Charm Thai — Restaurant in Hoover

I'd been wanting to go here for months now and finally took the time and went to pick up some lunch to go. The location was highly rated for the longest time and I figured any kinks would've been worked out by now.

They're located off Lorna Rd in a well-traveled area with plenty of amenities so it's convenient if you have other shopping you need to do intermittently. Parking there can be a bit crazy depending upon the day of the week and time you arrive.

The young man who greeted me was friendly and helpful despite our language barrier. I ordered the Phad Kra Pow with chicken (Thai heat spiciness) and a boba Thai tea. I asked if they could do soju bottles to go (save me a trip to a specialty liquor store), but apparently they still haven't had their liquor license approved after a year or more so not sure why they advertise liquor on their menus.

Altogether, my total was about $23 or so before tip which was steep for lunch. Apparently, they don't allow lunch menu prices for take out so you have to pay for full priced entrees. That seems counterproductive since I'm not taking up space for one person at a 4-person booth, but okay.

I got home and there weren't any utensils packed in, so thankfully I was there at home with my own. The Thai tea was the highlight since the boba were fresh and made in-house, not like those sacrony sweet, perfectly spherical ones you get at those ridiculous "nutrition" drink places. For those on the reviews saying the boba tea was bad, they're the problem for thinking authentic boba tea is that nutritional juice place junk. Theirs was actually fairly well-made.

Although I'd asked for Thai heat and the guy questioned me if I was sure I could handle it (to which I replied that I could, because living in East Asia for a half decade and all), it was evident they gave me the watered-down, Americanized version of "Thai heat."

The broccoli wasn't cooked thoroughly and was rubbery. Aside from the bit of heat they did give me, there were no other major discernible flavor profiles in my meal.

The sticky rice was well executed, so I guess that's a win. Once again, to those in the reviews saying the rice was "overcooked" or "mushy," don't believe them. They clearly have never heard of sticky rice or understand that's the common way to prepare it in East Asian countries.

All in all, I'm glad I went just to say I finally can cross it off my list, but after having ample Thai food prepared by other Thai nationals in S. Korea, I was just thoroughly...

This place used to be my favorite Thai restaurant when they opened, but recently quality and service has gone way down. I honestly felt a bit scammed with the service.

To start off, the coconut soup used to be really good and unique from all the other Thai restaurants in the area, but this time it was a bit watered down and not flavorful. I ordered the drunken noodles, and when I got my dish, it was clear that no effort went into it. The vegetables were still pretty raw, and the chicken was barely browned. Considering how they took 30 minutes to serve my dish, I would have expected it to be cooked a lot better.

The final straw for me was when it came to payment. My dish was listed as $15.95 on the menu. At payment, I was being charged about $20. When I questioned my server, she told me that the dish rang up for that price in the system, and that she needs to talk to her manager about switching the prices on the menu. However, I strongly believe she was lying and what she did was tip herself without asking me (dined alone so auto-gratuity does not apply). I think this because I was never taken to the tip screen- it immediately just said thank you for payment. As soon as payment was done, the server just walked away, and I never got my receipt. If I try to order the same dish online, after tax it is $17.23, so that just really confirms my theory.

This is extremely poor customer service, and I do not appreciate being lied to like that. Management needs to have a talk with their servers or get employees who are going to be honest. If you decide to dine here, please make sure they are being transparent with you or...

Overall, this place was nothing special. It just wasn't that great. The atmosphere is okay. A few tables and chairs with no music and a youtube video playing on the TV. The menu has a lot of sushi items in it. The waitress didn't really know how to answer our questions about the menu. We had to ask for more silverware because she didn't bring enough for our group (only 3 people). As for the food, we've had much better. The little ginger salad before the meal was a nice touch but there was just a gob of dressing on top, not mixed or creamy. I ordered medium green curry chicken and it had no spice and was not warm. It was pretty bland and the vegetables were very mushy like they had been overcooked. There wasn't much rice with the dish. We also got the masaman curry which was ordered hot and wasn't spicy or very warm. The big chunks of vegetables weren't appealing either. We also got the drunken noodles. They were just okay. They had a little spice but still weren't hot level. Food was brought out one plate at a time which left us waiting to get our food. There are much better places in the area and this place has room for...