Chanpen Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Tempe

It was my first time here, and I mentioned it to the manager. Plenty of seating. The menu selections were overwhelming. I wasn't sure how to order and the manager was not very helpful. I ordered vegetable roll but I was trying to order fried rolls and ended up with both. The crab puffs were crunchy and vegetable rolls were very Good!! I was fighting the very large fat flies that kept nose diving at me and the appetizers. I managed to kill a few of them with the menu to be able to eat calmly. The "seafood soup" caught my attention from another goggle review. It took a while (20 min) to get the soup order out to me. At least they bring you large mug of chilled tap water with a cucumber on the bottom. The volcano presentation was very cool, but I was sad to see the "seafood soup" only had 1 tiny piece of fish, 3 pieces of shrimp, 6 green colored clams and 8 white onion shaped squids. No oyster, no scallops. Caution: it was heavily loaded with Ginger! You have the option to add spicy levels of 1 to 5. When I tried to order half steamed rice, half choi mein, I was told they had to be 2 separate orders which I ended up taking to go. The Pineapple rice place did not have that much pineapple and was not as sweet as I thought. I needed to add sweet and source to make it more tasty. While waiting for food, i noticed the manager was eating at the register. She was gloved up but kept touching her face, mouth, nose with same gloves that she used to serve food plates, serve water, move glasses and cups-- not once did she change gloves. I didn't see her leave to wash her hands either. Maybe that's how you get the Thai flavor? I was the only one there and it was challenging to get their attention for green tea refills. I was dissapointed to get a regular hot water cup with a Kroger green tea bag. I had to call them back for sugar a couple of times. The to-go food had very large portions. They give you a complimentary orange sherbert to end your meal. Saw several large families with kids come in and they were easily accommodated. Overall a decent Thai experience though a bit pricey and there was a unexpected longer wait time for...

Chanpen has been a friendly, consistent and frequent favorite of mine since moving here 10 years ago. In fact, no matter the distance or traffic, I have remained a devoted and pleased customer to this family owned establishment. Five months ago was the first unfavorable experience…My salmon yellow curry take out was missing the salmon. I felt uncomfortable about complaining but did place a call to inform staff. They offered a complimentary meal: I redeemed that meal 3 weeks later, only to find its flavor unpleasingly different than their usual savoriness. In fact, I had an upset stomach for 1 full day after eating it. I thought perhaps it was just a mishap. When my out of town company arrived in March, I again came to patronize this restaurant. My friend questioned the neighborhood but trusted my pallet. Again, Chanpen disappointed, the yellow curry was a bit darker in color and had a scorched taste. Neither of us wanted to complain. It’s been some time, but decided to visit Chanpen. I walked in hungry and hopeful. Mistakes happen right?? This IS my Thai Spot. So being loyal I went again after getting off work. I can now say with confidence that I will NOT RETURN. Todays salmon yellow curry yielded undercooked (slightly crunchy) potatoes. This time I did notify the waitress. As she voiced the concern to the cook. The cook scoffed through the window “‘Sorry, Not Sorry”. At this point, I completely lost my appetite. The waitress promptly brought the replacement potatoes which were just as undercooked as the original. (Texture of water chestnut).Despite the previous incidents, I continued to go because of the welcoming customer service. Chanpen, you have now joined the ranks of the others that have fallen from Grace. She could at least said that in a language other than English…then I wouldn’t know the lack of pride she displayed in the food she prepared. This is truly...

As soon as we walked in we were greeted and told to sit anywhere we'd like. Once we sat down a few minutes later, the waitress brought over some cucumber water and vegetable soup. During our visit they had some jazz/ classical music playing which gave off a relaxing vibe. They have a lunch special which runs from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and we showed up around 1:30 and there were only a handful of people so there wasn't much of a wait before we got our food. The lunch special included an egg roll and some wonton chips, however, the egg roll was pretty small but still good. I ordered the drunken noodles with chicken and my girlfriend ordered fried rice with beef. They ask what spice level you would like your food and the levels range from one to five, we got our food at spice level 3 but I ordered a side of spice level 4. Level 3 is a pretty good baseline for a spice lover, but once you start moving up to four it starts building up and I can only imagine five is pretty hot. I also ordered a small Thai tea which was a pretty decent size. However, the Thai tea itself was a little bit too sweet but it did help with the spicy. We were going to get sweet rice with mango but the mango was out of season so we just opted for the sweet rice itself which was still very delicious. At the end they asked if we would like some complimentary orange sherbert ice cream which was also very tasty. Overall price and food quantity was very good and I will definitely be returning to...