Cilantro Authentic Thai Food — Restaurant in Lake View Township

Went there for lunch this afternoon (Monday in August) with my kids. Mixed experience, not the worst Thai food I've ever had, but far from the best. Some thoughts: Pros: The interior was clean and inviting, and the staff was quite friendly, all in all a pleasant place to pass the time. The lunch specials (at about $10) are pretty reasonably priced and decent portions. I ordered the drunken noodles, a personal favorite, and was impressed with the taste and heat level. If I had just ordered the drunken noodles, I would have definitely given the place 5 stars. Also the veggie spring rolls were solid. Cons: My sons ordered the pad Thai and curried fried rice lunch specials. The curried fried rice was okay, but nothing special; I was hoping for more vegetables or complex flavors, but it mostly seemed to be rice and onions fried in commercial chili powder. The pad Thai was weird and the flavor wasn't at all what I am used to. It was weirdly goopy and sweet and not spicy, and-- well, honestly I don't know what spices you're supposed to put into pad Thai to make it taste like pad Thai (that's why I go out to Thai restaurants instead of cooking at home)-- but whatever spices those are, they seemed to be missing from this pad Thai. We ate about half of it, and neither of my kids wanted to package up the leftovers to bring home (which if you know my kids is a serious thumbs down).

So, in sum: avoid the pad Thai, get the drunken noodles. If I was in Chicago looking for Thai food, I would probably keep searching for that perfect spot, because this was all in all just...

I love this place and the food Been going to this place with my coworkers since one year because it’s close to my workplace but recently I been experiencing few stuff since that worker who works on Monday started working she’s a little shubby tall wear mostly black shirt, she’s extremely rude and she calls out infront of whole restaurant if me or my coworker gets up to even get chopsticks One day she was doing something on computer and I didn’t wanted to disturb her so I calmly got up and reach to chopsticks when she saw me and told me get back to my seat I was very embarrassed because there was Atleast 6 7 people was in restaurant and she was very loud. The other girls who’s skinny and short she’s very nice and adorable she makes me feel welcome and always smiling with no attitude but I’m so disheartened that I wouldnt be coming on days that this rude reception lady working. I’m also in customer service, we work so many hours and come to this place for lunch almost 3-4 times in a week so we want to feel welcome instead of being burdened and treated badly. Please be considerate if you can’t don’t work in this field and make other person day...

My second time. Had to go back after such an awesome experience the first time. Do not judge what you are about to experience by the understated exterior/interior decor of this small eatery.

This time I made sure to go back with a foodie friend on a Sunday afternoon. We had the delectable tamarind chicken wings, chicken pad thai and spicy duck with basil which comes with a side of rice. We also ordered the green curry with chicken to go. Everything is served plated nicely on bamboo wooden rectangular platters. The wings are simply to die for and are truly "finger-lickin-good"! The sweet, tangy and spicy tamarind sauce is tantalizing, simply amazing. Basically this is what established the food memory for me and made mo go back a second time! The pad thai was just as good as I remember it from last time, although for those of you who can handle some heat, I recommend the medium spicy version that I ordered last time. The spicy duck with basil was another classy preparation. Duck is not an easy meat to to cook well and they hit this out of the park. My compliments to the chef. This place never...