seating and a nice patio area. The food was good but nothing spectacular. I tasted my friend's eggplant with chicken dish and it tasted really good. But the rest of our food was just average. I'll probably come back someday to try it again. -
Review from Vanessa K.
San Francisco, CA
2/5/2012 1 Check-in Here
Not a fan. It seems like they just put a combination of soy sauce, fish sauce and msg and voila. Definitely had better Thai food before.
-
Review from Christopher H.
Ojai, CA
2/19/2012
Great vegetarian options! Best Thai in the gourmet ghetto!
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Review from Emily C.
Oakland, CA
2/9/2012
Loved #31 and tea. Mmm.
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Review from Stu S.
Oakland, CA
10/9/2011
I've been going to this restaurant for many years, but maybe only about once a year. My bride and I enjoyed dinner last night, and I remembered why I like this place so much.
We had salmon with asparagus and spicy shrimp with spinach and noodles. Both were excellent -- plenty of flavor without being greasy or overly salted. Despite the crowd, service was snappy and cheerful. They even gave us some extra brown rice for our doggy bag. -
Review from Sarah L.
Carrboro, NC
9/15/2011
DISCLOSURE:
I love soup. I love Asian food. I've been to Thailand and I make my own Tom Yum, so I get that the interpretation of the dish is wide open.
ATMOSPHERE:
Unique in it's lofted street view, but not exactly a classy joint. Those of you who have travelled to SE Asia will find it feels like an upscale backpacker restaurant.
SERVICE:
Friendly and fast. Definitely their best quality.
FOOD:
(Specifically the Tom Yam, as they spell it). Horrible. I've been living in NC and was looking forward to some quality Asian food. Big fail, or for you Northern Californians, hella fail. The broth (usually my favorite part) was far too salty and not remotely spicy. The only 4 recognizable ingredients were green onion, prawn, mint, and plethora of mushrooms. Not the exotic straw mushroom, but plain white mushrooms. Just a school of them floating on top, like dead bodies. I picked out the shrooms and prawns, avoiding as much of the broth as possible, and begrudgingly paid my $11 tab.
OVERALL:
If the soup is any indication, don't even think about stopping here (but granted I'm judging and entire restaurant on one bowl of very, very, very bad soup). -
Review from Shushan T.
Berkeley, CA
12/21/2011
The food isn't that spectacular. The service is horrendous. I went to dine there alone one evening and the servers didn't even care to take my order or give me a water re fill. On another occasion i called in to place an order for a pick up and the person that answered the phone told me that my entree doesn't come with rice. What??? An entree at a thai restaurant that doesn't come with rice?? When i tried to clarify what i just heard; she confirmed her response and said "do you want rice or not" in a very rude manner. I wont be eating at this restaurant ever again. They need to treat their customers better.
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Review from Rosh E.
San Leandro, CA
10/13/2011
It's such a cutesy location, no joke. You walk up the stairs and its like a tree house. LOL idk if i described that well enough or if it even sounds cute, but when you go you'll understand what I am talking about.
Finding parking is probably the only issue, other than that the price is reasonable and the food is delish (: I love their choice of dishware too haha. the little cups they have for water is super cute too. If you go for dinner its a really intimate setting if you ask me. The service is great too!
A must go if youre in Berkley! -
Review from Alex K.
La Jolla, CA
11/20/2011
The best Thai food in Berkeley. The next best is Thai House.
The crowd is mature and cheerful. The atmosphere is intimate, location and view excellent. Try to be seated by the window on the balcony. The service nice and speedy.
The food is the best I've had. I took three of my friends there and they all agree. I especially like the appetizer chicken SA-Tay with peanut souse, the coconut soup with chicken and mushrooms (number 15). It's so filling, more like a souse than a soup, and I always only finish only half. I tried the lime beef appetizer, and it's amazing too. Oh, and don't forget their amazing Thai iced tea.
