I love Thai food. OK, let's be serious. I'm obsessed with Thai food. This is my favorite Thai restaurant in Saint Paul. I discovered it during the construction on the green line. I have been Visiting at least every other month or more often ever since. It's a bit of a hole in the wall came with probably 10 tables or less. Very much a family operation. But the food is always fresh, quick and flavorful. Please be sure to visit here. read more

Thai Café - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

The food is always consistent, great quality and great value. What I find that was so impressive to me , The owners make you feel like family they know you by name. ( Fabulous Business Quality). read more

This is hands down the best Thai food in the Twin Cities. I taught English in Thailand for a year after college & believe me when I say that Thai Cafe's food tastes EXACTLY like what I ate every day in my little Thai town. An absolute must-order every time I go there are the sour pork ribs - insanely delicious. Other favorites include the Laab, Pad Gra Pow, khao man gai, and som tum. You can even get a fresh coconut to drink the coconut water out of! Free parking in the small lot behind their building. Have gotten take out a number of times and the food still tastes great by the time I get home. read more

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Tasty spot! My husband and I were craving Thai food last night and ended up driving here from Minneapolis and we were NOT disappointed! We were greeted with a friendly face. Another party of 3 walked in right behind us and there was no one else in the restaurant. We got menus and waters right away and received our food pretty quickly. Our order: Egg rolls - I feel like these were tasty enough, nothing drastically different than what I've had in other restaurants Yellow Curry - if you like your yellow curry on the slightly sweeter side, this is for you! It's absolutely delicious, packed with flavor and veggies (squash and bell peppers?! yes please!) It was enough for my husband and I to share. Pad Thai - I like my pad thai with wider noodles and less orange (I believe they're typically orange because of food coloring to make them more appetizing for people, but I prefer it without). I still thought it was pretty tasty though. We finished all of it We are very excited to have tried it and will absolutely go back! I would say the food is a solid 4 star and the extra star just came from how friendly the man was who served us (not sure if he's the owner or not). We will 100% be back!z read more

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One visit is not enough. The signature sour pork ribs are packed with punch in your face flavor, a must get. Tendon soup is superb. Wings are pretty good too. Overall very good. Recommended. Parking in the back... read more

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The food here is 5 stars. The restaurant itself is just fine for an informal, small restaurant. We had the chinese broccoli with tofu and wow, did it have amazing flavor. The broccoli was fresh and crunchy and the tofu was fried perfectly. We ordered a 2 for spice and it was plenty spicy! Prices were good, especially considering how much food it came with. I love thai food, so i try every spot i can. I'll certainly be going back to thai cafe every chance I get! read more

Thai Café - Broccoli tofu stir fry - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

3rd time here and food here has always been good. I ordered the boat noodle pho 3/5. Noodles were great, broth was nice but a bit sour for my pallet. Chicken Pad see ew- 3/5 flavor was there but could use some more. Flat noodles tasted good. I added more spice on my end. Overall not bad. Spring roll was good but missing meatloaf and protein such as roasted pork. Only had shrimp and flavorful green veggies. Nicely priced overall on the menu. Great customer service. Glad to see this place open up for dine-in after the covid pandemic. read more

Thai Café - Boat noodle pho - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

The service was great, I believe the owner is one of the individuals serving and treated us very kindly. Food came quickly. We ordered the egg rolls (came hot and crispy, but seemed like it only came with clear noodles inside, Tasted like mushed cabbage), ginger chicken (not spicy at all, very gingery), sour pork ribs (were indeed sour, but tasted sour in a bad way not a good way), thai cafe wings (the best thing we ordered, they did have a nice flavor and good crunchy texture, maybe a bit too salty/soy saucy for some), the rice was a bit mushy. Another table next to us enjoyed some cream cheese wontons, they looked very good and I'll try those if we go back. read more

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I came here with two friends. The restaurant was packed so we had to wait a bit but the proprietor was helpful and friendly. We crammed ourselves at a table for two when it became available and he offered to move us to a larger table a few minutes later when it opened up. We ordered three dishes to share: green curry with pork--super tasty and spicy but not over the top; pad thai with chicken--a generous, flavorful portion; and a whole red curry fried fish--super tasty but a little hard to eat. We asked for chopsticks, which the proprietor happily supplied, so we could get all the little bits of fish that stuck to the bone. All dishes were delicious. The menu is large and has several items I haven't seen before. I want to come back and try some of those items. The restaurant is small and plain but the food is amazing and prices are really reasonable. The bill for the three dishes came to about $50, and we tipped generously. read more

