Habrae Thai dessert cafe & restaurant — Restaurant in Proviso Township

Lovely,caring Thai sweetheart couple who run their 1st restaurant after many decades of Thai eatery work & bringing their own Thai personal family preferences for best flavor profile! Amazing interpretation of 3 SPICE flavor(made locally famous by world reknown Chicago's Arun's Thai) & their own Massaman curry(peanuts & potato);rich,creamy/spicy cocunut milk based curry! Wow! AS FOR DESSERT OPTIONS!; best on menu?! maybe Chicago?! Most delicate,puffy,melt-in-ur mouth CRAB RAGOON! (w/ plenty of crab!); $8?! Potstickers close 2nd! The recommended-by-owner (him),red curry(spicy!,level 5 of 10 heat) w/ jumbo($16?) shrimp! Spectacular! Massaman curry great ($15?) Enough protein(shrimp & chicken respectively),accompanied by overly generous,crystalized,white,moist,fluffy? (best i have had!),jasmine rice! Must have dozen+! desserts! (see name of eatery)! DESSERTS! Bakery fresh options to make this Thai eatery.separate itself from the industry! Wine & sake offerings are broad based enough,& very fair $10-$13,w/ surprising wide sake options. I was served by friendly sweet,timely,educated female server,while male owner came over frequently, (not over-bearing) visits to our table to assist in appetizer,entree,& dessert expert guidance! Very welcoming,cozy,Thailand decorated atmosphere. Only 1 complaint! Only 1 fresh fish option; lowly,boring,bottom feeder tilipia! Need to add catfish,red snapper,or at very least sole fish! That will directly effect my frequency (& my $),of visits since I mainly eat healthy seafood,while chicken a far off 2nd choice. Otherwise! This is a near west burb BEST THAI EATERY(5 STAR!),now suffiently replacing recently closed,nearby Amarind's(Arun's owned),& match/equal top notched,10yr+ Berwyn BODHI THAI(seafood specialty). ENJOY FOLKS! This is a WINNER! Especially,when Thai,Chinese & less-so Japanese eateries SERIOUSLY,lack any decadent,tasty,bakery type, or broad-based DESSERT complimentary options! THIS FILLS A INDUSTRY VOID! Thank you to the lovely,caring,locally-based Thai couple! Finally;plenty of nearby Forest Park Madison St. corridor parking (both free & $1/hr next door options)! Closed Tuesdays(strategic!) NOT local industry...

Quick update: Still great food. Khao Soi is still amazingly flavourful and spicy. The Crab Rangoon is fried well, to a nice crisp. Drinks are delicious but take time to make. Mango sticky rice is great.

Original Review: Long story, short: so delicious and fresh, I can't wait to go back.

Long story, long: the eldest decided we should have Thai food the first night the youngest was gone. I thought I'd search for something like the first Thai I had in Chicago (Rosded) which was so amazing.

When I saw Habrea on the Google Map, I remembered reading about it in an article a couple years ago. Based on that, I dragged the 2 of us out in the severe rain and foraged for dinner.

As we walked in, I got the sense that this was a family owned place that really cares about their business. Everything was tastefully decorated and very clean.

On to the food! We started out with chive dumplings. Very interesting, which I will say about everything that we ate. I liked it, but the texture was not loved by my companion. Besides the texture, the flavor was fresh and the sauce served with it was a nice balance of sweetness and heat.

For the main course, I had the Khao Soi. The flavors in this were simply amazing. I don't remember the last time that a meal seemed completely new to me. I've eaten some amazing dishes and this one is definitely in the top 5 for sure.

The kid had fried rice. It presented well, and I was told it was amazingly good. We then shared 2 desserts, the egg custard and the pudding. Both were good, but the pudding we really loved as it was again something we'd never tasted before.

The two complaints I have are, the Sake wasn't hot enough, and the meal ended. Not bad for foraging during a...

Such a great new authentic, unique spot in Forest Park.

Habrae is a Thai dessert cafe that just started offering a full menu (which I haven't tried yet, this review is written 9/9/21). The cafe is run by a husband/wife combo and they are the sweetest people, so excited to share their treats with you and explain what everything is since many of the desserts have exotic flavors you might not have heard of. We have tried almost every dessert in here and my personal favorites are:

Charcoal pudding (black firm-ish pudding with a sweet and salty coconut cream top) Sticky rice (black sticky rice with the same sweet and salty coconut cream topping, they recommend putting it in the microwave and stirring it all together) I-TIM-KA-TI : like a little Thai Sundae, I get coconut ice cream with toppings of sweet sticky rice and grass jelly buddy bun - savory pork bun coconut macaroons

This place is such a fun way to test out authentic Thai desserts and flavors you might not have had before (and you may not recognize the names but desserts are desserts - mostly sugar, cream, egg, and carbs). The concept is unique, the food is super authentic, and the space is well designed and beautiful. I'm stoked both what it means for the Forest Park / Madison strip that they set up shop here, and also stoked just to have such a great place for treats a few blocks away.

Also, this seems like an amazing place to work from - beautiful wooden tables and they have wifi + serve lots of drinks.

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