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Sabuy Sabuy Thai Cuisine
Category: Restaurants Thai Thai [Edit]
5231 College Ave(between Broadway & Clifton St)
Oakland, CA 94618
Neighborhood: North Oakland
(510) 653-8587
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Ambience:
- Casual
- Has TV:
- No
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
192 reviews for Sabuy Sabuy Thai Cuisine
Review Highlights
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"...rolls are so good as well as the yellow curry chicken." In 7 reviews -
"PS The coconut ice cream is to die for." In 6 reviews -
"Love their Tom Kha Gai Soup." In 6 reviews
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192 reviews in English
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Review from Bobby N.
4/30/2012 1 Check-in Here
DAAAAYUM!!!! This is seriously a gem of the East Bay. The place is quaint and small but powerfully delicious!!
One of cooks came out (Coco), which offered a variety of dishes for a fixed price. We must have had 4 or 5 dishes with dessert at the end of the night. We had some delicious FRIEND RICE, EGG PLANT, FISH, PORK BALLS, and some SECRET dishes not on the menu. It was absolutely MOUTH WATERING!!! He joked with us the entire night and made sure we were cared for. I have NEVER EVA EVA EVA EEEEEVA had such an amazing experience and a selection of dishes offered anywhere else besides Sabuy Sabuy! This totally beats the usual phad thai order. Geeeez, I'm afraid that I will not find a place better than this. -
Review from Faye H.
Emeryville, CA
4/16/2012
After living in the area for 7+ years, I'm ecstatic to have finally found my go-to Thai restaurant that is not only authentic, delicious but also economical to boot! Been to MANY 'modern Thai' restaurant in the area but their food is unremarkable and just plain lack-luster.
Sabuy Sabuy's dining area is not even leveled, decor looks tired and dated. But seriously I couldn't care less because their food is amazing! Their Tom Yum soup came out bubbling hot in a clay pot, fragrant deliciousness that instantly warmed me up on a chilly night. Green curry with chicken was milky with the right amount of spiciness. I will return to this resto for many years to come. -
Review from Jenn C.
Updated - 2/15/2012 26 Check-ins Here
It's been 5 years since my original review, so it's time for an update! This is hands-down my favorite neighborhood restaurant - it's my "go-to" for Thai food. They are consistently delicious and if you ask for spicy, they give it to you!
My favorite dishes include Crispy Tofu - instead of fat blubbery chunks of tofu like some places give you, you get these thin, crispy, almost pressed before fried, triangles - they go great with the peanut dipping sauce. They have excellent yellow curry, all the curries are quite good. The Pad Prik Khing (spicy green beans) is great with tofu and the sauce is delicious and spicy and complex. The Pad See Ew is delicious - wide, smoky noodles (with tofu!) with delicious flavor. The Pra Ram is also very good - on a bed of spinach and cabbage (varying seasonally).
Hands down, my favorite dish is Pad Asparagus - good with fresh or fried tofu - and it's not always available, depends on the availability of asparagus (the ladies now tell me when I go in for lunch if it is available!). Pad Broccoli is also very delicious if you are loooking for something more wholesome - the broccoli is bright green, not ever overcooked, and the seasonings are not overpowering the natural tastiness of the vegetable.
The coconut soup is really excellent - and they are happy to make all the dishes 100% vegetarian, just tell them to leave out the Nam Pla (fish sauce).
If you go here for lunch - they have great deals for lunch plates, all around $8 for rice plus your choice from the lunch menu (like pad asparagus - yum!).
It was here that I first had Thai iced tea with lime, hold the milk - at the suggestion of one of the ladies who work here. This is now my most favorite drink and I ask for it in all Thai restaurants - more flavorful (and fewer calories) than regular Thai iced tea with the over sweet condensed milk.
Sabuy Sabuy features a great little outdoor patio which is every enjoyable on a sunny afternoon - the high fence protects it from any westerly breezes and the afternoon sun warms it up nicely.
The people who work here are genuinely nice - but there always seems to be a language barrier beyond ordering your food, so please be patient with them and let them do what they are good at!
