Sala Bua

My sister was in town and craving Thai food. Apparently, everything else I suggested just wasn’t what she wanted. Typically, we go a Thai place closer to my house. However, this time we decided hey why not try a new place!
The décor for Sala Bua is fairly modern and very clean. We came on a Wednesday, so no big crowds here. The menu has the typical Thai dishes along with some other dishes I’ve never seen before. On Wednesdays they’ve a 6 dollar martini special… beware the two martinis I wanted to try they were not serving. I settled for a chocolate martini instead. FYI… they put a good amount of vodka in your martini so make sure you eat! We ordered crab ragoon, lad nar, and pad thai. Yes, I know not the most adventurous dishes, but they’re classics.
The food came out pretty quick. Crab ragoon was tasty and not greasy. The dipping sauce was spicy, which is nice since most are just too sweet. The pad thai was alright… a little dry for my taste. The noodles were all sticking together and the egg reminded me of an egg mc muffin. I say skip on the pad thai. My sister ordered the lad nar, which is her favourite Thai dish. She didn’t seem too impress with the lad nar. The taste was there but the noodles were a little too thin for the dish.
Overall, the food was alright. I wouldn’t say it was outstanding or memorable. Maybe next time I should try different dishes. I do give them a 5 star for the awesome chocolate martini. Gotta admit the service was much better than any other restaurant in Chinatown.

This is a review of my experience ordering takeout from Sala Bua.
Crab Rangoon– Not the worst, but far from the best. The breading/​outside was perfectly fried and delicious, but the inside filling was undercooked. The filling was still tasty, but it needed to be cooked more. I don’t know how you do that while maintaining the proper cooking of the outside of the crab rangoon, but that’s why I pay restaurants to do it rather that figuring it out myself.
Pad Thai– I’m not sure how long the Pad Thai was sitting before it made it to my door, but it seemed like it sat for a while. I asked that the Pad Thai be made spicy, it was not. It was one of the more bland Pad Thai dishes I’ve ever had. In addition, the dish seemed more dry than I’m used to as well. It had the consistency of Pad Thai leftovers after a few days in the refrigerator.
Chicken Curry– The curry was watery. It tasted fine, but wasn’t spicy at all.
In summary, there seem to be better options for Thai food. The price was fine, but we like our Thai food spicy, and this wasn’t that. We won’t try this place again.

I ate Sala Bua restaurant almost like one a week. I like Pad Thai, Papaya salad absolutely delicious. Everyone can try this restaurant.

Food is flavorful and close to something I would make myself at home. The escargot with the sauce was absolutely delicious! Food tastes fresh and love the cilantro and sourness of the dishes I ordered.
Drunken noodle dish was nothing special however, Papaya salad, squid salad, Tom yum soup and fried pork with greens was delish! Would come again if in the area.

On many casual days overpowered by laziness, I’ve frequented this location as opposed to my favorite Thai place up north. Sala Bua is authentic, convenient, inexpensive, and most importantly, spot on with deliciousness.
Menu items that I have tried and will repeat: pad Thai omelet, moo ping, drunken noodles, Thai iced tea, kao soy with chicken, pad see ew, Thai omelet, boat noodles, curry duck, and the list goes on. The moo ping appetizer comes with five skewers of succulent pork and a small side of sticky rice engulfed in saran wrap. I’m not sure how the two are supposed to combine but this is a very safe choice for appetizer. Be sure to dip it in the mildly spicy hot sauce. The curry duck is very flavorful. It comes with a bowl of rice which is excellent to have with the flavorful and flamboyant curry sauce. The pad Thai omelet is a delightful entrée in which it is an egg pocket stuffed with thin noodles, jumbo shrimps, and bean sprouts. Slice the pocket up and just mix the contents. Flavors are light but there is a small side of powdered red peppers to toss in.
Some other entrees I have tried and will not repeat are nan-​mun-​hoi and Thai sausages. The nan-​mun-​hoi is basically stir fried Chinese broccoli with beef. It was not bad, but there was also nothing particularly good. The sausages had a peculiar flavor to it but it was dry. As you may have noticed, the list is a lot shorter compared to the items that I enjoy.
With all that said, I am a frequent patron and that will most likely continue.

I came here with some friends on a late night. We were exhausted since we walked from Soldier Field and needed a rest and food.
We ordered crab rangoon (tasty), papaya salad (medium spicy? Pretty spicy to me! But I loved it. I haven’t had a good papaya salad in a while. Also, I liked the addition of the dried shrimp. I don’t usually see that around.) and pad see ewe (a little bit expensive given the portion size. But the flavor was good and they used dark meat chicken which is a plus.)
The restaurant itself was nice and clean. I liked the decoration on the walls. The only negative was that they had some trouble with Grubhub. How did I know? They called Grubhub customer service and put it on speakerphone the entire time we were eating.
Overall, I like that I’ve found an alternative to Opart Thai on Clark street!

