Charng Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Hackensack

Charng has amazing food.

Plain and simple: their food is great, but everyone under the roof is either ignorantly interpersonal, evil, or clueless business-wise.

They feature the most combative staff I’ve ever met. It’s a sit-down Thai restaurant that charges for water?! My family arrived for our annual visit after it was taken over by what I understand is the children of the original owners who God bless them were fantastic, honest, amazing people who sought to bring joy and delicious food to their community..which apparently doesn’t matter. We showed up hungry and thirsty after our normal 30 minute drive from our Breezy Point timeshare and ordered beers to share and some food. During the time it took for our order to be processed, my dad came back up to the counter and asked for a glass of water. They refused and said that while their tap for water was active, they do not give out the 1cent paper cups to use the tap and we had to buy bottles of water……………………….

At a spicy Thai restaurant.

I continued to ask for the promised cups to split the variety of beer bottles my family ordered to sample and share as we’ve done for years before, but after we complained about being charged for water, they refused to give us cups to share the beers they popped for us because “we’re just going to use the cups for water”.

I don’t think I’ve ever had to fight for water at a sit down restaurant, but if you want a unique experience, here it is:

Charng.

The owner eventually showed up and blamed the confusion on his kitchen staff not understanding English and we pointed out the 6ft 2+ Caucasian who clearly told us management said no water cups—making the owner embarrassed and speechless. Ok..for the sake of fairness, I told the guy we were offered cups to split the beer before the indecent water request, so he understandingly slammed a single cup down in front of me to honor the original desire to split 4 beers. That half a beer was great.

We’ve loved this place for years, and make an additional 30 minute trip after our 3 hour tour to breezy each year with hopes to have their great food, but the staff and ownership have no idea how to be honest or provide customer service. Customers apparently mean nothing to them but cash flow, and forgive me for growing up in the city of Minneapolis, but I think free water is a normal thing to expect at a restaurant, let along a spicy Thai place. So sorry for laughing when you say charging $2 for water at a sit down place is normal. I want to be on your side, but you have other goals

Charge 10 cents more for your food if you can’t afford water, and quit being the worst restaurant management I’ve ever experienced to your customers. I’ve been a host and a server and banquet staff for Minneapolis based restaurants and..gross! Gross. The staff here is gross. Not in hygiene, but in character. I haven’t made many reviews and I’m frankly upset I have to spent time out of my day to alert future customers…

Your food is great, but I feel sorry for your instincts as a business focusing on people 💔

Im flabbergasted and upset I even had to type this. I’ve never, ever, experienced hatred towards customers like this place offered.

I wrote this review earlier in a completely different form and I deleted it because I wanted to give them some grace because theyve been so splendid for years under previous owners, but the incident came up again as the family was reminiscing about our wonderful summer and honestly Charng was notably out of their way rude and terrible to us and it’s just the most unique experience I’ve ever had and I feel like I needed to re-write and post the original review I deleted months ago out of respect for...

Phenomenal food, service, everything! I’m a massive Thai food lover and I’ve tried basically everything on their menu (haven’t tried sliced pork salad or the omelette. Sorry not sorry I’m obsessed with curry). Huge fan of their red and green curry!! The flavor is spot on and every bite is savory and explosive with flavor!! So happy they added cream cheese wontons to their menu because that is one of my go-to appetizer favorites. Pork wontons are another delicious option, as are the “Fan Favorite” Egg Rolls. Can’t say anything negative about appetizer non-mentions because I haven’t tried them, and I have no doubts they are absolutely delicious. Drunken noodles are legit to everywhere else I’ve enjoyed them, and the noodles are a true pappardelle style and on point. Another favorite is their Noodle Soup, a true Pho type soup which hits your soul and fills your heart on cold icky days. All I know, is that when I die, I want the Charng menu as my last meal!!

*My only beef is that they DO NOT put any vegetables in the curry. I’m lucky to get 5 peas. They really need to step this up!! *

Kob Kun Ka - grateful to have you, and the services you provide to this...

I have been coming to the restaurant since it was Udom's and I have always found it to be decent Thai food, especially for Northern Minnesota. I went twice this summer, over Memorial Day Weekend and last Saturday, and the service was horrible both times.

I dined indoors with my father in May. We were served our entrees before our appetizers. We waited for about 15 minutes after finishing our entrees for the apps to come out, but we ended up cancelling the order and leaving without them.

This Saturday was not much better. I ordered pickup at around 5pm and was quoted a 30 minute wait. I arrived at 5:30 and the food was not ready. When I asked how long it would be the (very nice but overwhelmed) cashier told me she didn't know. It ended up being another 40 minutes and there were many other customers who were also waiting on food.

I've worked in the restaurant industry. I understand unexpected busy weekends can affect service times. But pro tip: put a pause on accepting online orders when your kitchen gets in the weeds and open it up again when they are caught up. I'll be back eventually, but it honestly won't...