One of my top three places at Berkeley, along with Mint Leaf and Gypsies. -
Review from Barclay W.
Santa Ana, CA
7/12/2011 1 Check-in Here
My friend took me here because she swore that this was her favorite Thai food. She lives in the Gourmet Ghetto of Berkeley so I was like SWEET! I love Thai food so much.
The decor was really interesting and there was a fun vibe to the place. I mean you can buy a baby coconut to drink out of. How interesting.
I ordered the pad thai which is my usual favorite. When it came it looked so good and I was excited to dig in. When I did I almost cried. I almost cried because there was no flavor. NO FLAVOR! WHAT! This is a Thai place! Flavor should be punching me in the mouth. Sadly it tasted like eating warm bland. I wanted some spice and some texture but nothing was there. I left with my head held low.
If my friend offered to take me back I would say no, let us try the place next door. Yes there is a Thai place next to this Thai place. -
Review from Leslina E.
El Cerrito, CA
2/3/2012
Decent Thai food, not bad and has a better vegetarian selection than other places we've been to. I would go again.
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Review from Gene G.
Chicago, IL
9/22/2011
I recently moved to within one block of Cha-am, and hadn't gotten a chance to try it because of the many other incredible food options in the neighborhood. My girlfriend and I got delivery tonight, and the result was not pleasant.
We ordered the Pad Thai and the Pad See Ew with chicken. The Pad Thai was kind of odd -- the noodles were bright orange for some reason (which I've never seen), and it had a far-too-intense sourness to it. The flavor just wasn't there. The best I can say is that it was not inedible. But I didn't want to eat it, so it ended up in the garbage. You should know: I'm not a picky eater at all. My girlfriend jokes that I'd eat pretty much anything. But this wasn't something I wanted to consume.
The pad see ew was not terrible, but we didn't enjoy it. The flavors tasted bland, and there was not nearly enough sauce in it, so it tasted dry. The vegetables were sparce and the chicken was chewy. Again, not inedible, but nothing pleasant.
I can tell other people have thought this place is OK, so perhaps they are just inconsistent. Or, maybe they were just not on their A-game for take-out. Still, it won't be a repeat. There's too much good stuff in the Gourmet Ghetto to eat anything except awesome food. -
Review from Jenny T.
San Jose, CA
5/21/2011
3.5 stars actually.
The first time I came here, I was quite surprised. This restaurant is hidden in a little corner, and I honestly didn't even know that this place existed. Both times I've been here, I've ordered the pad thai. The portions are just about right; not too small and not too much at the same time. It's definitely enough to satisfy your cravings. The thai tea was also good as well. While it's further than the other Thai restaurants around Berkeley, I wouldn't mind coming here again. -
Review from Lily C.
Sunnyvale, CA
9/6/2011
I've always loved Thai food and I thought this would be a great place for it just by looking at the decors and stuff. But meh, it's really not that impressive.
First of all, no one was there to seat customers. The bf and I had to wait there by the door for quite a while with another group.. Probably cause they were really busy and short-handed.
And the food wasn't so good either. We got an eggplant dish and chicken curry and pad thai. The eggplant was a bit too salty to our taste, the chicken was overcooked, and the pad thai was way too soggy. I've definitely had better thai food than that. Don't think I'll go back. -
Review from Henry T.
2/27/2011
Food came out pretty quickly and was just okay. It wasn't special nor was it bad. You can get the same tasting Thai food anywhere else in Berkeley. The place is a little overpriced for the quality of food, but the portions are decently sized.
Service could be better, but I'm not sure they really cared. One instance, my friend requested for a pair of chopsticks and waited patiently for about 5 minutes. He ended up having to call out for the waitress to get it to him. Her excuse was "sorry I got distracted." Yeah, okay. Anyway, the place is really small, and looks welcoming inside. There are heaters on the side for those cold nights!