I'm really sorry to leave this review. Based on the yelp reviews and the star tribune review, I expected this place to be quite good. But it really wasn't. I have been to 50 to 70 Thai restaurants across America during my travel for work. I've been to most of the good places in the Twin Cities. I would say this is arguably among the worst places I've been to ever. The food just isn't good. There's nothing special about this place at all. I got a mango salad that didn't seem to have any mango in it and was super spicy. Nothing interesting in the flavor, and just generally kind of gross. It was hard to finish. The dishes that had chicken in them felt kind of slimy. The chicken didn't taste or feel like normal chicken. Like maybe it was canned chicken? One dish that had shrimp had teeny, itsy-bitsy tiny shrimp. If you're going serve shrimp, you need to serve normal size shrimp with a tails removed. The fried rice was flavorless, and also a little bit gross. Super oily without much flavor or spice. The red curry was wildly substandard. Easily the worst and least flavorful red curry I've had anywhere ever. We also had a basil stirfry that was also among the weakest and worst stir fry's we've had anywhere. The chicken felt very slimy and a little bit gross. Like it was may be from a can. Maybe we just got them on an off night. Other people have had a good experience here. But I will say this: we live only a few blocks away, and we will never go here again. read more

Thai Cafe has been on my radar and I finally gave it a try with a friend. Overall, the food was good, I would come back but wouldn't go out of my way for it. The coconut curry was good but a little sweet for my preference. I enjoyed the egg roll and spring roll and actually really appreciated that it was made with chicken (not pork like it is traditionally) since my friend is Muslim and does not eat pork. She was able to enjoy it with me. It's very small and the service was very slow- I recommend calling in your order to do take out. From what I know, there is no parking lot so parking could take a little time to find but it is right by the light rail for folks who take public transportation. read more

Love this place. I know the star tribune named it the best Thai food in the twin cities and I'd say it's right up there. My favorites here are the Thai cafe wings (deeply crave able) and the cashew gai stir fry. If you want something incredible though, try the khao mun kai. Just trust me on that. The service is always incredibly kind and the ambiance is low key, like an ideal family restaurant vibe. read more

Love it. One of my favorite Thai places in St. Paul. The people working are always really nice. It's good for take out or to sit down and relax for a quick lunch or dinner. Love their curries. So good. read more

I've been here two times in the past and neither visit was good enough that it made me want to return but I'm happy to report that this third visit has helped me turn the corner on Thai Cafe and now I'm looking forward to coming back! First, service was solid right from the get go. We were greeted and seated as soon as we walked in the restaurant. I believe it was the manager himself who attended to us, very friendly man who showed appreciation to all the customers for being there. We settled on 2 dishes - tom yum noodle soup (ORDER THIS) and pork laab. The soup was the standout dish. It packed a strong and flavorful punch (largely from fish sauce) and came with just enough noodles and seafood to reach fullness and satisfaction. If you don't like fish sauce, then you've been forewarned because this dish almost takes fish sauce to the brink of overload but not quite. Pork laab was good. Not the best I've had but a smidge above average. I personally prefer beef. read more

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This modest little place delivers a variety of dishes with BIG flavors! Thai Cafe is owned by a fierce woman that made her way into kitchens in Thailand while being told she could only be a dishwasher. She learned from Thai chefs and brought the recipes with her to Saint Paul and opened up Thai Cafe. This location has had a lot of turnover (a new restaurant ever year or so) until she opened up shop. Pretty much everything is delicious, but I encourage you to be adventurous and highly recommend the: - sour pork ribs ($13.99) for a really flavorful and unique pork treat; - the fruit salad ($7.00) for a new and refreshing twist on a traditional papaya salad - it's sweet, salty and fruity at the same time; - the Tendon Soup ($13.99) is just DELICIOUS and soothing on a cold winter day; - the fried glass noodle ($9.99) not as daring, but always good But, like I said... everything else is high ranking as well. You really won't be disappointed with anything. read more

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Great spot. Wonderful food. Wide selection. Very friendly. Tried the green curry - so flavorful!!! read more