Parking might be an issue - as the restaurant is right on College & Broadway, try going around the back and parking in the neighborhood - you can walk up the sidewalk that runs up between back side of the restaurant and the parking lot for Wendy's from Hemphill. Coronado is one way toward Broadway on the west side of the restaurant, but if you go down College, take the first turn to the west (downhill/toward downtown) onto Clifton, then onto Desmond - you can go onto a little one-block long street called Hemphill which is right on the back side of the restaurant in a cute little neighborhood of Craftsman cottages for non-metered street parking.Listed in: Vegan Friendly Asian…, Jenn's Favorite Vegan-Friendly…
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/3/2007
This place is a really good, homestyle restaurant that just happens to be Thai. They have very good… Read more »
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Review from Ingrid J.
San Francisco, CA
5/23/2012
Next door to my new favorite laundromat is my new favorite Thai place.
I shudder at anyone giving this place less than four stars. I'm guessing they're just picky little a-holes for whom nothing is ever good enough. (May the a-hole's karma bite them in the ass, in the form of a flat tire on the Bay Bridge, during rush hour. Just something bad like that -- I'm not picky.)
The food is excellent. Fresh, reasonably priced, tasty. We had some staples of Thai food takeout in the U.S., and some experimental things I had not had before. Now we're addicted to their Thai toast -- I think about it and drool. The only negative was that they forgot to give us the rice I ordered. Not a big deal, in the grand scheme of things.
BUT WAIT: I was doing laundry next door, and parked out front. I drove the food home to the husband and Baby Lucifer, ate with them, and then went back to the laundromat to check my dryers. I parked out front again. The nice lady FROM the restaurant FOLLOWED ME INTO THE LAUNDROMAT, apologized PROFUSELY about the missing rice, GAVE ME THE RICE, and a Thai iced coffee as a bonus (it was delicious, of course).
Where are you going to get that kind of service? Where? I can count the places on one hand. One finger, maybe. In Oakland? In Rockridge?
If you don't like this place, I don't like you. Best run off before I put sugar in your gas tank. Don't pretend I won't do it. -
Review from Laurence W.
Oakland, CA
4/13/2012 1 Check-in Here
Sabuy Sabuy gets credit for being at least *slightly* different than the other cookie-cutter Thai places out there. For one, the space is cute, and easily accessible. But more importantly, they don't f*ck around when it comes to spicing things up. Most Thai places are 90% sweet and 10% spice, but Sabuy Sabuy does a little better in getting the ratios right. Like other Thai places, I wish they didn't feel the need to overcook their meats, but that's pretty par for the course these days. Still, I'm a fan -- the food is good and spicy.
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Review from Semirah S.
Alameda, CA
3/30/2012
What can I say Great Food. I am writing this review to praise the...
Green papaya salad, this was the freshest most flavorful green papaya salad I ever had, super juicy and spiced to your preference. I tried their red curry very good as well. Well definitely go back for the salad and try new things. -
Review from Jenny Lei B.
San Leandro, CA
1/24/2012
I love this place!!!!
This has gotta be the best Thai restaurant I've ever gone to for some pad see ew and "loas style" pad thai. But it's gotta be cooked by the right chef...mrs. Phanthavong (:
You won't know if she's working or not but you can def taste it from the food.
The place is pretty small and it does get crowded during dinner but there's an outside patio with heaters. But even if it does get busy...this place is worth the wait. -
Review from Jirat J.
Berkeley, CA
1/18/2012
I gave this place two chances because I think most restaurants deserve two chances.
I had Gai Gra Pow and the chicken was inedible. It tasted like it was over-thawed in the microwave. The steamed rice was extremely mushy.
Today, I tried the Pad Thai. I usually don't like to waste food and will try to eat most of it even if tastes a bit below average. I ate about 12 small bites and threw the rest away. The noodles were mushy and the flavors weren't complex like how Pad Thai should be. It tasted like it was seasoned with 3 ingredients (vinegar, sugar, and ketchup) and called it Pad Thai.
Never again. -
Review from Anna M.
2/8/2012
Haters need to suck it, Sabuy Sabuy is amazing. And, yes, I have been to Thailand.
Some of the best Pad Kee Mao I've had, and the Pad Seeuw is great, too.
My only caveat about this place is that they never make things spicy on their own, so be sure to ask for the "hot sauce"- an arrangement of chili sauces and my personal favourite, birds-eye chilies in briny, fishy liquid. -
Review from Alison P.