PS. For you spicy-food lovers out there: I asked them to make my plate spicy, and I was actually able to taste it the spiciness (for those who don't follow my reviews--I LOVE spicy foods!)! Bravo! -
Review from Alice L.
Berkeley, CA
4/13/2011
The decor was similar to Thai House, high up in a wooden house. Water was served in silver bowls. My family ordered the deep fried pork rolls, appetizer #5, which tasted like regular egg rolls. All the appetizers are $7 which is pretty pricey for the small portions.
For entrees, the Panang curry was spicy and really hit the spot which we ate with an order of sticky rice. Rice has to be ordered on the side and you have a choice of white, sticky, or brown rice. The basil eggplant dish was quite fragrant; the meat it came with was rancid.
The pineapple fried rice came in a pineapple that was ripe and juicy, but the rice itself was bland. It had lots of components, including cashew, shrimp, chicken, but none of them blended together or added to the flavor. It was a ridiculously small portion of rice for $13.
We ordered two pan fried noodles dishes, the Pad Khee Mao #54 and another variation #53 with pickled cabbage. They both tasted bland even though the noodles were nice and chewy. I normally don't notice the tiny strips of meat, but everyone commented on how the pork/beef that we ordered with the two dishes respectively were as tough as nails. -
Review from Elisabeth W.
Berkeley, CA
3/11/2012
We got takeout for the first time in a long time and were very disappointed. The meat was gristly, the curries were tasteless and the fried rice was very bland.
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Review from Megan K.
San Francisco, CA
9/23/2011
It'd been eons since I went to the Berkeley Cha-Am. During my college years at Cal, it was unquestionably the best Thai food place in Berkeley. I enjoy the SF location as well, but it doesn't hold a candle to this one. So when a friend suggested this place for dinner, I couldn't wait to return. Cha Am did not disappoint. We loved our dishes. It was hard to order b/c there was so many delicious looking things on the menu. I was happy they had brown rice (yes, I'm aware this is less unusual given it's Berkeley, but still). Good sized portions and reasonable prices make it all the more of a draw. Tucked into the foodie frontier, it's a nice mellow alternative to the nearby Cheeseboard or the crowds at the Epicurious Garden. Hooray for old standbys that continue to deliver (pun intended).
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Review from Andrea S.
Houston, TX
1/15/2011 1 Check-in Here
I've lived around the corner from this place for awhile now, and after hearing rave reviews from just about everyone I know, I finally had to try it. I went on a Sunday night at about 6:30, right before it started to get busy. We were a little nervous about how service would be since we arrived at the same time as a party of 13, and the place was filling up quickly, but are service was efficient and friendly.
I had the fresh spring rolls, which were some of the best I've had at any Thai restaurant. For an entree I had the Gaeng-Tofu, which could have used a bit more of a kick but other than that it was excellent. I could actually taste each of the different flavors. I appreciate that there are dishes such as this that offer fresh tofu, because most place limit vegetarians and vegans to fried tofu which I don't eat. Thank you Cha-Am! -
Review from Katrina A.
New York, NY
4/7/2011
With the boy's dad visiting from San Diego, we thought we grab dinner at Cheeseboard. Unfortunately they were closed, so we spotted this restaurant.
His dad loves Thai food, and he said that the Tom Kha soup was really good and that most restaurants can't get it right. The boy had the pad thai, and he said it was good, but I thought the portion was a lot smaller than the Pad See Ew I had. My dish was all right; not the best I've had. I do like that they added some kind of squash in it. My portion was huge...so I ended up taking the leftovers home, which lasted me for 2 servings. -
Review from Mari H.
Berkeley, CA
12/13/2010
Celebratory end-of-the-semester dinner with my French class at Cha-Am Thai Restaurant. Very accommodating, we made a reservation beforehand since our group was semi-large. Upon arrival, we were immediately sat, our table was practically waiting for us. Everyone seemed to love the metal ingrained overall interesting looking cups! My first impression: What a cute, quaint, little restaurant, with homey decor, interesting artwork, big windows, etc. hidden inside a treehouse? Win.
