Bangkok Café

This is about as authentic as it gets when it comes to enjoying a fantastic Thai dinner in the Chicago area. The food is filled with so much flavor with a perfect amount of spice. We felt very comfortable and not rushed as we enjoyed our dinner. You can tell that they cook with the freshest ingredients. Portion sizes are perfect and left my family and I very satisfied. The perfect end to our meal what us getting the chance to engage in conversation with two of the sisters that own the restaurant. The menu is filled with their delicious family recipes from their home country. If I could give this restaurant 10 stars we would. Highly recommend that people check out this Arlington Heights gem of a restaurant.

The food is fresh, the service is always so friendly, the atmosphere is cozy. Have been going here for years and love the experience every time.

I lived in Thailand, and love Thai cusine. The quality is excellent, nice place in downtown Arlington Hts. They also have authentic Thai beer. I only wish the portions were larger. I have never left there full. But the quality is very good. The Thai Catfish is awesome.

This is one of my favorite lunch places when I am craving Thai. They have a wonderful lunch special and good service. The atmosphere is a bit more serious than others, but the food is good.

Good food and very friendly staff. Everything was fresh and delicious. Scratch made food at a very fair price. Very clean and nice setting.
The five sisters have done a nice job. Convenient free parking on street and lot close by.

I ate from this place for the first time today and it was horrible. I ordered the yellow curry chicken and it was the blandest thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. The potatoes weren’t even cooked, it was like they just chopped them up and throw them in the curry, disgusting. I can’t believe you guys charge money for this food.
If you decide to eat here, do yourself a favor turn around and go down the road to Penang! They blow this place out of the water and the price is way more convenient!
Sincerely,
An Unhappy Food Critic

The service at Bangkok Café was so far above our expectations. Not only was the staff accommodating to our many requests of gluten free dishes, they actually surprised us with a delightful gluten free dessert. There are 5 sisters that work there and all so gracious. The food was hot, delicious, with fresh snow peas, broccoli, etc. Lemongrass chicken was a favorite. Prices reasonable and a great place for a group.

Was very good and so was the service. One of the owners came by numerous times to ask how all our food was prepared. Spring rools were great, thhe satay was just ok and I’m not a fan of large chunck of cucumber it should be thin slliced.
I had the basil beef it was very good and the wife had Pad See Eiw whichh was also good. Prices were ok maybe a couple $$$ on the high side.
We’ll go back since good Thai restaurants are hard to find. h

I believe that Bangkok Café may be the first Thai restaurant in Arlington Hts. We have visited them just a handful of times over the last 20 some years. We keep giving them a try in the hopes that something may have improved. The three stars are for the warm, inviting restaurant but just ok food. Unfortunately, the restaurant REEKED of sewage on our last visit. I hope this isn’t a normal thing. The odor may be skewing my review so we may be trying it again. Our experience started with a complimentary cup of clear, flavorless broth with mushy rice. Overall, the food is pretty tasty, not counting the soup, but all of our dishes seemed to have that overly soft and thick consistency from reheating. The restaurant was well staffed and our service was not friendly but attentive. On this visit, there were less that 20 diners. In spite of not being busy, our food was barely warm when served. It wasn’t hot an fresh so maybe that’s why it gave me the impression that it had been reheated. The more I write the more I want to deduct a star.

We have been coming to Bangkok Café for years, their food is so fresh and made with love. We just moved away to the east coast and have been searching for a place to stand up to their amazing food and we have failed! We came home to the area for the weekend and the first place we wanted to go was Bangkok! If you like fresh Thai food made with love and great service, come try Bangkok!

Nice space. comfortable and friendly dining experience. …kind of slow… but food was just ok… not anything special… but an overall ok experience… I wanted to like it

Well, everything was fresh, especially the chicken, which is a rarity at suburban Thai joints. But where was the flavor? Nothing blended. The Pad Thai had an unpleasant vinegar tang. The spring rolls had the weirdest thick wrapping, like pita made of rice, and consisted of shredded veggies with nothing else going on. The curry chicken skewers were bland, with an unremarkable allegedly peanut sauce. Watery soup. Dull Thai food, but fresh. Slow service, but polite. Underwhelmed.

