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Foster (Purple, Evanston Express)
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I give you 5 stars just because of the hilarity of the one time I've ever been to Ruby of Siam. I have a large Indian friend who prides himself on his ability to consume SUUUPER hot foods.When the server asked us how hot we wanted our dishes, this crazy asked for super Hot. The server looked at him, snickered and walked away. HEEHEEE
let's just say, my friend his tummy was not happy with him for the next week.
Anyways, when I was in the restaurant, the table next to us looked like they were having an awesome feast! Lots of fishes, all with their heads on, and other delicious foods! Totally Authentic place!
Like its sister in Skokie, Ruby of Siam has a great diversity of dishes and delivers on most of its promises. Especially good are the sauces for appetizers (and the appetizers themselves); you could do a main course of the pot stickers and/or the crying tiger, period! (Why yes, I have, thanks for asking... *uncomfortable cough*... moving on....)
Try anything - the menu is quite complete and largely good. You'll find the flavor profile to your liking on a few orders and find your "groove" here. Don't forget to get at least a small tom yum goong or tom kha gai!
If you're driving between Chicago and Evanston or points north, this is a great place to stop and grab lunch. :-) Enjoy1
This is place is the place to go on one of the weeknights after work or school. It's very relaxing and group-friendly place.
The portions are huge!!! Pad See-Ewe is delicious and the Panang Curry, too. The Thai Ice Tea there is among the best I have had.
They also offer delivery and take out. It's highly recommended on one of those cold winter nights that you have to study but too hungry to begin. Just give them a ring!
I went to school here about 12 yrs ago, and this place was phenomenal back then. I would drive great distances to eat here, so I was really excited to move back to Evanston.
The food is still good, but not as good as it was 10 years ago. It's a bit too salty, and slightly higher priced. I've been to all of the Thai restaurants in Evanston, and I prefer Thai Sokhdee and Cozy now. However, this still a good place for Thai food, and Evanston is rich with good Thai restaurants.
The promise of a lunch buffet lured me in, and at $8.95 during the week, it isn't such a bad price to pay for limitless Thai food.
The good:
- Parking lot, though I probably should have walked here.
- The staff are really nice.
- They have iced jasmine tea.
- I never order fried rice but always want to eat it. At the buffet, there were TWO kinds of fried rice - one regular with beef, and one spicy with pork and green beans.
- A huge vat of tom yum soup at the buffet.
The bad:
- Yes they had iced jasmine tea, but when our server went to get a refill he discovered they were out of it and then we were just left with water. Sadface! I love my refills.
- The vat of tom yum soup that I was excited about was too sweet. I wouldn't really blame RoS because all the tom yum soups I've had in Chicago are too sweet and lacking in heat. In Asia I would have to ask for a side of white rice because my mouth would be in fire. Mmm food masochism.
- The rest of the buffet was just about average, which is sad because I was so excited. They had a tofu pad thai, a pork vermicelli pad see ewe, 2 fried rices, white rice, stir fry veggies, and a couple of meat dishes (broccoli chicken, ginger pork, etc). There was nothing wrong with what I ate. It just wasn't that great.
- What? No crab rangoon? Spring rolls? Veggie egg rolls? Fried tofu? Satay? No?
All in all, there was nothing wrong with lunch. I left feeling full and got to sample everything. I like variety! I think that the Thai Classic weekend buffet has completely spoiled me though, so if I were in the market for a great Thai buffet, I would definitely go there instead. I can't say much for ordering off the menu, but I am fiercely loyal to Cozy and Siam Pasta.
Pretty good place to eat especially during the weekdays for lunch as they have a buffet for $8.99. The food is pretty good, and the service is great as well.
One of my favorite Thai food restaurants in my area. I don't go out to eat as often, since I am picky about food and I don't mind cooking. So when I go out to eat, I have high expectations. Otherwise, I would just make them at home. When I go there, I like some of their dish a lot - the Panyang curry dish and also the Basil Chicken and their one bite chicken. I would just order the same dishes every time.
Can you say delisch?
I love, love, love the chicken curry! My sisters and I will without-fail halt our evening plans short on weekend nights just to sit and divulge in Pad Thai, tom yun soup, and dumplings!!!
If you're looking for genuine and legit dinning or takeout, you must run over and grab some Ruby!!
I have to disagree with Kid K. Ruby of Siam IS vegetarian/vegan-friendly. I called ahead to ask whether or not fish sauce could be omitted from their Pad Thai, and they said they'll gladly do it. Sweet. So I went to Ruby of Siam for dinner (and had a coupon with me - check your mail). It's just a stone's throw away from Foster station.
My friend and I shared/split the Yum Woon Sen (glass noodle salad with lime juice and hot sauce - delicious). I ordered the Lard Na (wide rice noodles with broccoli and brown gravy), minus oyster sauce and an order of Phad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) to go. My friend had the Tilapia with 3-Flavor Sauce. Naturally, I didn't know how it tasted, but my friend finished the entire dish. Ruby of Siam's food is better than other Thai restaurants in the area, but also a few dollars pricier. The portions are gigantic, so you get your money's worth. The Lard Na was lunch and dinner for me the next day.
