The Dara — Restaurant in Baltimore

Delicious food!! Would highly recommend checking this place out. Initially was a little skeptical if this would just be a restaurant with hip decor and mediocre food but no - it has outstanding food and an awesome ambience. Critiques about the service I think are legitimate. We came in Thursday night and the restaurant was not full but the waitress was slow to come take our orders. At least 15-20 min since we were seated.

We came with a big group of five guys so we ordered a ton of dishes to share. We ordered level three spice which was spicier for some dishes than other but I think will keep people satisfied. We got:

Coconut shrimp appetizer. Excellent. Comes with a nice apple carrot onion slaw which had a great dressing to accompany the shrimp

Beef Nam tok - the best dish according to one member of our party. The Thai herbs in this salad with the dressing were mind blowing. Amazing flavor combination I haven’t had before at Thai restaurants around the country

pad Thai (decent, but nothing outstanding, level 3 spicy may be too hot for those who can’t handle a hot at Buffalo Wild Wings)

Crab fried rice. Excellent!! Great soft fried egg on top, a little bit of the “kiss of fire” taste, and big lumps of crab meat. Level 3 spice was not bad on this one. About a mild level for BWW

drunken noodle. Excellent. Would order this over the pad Thai. Flavorful. Spicy!! At least the equivalent of hot at BWW

Green curry also delicious. Might be a small portion if this is all one person is ordering

Basil fried rice. Good but not as good as the crab fried rice.

Kao soi chicken. Great dish. Flavorful coconut curry broth with tender chicken.

Prawn Tom kha - great flavor. Huge prawns. Broth is rich flavorful and refreshing with the lemon grass. Definitely recommend

Desserts were also solid (but small). Fried banana and mango sticky rice

Our highlights were prawn Tom kha, beef Nam tok, crab fried rice, chicken Kao soi, drunken noodle, coconut shrimp. Pad Thai and basil fried rice were good but didn’t blow me away like the others. Overall highly recommend this place. I’ll definitely come back. Hopefully the service is not as slow in the...

Welp, it brings me pure joy to share this review.

My son's gf shared a reel w me while away at college (Oct 2024) of this place and I promised we were gonna visit.

1'3'2025, table for 4 please !! I'm glad I made a reservation.

Street parking was easy peasy. Pretty close to establishment, and free up to 2 hours.

The ambiance as soon as we entered was perfect. Relaxing dim lights, woodsy chic decor and lighting.

We were graciously greeted upon entrance. We were a little early. After 5-7 minutes, we were seated.

Jeff came over immediately to welcome us. Jeff was pretty cool. Very pleasant, and consistent w providing great customer service.

Collectively, we ordered the following. Seafood Fried Wontons - Amazing taste. Wonton Soup - Very good. Quality ingredients, plentiful. Crispy Curry Chicken Roll - Impressive. Hatyai Fried Chicken - Great plating and presentation. Very savory, and yum. Basil Fried Rice (with Chicken) - Amazing taste, flavorful. Portion size smaller than other entrées. Drunken Noodles (with Chicken) - Good. Well presented. Small portion. Crab Fried Rice - This dish is an amazing creation. Well plated, seasoned and prepared. Plentiful! Enough to share. It was a hit at our table.

This visit was overall amazing! We will certainly return as time permits. I've been verbally sharing this experience w...

We ate here last Friday evening on a spur of the moment kind of decision. We had planned on eating at a Spanish tapas place but we didn't like the atmosphere there. Good thing we switched and found this place on a quick search for Thai food. We called and were told we will be seated at the high-top table. But when we got there, there was a table for 2 available. Nice... though the high-top table is not bad either. We ordered papaya salad for appetizer, chicken panang and everyday fried rice with crispy fried pork belly as dinner entrees, all at spice level 2. The papaya salad was a bit too spicy for us so we requested to lower the dinner entrees to level 1. Jeff recommended that we try it first since the spice gets tamed by heat on the hot dishes and if it is still too hot for us, then they can replace it. That was very excellent advise by Jeff since the food came out perfect. They were not too spicy at all. The restaurant has a wonderful atmosphere. The waiters were very kind, courteous and friendly. You can feel the warmth of their service. However, I have to mention that we had to wait after sitting, maybe 15 - 20 or so minutes, before our orders were taken. We had to get Jeff's attention for the waiter to come over. They apologized a few times. Other than that, I/we would rate this place...