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Mon-Sat. 11:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Mon-Sat. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
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Summary: outstanding food, great service and really nice atmosphere.
The evening started at the bar drinking mojitos with my friend as we waited for our table to be ready. As we were discussing our views on medicinal marijuana, I look over her shoulder and I see fish swimming in a birdcage and started to question if I had smoked something earlier. haha She saw it too, so either we were both high or it was just a really cool looking fish tank: http://www.yelp.com/bi... -- you see it too, right?
Shortly after we were seated and ordered more mojitos, calamari and main courses.
The fried calamari was great. It wasn't your usual small calamari "oh's" that you get everywhere else. These were like fried calamari steaks with a sweet and sour sauce that you eat with a knife and fork. So good!
http://www.yelp.com/bi...
After reading the yelp reviews, I had to try the pumpkin curry and the people on here don't lie, it was amazing! Easily one of the best curries I've had and went really well with coconut rice.
Lastly, the service was great and the prices are reasonable.
Wasn't impressed, a little grossed out by the noodles with vegetable and tofu plate. Vegetarian doesn't mean tons of bad cooking oil taste...
The drink was nice though, great happy hour price!
Pumpkin Curry = gift from the heavens above! I hail from LA where Thai food is plentiful and this still goes down as one of the best Thai restaurants I've ever been to. The Volcano rice (I think that's what it's called is also nothing short of amazing).
AMAZING FOOD in this amazing city!
Pretty disappointing. The food here is really sweet tasting, and not very authentic . Hah the thai food in Walnut Creek of all places is better than this. You are much better off eating at king of thai noodle and saving a bunch of cash for drinks elsewhere.
They now have monkey to-go. This is great because sometimes your lunch hour turns into 2 hours if you try to eat at the restaurant. 1 item is 6.95, 2 is 7.95 and if you bring your own container you get 50 cents off. Just remember to bring cash since this service is cash only.
UPDATE: 4.22.08
OK, dinner last week was great. They've earned a star back with their garlic pepper…
Read more »
I go to Koh Samui all the time. Love the waiters, love the place for dinner with friends. It's a great place to take someone stopping by for a visit in the hood or to catch up with an old friend.
All the waters are excellent and I have quite a few favorites. I always find myself tipping 20% or more because they are usually so great. Frakly the neihborhood is developing quite a bit and there just are not that many restaurants with good good. Koh Samui is leading the pack.
All their drinks are awsome. Their wines are good. And--their deserts are all killer. The green tea desert is perhaps one of my favorites in the city period. it's awesome!
Only areas of improvments: Sometimes I'll try and do takeout lunch there and it'll be a bit problematic. Looks like they are doing some sort of lunch counter that is separate from the restaurant. I'll have to try it for take out.
Interestingly, most restaurants around here give you too much food. Koh Samui tends to have a little less.
Maybe better lunch specials for frequent buyers:)
Highly recommend:
-Appetizer platter (fresh spring rolls were just O-K tho. but the warm peanut sauce comes with it was delicious!)
-Pad Thai with prawns
-Aromatic Pumpkin Curry with chicken
-Firecracker dish
Don't forget order a drink! It comes with a little cute plastic monkey cup clip! i love this place not only because it's one block away from where I live but also I enjoy so much the friendly service and cozy environment. Not to mention reasonable pricing! Love it!!
Based upon what I had to eat and the service I enjoyed this gets top rating. My only complaint was too much lemon grass in the Tom Kar Gai soup but other than that perfect.
The broth in my soup was amazing. I wanted more of it and more and more! Then the Crying tiger Salad was out of this world. It was a lettuce and thai herb salad with lime spiced beef, red onions with an amazing lime vinaigrette that had a hint of fish sauce. I was having a Thai orgasm and I am a white boy!
My waiter was great! He was this very hip looking dude with tats, a nicely groomed beard and the most amazing blue eyes. Personality was just as amazing.
I have been to Koh Samui half dozen times and each time was good but this time was GREAT!
From the looks of the crowds they are doing a find job!
We came here on a whim when there was a 45 minute wait at the restaurant we intended to eat at. We pretty much picked it because it's called "The Monkey". The ambiance is really nice, another high-end Thai restaurant! Pricey but the food was good. We ordered fresh spring rolls, "bags of gold", a spinach duck dish, pumpkin curry, and mango beef. All the dishes were great. Also, the pumpkin curry comes in a pumpkin! The servers were all very friendly and attentive.
Nice decor! Mediocre food!