Thai Café - Green Curry - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

We tried this place since this was the only Thai place around the area not closed (still wondering why...). We came in for a late lunch so we were the only ones there. The restaurant was nicely sized, but we got seated in the very back corner. I ordered the Pad Thai with pork for my entree and while my food came out extremely quickly, I was given chicken instead of pork. This was a bit disappointing, but I do like chicken so it worked out fine. Strangely, the Pad Thai tasted like it was doused in ketchup which made it very difficult for me to eat more than 5 bites. I figured this might be because I was drinking tea too, but when I tried the leftovers for dinner I got the same ketchup taste. On top of having a ketchup-tasting dish, we waited a very long time to get the bill. It made the experience less enjoyable and maybe I'll come back, but I'll stay away from the Pad Thai. read more

We came here on Mother's Day, hoping to avoid the crowds at places such as Blue Plate restaurants. We arrived at 1 p.m. sharp, just in time to sit at the one table left open for two. (There were also four parties of four, filling the restaurant.) We watched two families come in and not be able to sit down. I suspect my fried tilapia laab took a little extra time, but it was entirely worth the wait. The fish was tender and well-seasoned with crusty salt and spices, topped with herbs, tomato, and citrus/spice/fish sauce dressing. Easily the best fried fish I've had in years. I ate half of the fish on the spot. My husband ordered #31 with chicken, which was also very good. The chicken was cooked just right, and there were lots of vegetables with a sprinkling of peanuts. The Ocean World video held my husband's interest, with scenes of ocean life, boats loaded with shipping containers, etc. but I was more focused on the food. I was impressed by how quickly they cleared off and cleaned the tables for fresh customers. It's a tiny space, but they are clearly used to having wall-to-wall customers. The space was no-frills, with photos of the food (including the Midwest favorite cream cheese wontons) and a framed metal necklace. The owner himself took our orders, and he was very kind and friendly. We saw a lot of dishes we hadn't seen in other places, such as the fried fish laab. We are intrigued, and we'll definitely be back! But maybe on a weekday. read more

Thai Café - See your food! Fried fish laab. - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

Small little cafe right on University. The food is amazing and authentic. I love their Thai fried rice. I would say this place is not ideal for large groups given the small space but great for dinner or lunch dates and grabbing something to each with a group of friends with six or less people. read more

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I read about this place in the Strib, so I decided to try it out. This is a very small place, but don't let that fool you! The menu is pretty large. I got the sourl ribs, the.green curry w chicken, and the fish patties. Everything was very good (although be forewarned that there was spice in the first two but not the third.) You really can't go wrong here. I will be back. read more

I love Thai food but had never been to this spot before. It's right across from where I was working for the day so I went in for lunch. It's a cute, family owned restaurant and has about 6-8 tables if you're not getting take out. It'll be chilly if you sit by the door since it's a small space but the food will warm you up! The menu is pretty expansive so my friend and I ordered egg rolls (made with chicken instead of pork), glass noodles with tofu and their squash curry. Y'all. Everything was delicious but that squash curry soup??!! Fiiiiiiirrrrrrrreee. Really the perfect blend of spices and enough sauce for all of the rice given. I love curries but could eat this every day of the week. The glass noodles had a generous amount of veggies and the portion size was large enough for two servings. Check this spot out if you haven't yet. It's deeeeeelicious! read more

Thai Café - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

Tom Kha soup. YUM. Wife gets the Pad Thai. Both of us love the small, cozy setting. Service is fast and attentive. Thank you!

Wonderful little Thai place! Food is great, and the owner, John, takes beautiful care of all of his customers. I am a photographer, and was taking pictures of the art at the light rail station, and made this my home base! I managed to sample a lot of their menu, and it was all good. Best was the duck curry! read more

The service is great, tables enough for 8-10 people. The food was okay, not the best not the worst. I ordered fried chicken and rice, the chicken was kinda hard, the sauce wasn't what I liked and expected. Typical Laos food. Me personally wouldn't try again but do try it! My opinion could be different from your taste! read more

Nice large portioned curries and quite a variety and in general mild. I got the potato peanut butter one. They carry my favorite item, fish cakes served with a simple syrup and cucumbers. It makes sense that they have it since they have so many fish items. Everything is delicious. the iced tea is very sweet and has almost a chocolate milk under taste. Good thing I tried it before I added sugar. It's a given that you don't come for the ambiance. Great service from Lao. Very welcoming. read more

This is my fourth time here...and I am never ever disappointed. I recommend this place to everyone who is craving Thai food. They are consistent in food and customer service is good and friendly! The only downside, they are very small and tight in parking and seating. Recommend coming to enjoy this little spot during their downtimes (I've only gone a little after opening and stopped during lunch but it was packed to the max so my party and I had to hop over to a different restaurant) but other than that, there food is great in taste, quality, and presentation. LOVE IT!! read more

