Champa Garden — Restaurant in Oakland

The service I just received was nothing less than atrotious.

I ordered chicken pad Thai, sticky rice and Thom Ka soup for takes-out at 5:06. At 5:55 my meal still hadn't arrived. I watched my friend get served within 15 minutes- and she came 15 minutes after me and she was treated well and with courtesy. It was 5:35.

I thought nothing of it, so I sat and waited. 5:40.

Three people walked in after me, ordered for pick up and got served. They came at various times-5:30ish, 5:20 ish, 5:40 or so, and got served.

That's not the end of it. Not yet. I counted three or more tables with more than three people to each table who also came after I ordered get, you guessed it, served.

Now mind you I'm sitting right in front of the table where the cashier is located and where they place all the orders. They would look at me waiting, waiting and waiting without informing me about the status of my meal and why it's so late. They didn't have the courtesy to speak to me and would pretend they were too busy for me.

They ignored me and politely smiled and asked each new person coming in " may I help you sir? How many people in your party? I'm clearing the table right now for your party" and withing less than a minute they were seated. 15 to twenty minutes, served. I continued to wait.

I'm one person who ordered three items for take out who sat right in front of the servers, waiters, cashier, etc. And not only was I ignored, but when they finally talked to me they blamed the person who took my order and said " something is wrong with the cashier machine and paper" huh!? But yet everyone else around me got their orders with no "cashier machine is broke" excuses. No, they got served and I got excuses and still waited. Waited. Then I cancelled my meal and had to wait while they processed my card and return my funds , that took an additional 10 to 15 minutes for them to do that, and I still f#&$'3&* waited.

So, after an hour later, they processed my refund and still I waited because they forgot to inform me that my debit card was credited back to my funds!

So, what did I get for this piss poor service? A free chicken pad Thai!

I have never wrote such a scorching review of any restaurant. Never. Ever. But this was the last straw. I've lived in this neighborhood for years. I ate in this restaurant, told my friends about it and was even proud of the quality of the food at the best prices around. But not anymore.

Things have gotten worse, much worse, within the past 4 years or so which I assume is due to getting more popular and more growth. With this have come growing pains and I believe they don't have the right infrastructure and resources to adequately serve them all.

I would order from them on many occasions in the past and I noticed my wait time increasing each time and tonight was the last straw.

I was one of your loyal customers, but not anymore. I will tell my friends about you, I will post this review to other websites and I will not patronize your...

This place is a flavor bomb!!!! The Champa Sample is a must-order. It includes Laos spicy sausages, vermicelli noodles, mushroom + silver noodle egg rolls, and fried rice ball salad with fish sauce on the side! I love ordering the most exotic sounding dishes on the menu when I try out a new cuisine (I've never had Laos before, but the flavor palette seems close to Vietnamese and Thai). Naturally, the fried rice ball salad caught my eye. What on earth is a fried rice ball salad?! It's crispy goodness, including fried rice (OMG A SALAD WITH CARBS?! HELL YES!) mixed with preserved pork, green onions, peanuts, cilantro, mint leaves, and lime juice.

We also got the angel wings, which can be best described as a spring roll wrapped inside a deboned chicken drumstick. Drizzle some of that sweet and sour sauce on top and you got a ticket straight to deep fried heaven!

The mango fried rice was also delightful. My boyfriend is usually staunchly a noodle guy, but even he caved to this magical dish. The Laos-style beef larb was not as pungent and flavorful as I would have hoped, but it was still delicious.

Service and atmosphere was mediocore. The staff seemed on the unfriendly and on the shy side, but nothing horrible. For such a cozy establishment, I think it goes a long way for customers to be greeted with a big smile and at least some level of enthusiasm. Sadly, I felt like my excitement over the food and the menu was not shared by the host or...

I want to have big neighborhood pride but I just find Champa Garden too frustrating to do business with anymore. They've never had adequate phone equipment to be able to hear orders. The website died 2-3 years ago and they couldn't be bothered to fix it -- third party sites have old versions of the menu. Sometimes they don't answer the phone. They're very inconsistent about stated time to pick up vs actual time the order will be ready. Sometimes it can take 15-20 minutes just to get someone to take the money (I used to just leave the cash on the counter and leave.) All this and the food just isn't what it used to be in terms of price or quality.

The straw that broke the camel's back was calling in and having the phone answered, but put down on the desk twice in a row for over 5 minutes.

It's not like it's hard these days to automate order taking eg on the web. Tell me when Champa Garden gets their...