=)
pricey, tasty, small portions.
curry roasted duck over rice. red curry with nice spice and not too sweet. just right on the taste scale but really kind of a rip off on the amount of duck. I know I am not in Chinatown here but puh leeze. give me just a little more meat than three pieces. and leaving here after dropping $18 on the lunch special and a diet coke is a little outrageous. the lunch special also included an ap of your choice deep fried spring roll or a rice paper shrimp and pork roll. i chose the later and it had good flavor and a nice peanut sweet and tangy dipping sauce. definitely an expense account lunch spot.
very very good food. and run like a small business. unlike the new one in the neighborhood, won't offer lip service to them, that's more like a chain i think, with lamborghini driving owner who ignores his customers.
koh and the monkey has delicious food and unbeatable prices. will continue to go there to get my fix :)
great pad thai, but what you have to try is the mieng kum!!! just like in thailand!
wish their thai iced teas were better...
Thai is my new found favorite food.
Went here because I pass this place EVERY single day to get on the bridge to go East Bay. Every time I pass it, I say in my head "I have to try this place".
I found the perfect opportunity!!!
Decided to have dinner w/a friend and thought yes...I can finally eat here. Arrived at 5:45pm. The place was empty. The decor was very cute. A lot of light. The waitress was great.
I ordered to drink a Thai Kiss which was great!!! Since I'm not a big drinker I needed something sweet and boy it hit the spot. Though I couldn't finish it because I'm not a drinker, I did enjoy it. I decided if I was going to eat here, let me really try out the food so I ordered an app. I ordered the prawns wrapped in crispy rice paper. It was great! The dipping sauce was a little spicy but it was suitable for me. My friend chose the Tom Ka Gai which is a chicken and mushroom soup w/coconut milk. He loved it. For our entrees I had the Traditional Bangkock Pad Tai noodles w/Tofu. MMMM MMM MMM. I wish I had some now. My friend had the special of the day which was the Mignon over green beans w/brown rice.
Overrall...I was a very happy camper :)
Total for night around $86.00 w/o tip.
I would sooooo go there again!
One thing to keep an eye out for is there is only street parking. Be careful and make sure you have enough in the meter :)
Of course better than your typical King of Thai. But it wouldn't be the first to pop in my head if I was craving for Thai food.
YAY! Happy hour. I had to get dropped off to make the 7:00 mark for my gin and tonic( $3) while the bf circled for parking.
We came here to attend 3 friends' birthday dinner. NOw... when the waiter comes out with chocolate cakes WITH a candle, aren't those suppose to be comp?Especially when we didnt' request it! When we saw it on the bill, SHADY.... might as well charge us for the candles too.
I came here twice -- both times for lunch on a weekday. I only came here because it's close to my office.
First off, the decor was pretty nice. I could do without the TVs, but I guess they come in handy at the bar during happy hour.
That's where my compliments end. The food was pretty bland. I ordered the seafood pad thai during my first visit and the chicken pad see ew during my second visit. While the presentation of the dishes were aesthetically pleasing, both dishes lacked flavor. I wanted to ask the wait staff for soy sauce, but they weren't very attentive.
Which brings me to another complaint -- the service. During my second visit, the service was subpar. Our waitress came to our table only once -- in the very beginning when she took our order. After that, we were basically ignored. In fact, I had to ask the food server for water since our waitress never came by and did not respond when I tried to get her attention. After we finished our meal, the food server promptly cleaned off our table. We then sat there at an empty table for a full 20 minutes, wondering if our waitress was going to come by with the check. Eventually, I had to flag her down to ask for the check and she gave us an annoyed look and did not address us as she put the check tray on the table. I left my Discover card on the tray and waited for her to come back so she could swipe my card. After 10 minutes, I had to flag her down again. When she came by, she rudely said, "We don't accept Discover." So, I replaced the Discover card with my Visa only to realize that she had already walked away. Couldn't she have waited a mere 2 seconds for me to give her a different credit card before leaving our table? Or, at the minimum, couldn't she have said, "I'll be right back." Nope. So, once again, we were sitting there wondering if she would ever come back or if we would have to get her attention again. After yet another 10 minutes, I had to flag her down so she could swipe my card. She was not very apologetic. Sure, the restaurant seemed busy as it was during the lunch hour, but I do not think that is an excuse for not being attentive.
Overall, the tasteless food wasn't worth the prices and the service was pretty bad. I was also annoyed that they did not give free refills of my iced tea! It wasn't even Thai iced tea -- it was just the plain, unsweetened iced tea. C'mon, they could give free refills for that. It's not like this was a fancy restaurant whereby the concept of "free refills" might damage their reputation -- I mean, hello, they had TVs on the walls on the ESPN channel right next to their fancy elephant tusks and Buddha statues. Pretty tacky if you ask me.
