I've always passed by Chao Thai and with so many Thai places Elmhurst has to offer people have recommended me go try Chao Thai on countless occasions. On a cold snowy day I tried going to another Thai place close by but it was closed fortunate for me Chao Thai was open! Their menu is really long and extensive compared to other Thai places close by so you're bound to find something you'll enjoy. They also have a pick your spicy level which I must warn you gets to be REALLY spicy. If you're having a cold or you're hungover this is the best option for you. I stuck to their pineapple fried rice and my boyfriend got their noodles. I loved both our dishes and the spice level on his noodles was just spicy enough to make you sweat but not spicy enough to make us stop. I ordered their Thai ice to just incase it got too spicy. Their Thai ice tea had too much ice in it but nevertheless it was a solid drink. I saw a lot of people order take out and delivery here which is a great option if it's too cold to go out or if you just want to pick up lunch. The people were really nice and I'd probably come back here since it's so close to the train! read more

Chao Thai - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

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It's especially hard these days to find something authentic as well as ridiculously delicious. Let me start with I love this place. I feel like there's a bunch of grandmas in the back, getting feisty in the kitchen and super happy to feed me whenever I come in. It's probably my imagination, but it matches the quality and experience I get with the food. This is definitely a place to experiment and take a look at the specials of the day. For those of you who do not do well with heat in your palette , Chao Thai is not a place for the faint of heart. I've been here several times: the curries and the noodles are lovely. Sour sausage- delicious and unexpected. Pineapple fried rice surprisingly delightful (don't judge me, my date asked for it). Hate to say it but this place will be soon overrun with a bunch of hipsters looking for really great Thai food off the beaten path. Til then, bring your cash and a sense of adventure. read more

My favorite location for Thai food . This is really a hidden gem in Elmhurst. You won't noticed the storefront because they in like very old and not much update of the store . But definitely not gonna make u hate it but love it so much . I been here every 2-3 months coz kinda far for me . But once I got the chance to Elmhurst this is only option for . The food is tasty the tomyam soup is awesome . No complaints about it . Is authentic Thai food restaurant read more

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This place was recommended by my brother's girlfriend who was from Thailand stated serving authentic Thai food so we travel to Elmhurst from brooklyn for lunch. My husband and I had tried Thai food before but just not into it but we willing to give it another chance. This time we went for some traditional dishes. Here our lunch: Pad thai- very saucy and a bit sweet. More of my husband's liking. Catfish with basil sautéed - was good but fish was a bit dry cause its fried. Flavorful. Seafood papaya salad- was good but too sweet sour. Don't really need the seafood. Chicken satay: was good. Thai ice tea: was good but had better. Service was good. I was walking with crutches and they assist me in sitting down. Really appreciate the extra care. The experience had convinced me to give them another choice so we do plan to go back or try another restaurant. We plan to go to Qi for a try. As my husband he still skeptical but we going to Qi anyways. Lol. read more

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It's kinda sad because I have been here on several occasions over the years and I remember liking the food. My trip today was a miss. The lack of Thai clientele was a sign that things wouldn't be as good as the motherland or it's previous glory years. Not sure if the ownership has changed but there was a big difference in quality and taste. The food: Roasted pork over rice- roasted pork, crispy pork, and sweet sausage over rice with gravy sauce. This is one of my all time go to dishes since it is simple and delicious. The one here was simply put, weird. I have never heard of putting coconut milk in the gravy, it is so unheard of. The smell of the coconut milk completely threw me off as did the overbearing sweetness of the gravy. The crispy pork was very obviously pre-fried and was more hard than crispy. The roasted pork was rather dry and lifeless and the sweet Chinese sausage was standard. This dish made me sad. http://www.yelp.com/user_local_photos?select=dsBKjcScwPvOxTibk2M-xA&userid=Y_iTTjKvV5hLy-880SZzlA Duck Noodle- duck noodle in dark soup with bean sprout and scallion. I thought this dish was just OK, I didn't really care for the taste nor texture of the duck. Pig leg with special sauce- I haven't had this dish in years but I do remember this dish being one of their better ones. read more

Chao Thai - Roasted pork over rice- roasted pork, crispy pork, and sweet sausage over rice with gravy sauce. - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

The best Thai food in Elmhurst. I love their tom yum soup, grilled pork, 2 flavored fish, and more of their dishes. The price is a bit expensive compare to the other thai's restaurants. But it's totally worth it! This is my go-to Thai spot in elmhurst read more