My absolute favorite Thai place. I’ve had other Thai food and Bangkok Café is always what I compare it to. The service is wonderful. It’s run by a group of sisters who are as sweet as can be. Even though I don’t make it here often anymore, when I come back they always remember my order. The Rama chicken here is amazing. Their spring rolls, pad thai, massaman, and lime chicken are also great picks. Admittedly, the pad see ewe isn’t the best, but it’s not bad.
One day I cheated and walked down the street to Alt Thai… I was so disappointed. If you’re in the area, Bangkok Café is your place.

We have lived in Arlington Heights for over 15 years and for some reason have never eaten at Bangkok Café. We decided to try it last night and we were pleasantly surprised. The food was fresh and delicious. The desserts, custard and sesame banana, were homemade and very good. We will definitely be back.

This is my favorite Thai restaurant great people great food great prices I’ve been a customer of theirs for 17 years… awesome spicy basil… great $ 20 bottles of wine.

The haunting melody of the very non-​Thai pan flute, that blared during the entire meal, still echos in the recesses of my soul. We stopped in last night, after every other place in downtown AH had a huge wait… Bangkok Café had no wait — but I was too naïve to realize the significance of that…
Despite almost no other customers, it took us a few minutes to be seated — setting the tone for the service level of the evening. The restaurant was clean and well decorated. Once seated, we waited for several minutes for a server to come and take our order.
We started with the grilled calamari. It was well presented and cooked in an adequate manner. It was not seasoned at all, and had subtle undertones of charcoal/​lighter fluid. It was served with a sweet and sour sauce that was pretty standard 1960’s chinese take-​away…
Next, the server brought us two cups of «soup»…It had noodles and a few lonely carrots in it, but was wholly devoid of flavor. It was as if they used water as a base, and added a small amount of swanson’s chicken broth to give it some color. It was pretty much tasteless, though my girlfriend insisted that there was some sort of strange after-​taste akin to the water left at the bottom of a cooler after a weekend camping… I don’t recall that, but then again, I don’t want to dig too deeply into my own memories of it. On the upside, it was hot enough to be poured off the ramparts of a castle onto attacking troops.
I ordered panaang curry with pork — having paid the up-​charge to get pork in my dish. The dish came — the portion was adequate, but not huge. It was served with a single snow-​ball of jasmine rice which still bore the impression of the ice cream scoop used to dish it up.
The menu had stated that the panaang curry had a «peanut sauce»…well, the choosey mom in the kitchen chose Jiff to create this dish… an oil slick of peanut sauce covered the lumpy ingredients which included giant chunks of bell pepper, some strips of pork, and giant chunks of eggplant that had the texture of a memory foam mattress, and the absorbancy of a kitchen sponge.
The whole dish had zero spice, and apart from the peanut taste, no other flavor. I toyed with the idea of asking for wonderbread and marshmallow fluff, but requested sirachi instead… I had to ask two different people for sirachi, neither of them had any idea what I was referring to… finally, the waitress said «ah! hot sauce»…I nodded, half expecting them to bring out a bottle of tabasco.
To their credit, they brought chili paste, but quite oddly, it appeared that someone had watered it down… I used upwards of a dozen spoonfuls of the stuff, until the server came over and, mildly annoyed, told us if we had wanted it spicy, we should have asked — ummm… it had a red pepper icon on the menu which implied it was spicy.
We finished the meal and made a half-​hearted attempt to wait for the bill — as service had been agonizingly slow all night, I just went up to the counter and gave them my debit card… the woman walked off and I was left standing there for almost 6 minutes while she did god-knows-what…we left right after that…
I will not be back — when every restaurant in the neighborhood has an hour long wait, but this one is virtually empty… there is a reason… avoid this place, or plan to stop off to buy toilet paper on the way home…

Love this place, and how they listen to their customers. Service has gotten much better. I do keep in mind that they pretty much cook to order, and they don’t have a huge staff, so it does take time to prepare foods (this isn’t Panda Express!). I had the cucumber salad and I LOVE how fresh it tastes. They cut the cucumber into chunks, not the typical slices you get at most places (boring), so you really taste the cucumber. The light dressing is perfect since I want to taste my veggies, not dressing! I follow a plant strong diet and ordered the veggies, but asked for them steamed, and rice. Boy, did I get a BIG bowl of veggies… they were perfect.
In the world of big businesses and corporations, I’m glad we have this family owned restaurant in Arlington Heights!

