Charley Brown's Mexicana — Restaurant in Khlong Toei Nuea Subdistrict

After visiting Charley Brown's a total of three times, I decided that I am ready to write my review. I had to go a few times to make sure they were consistent, and I feel that they are.

The first two times I went during the day around lunch time. Let me start by saying, that when you are trying to find this restaurant by going down an alley off of Soi 11, you might become a little nervous. On one side of the street is this fine establishment, on the other side of the street it might resemble something like a scene from Fallout 4 to you. But never fear, this is a good place - don't be alarmed. The 3rd time I went during evening on the weekend. It's much busier at that time, so be prepared to eat outside or be ready to wait. It's pretty quiet and slow during the lunch times.

The staff was great. Hands down they were the best I encountered in Bangkok. The owner has put great effort into making sure the waiters and waitresses speak excellent English, and in fact speak other languages as well. They are very friendly and warm. One girl I spoke to spoke three languages - I find that incredible. The evening I was there, the owner was present. He runs a tight ship from would I could see. The place is really clean and has that southwestern feel to it with great atmosphere.

The beverages were authentic. They have the most authentic margarita and the sangria was perfect. They contain "real" alcohol as well, so be careful. :) I am not much of a beer drinker, so I can't speak to that. The food was really good. I did notice minor differences, such as the re-fried beans weren't 'exactly' what I am used to seeing, but they certainly tasted good. The chips and salsa ( a lot of peoples' first impressions of a mexican restaurant ) taste great. Things weren't super spicy hot, but that's fine. If you are after that I heard hot spicy can be found all over Thailand. ;) For vegetarians, there are a few main plate options, but more importantly they offer almost all ingredients a la carte. I was even to order an exact quantity of tortillas I wanted, extra salsa, beans, etc. Prices were not bargain basement cheap if that is what you are after. Effort to make authentic costs money I am sure. By USA standards - still dirt cheap. My full meals with a couple of margaritas each cost me 700 baht or around $25. In case you haven't figured it out yet, almost everything in Bangkok is cheap except for alcohol.

My credibility - I travel all over and visit Mexican restaurants each place I go and subsequently write a review. I currently live in Santa Fe, NM, USA. I have had an opportunity to try everything from authentic Mexican from street vendors, to TexMex, to southwestern in the four corners area. I am not sure about what Mexican food is like outside of Mexico and the USA. I take that back, I know what it's like in Japan... it was... interesting.

In summary, I feel this is a good find if you want a little taste from home in the...

My friends and I have been coming here for the past three months every Tuesday, especially for their fantastic drink specials that run until closing time (600 baht for a pitcher of margaritas!). We recently came again with a group of 10+ for food and drinks, planned specifically for the Tuesday special. When we received our bill, we were shocked that the pitchers were full price despite our prior experiences. When we asked about it, we were told they couldn't afford the event plus the regular Tuesday special, which has no bearing on their ability to notify us that it had changed. It's understandable that the usual Tuesday special was restricted that night due to other events, but it's completely unreasonable for regular patrons to know this without any notice. The Facebook event also lacked mention of the change. The manager even came to our table at the beginning of the night to tell us about the mariachi band, but didn't mention the Tuesday drink special was different. We loved this place but are very disappointed with the insensitive way service handled the situation.

Edit: I appreciate the owner’s response, and just want to clarify. Even if I had posted a glowing review in the 3 months we had been loyally eating there, it would have made no difference to the experience we had last night. All of the promotions and events happening yesterday were clearly stressful for the staff, but none of which were excuses for the way our situation was handled. The treatment we received was frankly not the treatment we deserved. After the initial unfriendly response from the owner we quietly paid what we were asked to pay, without demands or arguments. I wrote a review with the hopes to shed light on a genuine misunderstanding, not receive a list of excuses for unprofessional behavior. A simple apology would have been shorter to write as well as better received.

Overall a disappointment; like I said, we all really have enjoyed our time there before, both food and atmosphere. Sadly I don’t think any of us feel particularly comfortable returning at this time. Thank you again to the owner for taking the...

If I could give less the one star I would. The staff and the food was lovely but the owner is an absolute pig. My family of four, 2 adults and 2 children attend this Friday for my daughters 6th birthday, she was so excited! We had an early booking to get in and out as quick as possible as you do with two small children. We have not been before but have heard great things. The restaurant has a kids menu which is hard to find in Bangkok. I have quite a larger than life 2yr old and from the minute we walked in the owner which I was later to find out was sitting at the bar continuously looking at us shaking his head. As a parent you try your best to keep them calm in a restaurant but there is only so much you can do. With the owners stares we quickly felt quite uncomfortable and ate our meals and got the bill quite quickly. Whilst we were settling the bill little miss 2yr old started banging on a wall hanging, I got her to stop but she quickly went straight back to it, before I even had the chance to stop her again the owner yelled at my child “HEY HEY YOU, STOP THAT” not only shocking and scaring my two children but absolutely disgusting my husband and I. My poor 6 yr old was in tears saying she wanted to go because that was scary the man yelling at us. We left quite promptly after but not without sharing my thoughts with the owner on how inappropriate his behaviour was, to which he seemed completely unbothered or remorseful. I will be sharing my thoughts on this restaurant to anyone who will listen and feel if you are so uptight about children in your restaurant do not offer a kids menu and market it as a “family restaurant”. I would not recommend taking your family here. Never have I ever been treated so rudely by a restaurant and we are from Sydney where restaurants actually have the right to be arrogant...