Char's Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Tucson

I wasn't very open to the idea of Thai food, but my friends who have been locals here for over a decade swore by the place. I've eaten there twice now and can't get enough of it! I'm a vegetarian so I order the Pad Thai with fried tofu. The smell of it when it comes to your table will get your appetite revving, and when I took my first bite, I swear I was grinning ear to ear! So good. The wait staff is friendly and quick to serve. The water is cold and refreshing, which goes great with the hot weather here. The decore isn't the most grandiose, but its certainly charming. There's plenty of Thailand imagery and accents through out the restaurant. One of my favorite things about the restaurant's presentation, is two large murals painted on the wall. I don't know when they were painted, but they have a South-Western theme, but have been painted on top of with Thai artwork to make a very unique hybrid. IE: A Thai temple nestled into the crevices of a dusty canyon on the Western frontier. All-in-all, a very pleasant eating experience. The prices are a bit higher than most eat in places in the area, ranging from $8-9 for an entree, but its worth every penny. Highly recommended to Thai lovers and those who don't yet...

The decor is wonderfully kitschy. Clearly it was a mexican restaurant at one point and the murals (which I love) have been adapted to the new theme. Service isn't bad, just not particularly American, they have always been willing to talk to the cooks for me, leave a water pitcher if I was thirsty, etc.

My problem is the food seems just kind of disappointingly compromised for a Thai restaurant. They never have fresh Thai chili, which is odd to me since that is the first ingredient in any Thai curry, so it's impossible to get any of their food decently spicy without them drowning it in crushed red pepper to the point where it is crunchy. Fresh basils and cilantro and green peppercorns and all these herbs which seem so essential to Thai food are just noticeably missing from their dishes. Instead their menu has weird chinese items like egg rolls and mongolian beef.

There are some high notes, I like them adapting whole fried fish to our local rainbow trout. Their Larb is good. The portions are usually generous. I will continue to eat here from time to time, but with a trip to lee lee's market and a little research you can make better thai...

They lied about the food being vegan. We’ve gone here for years and always double check that the curries can be made vegan and that they don’t have any shrimp, oyster, fish or dairy in the sauce. This week I ordered the green curry like I always do and asked these regular questions. The waitress responded that the curries all have shrimp sauce in them and it can’t be removed (except for the yellow curry), she then confirmed this with the kitchen. I was shocked that this was the case all along because they have always assured me there was not. We are very disappointed in this restaurant and that they told us over and over that the dish was vegan when it wasn’t. We have taken our vegan friends here and given Char Thai a lot of money while they were lying to us about their food. This could be very dangerous if someone in our group had a shrimp allergy. I hope they make sure in the future that their staff knows what exactly is in their food, or is at least willing to check before misleading people. They lost many loyal customers today, we will not...