Chan Dara Pico Restaurant

First of all, I’ll start with the positive. I really do like their food. After having been there for the 1^st time 10 years ago and not going back, I started going here for dinners and business lunches again these past few months (spending a lot of money!). I always thought the food was fantastic.
But, as of tonight I’m officially done with them. This is the 2^nd time in the last 3 weeks that they’ve made it clear that they have absolutely *ZERO* regard for their customers and service. A few weeks ago I placed an lunch order. About 35 minutes later I received a call saying that my order was too late and they can’t process it. I explained that it was submitted 35 minutes ago. But, their explanation was that I missed their cutoff window by 7 minutes and they couldn’t do it! I was irritated but figured ok, I’ll give them one more shot.
Tonight, I again place an order through GrubHub. After about 20 minutes I receive a call saying that they cancelled my order because I’m outside of their delivery window. What? I’m 3 miles away (living in Westwood off of Wilshire and they’re on Pico). The girl said, well technically you are 3.3 miles away and our cutoff is 3 miles. Edit: To add insult to injury, according to Google Maps I’m only 2.7 or 2.8 miles away (3.3 is taking the long way!)
Wondering if this was actually a joke, I still asked «Can’t you guy just go .3 miles to drop it off?!? And, bearing in mind that I give you a lot of business and have spent a lot of money with you just in the past few months». Showing no care or regard at all I received a simple «No, I’m not going to do that».
Well, see you later! I hope the owner or management sees this message. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Lazy, rude and careless!

Was there about a month ago. Food delicious but while sitting there the place could use a good cleaning. All the dust and dirt were piled on the hanging tubes and light fixtures like sawdust. Even the outside sitting area and windows were dirty.

I’m a foodie so for that I’ll give u 3 stars first good food but for 20 per plate on the main courses some need more work. The coconut rice was dry and stuck together I used a spoon to spoon some out, should have instead used a knife. I didn’t taste any coconut flavor in it .your plating is good and the seafood rice was good as well. We also ordered Thai bbq chicken, it was dry and we couldn’t cut it with the dull knife given to us. Why if I may ask would you place nice white table cloth but give us a paper napkin, what
Happened to nice cloth napkins I saw on some of the Unilocal pictures. I was quite embarrassed to place a paper napkin on my lap.

My favorite Thai food… anywhere. The staff is always polite and the food is delicious and presented well (even take-​out orders).

Nice Thai food find! Had a delicious order of their seafood pad Thai with a side of sticky rice and red curry. Loved all the dishes! Also had a thai iced tea to satisfy my sweet tooth. Very cute décor inside. They have a long bar in the front with TV screens if you want to just grab a drink and chill. Had to wait a bit for someone to come and greet us and seat us. Place didn’t seem too busy except for the bar area. Parking is valet right in front or you can try to find parking on pico. Kind of heavy traffic on this street so I would rather check in with valet.

Decent thai food and good service. I had the beef satay for an appetizer and it was just divine. The chicken pad thai, which i ordered for my main course was just ok. Let me give you a few more details: large/​good portion size (enough for dinner and lunch the next day even!), overall kinda dry (not good), chicken was tasty, but it came with a ton of tofu — I was like wait did i order tofu pad thai or chicken pad thai? Not my favorite in the area, but definitely ok.
The yellow curry was pretty spice according to someone in my dinner party.
Pretty cool Atmosphere. The restaurant side is nice décor. The couch was a bit worn though.
Seems chill thai place to grab a drink and some food.

I live less than .25 mile from the restaurant and it took over an hour for delivery. Delivery of probably some of the worst pad thai I’ve ever had. Go any where else for Thai food.

Really good food, great people, very comfortable ambiance. Honestly some of the best Thai food I’ve had, and there are plenty of options to choose from here on the westside. I feel like I’ve tried almost everything on the menu but I keep going back to the Red Noodle (their name for Pad See Ew). I also highly recommend the beef satay (melt in your mouth tender), pineapple duck curry, and coconut rice.
The people are really nice, and the servers are attentive. The first time I came here, I had an issue with a dish being served a little cold, but the waitress (can’t remember her name, but she was tiny, had green eyes, and was really, really fast) took care of it with a smile. Then the manager, Jean, came to apologize for the problem, which was totally unnecessary/​unexpected but greatly appreciated nonetheless. It doesn’t matter how good the food is — good service and good people are what keep me coming back.
The setting is nice and cozy. Expect a higher end feel than usual Thai restaurants, but with a price to match. Yes, items may cost a couple bucks more than your run of the mill Thai joint, but it’s well worth it in my opinion. I don’t drink, so can’t speak much for the bar, but it looks well stocked and usually busy when I’m there for dinner.
The only minor complaint I have is parking, but that’s expected on the westside, so it’s not enough to detract from this review. They have a valet service out front, or you need to look for street parking. The street fills up quickly, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, but a spot can usually be found not too far from the restaurant.