Hayward, CA
5/5/2012
For the life of me, I don't know why this place gets good reviews. I got some noodle dish with vegetables and chicken, mild. The only thing I could taste was hot. I didn't even eat half of it. Had it had some flavor (and more than four pieces of chicken), perhaps, I could have muddle through, but it was just too spicy. The servers were nice but they all came at once, one right after the other, right when we got our food, and then they didn't show up again until we were ready for the bill. And frankly, I really am put off by a face full of piercing when I'm eating. It's just so unappealing and gross. The interior was lacking, to say the least. I won't be back.
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Review from T A.
Alameda, CA
10/21/2011
Dear Sabuy Sabuy
I just wanted to let you know, I don't feel very special.
xox
The Duck -
Review from Brynn M.
Oakland, CA
11/1/2011 1 photo
Love this place!
Great food, friendly service and great little outdoor seating area.
Good for take-out too! :)
Really love the Red Curry with chicken, Pad Thai, Roast Duck and California Noodle! -
Review from Jamie L.
Oakland, CA
2/15/2012
Food is good (I recommend their curry selection) but is WAY too overpriced for the portions served... You also have to pay for the rice, which is kinda weird... I got the Thai Chicken Salad the other day for ~$8 and it was way smaller than a chicken salad I could have gotten for less than $4 at Trader Joe's :(
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Review from Christina T.
El Cerrito, CA
10/28/2011
I wanted a quick dinner on my way home from work close to my house and decided to stop at the first thai restaurant i drove past. The appearance of Sabuy Saby is not the most inviting neither is the service.
I walked in and was not greeted as the counter is infront of the door, when seated I took a look at the menu and was ready to order but the waitress never came back to my table. I had to get up and place my order at the front counter. I ordered vegetarian spring rolls, thai fried rice and thai tea. Overall unimpressed. The food came out pretty fast, but did not taste like thai cooking. No one came to my table after my food was served, I had to go to the counter again to get my check and a box. I love thai food, it is one of my favorite cuisines and Sabuy Sabuy came nowhere close to the flavors that I expect from thai food.
I was looking for good thai close to home, nonetheless I will continue my quest. -
Review from Dorsa B.
Oakland, CA
4/19/2012
Great hole in a wall place don't be fooled by the outside, I have been going here for the past 13 years, the food is amazing. Best curry dishes I have had in the Berkeley/Oakland area!
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Review from Ty T.
9/13/2011
Of the usual stop & go variety of rack and shamble Thai food places.. This cozy little lunch spot definitely operates at a higher level than most others. I come to every now and then because my studio used to be a few blocks away and so location-wise it was convenience and just made sense whenever I would get cravings for Thai food.
I enjoy eating my meals outside in their enclosed back patio seating, especially on a bright sunny day. The service is always really friendly and accommodating. The quality of the food is always consistently prepared each time I've come, and I am only able to gauge this because I usually order the same menu items, the coconut soup and the yellow chicken curry, and always with an thai-iced tea. I really can't find any negative things to say about this place, very good quality and taste for the value.Listed in: Shamefully Neglected
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Review from hansel s.
Oakland, CA
1/24/2012
Is this place associated with sabuy sabuy II and SS Jr?!?
If so, i can understand why theyve expanded; their food is legit!
Their food is better than thai food in thailand.
Its not too sweet, not too rich. The curries are not too thick or too watery. We've been here 5-10 times. We always order a pad thai or pad see ew and a meat entree, either a curry (red, green, massaman) or a special entree (fish once was a bit too sweet, but thats probably my fault for not ordering what i wanted and as leftovers, it was even better!).
I think their best specialty is their soups. Weve tried both their chicken-based coconut soup and their seafood ones. Very tangy (lemongrass?)...really opens up your taste buds. I dont have the menu in front of me, but their names are the standard ones younsee in every thai restaurant, tom ka gai and tom yum. Let me guess, "tom" means soup in thai...
The service is fantastic; a couple of miscues, but its once again probably my fault. I always witness a cadre of little old ladies coming out of the kitchen to check out the action out front, take a breather from the hot-ass kitchen, or take a tea break every now and then. When i see their faces, i know they put their love into every plate that comes out of the kitchen; i rarely get that feeling from other restaurants. They care; you can taste the difference. No cutting corners.