Ordered the tofu pad thai and side of veggie rolls. It was around 11pm on a Saturday night when I had the taste for some Thai food.
Seeing that Sala Bua had good reviews, and stayed open till about 1am, I figured I’d give them a shot.
Bottom line, delivery took over an hour, the Pad Thai was pretty dry (as shown in picture) and the veggie rolls were just ok.
I can say that I requested the pad thai to be very spicy and it definitely was, just wish it would’ve had some actual sauce instead of being dry.
Unfortunately I won’t be ordering again.

After eating at several Thai food places, I think this one is my favorite place. Me and my brother walked into this place out of spontaneity. As soon as I walked in, I was very delighted by the interior. Very simple and sleek environment with a welcoming ambiance.
We ordered several things: pad Thai, pad see yew, chicken curry, chicken fried rice, spring rolls, and so many more dishes. I can’t even accurately describe the different flavors. The pictures do not do it any justice. Everything was so clean, light (I’m just lying to myself so that I could eat more), delicious, and full of flavor. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves Thai food. The service here is awesome — very generous people.
Five stars all around !

My family came here for Mother’s Day dinner. I made reservations in advance, but when we arrived there around 630pm there were lots of tables available. This place doesn’t seem so popular when the entire Chinatown is packed with people for Mother’s Day dinner. Service was nice — the staff was friendly and accommodating.
There were 10 of us, and majority of my family haven’t had Thai food before so my husband and I did most of the ordering. There were some dishes that we had double orders so we can all share since we were eating family style. Onto the food.
We started with the baby egg rolls (which I thought was alright but my mom and grandma really like it) and chicken satay (seem to be a favorite of the table but paying a premium price of $ 8 for 4 sticks).
The pad see ew was pretty good. My mom-​in-​law did not like it very much — she said the noodle had a strange chicken flavor since we ordered the noodle with chicken. I thought it was fine. My favorite was the lang noodle… it’s pan fried noodle with seafood and a tasty gravy sauce. The Sala Fried Rice was decent, too! Tasty for both Chicken and Shrimp. We ordered the fried snapper — big fish but very hard to cut into since it was fried. It has a sweet flavor to it, very interesting. We also ordered a pork dish which my grandma said the pork was a bit too chewy. I thought it just wasn’t my kind of flavor. We had the scallop dish which had the most leftovers — everyone ate all the scallops but left the other stuff behind. The Tiger Cry was pretty good. I like it a lot.
It was a pretty pricey bill, but food was decent. They also validate parking in the parking lot across the street so it’s very convenient.

I like this Sala Bua located in the Richland Building off to the side. It has a nice decorated dining room. staff is friendly and smiling to the customers. There wasn’t a lot of customers the Friday night we dined there but that was okay we got the wait staff to ourselves to was nice.
We ordered your stards, Fresh spring roll with cream cheese in the middle, and this appetizer called MOO-​PING which is a grilled marinated pork served with sticky rice and Thai spicy sauce. It was delicious. Both appetizers were yummy and had visual appeal. We ordered two main dishes as the main entrees «pad se ew with beef» and the Panang Curry with chicken it was spicy but good. I like how the sauce was thin and they used dark meat instead of chicken breast for dish. I would return with two appetizers and two main entrees we were full.

Med Spicy gives good balance on flavor in all dishes. Hit and Miss on dish value and ingredients.
Karee Poo (MP Crab, $ 39) — overpriced. Lots of egg filler and shells, not much crab. Messy. Once shell is broken, easy to access crab meat.
Creamy Tom Yum soup ($ 10) — plenty of shrimps. Serves 3 – 4.
Pad Ped Catfish ($ 13) — perfect temp on catfish. Good flavor. Lots of fillers. I dare you to count the fish chunks.
Pineapple Fried Rice with Veggie ($ 9) — perfect veggie tenderness and excellent incorporation into the entire dish. Sporadic pineapple chunks. Serves 3 – 4. The Cashews were a welcome addition that added dimension to taste and flavor.
Sweet Pumpkin Dessert ($ 5) — great price. Avoid. A weird strong combination of sweet and salty.
Tackiness:
— Jasmine Hot Tea ($ 2): other places in the area serves tea for free
— Parking: partially covered. We only ate at Sala Bua and $ 2 additional pay was needed. No valet.