Chanon Thai Café — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

I try not to give exceedingly negative reviews, but more than a year after eating at Channon Thai, I'm still very angry over the treatment that I received. I was introducing my Hunanese girlfriend to Thai food and ordering a selection of dishes. I ordered beef larb (salad), and when the proprietor asked how hot I wanted it, I told her that I would like it hot. She acted like white people can't really know their own minds about having hot food and began to grill me about my order. I started to explain that I had lived in China for four years, where I'd eaten a lot of exceptionally hot food, and had spent close to a month in various parts of Thailand, but before I could finish speaking, she interrupted me and loudly announced to the whole restaurant that Thailand and China were different countries. She was essentially assuming that I was some kind of rube and embarrassing me in front of the entire restaurant. I should have walked out the door, but we ordered just the same. When the food came, we were disappointed all over again. First, my girlfriend took her first bite of chicken satay to discover that it was raw inside, raw, and we had to send it back. (I had to convince her not to be afraid to try it again when we went to another Thai restaurant some months later.) Second, instead of just preparing the larb as requested, the kitchen sent out a dish of larb and a container of ground chili peppers for me to sprinkle on top. I don't generally go to restaurants to mix the food myself. If they had no intention of making the dish as ordered, why ask me how to season it? Finally, I've had Thai food all over the country, from New York to Los Angeles where I lived for thirteen years, as well as in Thailand, and I can say with confidence that the other dishes were bland. The place seems to be popular with genuinely provincial Utahns and hipster millenials who've probably never had decent food in their lives. The place is relatively inexpensive, and the atmosphere could be called cozy. As a result, I suspect that the good reviews come from people who want to like the place and let themselves be blinded by the price.

In my opinion, the best Thai food in the area is Skewered across from Trolley Square. It's more expensive, but you'll get very good renditions of most dishes. For example, the curry dishes were perfect. Sloppy cooks tend to overcook the ingredients in a yellow curry, and something like the potatoes can get soft and relatively flavorless. At Skewered, the potatoes in the yellow curry were cooked but still crisp and full of flavor. They also had less common dishes like sticky rice and mango desserts.

In short, don't be fooled by the good reviews and convinced to like something that isn't good. Channon Thai isn't good. It's not the worst Thai that I've ever had---it's in the running---but where the food can't win for losing, the exceptionally bad manners of the proprietor make it simply a terrible choice for dinner and deserving of the lowest rating...

Leaving in tears compelled me to write this review. I find myself being as understanding and accommodating to restaurants as possible since I’ve had so much time and experience in the service industry, but this checked every box as the worst dining experience I’ve ever had. My partner and I waited 10 minutes to be seated at one of the many open four-tops. We ordered a papaya salad, pad thai, and the “duck fantasy.”

The papaya salad was shockingly awful. It must have been flavored with just fish sauce, and garlic. No spice or flavor beyond that. (When our sever took our order, he didn’t ask how spicy we wanted everything, so I happily assumed it would come out authentically very spicy, which is how I am used to papaya salad). I’m really hungry though so I eat about 4 bites of it before I finally have to stop because of the literal bad taste in my mouth. Figurative bad taste to come later. About 10 minutes later, we’re served a plate of rice-spaghetti(??) with zero sauce. Nested atop was green onion, chicken, and a very small quantity of egg. This is inedible. We put it to the side of the table, and start anxiously wondering where to go from here. 15 minutes later, the duck dish is served, and nobody had checked on us so far at all. As a random server put down the duck, I asked her for hot sauce in an attempt to add some flavor to salvage the meal. She never brought it, but wandered around with nothing to do for a long time. My partner and I are dumfounded, trying to figure out what to do.

Finally, after sitting and not eating, looking decidedly sad, our original waiter comes up to our table and gives us a finger-guns two thumbs up, saying “all good?” We explain that this food is really bland and not what we thought it would be. Without apologizing, he brings us to go containers (we leave the papaya and weird rice spaghetti behind; we didn’t want this food to begin with). We tell our server that we do not want to take the food. He never offers a solution (no, “I’m so sorry, can I bring you something else?”) and we receive a full bill. We are young, newly married, and I’m a teacher. Having to pay for food that we could not eat is a big deal both financially and emotionally. I left hungry and feeling taken advantage of for being nice. I hope that this review prevents somebody else from having their...

Undoubtedly the best thai joint in Utah. I am anal when it comes to good thai food and have been to literaly every single thai place from salt lake city to provo and Chanon thai is the best. There calamari appetizer and spring rolls are nice but a little on the generic side though I still enjoy them but the redeeming factor that makes this place really stand out is there curry. The Panang here is second only to a few small handful of places I have been outside of thailand and is quite incredible. There Masaman and red curry is excellent as well as their pad thai.

Now for the downsides, seating is small and cramped, and you have to be sort of a regular to get your food the way you like it. To clarify I prefer my thai food to be thai spicy, if you ask for thai spicy they will dumb it down and give you what they think the avg american would consider to be spicy so they dont get overwhelmed and send it back. You really have to be known in order to get a real thai experience there, that or make sure to pound home the fact you want real thai spicy to the waitress.

Second, the hours of this place are terrible, there pretty much open whenever they want to be and dont have a set schedule though there is one posted they dont really adhere to that lot of times I will go there and the place has a sign on the front door (gone to thailand for the month) or (took the day off) which upsets me because the place is so incredibly awesome I dislike being denied there incredibly cuisine. (yes im selfish I know)

And the last major downside is the seating, small cramped tiny seating the resturant can hold meybe 15-20 people at max capacity if that and when the place opens to when it closes it is packed to the brim with a line outside of people waiting to get in. So when I go I try to time it for when they open or when there getting ready to close in order to get a seat.

Though there are downsides the incredible quality of the food and there amazing cuisine more then make up for any single annoyance I would ever have to face in my hunt...