If this place is the original SS and the others are spin-offs from the owners, i cant see why we wont see an SS III and SS IV in the near future. If you do, dont over-extend; please maintain the level of your food right where its at.
By the way, the froo-froo thai-fusion restaurant half a mile down college that gets 100 times more airtime than sabuy sabuy, its a joke...cant hold a candle to this place. The other place might make it on the lists of Glitzy east bay foodie magazines and have better lighting and tableclothes, but the last time i remember, you dont get many calories from shiny reviews. Try SS; its legit! -
Review from Jacob W.
Berkeley, CA
8/3/2011 1 Check-in Here
I've eaten Sabuy Sabuy's food occasionally for years and years -- ever since they opened. I recall being much more impressed a looong time ago. Regrettably, our most recent take-out order was pretty bad, across the board. I can't really see going back.
FWIW, we ordered 4 dishes. If I had to pick a consistent theme, I'd have to say it was "pieces of meat pounded into submission and cooked beyond recognition." That went for the chicken satay, the green curry with pork, the pad kee mau, the tom ka gai... In each case, there was one-dimensional flavor coupled with thin, tough, tasteless, 3-millimeter-thin pieces of meat.
Sadly disappointing. At least it was all served with a friendly smile. Guess I'm back in the market for some decent, fresh-tasting Thai food. This wasn't it. -
Review from Brian J.
San Francisco, CA
2/10/2012
They're quick and delicious. When you don't want to cook this place makes a good option. It is really small inside. In my view its better to get it to go.
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Review from Stacy D.
Berkeley, CA
4/5/2012
The noodle salad is pretty random. Soggy pan-fried wide rice noodles, topped with huge chunks of iceberg lettuce and some stir fry of beef, tomatoes and carrots in Thai pesto sauce. I don't know what to make out of all this.
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Review from Anne Marie M.
Oakland, CA
8/5/2011 1 Check-in Here
Ignore the sketchy signage and enter for excellent food. While Sabuy Sabuy has excellent take-out, its also a cute little restaurant on the inside. It's a great place to eat if you have laundry next door.
Delicious Tom Yum, excellent curries-- yep, Sabuy Sabuy is as good as it gets. -
Review from Ireri L.
Oakland, CA
5/16/2011
I've been coming here since I was in High school because it was up the street (I went to Oakland Tech) and I always loved it. The price is very inexpensive and the plates are really big. I think one entree is a lot for one person or you finish it but you feel like your stomach's going to explode at the end.
I recently moved back to Oakland and visited this place again with old friends and it is still as good as I remember it! I love that when you say you want your food spicy they take you seriously! I love spicy thai food so this place gets 5 stars for quality flavor, price, and quantity. I've never had a problem with the staff, they've always been really polite and attentive.
Their thai-iced tea is delicious and huge, i love their pad kee mao and their curries are good too.
The place inside is nice and small but they also have a really cute patio outside and that's where I love to sit on a sunny day.
I missed this place alot and I'm so happy I'm back and their food is still great! =) -
Review from Kristen C.
East Bay, CA
3/9/2011 1 photo
Finally! A Thai place in Oakland that isn't too pricey and gives big portions!!!
Sabuy Sabuy is at the corner of College and Broadway and from the outset looks kind of run down. Unfortunately, it doesn't become more appealing to the eye as you enter. BUT it's redeeming (and most important) quality is the food!
Authentic thai dishes await you and the service is quick! I love when I can satisfy my growling stomach within minutes of ordering. So far I've had the pad thai, pad ke mao, and the yellow curry. I'd recommend them all!!! The dishes aren't naturally spicy here, so if you like a little sass on your plate, give 'em some Emeril and ask them to kick it up a notch! -
Review from Melissa M.
Alameda, CA
1/7/2012
This place is hella f****** good. That is all.
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Review from Kate L.
Oakland, CA
7/17/2011
I was hoping for better based on the reviews.
Had the Tom Yum, not the best I've had. Maybe I'll get it spicier next time? It just seemed a bit lacking.
I always get green curry chicken, and I was pretty happy with theirs. We just moved about 4 blocks away, so I am really wanting this place to be good.
I really like the outdoor patio. Some unwelcome wildlife ran across the bench I was sitting on, which kind of creeped me out, so I moved more towards the center of the space,
We had no problems with the service, it wasn't overly friendly, but people were there when we needed them.