The service is very polite and accommodating. Again, if you ask them to make a dish vegetarian (no meat, no fish sauce, no oyster sauce) they'll (try to) do it. It beats the Thai restaurants that already have everything pre-made. I'd be WARY of the curries though. Curry pastes are usually pre-made with fish sauce, shrimp paste, et cetera.
I haven't ranked all the Thai restaurants in Evanston, but Ruby of Siam's menu has more dishes than others and the flavors are as authentic as it gets in suburbia. How do I know? The chefs are Thai. (I was there until closing and saw all the staff.)
Ruby of Siam is awesome.
I went here a couple Saturdays ago with a friend and we both got an appetizer, an entree, and a beverage, and each of us paid like 8 bucks. The thai iced tea was DELICIOUS and my beef pad see ew was f'ing phenominal. Plus it, paired with the fried tofu, was easily 2 and a half meals. If I was going to be in Evanston more often, I'd hit this place up on a regular basis.
Also, I left my purse there and didn't realize it until almost 15 mins later. Yep, I'm a dumbass. When I called they said they were hoping I'd remember and had stashed it behind the counter for me. At least someone was looking out for my stupidity.
One thing: they didn't give us plasticware for our takeout order which was a problem when we reached our destination (the beach) so make sure to ask for it, or grab a set of chopsticks from the counter.
I went to Ruby of Siam tonight based on some reviews I'd read elsewhere
Lesson: don't stray from Yelp, even if UrbanSpoon has an iphone app. Ruby of Siam had a 91% approval rating and I was in the mood for thai.
I ordered the pad thai with chicken, which is a standard and also one of a few entrees listed as recommended on their menu. It was probably among the worst pad thais I've had: really overpowering lime flavor and far too sweet for my taste, plus the sauce seemed almost mayonnaisey (notaword!).
I'd probably give this place a second chance, but as my waitress delivered my food I asked her for a to-go box (trying to survive holiday weight gain by just automatically packing away half) and she rolled her eyes at me. ROLLED HER EYES at me. I've considered that I imagined this, since I was having a pretty crappy, pitiful day to begin with (Texas came in third to Oklahoma in the BCS even though we beat them by 10 points on neutral turf? Does God exist? Is he napping???) I decided that my mind wasn't playing tricks on me when I watched her blow off another table's request for to go boxes soon after.
This is just the world trying to tell me to leave well enough alone and stick with what I know: Tac Quick Thai on Sheridan in Wrigley. (http://www.yelp.com/bi...) Sorry, Evanstonians, I don't know what to tell you...
Best Thai food in Evanston. Their curries are good and they have a wide selection of food including some interesting appetizers like the One Bite Noodle that I haven't seen at the other Thai places in the area.
The entree prices are higher by a few dollars than the other area Thai restaurants, so so bear that in mind when choosing a Thai restaurant. For me, I'll pay the premium but as a result I don't eat here quite as often as I would like.
If you're craving for solid Thai food in Evanston, give this place a try. Some dishes I find to be a bit too mild and sweet, but you can always ask to make them spicier. My favorites are chicken salad, panang curry, rard nar, and sticky rice with mango (seasonal).
3 stars for the food, but 4 stars for their weekday lunch BUFFET(offered from 11am). It's one of the best deals around, and is definitely worth the price of $7.95/person, plus a 10% discount with the NU wildcard. They typically have two kinds of soup - veggie and chicken tom yum. The latter is my favorite, sweet and tangy. Then there are curries, stir fries, chicken/beef salad, fried rice, fried noodles, etc. For dessert, they typically have some cookies and the warm coconut milk w/beans and tapioca...very yummy.
Friendly service, clean and spacious setting, ample parking, fast delivery... Not sure about the Skokie branch, though.
Perhaps I am becoming jaded. While I found the food at Ruby of Siam to be edible, there was nothing that made me take much notice of it.
Let me back up to say that this is good food, not merely "edible," but it wasn't all that interesting. I ordered my food medium spicy and still found the spices overpowering the flavor of the rest of the food. Was that a carrot or a pepper? I don't know, I couldn't tell.
I would like to try more of the meals here.
My second favorite restaurant for Thai cuisine in the Chicagoland area. I work in Evanston and was looking for a great place to grab lunch.
There is a lunch buffet at a reasonable price, which most of the patrons are ordering. I, however, have a gluten sensitivity, which means I have to order off the menu. The cucumber salad and chicken pad thai here are both gluten-free items and the total with tax is about $12. There is enough pad thai and cucumber salad to save for tomorrow's lunch as well - so I have figured it is $6/meal.
Food is excellent. I think it's even better than my other favorite Thai place, Noodles in the Pot in Lincoln Park in Chicago. I can't quite make a decision yet.
The chicken pad thai comes with tofu and fresh veggies and it is pure perfection. I love that the light sweetness of the cucumber salad is accented with hot Thai peppers!
Service is great, wonderful location... I'd drive up here on the weekends to have lunch or dinner because it's just THAT good.