I had some of their pad-​thai at a Taste of Arlington Heights not too long ago, and though I wasn’t completely impressed, it wasn’t bad, so when I was looking for a quick dinner downtown, I decided to try ordering off the menu.
Got here just as they opened for dinner. Hostess seemed surprised and confused as to why I would be there.
I was the only person in the restaurant for most of the time I was there, so I can’t really judge the service, other than to say that it was a little slow.
I forget what I ordered, but it was a chicken dish, super salty and oily, and the peanut flavor was so strong it was off-​putting.
I wanted to take an order of crab rangoon to go for someone else and was informed that they were out of crab rangoon. How do you run out of crab rangoon on a Saturday, when you’ve just opened? Confused.
In summary, I’ve spent less money on much better food elsewhere, so I probably won’t be going back, but if someone else really wanted to go, I wouldn’t reject it, either.

I came to downtown Arlington Heights originally to go to La Tasca for some tapas, but I have walked past Bangkok Café and always want to check it out. I realized I had a taste for Thai food and convinced my friend to try a new place with me! I was excited when I walked in because it looked really nice and clean. But, I was a little disappointed by the food and service.
The service was not bad, just a bit neglectful. They were very friendly, but they disappeared for a while and it took FOREVER for the food to come out!
We split a cucumber salad. It was just okay. I personally do not like thick chunks of cucumber quartered. When I get a cucumber salad I expect it to be thinly sliced on a mandolin. These were massive chunks, so you could not really enjoy the taste of the dressing. I also did not like the large pieces of raw ginger on the salad, too spicy! About 10 minutes go by after finishing the salad and our soup was brought out. It was a broth lacking taste with rice. I was really hoping for some Tom Yum.
For my meal, I had the Pad See Ewe. The dish was lacking in flavor, so I asked for some hot chili paste. What they brought me was a literally watered down version of what I wanted. I usually add a couple of drops… I was putting this stuff on by the spoonful! I did not like that it came with a ton of Bok Choy… If they are trying to cut costs of chicken… then just add more noodles! I also thought it was strange that there is a mark up for beef. The dishes themselves are already more expensive than other Thai restaurants in the area.

not too bad, but unremarkable. i had the curry noodles with veggies. i liked the way the noodles (chow fun, wide flat rice noodles) were fried a little, but the curry was super salty. it almost had no other flavor.
the nice thing was that we got some soup before our meal and that was a clear broth with veggies that was tasty and light. the best part was that i had literally the best berry (a blackberry) i’ve ever had in my whole life (it was a garnish on dessert). our waitress was really and brought out some more for us just because we asked. really two stars for food, i’d say, but the service was really nice and attentive and accommodating.
overall, i do think it was pricier than it needed to be, and the fact that it wasn’t any better than some of the other thai places around here made it seem like that much less worth coming back to.

Bangkok Café is pretty close to my boyfriend’s apartment, so we were hoping it would totally wow us and become a takeout standby.
Eh, notsomuch.
Pros:
— The location is convenient
— The décor is lovely.
Cons:
— It’s a little on the pricey side (this goes hand-​in-​hand with the downtown Arlington Heights location)
— My chicken pad thai was seriously lacking in flavor
— The salad that accompanied our meals was probably the least cohesive salad I’ve ever had. It was almost like the kitchen was like, «Hey, what do we have leftover? Who cares if it makes sense together, let’s just throw it all in!» Boring iceberg lettuce? Check. Giant, overpowering sprig of mint? Check. Radish? Check. Canned pineapple? Check. A single raspberry? Check. I absolutely love fruit in salad, but this was just not well-​thought-​out.
— The service was sloooooooooooooooowwwwwww and the restaurant was not at all packed. It took forever for someone even to greet us.
We may give Bangkok Café another try one of these days, but I doubt it will ever become «our» Thai restaurant. The search continues!

Such a variety of ratings! I’m setting the record straight.
I walked in, was greeted warmly and immediately, and sat down to peruse the menu for take out. I hadn’t looked in advance but wound up very happy with the variety appetizer plate (spring rolls are yum! chicken satay, too, and even the egg rolls which I don’t typically like), and the panang curry was fine. Not great, not bad, hence the 4 stars.
The service was spectacular… and for TAKE OUT! I mean, they brought me free made-​from-​scratch chicken soup on the house while I waited, they were friendly but gave me space to grade papers for a bit, and we officially have inside jokes. Love love love the people. Food is also great. I have had some better curry, so I’m going 4 stars, but def wouldn’t go lower. Prices weren’t bad ($ 30 for two entrees and a huge appetizer) and I’ll be back for more.