I've been to this restaurant once years ago, and I remember liking my food, so I decided to order from them a few days ago, when I was contemplating what I should eat for dinner one night. I opted for an order of their pad kee mao with tofu for dinner, and an order of their sauteed Chinese broccoli over rice, with a fried egg, for lunch the next day. My food was delivered to me quickly, so no issues with that. I did find my pad kee mao to be pretty underwhelming. I had specified for it to be medium spicy, but it was just mild, and overall, it wasn't very flavorful. The Chinese broccoli dish, though, was excellent. The sauce they used to sautee the greens in was great, and the egg was seasoned wonderfully. I would definitely order from here again, but I'll just stick to their over rice dishes instead, going forward. read more

For me this place have authentic Thai food. I like drunken noodles and Thai iced tea. Good service, friendly staff. Go with family, friends or by yourself. read more

Chao Thai - Morning glory salad - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

This had been my favorite Thai place for a few years and every time I came home I would make a trip with my mom to eat food spicy enough to drain the sinuses, but coming here this time was a little disappointing. There seemed to be more sugar in the dishes and less spice. I remember the first time I came here I made the mistake of ordering medium since that's what I do at most restaurants. It ended up being some sort of "Thai medium" because I was DYING of spicyness. Since then I began ordering mild here but today's mild wasn't really spicy at all. The beef in the drunken noodles was more chewy than expected and the papaya salad seemed a little less fresh and blander than before. It's still pretty good but based off of previous experiences I'd say the quality has gone down taking it from five stars to something more of a 3.5 :( Still though the service here is great and the waitresses are all really sweet! read more

CASH ONLY! - Fried whole fish with basil sauce - soooo good! - Fried taro rolls - ehh not my thing, I expected it to be more... taro-ish - Pad thai - the noodles were different than what I'm used to. They were soft but thin. I loved this. - Green curry - we ordered medium spice but I couldn't handle it -- pretty good though! - They have hainanese rice! - Thai iced tea - spot on. Tiny place, street parking. read more

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Nom nom nom nom! This place is small but legit! Came here with friends who comes here all the time for thai food. We allowed my friend to order for us. He ordered 7 dishes for 4 people which was way too much. It was delicious though. Let's allow the pictures speak how yummy these dishes were. The place is small but got a few tables. read more

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Authentic thai food! A simple restaurant that looks ordinary but their food is really good. Came here for lunch and ordered 3 types of food for me, my bf & my bro. Got some papaya salad for appetizer. This is one of my favorite dish ever! I always get this whenever we go to any thai restaurant. Its really good! Its a little spicy. I think you can adjust the spiciness if you're just gonna inform the server. Me & my bro ordered the roasted pork with gravy over rice-- it has this red gravy thats a little sweet. It taste good. Its not very sweet & on the side theirs a thick black sauce thats sweet too. Semilar to oyster sauce. I didn't use that sauce since the red sauce is already a lil sweet. My bf ordered pad kee mow-- beef basil noodle. Its a flat noodle with some thai sauce. Its yummy! And we ordered thai iced tea for drinks. I think their thai iced tea is too sweet. Its sugar overload. I think you can also adjust the sweetness by telling the server. Delicious thai food!!! read more

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This Kitchen Check impressed me. Food from Chao Thai never disappoints. I placed an order through the phone for delivery. The lady who took the order was polite, patient, considerate and spoke clearly. She asked me if I'd like to have rice with Massaman Curry beef since it didn't come with rice, I was glad she asked, I added brown rice. When the food was delivered, the Kitchen Check came along is one of the neatest I've ever seen. It has address and phone number clearly written down on top, I had to take a picture and show how neat the handwriting is and how clearly the price got calculated. Just by looking at the Check, I couldn't wait to enjoy the delicious food! read more

Chao Thai - A11. Grilled Calamari, C4. Massaman Curry, R10. Home Style Thai Fried Rice, N19. Pad Suki, Brown Rice - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

Ordered delivery, they were faster than the estimated time for the number of items I had ordered and it was such cold weather outside, they delivered it with the food still hot read more

A very small and old stall. Food was delicious though. There are many different options of Thai in the area but chai Thai has the best kea mao. Very flavorful and spicy. read more

Most tasty Thai food in queens or New York I feel. Server person was nice. I tried their red curry. Will try other dishes soon. read more

This is one of the best, authentic Thai places I have ever been to and is an example of why Queens is such a great place for eats. It's easy to spot because of it's orange awning. It's a little bit small though and looks like a bit of a hole in the wall, but I didn't mind. There are about 6 tables with maybe 14 chairs inside. The staff is very friendly and smiled alot. They have a television on the wall tuned into Thai music shows. As an appetizer, I would recommend the Nam Sod, which is a spicy pork salad with chili and lime flavors. I had the Pad Prik Khing Curry with chicken for the main dish. The portion was huge! That is saying alot, because I can eat alot. I had to force myself to finish it. It had the right amount of spice to it. It made me sweat, but it wasn't so spicy that you can't enjoy it. Prices are very cheap. Everything was around $6 to $9. read more

