Naviya's Thai Kitchen — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Not a place that respects vegetarians/vegans. Naviya's Thai Brasserie website reads that they "attend to details, value the nuance, cook with pride and serve with love." My experience at the restaurant last night was a far departure from meeting any of those things. I had ordered the Thom-Kha-Gai that, according to the menu, can be made "vegan upon request." I made it very clear to my server that I was vegan and she assured me that the meal would be made vegan with tofu (not chicken) in it. After waiting a very long time for the meal, I started eating the soup to discover that it was made with chicken and not tofu. I was upset by that discovery, but realized that mistakes can happen. I alerted my server and she assured me that a new bowl of vegan Thom-Kha-Gai would be made for me. Suspiciously, the new bowl came out of the kitchen very quickly (within 2 minutes) and barely half full, but I saw there was tofu in it and began to eat it...only to bite into and chew on a large piece of chicken. It is very clear to me that someone in the kitchen tried to remove the chicken from the dish I was originally given and replace it with tofu instead of making me a new vegan meal. I understand that their is risk involved anytime you go to a restaurant with a dietary restriction, but I am appalled that the kitchen (of a restaurant that promotes having vegan items) would be so disrespectful of my wishes and way of living my life after I made them both very clear. I myself have many years of working in the restaurant business, but at establishments where this never would have happened. I left the Naviya Thai Brasserie angry, nauseous, and well aware that attention to detail, cooking with pride, and serving with love were not on the...

A Thai restaurant of which some people boast Though the staff probably gives their utmost Your wallet contracts Their recipes distract All the food we were served was quite gross.

I suggest you avoid this place like the plague.

I've been repeatedly to Thailand, taken Thai cooking classes for years, catered Thai dinner parties and eaten at innumerable Thai places across the country. Considering the great variety of Thai restaurants in town, Naviya's was an inexcusable disappointment. The food was very expensive, made worse by the average portion size. We ordered a green curry, massaman curry, Thai basil stir fry, Tom yum soup, fried rice and an appetizer. No one in our group finished any of the dishes. The flavors only vaguely resembled the Thai dishes they claimed to be much the same way Hardee's food resembles hamburgers.

We didn't take any of the food home because it wasn't worth eating. If the bill had been half of what we were charged, I would still consider it overpriced.

I can see no reason why any reviewer would give an award to this terrible excuse for Thai. Maybe they recently changed cooks? Rather than eat at Naviya's, pick ANY Thai place in a 3 mile radius, every single one is...

Had this place on my list to try. Went for dinner. No wait for a table at 8pm. That was nice. Dining room was bright and clean. The staff were nice and quick. I got chicken laab (ground chicken with fresh herbs, lime juice, toasted rice powder, and spices) and a key lime tart. I asked for the laab hot and it was which a plus and can be hard to find in the twin cities (because I’m sure Americans order spicy dishes complain about them being too spicy).

The food tasted great. Like I said, the laab tasted as I’d expect with a proper amount of heat (notably hot). The key lime tart was really good; properly tart rather than sweet and it had a nice smooth texture without being too soft and pudding-like. I’m taking off a star for two things. If it were out of 10 stars, I would take away 1 star for each and give 8/10. They were out of sticky rice, which is unfortunate since laab is best with sticky rice. The lettuce was probably cut early in the day or the head was older because the outside few layers were too soft to use to pick up the food. I would like to bring a friend and try again. If I do and there’s sticky rice and firmer lettuce I’ll change my review to 5...