3 stars for the potential. I feel like it could really go either way. I'll go back for the outdoor patio, the low prices, and the green curry. -
Review from Flowergirl K.
Woodland Hills, CA
1/17/2012
I go here for lunch at least twice a month. The food is great! My family and I are hooked on their noodle salad, which has thick pan-fried rice noodles, fresh lettuce, tomato, cucumber, choice of chicken or tofu, and a mild cilantro dressing, mmmm so good.
They have a beautiful outdoor seating area complete with fruit trees and umbrellas :) -
Review from Amy W.
Walnut Creek, CA
1/2/2012
Lunch service and menu was good. $13 for a Thai iced tea,roasted duck over spinach and rice and bowl of coconut chicken and mushroom soup. Really sweet ladies who run the place and nice decor. Will be back.
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Review from Jo-An R.
Oakland, CA
6/23/2011
My cousin highly recommended this play to me when I had recently moved here from hayward.
Love their Tom Kha Gai Soup! Extra spicy super rich coconutty flavor! -
Review from Richard M.
Oakland, CA
1/13/2012
I've gone here a few years, mostly for take-out and really like their food. It's always ready in 10-15 minutes, the food tastes great, I love the sauces they have for the shrimp rolls. I'm pretty much a regular at this point, and it's close to home.
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Review from Chris H.
Oakland, CA
3/14/2011
I love Sabuy Sabuy. It has a nice, warm, "neighborhood" vibe. On the outside, nothing too fancy to look at, but...inside, on sunny days the outdoor dining terrace is very pleasant, private, not too crowded, so you can talk at a comfortable level and be heard, and...the food is fantastic. Very fresh and tasty ingredients, a menu with plenty of choices, and very generous portions. Some dishes tend to be on the spicy side, but this I like. Kids ordering Pad Thai should be fine. My kids love it (and always order the Pad Thai!)
The service is quick, and friendly, and the prices very reasonable. As mentioned, the outdoor dining terrace is a great place to hang out on sunny summer or fall days, and great for an informal business lunch. I come here often for lunch, for the food, to relax, a reward in a busy work day, or weekend mini-getaway. -
Review from barsha d.
Oakland, CA
7/15/2011
Looks kinda unassuming from the outside, but the inside is decent and their patio area is cute.
I always judge the authenticity of a Thai restaurant by their Tom Yum soup cos it's one of those things that is really easy to make crappy. I have to say, Sabuy Sabuy's Tom Yum is really quite good! I get it very spicy and usually get the entrees I order medium spicy so I don't kill my stomach too much. But I love the burn of the soup!
Prices are on the cheap side, which is a plus. Since I live close by I love grabbing take out when I'm feeling too lazy or hungry to cook. Also, if you're vegetarian(like I am), you don't have to just order from the vegetarian section of the menu. You can order most meat entrees and ask them to make it veggie. -
Review from Learnee L.
Emeryville, CA
3/28/2011 1 Check-in Here
I've driven by this place so many times but never got the chance to try their food. I was pleased that hubby and I finally took the time to have dinner here.
parking: street can be tough. we were lucky to find parking right infront of the door.
place: small but clean. tables were a bit too small for our food.
I thought it was a bit too loud.. then again, the place is small that you can hear the next tables' conversation.
service: good. everyone is attentive but you can tell that there is an urgency to turn the tables around on Friday dinner time since they can be pretty busy.
food: good. Not too fancy, just good home-cooked meal.
portions are large, price is decent.
will have to come back to try other food. -
Review from Amy H.
Berkeley, CA
11/30/2011
For a decade, I keep going back and trying again. Really nice people, cozy little spot. I'm always going by that way and think "yeah Thai". Problem. No layering of flavors. No fresh herbs. I've had a few things there with friends that were pretty good. The pad thai and the prik pat king...don't do it. The satay is good, but it's paper thin...I mean almost see through. It's all missing a lot of flavor.
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Review from Kat S.
Walnut Creek, CA
11/7/2010
If you go here, treat your dining experience like a game. Try some dishes, make a judgment about them, and then remember for the next time you visit if you'd order them again or never order them again.