Thai Café - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

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I was drawn in by the mango sweet rice and OH. MY. GOSH. It was soooo good!!! The warmth of the rice and the perfect balance of sweetness for me. We also ordered the sweet and sour ribs. The flavor is something I can not explain or attempt to imitate. The food was amazing! I also enjoyed that it was not packed when we went. Our server was kind and patient. 5/5 Thank you, Thai Cafe! read more

Thai Café - Sweet and Sour Ribs - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

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My sister and I went in for lunch just roughly around 11:30am. We were greeted and seated immediately, and there were no other customers when we went in. The place was small (seating about 30 people max, to give you a picture). Fair warning it is street parking but the building faces a busy street so you'll have to find parking in the neighborhood and walk. My sister ordered the Thai boat noodle which I would rank 4/5. The broth was very creamy and bloody, as it should be. There were a generous amout of meat, noodles, and veggie. Overall you get more than what you pay for. I ordered the dried noodles but substituted the rice noodles for vermicelli noodles. I'd give it a 3/5. It wasn't totally bad but not a dish I'd order again. It came with bits of pork rind, bean sprouts, pork meatballs, and ground pork all on top of the vermicelli noodles, with a wedge of lime. I know it's a dry noodle dish but it really was a DRY noodle dish. I had to squeeze the lime and add fish sauce to be able to mix up all the ingredients and to get flavor, otherwise it was pretty much flavorless. Overall, the staff was friendly, the environment was calm and clean. I'd go back but will probably try a different dish. read more

Four and a half star? No way, this place is definitely overrated. Craved Thai food suddenly on a Sunday night- so yelped and found this pretty high rated Thai place. Was very excited to try their food and we were hungry!! We ordered spring rolls, pad Thai and chicken cashew- the service was very slow and our appetizer(spring rolls) came out with the main dishes. The food here was very disappointing; pad Thai was over cooked, bland, just not tasty at all, the cashew chicken smelled weird(they do not use fresh chicken I guess), kinda salty and I just did not really like it. Spring rolls were just okay. Most importantly, this place is not clean... Dirty. Dining area did not look clean, but also the kitchen area looked even worse- DISGUSTING. What a bad experience... Never would go back or would recommend this restaurant! One of the worst Thai places I've ever tried in my whole life! read more

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Still a favorite in my family. This particular lunch, we kept it simple with pad Thai and Panang curry. Both are just delicious. Other times, we get more of a variety of dishes, and all of them are equally wonderful every time. Prices remain good at about $10/dish. read more

We marched. It was incredible. We left and there were thousands of people. 100,000 actually trying to leave at the same time. What better idea than to use trusty yelp to find a spot to eat before getting on the train home. Thai cafe came up and we were lucky to walk into one table of two that was just leaving. It was packed and everything looked delicious-they did not disappoint! We ordered spring rolls, cream cheese wontons, pad see ew with chicken and number 9 noodle soup. I also ordered a mango/strawberry bubble tea. So how was it? Here we go Spring rolls-meh and they had celery which I don't like-wouldn't get these again Cream cheese wontons-Run there and get these now-like 10 orders!! Some of the best flavor I've ever had-could use note filling but so so so delicious! Number 9 soup-amazing flavor, weird pork items but super flavorful. My friend ate it all Pad see ew-also amazing flavor and I would get this again. I prefer the super duper dense and wide noodles but it still tastes really good even with the thinner noddles Bubble tea had the jello like bubbles-so good!! And the service was awesome considering how insanely busy it was. Only downfall of eating in there is you leave smelling like fried food-yucky. I will definitely be back! read more

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We were so excited to try out Thai Cafe after all of the great reviews but sadly it did not meet our expectations - that being said they were having a festival not to far from them at the time so that might have had a large affect on everything. It took us about 30 minutes to order our food and another 30 for us to get it - It was fairly plain and simple food - I sadly would not recommend it read more

Thai Café - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

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Excellent flavor .. real Thailand food Simply words.. come to try a great costumer service and flavor read more