Chao Thai - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

CASH ONLY!!!!!!!! The one thing I hate more than cash only spots is when restaurants get a darn Michelin "MENTION"!!! Come on people, you didn't get a star...no need to raise your price just because you were mentioned in a newsletter.... I love hole in the wall restaurants that have 0 ambiance but the most kick ass food you can ask for. This place definitely delivers in the latter! NOTE: If you are not a spice whore, like myself, make sure to tell the server EXTRA MILD, because their "mild" is still very spicy for most. Also the portions here are HUGE so one dish can serve 3 comfortably We ordered: ~ Crispy Catfish Salad: Panko crusted minced catfish, didn't get any fish taste but was super super crispy and the salad was very spicy but in a good way ~Larb Pork: Asked the server what "Larb" is and she said minced pork w/scallions, basil, tiny kick your butt spicy peppers: Super yummy but again not for the spice virgins. ~Papaya Salad: Really refreshing! not spicy at all, yummy green papaya, carrtos and 'cuc finely shredded and delicately dressed. ~Pork Blood Soup: all the pork bits that most americans won't touch...Pork: blood pieces, sliced ears, trotters and some pork meatballs as well. It was very rich deep flavored broth ~Crispy Pork in Basil Sauce: bit size chunks of deep fried pork belly in a thai basil sauce...ths was surprising not spicy at all, great flavor and a good balance between sweet and savory ~Duck and Crispy Basil: crispy fried bite size pieces of duck in a chili sauce and a big bunch of flash fried basil leaves garnished on top. had a nice kick to it but not overbearingly so. ~Chicken Pad Thai: Great balance of sweet & tangy, huge chunks of chicken, fresh chewy rice noodles, and the crushed peanuts, bean sprouts and lime just added a little more depth and texture to the dish! Overall a great meal, we will be back to try some more! read more

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Tonight my husband and I tried out this Thai restaurant for the first time. Most of the food was lovely and whilst we were inside the restaurant the staff provided good service. There was only one starter that neither my husband and I enjoyed. However that was down to personal taste and not their cooking. However I got the feeling us not eating the dish may have caused offence as they asked three times if we wanted it bagged to take home. Then they asked why we didn't want to take the leftovers home. This restaurant is cash only, so we got what we thought would be enough for meal plus tip. However the meal came to a little more than we expected, leaving less for tip. However we left all the change we had, and begin to leave the restaurant. We were outside walking to the bus stop and my husband was saying how lovely the restaurant was and how we would definitely go back. However at that moment the waitress came outside holding the tip we had left and shouting at us, saying that we hadn't left enough of a tip--that it wasn't 15%. The last time I checked as much as tipping in the USA is common place and part of the culture; there is no obligation or legal requirement to tip any amount, never mind 15%. If the restaurant had the facility to accept card payments, we would have been able to tip a larger amount, as could have included the tip on the card payment. However by insisting on cash only it limited the amount we were able to tip. Furthermore, chasing us down the street for a larger tip is abysmal business management. The staff in this restaurant obviously do not realise that by doing this a) they are never getting our business again. b) we will tell friends and family not to provide them with business and c) it made sure that they got no tip at all. For anyone who does venture to this restaurant, you better overestimate how much cash you will need to cover meal and tip. Otherwise you will probably also get chased down the street for more money. read more

Every dish from this place has been delicious!!! There has not been one miss dish. A couple of us meet here for lunch every few months. It involves a lot of planning to leave work, take subways, LIRR, and bus. Plus we have to coordinate our work and childcare schedule...but we do it. Because the food is THAT good. My only problem is the bathroom is very dirty and dingey. read more

Food is not bad, but when I call for the information about carried rice, the phone service is very bad!!