A and I have been talking about eating here for a while and finally made it out this past Saturday for lunch. It was really empty inside. I think only one table was occupied, but I guess it's more bustling on weekdays versus weekends. I didn't really mind because we didn't have to wait and had the full attention of our waiter.
The decor is really nice inside and the waiters are dressed in traditional Thai outfits.
The food was good. I guess on weekends they just have the dinner menu, even during lunch - because we totally had the dinner menu. Anyway, we started with the Emperor Steamed Dumplings and the Fresh Spring Rolls. I actually liked the dumplings a lot. The spring rolls tasted like they do at any other restaurant. Nothing stood out about them. For our main courses, we decided to order the Crispy Soft Shell Crab and the Pad Thai. I wasn't too impressed with the Pad Thai, but the soft shell crab was good. And luckily, the dish came with two, so we each got one to eat. After perusing through all the Yelp reviews for this restaurant, I had intended on ordered the Pumpkin Curry because of all the rave reviews, but I didn't. I'm just so not into the spicy and this one time I went to Osha Thai on a business lunch and ordered Pumpkin Curry and it was waaaaay too spicy for me. So there I was trying to discuss business, but my mouth was burning!!! I didn't want another one of those spicy incidents. But back to the point, I might try ordering the Pumpkin Curry if I come back.
I ordered skewers.. appetizers basically since I'm on a strict ass diet but nonethless it was flavorful yummy! I had the chicken and beef skewers..
The restaurant ambiance was perfect but the service wasn't that great. I'm not sure if the service lacked since it started to get busy but we ordered 2 items that we never got.. Jasmine rice and Thai iced tea..
I want to go back there to see if the service is really like that..
Overall: A
I've been here two times and each time has been spectacular. It's my favorite Thai in the city.
Food: A
Don't miss the chicken pumpkin curry and the honey roasted duck. If I'm ever on death row, the chicken pumpkin curry would be my last meal.
Decor: A
Trendy. How can you not like happy Buddhas?
Service: A
I felt like I was at a friend's house. Raffy is a sweetheart.
Value: A
Feeling this good usually costs me a lot more money!
Beautiful. Delicious. Reasonably Priced.
The red curry (it comes in a pumpkin!) is one of the best Thai dishes I've ever tasted. The Pad Thai is also very strong.
Absinthe does not go with thai food (I learned this the hard way), but they have some good s**t in that department, too.
Really enjoyed Koh Samui! They have options for people with many different eating preferences (vegetarian, gluten free, etc.), and the service was wonderful, and very kind! The prawns wrapped in rice paper which were an appetizer were to die for, a MUST-order! Any of the dishes seem like they would be delicious and Koh Samui seems to step it up a notch from the typical Thai restaurants within the city!
Great service and their pumpkin curry is amazing - it's so tasty and filling
My favorite Thai food restaurant.
The chicken pumpkin curry is the bomb.
I also like the fire cracker. It's sizzling hot plate of sea food. I tried the
The food here is great.Great Service
don't forget to order the appetizers
Had dinner here a while back on a Saturday night... we were able to get seats without a problem... When i heard the name, i kinda did a double take... "what monkey?" haha... but turned out to be a cute place for dinner...
had the pad thai here - which i almost never get. it was pretty good. we also shared the emperor steamed dumpling which was mixed chicken, shrimp with pickled ginger, ponsu sauce... yummy... almost dim sum like!
the dessert coconut ice cream is super good too! and they also had a full bar which was yummy...
Overall, it was pretty good and I would definitely come back here!
I love Thai Food!
This place had exquisite Thai. we had the mango beef and honey duck with the volcano rice and the sampler for two. The bill came out to be just under a hundred bucks, so basically 120 with tip. Good thing we passed on drinks... cause that's pretty pricey for Thai... But worth the enjoyment.
I particularly liked the Sample for twor, which was $22t, and the server took the time to tell us about each of the 6 items them. I particularly liked the Mango Salad in the center. My Beef was a bit overdone, and her Duck was very fatty and slightly overdone as well. The volcano rice was a nice presentation, as it comes served in a pineapple, with the rice pouring out the side like lava down a mountain. But unlike a traditional Pineapple Fried Rice Thai dish... which is sweet and retains the Pineapple flavor... this dish had a lot of yellow curry seasoning. It did however have a load of sea food in it, and was $15 Ala cart.
I was also a bit disappointed that they did not have Nam Tok beef salad on the Menu, and only had a pork version of it.
