Chang Yai Thai Noodle & Cafe — Restaurant in Pasadena

Chang Yai Thai is a fairly new restaurant in Pasadena and I can already say its without question the best Thai restaurant in the Pasadena/SoHo area and probably the best Asian restaurant in general in this area. Its run by a family from Bangkok and the range that they have is impressive! The restaurant is fairly small, tucked away in a shopping strip facing Crenshaw, and the atmosphere is casual with the dim lights and elephant mural giving off a pleasant, relaxed vibe (see below). The menu is quite expansive, adding generic Chinese options, pho, and even fusion Thai-Japanese ramen dishes to go along with their Thai dishes. But to start, I have below pictures of their vegetable fried spring rolls and barbecue pork buns. The spring rolls are typical of any Asian restaurant but they're good enough- cripsy and fresh. I've been seeing pork buns being offered as appetizers at other Asian restaurants more and more, and these are similar to the ones served at Jinya, though these have chopped beef and are saltier/sweeter than Jinya's (these seem more like Sloppy Joe's for those old enough to remember). The main courses you see below are the Ka-Pow fried egg and chicken Pad Thai. The Ka-Pow Fried Egg had caught me eye the other day so I tried it; it has ground meat (chicken in my case), green/red peppers, bamboo shoots, garlic, and of course, a fried egg on top. This was a delicious dish but very spicy! The Pad Thai, a flagship dish of Thailand, is also delicious and freshly made, and has very good portions! I've also tried the green curry which is delicious as well. Now here comes my one criticism: consistency with the spice levels. At Chang Yai Thai they give you a spicy scale of 1-10, with, in my opinion, 1-5 really not being spicy at all. Level 5 maybe has a tad. Now I know Thai food is traditionally very spicy but I'll be honest with you: I'm a big wimp and not a fan of very spicy food. Sue me. But Level 6 here is a BIG jump from 1-5 and teeters on the edge of my tolerance. I had tried the Ka-Pow Fried Egg at level 5 and it was also teetering towards being too spicy for me at times, yet with the pad thai, it was barely noticeable. All in all this is a fantastic, family-owned restaurant with great service and if you're in the Pasadena/SoHo area I can't...

What a hidden gem. Just opened 6 months ago and there's a reason why they have 4.9 stars with almost 300 reviews!

Chang Yai Thai is so delicious, stellar service, and an absolutely gorgeous and clean restaurant. The food is made fresh and made efficiently. Most of our food came within 10-15 minutes and was both flavorful and aesthetically pleasing.

The menu is big with tons of options so everyone in your party is bound to find something they like or want to try. This is not a basic Thai restaurant. I've eaten at many Thai restaurants before and have never seen such a unique menu. I will be coming back here regularly and trying something new every single time I come.

If large menus make you anxious feel free to ask the server for suggestions and ask them questions about the different dishes. They are very friendly and helpful!

Tons of parking outside in the plaza when we pulled up Saturday for lunch. The shrimp eggrolls, tom yum noodles, crab noodles, wonton soup, thai fried rice, thai crepe cake, and smoothies were so delicious. We ate everything and took almost nothing home in a party of 3 we spent $95 because we wanted to try a variety of things and every penny is worth it.

PS. Restroom is super clean which is very telling of a restaurant. Clean bathroom = clean kitchen. You can actually see the chef cooking through small openings in the wall and the kitchen is gleaming.

I highly recommend this restaurant to all locals and visitors especially if it's your first time trying Thai food! This is by far one of the best Thai restaurants I've been to and Pasadena is so lucky that this gem is...

Amazing! I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it to the opening but I brought my little cousin here today as she is expanding her palate and we wanted to try it out. We had a great experience as we were sat down immediately, had water brought to our table and had good conversations with our waitress. She was so kind & attentive all throughout the service and was willing to answer any and all questions to the best of her ability.

I appreciate all the menu items having a picture & a description so you are able to see what you are ordering, as-well as having a separate drink menu with pictures. My cousin and I both got the Thai Tea Signature & shared a Wonton Cream Cheese for an appetizer. My cousin got the Orange Chicken as she wasn’t sure what to get but it was really good. It had a nice crunch when biting into it and the flavor was great! As for me, I got the Red Curry w/ pork at a spice level of 5/10 and I really enjoyed it!

I will say that I haven’t had Thai food in a while so I do need to build up my spice tolerance again but my server was great in explaining how the spice level differ and maybe adding a bit of water to my left overs to help make it a bit less spicy. That being said, the serving sizes are big in my opinion and enough for 2-3 people, or if you want left overs for later.

Overall, 10/10 experience. I will be back again & hopefully be able to bring more...