The food was better a few years ago,and they have really got CHEAP with the portion sizes,I mean be fair and give me what I'm paying for be fair.I won't waste my money there besides there's so many other restaurants around there read more

Really gonna miss ordering from this place twice a week, no shame. Consistently really flavorful, large portions for 10-13$. The people are super nice too! It's cash only but you may be able to get around this ordering pick up through an app. If you're in the area, be sure to go!! I've tried every Thai place in Elmhurst / Jackson Heights and I promise this is the best place. read more

This place is cash only!! No complaints at all about the food itself. Chao Thai's portions are good for the price, and the menu selection is big so it's great to order a bunch of entrees to share with others. The wait can get long during dinner time, and since there's not a lot of seats you can't help but to feel rushed when you're finishing up your meal. Another thing I noticed my second time here was that despite the long menu, a lot of choices were unavailable, even ones that were not manually covered. Maybe it's time to update the menu if that many dishes are unavailable? That aside, I wouldn't come out to Elmhurst specifically for this place, but I think it's worth visiting if you happen to be nearby. read more

Overall the food was really good and would come back. The Thai tea was not too sweet and had flavor. I really liked the Pad Kee Mao and Pad Thai. They tasted spicy and had a good flavor. The Tom Yum soup was a little too sour even for me who likes sour, but still good. read more

Chao Thai is my go to Thai spot. I love VERY spicy food and Chao uses Thai chilis to make my Pad Thai perfect for my preference. I've had the squid appetizer, mango rice, satay, various noodle dishes...it's all delicious read more

Chao Thai - Mango Sweet coconut Sticky rice with sweet mango. - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

This is one of the hidden gems for Thai food, not as well known as some of the places in Woodside, since it's kind of tucked away on a side street in Elmhurst. The whole fish here is the best I've had in any Thai restaurant, and their curries and stirfries are great as well. read more

Phone order + delivering food promptly = not a one star review. By the way I ordered right when the restaurant opened in the morning so maybe that's why it was horrible? I don't know. I ordered a beef drunken noodle not only did it look burnt, dark, over cooked and unappetizing it wasn't mildly spicy or anything at all. Just a giant blob of burnt tasting hard chewy beef with noodles. There are plenty of other Thai restaurants in Elmhurst. Don't order to go from here... unless you're willing to go back with the food to complain. read more

Food poisoning. Went here yesterday cuz I was craving raw shrimp and papaya salad. Drove 30 mins here just to notice the B rating on the window... Well, I was already there, so I proceeded. I had raw shrimp for the first time in my life at this place 5 years ago. I remember it was the bomb, so fresh! And I remember I really loved their food. Since then I've been other places for raw shrimp. Yesterday the place even smelled bad. Should work on a better vent. But I insisted on getting what I came here for - papaya salad and raw shrimp. Papaya salad was just decent, a little on the sweeter side. Raw shrimp - from the first bite I knew it was not of good quality. :( I had a couple and took the rest home (thinking I might as well just cook them because of the poor quality). As I'm writing this, I wonder what I was thinking... If it didn't taste fresh and the thing was raw... Why would I risk it? So I had food poisoning shortly after - not surprising. Yup. read more

Chao Thai - Thai Near Me - Elmhurst, New York

Food is still great, but beware the prices have jumped up and they also pre-include a service charge now! read more

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My favorite Thai in Elmhurst, and there is a lot of competition. Their pad se ew is just so great, as is the pork skin salad, squid salad, and grilled pork with tamarind sauce -- really everything I have eaten has been amazing. It is tiny and really not fancy, but who cares when the food is knee-weakening and super reasonable. It is about a block from the Elmhurst M and R so it is also convenient. read more

Hole in the wall? Talk about literally. Raw shrimp salad. 10 stars. Very authentic & the food is just the best I've ever had. Last time I ordered it was probably 2 months ago, take out only. read more

I use to come here with my family often, but I don't think that this will be the case anymore because the food isn't much better than the many Thai establishments in the neighborhood, plus the cash only option, and the automatic 20% tips added to the total. I came here tonight with my family because I was craving a pork noodle soup, the one I drooled about is from Boon Chu(very close by) but for some reason we decided to come to Chao Thai instead. It's a very cute, small, but clean family owned restaurant. There is limited seating and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to come with a party larger than 4, because it would be too difficult for them to accommodate. One thing that I HAVE TO get whenever I come to a Thai restaurant is Thai ice tea! But for $6 and a cup half full of ice-- This is a horrible deal!! The Thai tea itself wasn't too bad but sweeter than what I am use to. The menu was mostly written in Thai, as are today's specials, which was kind of annoying but on the menu you could always just read the English description. The food came quickly and although they didn't come together, they did come almost immediately one after the other. The yellow curry that we got was pretty good and I would get it again if I were to come back but I will NEVER get this spicy pork noodle soup again!! The soup tasted so flavorless to me, only spicy. It's also probably my fault that it was too spicy for me .. NOTE: if you're unsure, just get it less spicy because you can always make it spicier later. The portion itself was huge and filled me up though. Their service was also fair. I wouldn't say it was anything spectacular but the lady who took our order was very attentive of us, patient and smiled often. read more