Small family-run place. They are always extremely friendly and I feel welcomed there. I usually take my food to-go because it is small. There are 3 tables for 2 and 2 tables for 4. The Thai Fried Bananas are SO GOOD. Eat them hot. They are mushy on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside. Amazing. If taking to-go, open the container for travel so they don't get soggy. The Chicken Thai Cashew is great. Lots of veggies, chicken and cashews in a stir fry sauce. Super good. Filling. The Pad Thai is really good. I can't find many pad thai dishes in the cities that I like. Everything is so sweet. I know pad thai is a sweet dish but I think a lot of places around here go overboard. Thai Cafe figured it out. They have a good balance of noodles, egg, bean sprouts, green onions, peanuts, sauce and your protein of choice. The Pad Se Ew with chicken is good but it is just noodles, broccoli and chicken. It is a dish that is too plain for me but it was executed well. My favorite dish is the Rad Na with chicken. It is a soup with wide noodles, chicken, big hunks of broccoli and carrots. It is savory and warm and I wish I could eat it everyday. The noodles start to break apart as it cools off so you have to eat it hot. My favorite part about this place is that it is family-run. I love going to mom and pop shops but this one is my favorite. We used to get food here constantly but then we moved to Minneapolis. After a while we stopped in for take-out and they asked us where we'd been and why we didn't get our usual order this time. How thoughtful! It really made me feel good that we were remembered so well, because this place is special to me too. I may live in Minneapolis now but it is worth it to travel to St. Paul for this place. read more

A small restaurant with amazing food! The staff is super friendly, place is buzzing with people speaking Thai, portion sizes are big, and the food doesn't taste soggy and overloaded with spice to hide the base flavors. Try the Papaya Salad, Red curry, and Dried Suki-Yaki Seafood! read more

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At first glance definitely a hole in the wall. The menu was extensive with many photos. I mostly eat with my eyes so this is a plus! All the dishes look very appetizing as I paged the menu. Nice customer service and prompt. The green curry is amazing with full flavor, nothing like I have had before. My favorite dish so far here are the flavor packed, fermented sour pork. Little nuggets of finger licking marbled pork shining in its full glory of goodness! Don't forget to try the tofu laab, a dish that stands out all on its own and lastly the thai papaya salad, it's fresh, light and extra funky (from the shirmp paste)! Truly a hole in the wall place that is a sure hidden gem! read more

One of the few Thai food restaurants in the area that is open on Mondays. That's the reason why I landed here one recent Monday evening. There's parking available in a lot behind the store front. The cafe is pretty small inside but the front is complete glass windows that look upon University Ave. A handful of customers were seated and eating when we arrived around 7pm. We were warmly greeted by the owner and invited to sit at a table of our choice. We perused the menu and gazed upon the pictures on the wall showing many of their various dishes. We decided to start out with their fresh Spring Roll. A short time later, it arrived with a dipping sauce. It was freshly made in what seemed to be *very* fresh (and sticky) rice paper. It was plump and filled with tender rice noodles, lettuce and other delectable bits. The sauce was a tasty compliment. I ordered a dish that had beef and vegetables and wide noodles in a broth-y sauce. It was really tasty. I ended up eating the stuff out of the broth rather than fill myself up on so much "broth". I also got a taste of the beef, peppers and broccoli dish in front of my companion. Very tasty. It seemed as though a fairly steady stream of people came in to either pick-up their take-out order, or to order food for take-away. read more

I really wanted to like this place, but sadly no. There were 4 of us and we waited over 30 mins for our food in total. We ordered individual plates, and one by one we got our food. By the time the last person got their dish (30 mins later) everyone else was done. The waiter was nice, apologized for the long wait. The food was average, not worth the wait. Won't be returning. read more

Hidden-Gem in St.Paul. Excellent food at a great price. Had the spring rolls and panang chicken curry. 10 out of 10 !!!! read more

Thai Café - Wallace gave it 10 out 10 - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota

I can't remember the name of what I ordered, but it was absurdly tasty - seared tilapia, covered in a slurry of fresh herbs and fish sauce. Nowhere near the best Thai food I've ever had, but I am hard pressed to think of any other restaurant hardcore enough to serve you the whole fish like this! It brought me back to eating perch by the lakeside with my uncles when I was a kid. Also, I can second from other reviewers that the television is cryptic and unintentionally hilarious. The whole time I ate, it had a carefully edited video loop of slo-mo hummingbirds doing nothing in particular. When I want classic Thai food, I'll probably stick with On's - but next time I want to push my boundaries and have something unrepentantly, borderline uninvitingly authentic, this is where I'm going back to! read more

Thai Café - Seared tilapia, I'll edit this caption when I remember what it was called on the menu! It was #46 or #47 if I recall. - Thai Near Me - Saint Paul, Minnesota