But the best part of the meal was the Tam Kha Gui coconut soup appetizer. it was very rick and rick with a nice taste of sweet and hot Thai spices, but agan, pricey @ $6 per small cup. At any other Thai place you get a big bowl o it for $6.
I probably won't go back because it's a bit to she-she for me, and I like my Thai a bit more Native and a lot less expensive. Even though we did have a lot of food, it was at least twice as much as any other Thai place would have been, less the upscale ambiance and stuffy atmosphere. Despite that... the service was great.
If you're on a first date and you wana impress someone... take them here. But if you just want good and tasty modestly priced Thai this is not the place for you.
Named after one of my favorite islands in the world.
Tasty food, good service, and cool ambiance.
Bonus: owner is USF alumni.
this place is one of my favorite Thai spots a little expensive for lunch but great for dinner. Bag of Gold is my Fav, serve for lunch! Great Service, Great Food and Might use to Cater.
If you lived or worked around here..........definitely a 4 star. If you don't, like myself, then this is a 3 1/2 star restaurant. The food is average, the ambiance is nice, and the service was good. Overall..........it's just your typical Thai restaurant trying to be a little more eloquent by plating it nicely and having a full bar. The Cha'am of Thai food I say.
We had the chicken basil, fried pad Thai noodles(this is something different and actually tasty), and pad seew. I heard the curry was good. I would come back to order the fried flat noodles again because it is so different and also the curry.
I've been here probably five times over the past three years. I've always been unexcited by the food.
Going anywhere on a sunny day just seems to make a place better. I don't care if it's Westwood and the campus of UCLA or the slummiest ghetto ever.
Monday was my birthday and the sun was shining. Which meant that my birthday dinner at Koh Samui and the experience was better than would have been otherwise.
The food here is good. That's the plus side. Corn fritters, beef and chicken satay, imperial rolls, and veggie samosas started us off and all were delicious - especially the fritters. Each came with a nice sweet sauce loaded with cucumbers and carrots. Yum. For main courses, we split the koh tao (like a chinese chow fun with gravy), honey duck (soooo tender and slightly sweet), mango salad, pumpkin curry, and my personal fave, the soft shell crab (steeped in garlic and salt and soooooo wonderful over rice - it also came with a creamy chili sauce which accompanied the rice with a light spice and a terrific flavor). The mango mojito I had was also yummy.
The reason why this place isn't 5 stars is the service and the entryway. The elevation of this place is seemingly pointless as the navigation from the wheelchair ramp is cramped. And the service. Oy.
Do Thai restaurants have a requirement where their servers all have to be stereotypically thick accented Thai people? Also it took like 15 minutes for two cocktails. And I saw the waitress just shooting the shit with another server. Another mild annoyance was she asked how we were doing after half of each dish. Dude. Serve and check in with us in about a half hour...like every 5 minutes!
All in all I would come back here again. I just hope they recognize the deficiencies are NOT in the food. Keep up the AMAZING soft shell crab.
I was not impressed. I came here upon a recommendation from the concierge at the Marriot. We were out celebrating my birthday, and hadn't really put any thought into where to go for dinner. Since this was in our price range, we gave it a go.
The service was incredibly SLOW. Seriously? We got there about 9pm, and there was hardly anyone there. When the waiter asked if we needed a few minutes, I said yes, but he didn't come back for another 30 minutes. To top it off, he was virtually impossible to get a hold of! It was frustrating, especially since I had plans for later, and we were running out of time. We never even got a water refill. When we finished eating, I asked for the check and I watched him do a million other things before actually bringing it. GRR. I swear we ended up leaving close to 11 pm.
Overall.. they did give me a complimentary cake and mango icecream for my birthday. The mango ice cream tasted light and fresh, definitely a nice dessert, but I wasn't a fan of how heavy the chocolate cake was.
The mango mojito was amazing. The food was O.K. It was nicely presented... however, I wasn't a fan of the crispy tofu (I don't know how you can miss with that).
I don't think I'd come back -- solely because I'd like to get my food in a timely manner.
Definitely not a restaurant I would venture to for a date or any other special occasion. Sure the decor was nice, there was a nice bar setup and the food was decent... but nothing about this restaurant stood out to me.
Besides that I felt like I had to wait for EVEEEERYTHING. Ordering took forever. The coke that they gave one of the guests at my table was out of syrup and it was hard to get my busy waitresses attention to switch it out. I don't even think she came by our table once to check up on us and ask us if we needed anything the entire dinner.