There are definitely hit-or-misses on their menu. Successes here seem to be (and get this, I'm sure it'll be a shocker) the more authentic Thai dishes. Drunken noodles, curries, and soups. I'd steer clear of the fried rice and any vegetable medley, or at least keep in mind that the vegetable dishes are pretty much the same with slightly different sauces.
We've had very friendly service. And I can only be honest to mention that there were a couple of flies buzzing around. The atmosphere is very casual--don't bring any Miss Bingley's here to impress them with the restaurant's interior design. --Just come here to eat good food (once you've identified it) with the sort of people who care more about company than class.
Sabuy-Sabuy has a few glitches here and there in terms of consistency, but so long as you treat your experience as a game (because really, how serious shall we take our oh-so-privileged dinner outings?), what a fun game it'll be! -
Review from Connie C.
Updated - 3/6/2011
Came back here tonight and so glad we did!!
My bf and I shared their papaya salad, spicy chicken wings, and pad see ew. Everything was sooo goood!!! Do be aware of their spice level.
I ordered a medium hot for my salad and we were both drinking cups of water like no other! It was so spicy!! I wished I had a glass of milk!
However, it was STILL delicious!!
Great food, great prices, great portions, a nice service!1 Previous Review: Show all »
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10/10/2010
My bf and I are always looking for great Thai places. We were around the neighborhood, and yelped… Read more »
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Review from jessica m.
Diamond Bar, CA
9/10/2011
Came here last night with Tiffany S after yelping around for some good Asian food. No parking lot, but what do you expect? It's oakland. Luckily, we found residential street parking just a block away. The restaurant is on the corner of College, so it's really easy to miss, especially because it's kind of small and without a big blazing sign. Oh and if you don't continue to stay on College Ave, you are very likely to miss it if you go onto Broadway.
I hate going to empty restaurants. Primarily because it probably isn't very good if no one else wants to eat it. Sabuy Sabuy was really empty inside when we went in, but everyone was out on the patio. Usually when I go to Thai restaurants, I get the bbq chicken with friend rice. Alas, they didn't have that on the menu. So I went with the sauteed beef with garlic and pepper? (I suck with Thai names sorry.) It was priced at $7.95, which I thought was pretty reasonable. But when the waitress came to get our order, she asked if we wanted rice with it. I take a look at the menu again and rice is an extra $1.50. I absolutely hate it when places charge you extra for rice. I think it's such a deceptive scheme to make you think you're getting a good deal with the entree, but then slap you in the face for charging so much for rice. Especially when I JUST said I thought it was a good deal! But we were hungry so we got it anyway. (Next time I might just carry a container of rice around with me just in case this trickery happens again.)
When she came back out, she wasn't even smiling or attempting to be nice. Which Tiff and I thought was a big no-no. You're going to charge $1.50 for some specks of rice and not try to ease our pain by at least smiling? Sigh.
So my dish. It looked like such a small portion for $8. Maybe 5 broccoli's, 8 pieces of sliced carrots, and a dozen random slices of beef. However, I got really full by the end of dinner. (Although I contribute 70% of my fullness to boba beforehand.) The sauce was pretty good though, the usual light sweet flavor. Initially, I didn't think it had enough garlic. (Oh how I love garlic, but hate garlic breath.) But then I saw massive chunks of garlic on my beef so I guess that wasn't a problem. I didn't taste any black pepper though.
Overall, the place is okay. (I'm really cheap and hate paying over $10 for a meal, especially when it's not some fancy French entree.) We ended up paying $11 each, but did end up really full afterwards. Maybe their other dishes are better. Maybe the waitress didn't enjoy Tiff's attempt at speaking Thai and so wasn't too happy to serve us. I don't know. But I won't be coming back. I'll go to another place that doesn't charge extra for rice. -
Review from m j.
Oakland, CA
8/19/2011
one my favorite bangkok dinning experience was in chinatown.. it was T&K Seafood (http://food-4-thot.blo...) . i don't even eat seafood, but it was a hot and humid evening, we ordered like a million dishes, scooters + taxis whizzing by, everything had flavor and spice and was beyond words..utterly lip smacking good (not to mention was about less than $5 per person...)...
now bring me to oakland, ca. dear sabuy sabuy: i have a brick in my tummy and it doesn't feel good..
