As a person who deeply values good food and good dining experiences, I'm hard to please. I'm not won over by flashy restaurant interiors nor "award-winning" service. To me, nothing makes up for mediocre, or, god forbid, bad food.
And often times, I find that successful restaurants open up a second branch to cash in on their newly established reputation, thoughtlessly hiring poor cooks and unskilled staff members.
Thankfully, this is definitely not the case here.
Having grown up in (and been spoiled by) the diverse, gastronomic paradise of the Southern California food scene, I was impressed with the original Cafe de Bangkok location, how authentic and bold the flavors are, wishing that they'd open up a location in Loveland.
Now that they have, I'm blown away at how committed they are in delivering a great Thai dining experience to their customers, because everything from the decor to the food feels as if it was meticulously deliberated. The vegetables taste as though they were harvested and sold at the farmer's market the morning of, the meats are expertly cooked, the curry flavors are perfectly rich and savory, the servers are smiley and courteous, and the prices are more than reasonable for the quality. And despite my small stature, I'm a big eater, yet I cannot relate to the other reviewers who said that portions are skimpy. In fact, I think they're rather generous and have trouble finish a plate of curry on my own!
I've tried a good majority of everything on the menu, and I think their curries reign supreme out of all of their dishes. If you're not a big curry fan, rest assured because the entire menu is delish.
If you really want to complete your Thai dining experience, I suggest you go ahead and order the Thai tea.
However, I do have two complaints: benches are awkward and since it's so new, there's not that much traffic so you can overhear quite a lot of details in strangers' dialogue.
Overall, I'd give this place a 4.3/5 stars. I would suggest to those reading this to stop by before the rest of the town realizes how great this place is and starts the 1 hour wait times that the original Fort Collins location...
Read moreI have held out on giving these guys review for literally years. I want them to succeed for so many reasons: 1) I love supporting any local, family owned business. 2) they are beyond kind, and their customer service is always spot on 3) their food is very tasty 4) they have lots of vegan options. But with the last point in mind… I feel like if you offer vegan options, you/your kitchen should be extra diligent. I have received my order over a dozen times in the last few years with egregious mess ups. I always order a completely vegan order as to avoid confusion. I have gotten shrimp in the spring rolls instead of tofu. I have gotten duck instead of tofu. I’ve gotten egg in my fried rice multiple times. And just today, I ordered a crispy pad Thai with beyond meat. I had the item and the entire order marked vegan. And it was still full of egg. It’s very frustrating, because food cost a lot of money these days. To be fair, they did refund my order after I told them putting my name down for a free dish next time wasn’t good enough. But still… I have three kids, and I’m by myself. I’m certainly not gonna load them back in the car, drive all the way back to the restaurant, just to fix the mistake that they should’ve had right the first time. Again… This is not a one off situation, and I have given them any chances. It just feels like they offer vegan options for the monetary value, but don’t really care to go the distance and make sure items are actually free from potential allergens. (I know, I assume a certain amount of risk any time I eat at a restaurant that’s not entirely vegan. And one off mistakes happen and I am very forgiving. But this is time after time) For this reason, I’m sad to say we will not be ordering from this...
Read moreI'm so disappointed with how little food we got for the price. We ordered $75 worth of food through grubhub (that's not including the fees and tip etc). The amount we got for that price tag, was so not worth it. I'm Laos and Thai, although the flavors of the food were decent, the amount was not. Two sausages for $10? I thought they would at least be large, but they weren't any bigger than your regular hotdogs you get from the store, but also barely had any lemongrass in them at all, these sausages are usually very thick, like bratwurst. The Moo Paloh was very watery and soupy, the meat in it wasn't very caramelized at all, egg wasn't browned, broth should've been cooked down and darker like the photo it shows on menu, but we got a very watery version of it. Papaya salad tasted fine, but that was a very small amount as well, they couldve added a bit more papaya to the amount of left over sauce it was made in. Larb price was fine for the amount and tasted good. Again though, the pad see ew wasn't caramelized as well, barely had any browning to the noodles or meat, the sugary caramelization should be all over the meat and noodles when made. Unfortunately I wouldn't be coming again and don't recommend this place for its price...
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