At the end of the meal she asked us if we wanted dessert. Me not wanting to wait any longer I said no. You would think common sense would be to bring the bill but she kept serving other tables, bringing their orders and taking orders. She could've at least dropped the bill to us before doing all of that. Service was definitely thumbs down. If you insist in eating here because you work or live around the neighborhood... I suggest you give yourself a significant amount of time.
And if you want suggestions on the food... I would see the sea bass in green curry was not bad. I also ordered the sampler appetizers... that was ok. Not anything to salivate over... I had better thai food.
eh... the lunch food was okay... small portions and over priced. The Sampler Platter was the worst deal ever!... you 5 or 6 different items on a plate and they're each smaller than the size of a child's palm.. but this plate will cost you $12!!! OMG! Its highway robbery! they should really say on the menu... in parentheses (these are really small foods and you're totally getting ripped off! so order on you own risk!) I feel violated! and $21 later, I'm still hungry!
eth, my Dad, and I were in the mood for some Thai and checked out Koh Samui & The Monkey in SOMA. It's a modern, chic Thai restaurant; concrete walls with bright green paint blended with a rich assortment of Thai decorations ranging from large statues of traditional deities to elephants and monkeys . The food was good, there were plenty of choices but not not an overwhelming amount. We started with some stuffed mushrooms which hit the spot and then really enjoyed our entrees: a delicious pumpkin chicken curry, a seafood clay pot, and a spicy grilled salmon dish. Service was friendly and attentive from start to finish making this is a solid experience, I definitely plan on going back and trying more of the menu . Oh, and it's SOMA, so parking was quite easy.
My favorite Thai restaurant in the world.
I love the yellow curry, pad thai, spring rolls with awesome peanut sauce and thai iced tea!
We ordered online because, regrettably, our address fell out of the website's listed delivery range. Our food was ready really quickly, but was still hot and tasted fresh (minus the pad thai) after we picked it up, drove home and tucked in.
We ordered:
fried corn puff thingys with cucumber sauce (OMGWTFSOGOOD)
imperial rolls (pretty tasty)
pad thai with chicken (fine, a little dry)
prawn with cashews (perfect, but I wish I had ordered a side of rice to go with it)
Final Thought: A little pricey for portion sizes and I'm bummed they won't deliver to me but overall Yay! I'm a fan.
3.5 Stars. I seriously looooove Thai food, and I know where to get it cheap AND tasty. I'm sorry, but if I'm going to pay $12 for Pad Thai, it better be out of this world...like orgasmic...and a lot of it....but this place disappointed. If I were a guy and knew what blue-balling felt like, that would be it.
The place was completely empty when we got there for Saturday lunch. And we proved our theory that only Asian places are open on holidays. They never rest.
The Thai Iced Teas and Coffees were really good. I'd definitely go for the Pumpkin Chicken Curry again (though it was $16!). It is beautifully presented in a hollowed out green-pumpkin shell, and the insides were so yummy. The Pad Thai disappointed and was a bit bland. The Grilled Bangkok Chicken BBQ was juicy but a bit too sweet. The Tom Yum Kung soup was not yum. It was so sour tasting or tangy or somethin'!
This place is just not worth the value. It is a nice little space upstairs w/ a lot of open windows, but other than that, I think our money could've been MUCh better spent elsewhere.
I have worked near this restaurant for almost 5 years, on and off. It's my go to place when I don't know what to eat. Additionally, they have a great online ordering system that keeps me working and efficient as I place my lunch orders.
For later dinners, have them delivered! :-) Pumpkin Curry, sweet rice, and throw in something exciting. I can say, I am a fan.
They also have ttly comped me when they messed up my order, which I appreciate.
My friends and I were actually hoping to try some chicken and waffles at Farmer Brown and the Little Skillet but ran here once we saw the line...
First of all, parking is a PAIN during lunch hour on a weekday. That's what the -1 star is for... Actually, let me rephrase that. There is ample street and lot parking... $12 flat rate for the lot (I don't remember the hourly rate but I think it was something ridiculous) or meters that only give you 5 minutes per quarter. There goes my lunch money!
The restaurant itself is cute. Good ambience. The waiters are friendly and helpful and didn't make us wait an hour.
The food was yummm. They have lunch specials too, which were about 13 to 15 dollars for an entree and an appetizer. Not cheap, but not over the top. I would definitely come back again... but prob not for lunch, just because it's nowhere close to where I work and I wouldn't want to deal with parking again.
Decent but this is SF and there are so many options.
20% off (excludes grocery…
Neighborhood: Lakeside
10% off of 6 bottles of Wine
Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: SOMA
Category: Thai
Neighborhood: SOMA
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