The service was very spot on, attentive, patient. I ordered the Cha-Am Noodles, which basically consisted of sautéed chopped chicken breast with spicy chili (yum!) and garlic sauce, topped with Thai herbs, sweet Thai basil, sliced green beans, and vegetables, served with steamed rice noodles beneath. This was quite an interesting dish because though it was noodles, it had a very soupy feel/consistency. I liked it! Tasted amazing, had just the right touch of spicy, the baby corn was a great addition, but I wasn't a big fan of the green beans. However, that's no disrespect for the restaurant or the dish, I'm just an overall green beans hater.
Great ambiance, great company, great food... Thank you, Cha-Am! I'll definitely be recommending and returning, two essential R's in the Yelp Universe. Four stars, count them, four well-deserved stars! -
Review from Bill H.
11/14/2010 1 Check-in Here
I had a terrible eating experience at Cha-Am. My date and I split an order of crab with papaya salad, along with a new Thai sake Cha-Am was featuring.
The papaya salad was great, but the crab was bad. Really bad. Awful. Fishy, fishy nastiness that eventually spilled over onto the salad.
We didn't finish the dish, obviously, but I wish I had turned the dish back to the kitchen to see if this was the exception or the rule.
However, that dish was enough of a bad experience to point me at the many, many Thai alternatives in the neighborhood before I go back.
Service was reasonable, and it looked like other patrons were enjoying their meals. -
Review from Ruth R.
1/3/2011 1 Check-in Here
My friends and I were looking for a good, more ethnic place for dinner, and my sister mentioned Cha-Am and told us we should try it out. Once we got there I realized that I've passed by the restaurant like more than a thousand times.
I ordered the Pad Thai, which i always get, because it's usually always good. It was really good, i ordered it with shrimp and was very satisfied. My friends too seemed very happy with their choices. The price was also pretty reasonable. If i'm in the mood for thai, and in the general area, I will definitely go back. -
Review from Dave Y.
8/4/2011
I think dinner might be better at this place than lunch. For one, I don't usually like it when the rice and food are served on the same plate cheap Chinese food combo-style, and they do that for lunch here. But the food is quite good here. The restaurant itself is also really fun, kinda feels like a tropical tree house. The staff is also really friendly.
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Review from Wendy L.
Berkeley, CA
9/12/2010
Put bluntly: go here over Dara (which is next door)!! The food and service are both much better, and Cha-Am offers much more character and ambiance. I came with 3 of my friends and all of the dishes (2 curries and 2 sautéed entrees) we tried were distinctive and delicious. I hate it when restaurants serve a couple of different ingredients in a different sauce and call it a different dish. Fortunately, this was not the case here. Prices were reasonable and water is served in little silver cups.
They also have this one dish served in a pineapple that I've been "pining" (haha?) to try, as well as a coconut drink that is served in a real coconut. -
Review from neeru s.
Temecula, CA
11/1/2011
This is still my favorite Thai in the Bay Area and has been for the last 25 years. I've been veering away from the standard ordering of pad thai, green curry chicken, satay and basil chicken and trying more of their daily specials. They just simply amaze me.
I wish they didn't have so many steps to climb to get there becuase it's hard on mom to climb them. -
Review from Krystie M.
10/18/2010
After hearing great review from friends, I was very excited to try this place, but unfortunately I was a little disappointed with the food :(
ATMOSPHERE
This place earns 4-5 stars for atmosphere and ambiance. It's such a cute, cozy, and quaint Thai restaurant hidden in the form of a treehouse! The cute Christmas lights and big windows make it a great date spot (in fact, my friend and I saw a couple on a blind date while we were there).
The service was decent; nothing spectacular but not bad either. They serve you water in silver metal cups, which resembled rice bowls. I was very tempted to scoop my rice into the "cups," but refrained from doing so to avoid looking like a tourist.
