Chiang Rai — Restaurant in Long Beach

My husband and I were visiting LA and decided on Thai for dinner. This place, with its rave reviews and Michelin star, shot to the top of the list. At 8pm and with a handicap placard, street parking wasn’t too hard to find, but I can see how parking would be a real headache earlier in the day. Anyway, as soon as we walked in, we were immediately charmed by the atmosphere and decor of the place. So contemporary and modern! LOVED all of the color on the walls! There were already about 10 people waiting, so we added our names to the iPad and settled in to wait. This place is obviously popular, especially on a Friday night, because that door never stopped opening to admit more people. All of whom waited for their chance to eat, which I think also speaks to the quality of the food. We waited about 20 minutes or so before being seated at a two-top by the window.

The menu is packed with a ton of familiar Thai foods in addition to a few items I hadn’t heard of, like the Khai Soi. The menu described the dish as a “northern Thai curry noodle.” I mean, I’m a sucker for Thai curry and noodles, so there wasn’t really a question of forgoing that for something else that I can get at a Thai place near my house. I also ordered a plate of the dumplings.

I don’t mean to exaggerate, but that soup (think a red curry ramen-type dish) changed my brain chemistry. Based on a google search, it’s not common on most menus and it can vary wildly in quality, but I think I’ll be ordering Khai Soi whenever I find it because this bowl was amazing. The bite on the noodle was perfect. The red curry had a silky soup consistency without losing anything that you love about red curry. I ate every bite with a small on my face and a little dance at being on the receiving end of something so delicious. I know I sound crazy, but a red curry soup on that cold night after a long travel day was exactly what I needed.

The dumplings were nothing to write home about and I regretted ordering them. My husband ordered the beef fried rice and said that he enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was any more remarkable than our local Thai spot. Having said that, I thought it was also delicious.

Service was super quick once we sat down, and for as busy as the serving staff were, we didn’t want for any refills of our drinks at all. I would have liked to taste whatever dishes they served to earn their Michelin star, but nothing was noted on the menu. That may be something to ask a server about, if you’re interested.

Visit! You won’t regret it - just come prepared to search for parking and to wait for your...

This establishment is located in the city of Long Beach, California. After spending some time digging for some vinyl at fingerprints music. I asked the guy behind the counter if he knew about some good thai food close by. He recommended "Chiang Rai" for its authenticity. I am super delighted that I was able to find out about this place. My girlfriend and I really enjoyed this place & I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND Chiang Rai TO ALL LBC LOCALS OR VISITORS PASSING BY! I had a regular thai tea & my girlfriend had the green tea thai tea. We started off with some egg rolls. Then we ordered the Spicey "shrimp" fried rice (shrimp on the side), as my significant other is vegetarian. This allowed me to order the "Tom Yum shrimp noodle soup" and just add the additional shrimp to my broth. The more shrimp, the better, right? RIGHT! My girlfriend proceeded to order the "pad see ew" with vegetables instead of protien. We were both able to comfortably share the spicey fried rice, pad see ew noodles, & egg rolls. The highlight for me was the Tom Yum shrimp noodle soup (spicy level). The broth was out of this world delicious ( i didn't need to add anything to it). As a matter of fact, everything was enjoyable. I have no complaints & will definitely be coming back. The environment was very lively and diverse. This is a place that is welcoming to all people who truly enjoy good comfort food.. I couldn't help but notice how quickly this place got packed on a Tuesday! The surrounding tables all had different entrees! This pretty much spoke volumes to me. I correlated how much everyone was liking their specific entrees of choice. Which i interpreted as, everything must be sooo good. We spent about $75 dollars for everything i mentioned above and left a generous tip because of the awesome food and hospitality. I can not wait to return and try a little bit of everything next time. Thank you for having...

Really disappointed. This is heavily unbalanced, over-seasoned and over-buttered "Asian" food catered to the non-asian population of Long Beach.

Crying Tiger - a low quality thin cut slab of rib eye, unevenly cooked, one end rare and one end medium. A bit dry. The fatty edges were rubbery and not seared, there was no technical skill in this dish. I cook better steaks at home and I'm no chef. Maybe people love the sauce, or maybe we got a lemon, who knows why this is popular.

Crab fried rice - this was wet butter rice, nothing fried about it. Overly salty and sweet at the same time. Could not even finish half because the butter was so heavy. There is a pinch of crab meat you can't even taste, and it's all hidden in the scrambled egg whites that are spread on top to make it look like more crab.

Khao Soi - this was by far and away the best dish. The broth was deep, complex and delicious, but again far too buttery and over seasoned. I can't imagine anyone drinking this whole bowl and not feeling absolutely disgusting afterwards. Again, could not finish even half.

Any "authentic" Asian restaurant will not overseason their food like this or use so much butter. One thing Asian people dislike the most is too much sugar or salt in their food. This place is clearly doing this on purpose to cater to specific people. Sadly though, even the white couple next to us had to return a dish for being too salty. I'm not saying this place is bad, I'm sure there are many people who love this type of food, but the technicality and balance were seriously lacking. Ambience was a huge plus as I loved the vibe. Presentation wise the dishes looked...