-- tom kha gai with raw white mushroom, no spice and not balanced right
-- beef with lemongrass/tomatoes/chili..lack of flavor..nothing sparked hot
thai goodness or freshness
-- pad see ew.. overcooked, rubbery noodles, too much sugar and oil, and
overfried tofu.. what happened to fresh chinese broccoli? fresh veggies?
will nothing will ever top bangkok street food? has my bar for thai food been raised to high? -
Review from kat a.
Fremont, CA
12/7/2010
Based on Yelp reviews and its convenient location, I chose this place to order in from. I called in and asked for tom yum with chicken and pad Thai with chicken. The person taking my order said it would be five minutes.
I get there and after paying, they hand me my tom yum soup and something wrapped in foil. Turned out to be chicken satay instead of pad Thai. So, I ended up waiting another 10 minutes and forking out another $8 on top of what I had originally paid to get my original order.
This really irked me because I had a budget for dinner and ended up paying more for food that I didn't want. When I was waiting for the pad Thai, I saw that their phones were ringing off the hook for take out and they seemed a little short handed.
After paying more and waiting longer, I was happy to start eating dinner. Unfortunately, the food was mediocre. The pad Thai was super dry and the chicken satay was bland. The soup was OK but I couldn't get through my broth (which is usually my favorite part).
I think I just came at a really busy time so quality was sacrificed for time. Not sure if I'm coming back again. Maybe if I do, I'll eat my food there instead of taking it to go. -
Review from Lenney S.
Oakland, CA
9/8/2010
SABUY SABUY, what can you say? Their food is pretty darn good. Pad kee mao is very good. Coconut soup is also yummy. As for the service, I really can say much but disappointing. The place is also not very clean. The walls are a bit filthy and has a bunch of cracks in them. Flies are sometimes flying around you while you're eating. Not much seating available even though they have an outside area but something usually flies in your food from the bush and trees hanging above you.
My friends and I been coming to this place going back to my freshmen year of high school in 1999. Been here hundreds of times. I love their food, but for the past several years their service has been very disappointing. I've tolerated it now for a while, but no longer can take it. The waitress there is just so rude. She never looks happy and never crack a smile. There's always an attitude when she takes our orders. The funny thing I've noticed is that it's usually towards younger Asian people. I'm not racist or anything but they treat the white people with a whole different demeanor.
A few incidents I've experienced with my friends:
1) This happen almost every time. We rarely get any ice in our water and the glass it comes in don't look clean at all. When I'm looking at the other table with two white people, they have ice filled to the top in a nice clear glass cup. Even when we order Thai Ice Tea, there has been many occasions where their glass of ice tea would be bigger then ours.
2) My girlfriend doesn't like peanuts and she usually orders the Pad Thai. 70% of the time that she orders it and ask for no peanuts, guess what??? There's PEANUTS! Is it really that difficult? If you can't remember something as simple as that then you're in the wrong business.
3) We usually like to share their coconut soup. It comes in a clay pot and can split into about 5 of the bowls they bring to you to split it. One time, we had a party of 4 and decided to order the the coconut soup. When it was brought out to us, it was already in the small bowls. One for each of us. We told him we wanted to share the pot, but he said he did it this way so we'd get more. OK WTH? R U RETARDED? First off, how do you go off changing a customers order? and secondly, how r u going to tell me that we get more soup this way when I've order it time after time after time? At the same time, there was a family of 3 that order the exact same thing. When theirs came out, it was in the pot! I KID YOU NOT! and take a wild guess at what they were?
So overall, the food is actually good but I can't stand the service. I refuse to go back there and eat. I wouldn't even order to go because that's how much I don't like their attitudes. I don't want to make this a big racial issue or anything. I just wanted to share my experiences so maybe some people will notice what I do. It's just not right. I mean shoot, I'm part Thai myself! Not your own peoples! LOL hahahaha. I just had to throw that in there =D -
Review from Jana C.
1/13/2011
Eh, it was ok.
Cons:
1. Parking can be tricky (street)
2. The place did not feel clean inside (better for take-out)
3. Fried tofu appetizer a bit hard and flat (definitely have had better)
Pros:
1. Prices are average
2. Food is average. Not bad, not outstanding
I would likely pick several other Thai restaurants over this one, however, not a bad place to go if you are near and need a quick bite.