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First thing you will notice is the place is very small! Second thing you'll notice is the cheesy decorations. They recently redecorated and used white PVC siding made for the exterior of a house to decorate the walls. So looking at the wall is like looking at the side of a house! The new tables they have are a mix of sea shells and cutouts cover with glass. I not a fan of it. Now to the important part of the visit, food. We tried the Fried fish fillets with sweet chili sauce- this dish is very good, large pieces of fish and the sauce was not overwhelming. Batter was crispy. Rate 5/5 Pork Thai Fried Rice- a lot of delicious thinly sliced pork with the fried rice. Rate 4/5 Rad Nah- tasty but not a lot of noodles to satisfy me. Rate 3/5 I have been here about 5 times and the food very consistent. Service is good. It gets get very crowded on the weekends. In summary Cash only. Food: 4/5 Service: 4/5 Restroom: 3/5 (careful going down the narrow steps) Decor: 2/5 read more

"OH MY FREAKIN' GOODNESS!" These were the words that left my mouth when I did speak during the food shoveling. Takrai Thai left a gap in my heart when it closed and became something that didn't live up to its predecessor. So, when coming to Chao Thai (same area, just across the street) I had no crazy expectations on it. First of all this place is a small storefront, so groups of fours or fives would be like a respectful max group dinning. It has crazy Christmas lights in the front and on their tree inside, while the inside had all these cutesy items. The wait staff is super friendly and fast. We ordered and got our food within less than 10 mins. The Thai iced tea was strong, but good! I dilute that baby a bit to get more out of it. I ordered the Crab fried rice and my friend got the pad thai. They were both very flavorful and deeeelicious dishes. OMG, you can totally taste the crab! The spices (peppers/chilies) were not that spicy, although it did have some burn factor at the back of my throat at one moment. The portions were good. We actually thought it was big. We were hungry and we usually finish our dishes, but i was so stuffed from the bounty of food on my plate. Continuing w/service. You know how they are awesome? My friend left a little shopping bag behind and we walked 1 block away when we realized it. She returned back only to find that they sent their delivery guy plus our waitress after us (there were only 2 waitresses there). They couldn't find us (we went another route), so they returned the same time we went back. So nice! You know what? You guys are #1 in my book! read more

We accidentally come across this place when we actually wanted to go elsewhere. We are not disappointed. The place is small and orangey but the food was delicious, authentic thai food.. Portion was just right, ordered pad thai and sweet chili paste fried rice with chicken , total $18.55 (without tip) read more

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Yes, I think this is good! In Chinese (Cantonese) we would say, "Hoe Mei Doe!" Translated: Good Taste! and "Hoe Sic!" Translated: Good Eats! Chinese people would never expect home food to taste the same as restaurant food. The woks never get hot enough at home. Last night we had the (1) Crispy Pork with Chinese Broccoli (2) Pad Duck in Basil Sauce (3) Steamed Sea Bass in Lemon The fish was really really fresh. Very light. Very yummy. I love Chinese Broccoli....it was SPICY even though we asked for mild..so be forewarned! Mild at Chao is still SPICY! DON'T BITE INTO THE TINY LITTLE CHILI PEPPERS. Is it me?! The smaller the chilies the worse they are in heat??!! Duck is always yummy in my book. I had leftovers for lunch today. I can't believe there are people at where I work that never tried duck and are not willing to try. They are missing out! Maybe all they can handle is chicken breast meat...UGH! I rather have duck breast meat over chicken breast meat ANY DAY!!!! My mouth was burning afterwards but it was DELICIOUS! More than willing to try more of their menu. We came at 9pm and there was one empty table. As I understand this place is packed all the time. read more

I don't understand why they charge $35 for two tom yum soups but yet on their menu it's like 7 bucks?

I went back here last night. I always give a place at least two tries. Much better the second time. I learned that you really have to know what to order. I got the coconut Tom Ka Kai soup again, but I asked them to replace the chicken with more veggies. The soup tasted so much better with all veggies. It definitely changed the taste of the soup - it enhanced the herbs and spices already in it. I also got my daily serving of veggies. Per recommendation by John Q. I got the Pad Kee Mao. It had a much better assortment of ingredients - egg, chicken, peppers, broad rice noodles, tomatoes. This was an awesome explosion of flavor in my mouth. The chicken though - it's still dry! Put some water in that chicken! Overall, it was great, and now I will definitely be coming back! read more

PROS: Authentic without industry hype. I happened to find this hidden gem without anyone's recommendation. Everything's explained when I saw native Thais having a good time dining here. Kid-friendly and cordial service are huge pluses for them. CONS: Not spacious. No chopsticks provided unless you ask for them(no all asians eat with them). Casual atmosphere is great, but may not be suitable for groups or formal get-togethers. read more

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