FOOD
We tried:
1) Papaya salad with shrimp
2) Beef with eggplant, basil, bell peppers, carrots, and baby corn
3) Red curry with chicken, basil, bell peppers, eggplant, and onions
It was my first time trying papaya salad and I thought it was pretty good. It was flavorful (in my opinion) and they weren't skimpy with the shrimp. However, my friend who has more experience with papaya salad said that it was mediocre. I did wish that it was spicier; it actually lacked any spicy factor despite the menu stating that it had "spicy lime vinaigrette."
The beef with eggplant dish didn't taste very Thai. It was very soy sauce heavy, which doused the entire dish. There also wasn't enough beef, which was a shame.
The red curry wasn't as flavorful as other red curry that I've tried before. The chicken was good, but a little plain and not so tender. I thought the vegetables in the curry were a little too big for the dish and the overall taste of the curry was bland.
Overall, this isn't my favorite Thai place in the Bay, and you can definitely find better Thai food in Berkeley for cheaper. The only positive is the cute atmosphere, which can't be found at other Thai places in Berkeley. -
Review from Jeremy S.
4/30/2009
Quaint little mom-and-pop-ish restaurant in a funny wooden house. Water was served in cereal sized bowls, I was amused/confused and naturally had to ask our waitress whether they were meant for cleaning your hands... silly me!
The pad see ew was pretty delicious, but the pad prick pla meuk (squid sauteed with chili and garlic sauce) was too bland, I wouldn't recommend it. Our waitress was sweet and service was generally good. Not a destination spot, but a reasonable and inexpensive option when you're in this part of Berk. -
Review from Liz G.
Cambridge, MA
5/7/2007 ROTD 2/4/2008
I don't find Tobey Maguire attractive.
Most of the time, I don't really care whether I find Tobey Maguire attractive. But I just saw (or rather, got dragged to) Spiderman 3 (despite not having seen the previous Spidermen), so I had to spend like 3 hours not really understanding what was going on and hoping somebody attractive would wander onto the movie screen, to no avail.
Cha-Am kind of reminds me of Tobey Maguire. I don't understand what everyone else likes about it.
The garden surrounding the restaurant is pretty cool, and the service is always pleasant and helpful. Kind of like Tobey Maguire is young, reasonably physically fit, and bearing no immediate physical flaws.
But Tobey Maguire isn't very exciting to look at, and the food here isn't very exciting to eat. The last time I ate here, we got an appetizer that, in terms of taste and texture, was not much different from the egg rolls I used to get at the mall (although I'd imagine the ingredients were fresher). The two entrees we ordered were similarly unimpressive. The spicy tofu dish was not particularly spicy (and this is coming from a white girl who grew up on egg rolls from the mall!), and the tuna was dry and overcooked. I did enjoy the green curry with some of the veggies from the tuna dish, which may bode well for other curry entrees on the menu, but my previous memories of the place are lackluster as well.
There's better food to be had in this neighborhood, and there's better Thai in Berkeley. AND there are hundreds of better-looking actors out there who could have played Spiderman. -
Review from Holly F.
San Francisco, CA
2/19/2007
This unique place two stories above Shattuck Ave. near Cedar St. is perfect for dinner before a movie, a lazy night, or when the mood for Thai food strikes in the 94708-94710 area.
The service is very sweet, even when it's packed on a Friday night. A waitress takes your order, and like clockwork, brings out cold water in silver cups, and then your drinks. The dishes arrive soon after, and hot. Last Friday, I ordered green curry chicken and Stephen, duck over cabbage. Next time I will ask for the curry to be spicier. But Stephen's duck was delightful, delectable, fatty!
Their drinks are fun and look exotic. Stephen ordered coconut milk. It was served in a real coconut. After he finished the juice, he scooped and ate the coconut meat. Wow.
Sadly, we were too full for dessert. Next time!Listed in: North Berkeley Spots