I second PJ K. that Ruby of Siam is the best Thai restaurant in Evanston. The red curry is delicious and the spiciness is sinus-clearing good! The pad see ewe is also nothing to sneeze at. I've never been around for their buffet, but I imagine that could be a pretty good deal.
Though I agree that RoS is unfortunately located in that weird no-man's land that my boyfriend aptly referred to as Bizarro Evanston, it was always convenient for me during my senior year, because I lived a mere block away on Garnett Street back in the day. (The epic dilemma was always: Chicken Shack or Ruby?)
Definitely one of our favorite Thai spots in the Chicago land area. The menu is extensive(read almost overwhelming), and we always have to tell the quaintly dressed wait person for a little more time on deciding. Some of the portions are ridiculously huge. We will sometimes get the fried tofu with ground chicken on top as an entree even though it's listed as an starter. Spice levels are sometime inconsistent, we've had to cut back a level on the soup but still get entrees at full spice. Well, full spice without having to ask for anything special. Haven't been disappointed with anything we've ordered. Haven't made it to the lunch buffet yet.
As I'm not from up here I like the fact that is has a parking lot and a crazy store next to it. Location is actually nice for me, as I sometimes can't stand the pretentious college kids and snobby white trash that live in this area.
My favorite dish is Khao Soi. It is both savory and sweet, and the portion is generous. I like that you can choose the type of meat/seafood/tofu you want in your dish, as well as how spicy you want it. The servers recognized me after just two visits, and they even remembered what I like to order! That's great service!
We ordered from Ruby of Siam because Thai Sookdee doesn't deliver and Joy Yees was closed for construction.
It really wasn't terrible, but I also wasn't terribly impressed. The food here is WAY too expensive. Almost all entrees are around 13 dollars, which is about twice as much as they should be. The food was a bit messier and greasier than necessary.
The most disappointing, aside from the price, is the lack of specifically vegetarian offerings. You can probably order things with tofu instead of meat, but why bother begging for an exception, when other Thai places have large veggie offerings or at least explicitly state the tofu option?
I ordered one of the few actually vegetarian things on the menu, an eggplant something, and it was fine, but not great, especially not 13 dollar kinda great.
I beg to differ - I really liked Ruby of Siam for a long time, until I discovered Thai Sookdee. And now there is no doubt in my mind which is better!
Ruby of Siam does everything very cutely, the dishes they bring the food in and the server's costumes, but there is just something about the food that doesn't quite satisfy me.
To add to that, the service leaves a lot to be desired! I ordered Bubble Tea, the waitress got it down wrong, brought me the wrong thing, when I told her she told me I was wrong! I had 7 other people on the table and they all knew what I had ordered. Making mistakes is human, but not accepting them is definitely not the way to go!
Everything said and done, I still will go back here once in every few months, although I don't quite know why.
My recommendation although is Thai Sookdee!
As I heard from one of my Thai friends, this place is very authentic compared to most. I'm not Thai, but everything here tastes really good to me- the main dishes and the desserts too (try the mango rice!). The only part that I don't like about this place is the walk. It's in a sketchy area away from most things, but if you have a car, hit this place up all the time!
I write this review for the benefit of vegans and vegetarians.
Ruby of Siam routinely advertises in the Northwestern student paper.
Their advertisement invariably includes the phrase, "Vegetarians -- any dish made vegan." The thing is, vegetarian dishes are very scarce on the menu. When I asked for a curry without fish sauce the waiter could not comprehend my request (language barrier). I therefore have little confidence in their oft-printed claim that dishes will be made vegan. This happened both times I visited the restaurant (hey there was a good coupon).
Portions and price -- not too good. Pre-eat.
Probably Evanston's best Thai restaurant, which is no doubt what keeps them in business despite an unfortunate location in a strip mall a couple of blocks from the "bustle" that is downton Evanston. Good simple food, served in generous portions, by a staff that is friendly and helpful. Not the best Thai food in the Chicago area, but a nice little restaurant that deserves some recognition.
I went with a friend, and we had the green curry with tofu and one of their whole fish dishes.
Thai restaurants generally have a whole fish as the piece de la resistance, or something to that effect. Here, it was tough, incredibly salty (I couldn't choke any more than half of it), and didn't seem especially fresh. Maybe I'm just harsh because this is often my favorite thing about going to a Thai restaurant, but I'm never going back. To be fair, the green curry was reasonably good, although they overcook their firm tofu, which seems silly to me.
Ruby of Siam is pretty damn yummy. Especially that eggplant dish I can never remember the name of. Be warned, though, they like to throw in the spice. Had some take-out there that was almost unpalatable - but now we now to mention "mild mild mild" when ordering!
This is based on one visit to the lunch buffet. No pad see-ew in the buffet? The coke was really diluted and very carbonated. The pad thai was okay, as was the fried rice. The rest of the dishes had beef that tasted like cardboard (beef/brocolli). No bueno.
Evanston, IL
Category: Thai
Skokie, IL
Category: Restaurants
Neighborhood: The Loop
Category: Thai
Evanston, IL
Category: Ice Cream & Frozen Yogurt
Evanston, IL
Category: Indian
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