This place has been here forever. I came here once as a young lad growing up and do not remember much from it. Fast-​forward to today:
For flavor, it tastes pretty similar to many Thai delivery and take-​out places I have sampled on the Westside. It was pretty pricey for the pad thai and yellow curry (both chicken) and the flavor was about the same as some of the other Thai places I have reviewed, but more expensive. I went to lunch with a friend/​co-​worker, so we didn’t get too adventurous on the menu, but I would be willing to come back on my own to get a little crazier with the palette. I will update my review when this happens, but for now the flavors were pretty standard for these staple Thai dishes for the American audience.

I eat here at least once a week and it is very good. Chicken noodle is addictive but their lunch specials are the way to go.

The salmon mango tango was amazing. The mango and apple salsa was a perfect compliment to the fish. This was my first experience with coconut rice and it was beyond perfect. I’m searching recipes for the next time I make salmon at home.

Just had dinner here and I’m not sure how this place calls itself a thai restaurant when none of the dishes include thai basil or any thai flavored spices at all. The dishes taste more Chinese based. Also, the ambiance is a little confusing. There’s a bar area that has a sports bar sort of vibe, and then the restaurant area which gives off a completely different vibe. From our table, we could hear both the jazz music in restaurant and the other music from the sports bar area.
For appetizer, we ordered a papaya salad and veggie Tom yum soup. The papaya salad was good, but not as spicy as we asked for. The soup was also very bland and tasted more like a Chinese soup than a thai soup.
For dinner, we ordered the Pad thai with chicken, which was decent but slightly sweet. We also ordered the veggie stir fry which was good but tasted a lot like Chinese vegetables in garlic sauce.
We asked for all our dishes to be spicy but none were AT ALL. The waitress simply brought out a tray of spices for us to mix in ourselves.
For dessert, we ordered the banana flambé. The waitress had the bananas on fire for way too long so we were left with a burnt flavor in our mouths after every bite. Other than that, the dessert was good.
Overall this is good restaurant for dinner for what they serve but if you’re looking for real thai food then I wouldn’t recommend it.

I had the fried tofu salad. It was okay.
The salad was very basic. It could have at least been romaine or spinach.
The tofu was fried but lightly, and the tofu inside was very soft. I would have preferred harder tofu.
I was left unsatisfied and very hungry.

I had lunch here yesterday and it was one of the worst meals I’ve ever had.
The BBQ beef had a strange bloody/​livery taste that reminded me of old, inferior quality meat. The fried rice also tasted like it was old and spoiled or might have been prepared on dirty equipment. It was 100% inedible by anyone’s standards.
Even the Arnold Palmer I ordered was completely watered down.
This was a complete waste of my time and money. I’ll never go back to Chan Dara Pico.

What a great place to get thai and other asian food + full bar! This small joint on Pico has some of the best beef satay, shrimp pad thai, and garlic sea bass. Their thai tea is also better than any boba place!
Only valet parking available. The wait times are reasonable– I’ve never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a table. It gives us some time to grab a drink at the bar! Also a couple doors down from The Arsenal & Upper West for some bar hopping afterwards. Always great food here!

Came here for a lunch and ordered the Red Curry Penang lunch special with the beef satay skewers. So bomb!!! They’re not stingy on the beef, chunks of tender and moist beef on the skewers nicely grilled. Don’t forget their sauce and pickled veggies on the side, compliments the whole dish with them. Red curry penang was a good size for lunch special, took half for to go. I ordered it with brown rice and it comes with a side of veggie eggroll. I would love to come back for their happy hour… beef satay skewers and a beer, enough said.

Good food. Large portions. A bit more pricey than the hole in the wall Thai places I prefer but it’s what you would expect on the west side.
Beef satay here is phenemonal. Must have.
Tom yum soup with shrimp has large shrimp cooked perfectly.
Chicken panang curry was a bit sweeter than other places I’ve bad but still good. Lots of white meat chicken.
Spicy noodle with pork was delicious.
Sticky rice with mango was perfect and the mangos were just the right amount of ripe.
Beware of old Caucasian men trying to pick up Thai/​Asian women at the bar.

Called in my order for pickup (thought I’d save them some fees on all the services you can use) for chicken pad thai. Pulled up and found a valet — he let me run in to pick up my order. I quickly paid, brought it home and dug in to eat. Not a big fan of the huge tofu pieces, the chicken was so-​so, and overall the dish lacked flavor. Might be worth a return trip to check it out and eat-​in, but with the parking/​valet situation, I’m a little wary.
I think I’ll stick to my own local thai restaurant for a larger portion, more flavor, all at the same price.

Pricy Thai food that didn’t taste bad but not worth the money. The coconut rice, merely supposed to be a side, was definitely the star of my plate. The Beef Kabob on Fire was drenched in alcohol to give it the affect, not to mention was done very poorly. It took her 5 tries to light it, which made it awkward at the table, especially because it took much longer to come out than everyone else’s food. We also weren’t impressed with the waitresses.
They seemed untrained and not hospitable. They weren’t rude, but they certainly weren’t friendly. Finally, for dessert, there were only 2 items of the supposed 7 or 8 on the menu. Sure, they had specials, but why would you put items on the menu if they aren’t available? I can understand the sticky rice and mango. That actually is seasonal. But coconut cake? mango cheesecake? At least tell us, so we don’t awkwardly go down the list as you tell us everything is out of stock.

I’m going to leave my review at three stars because their basil & chili chicken is pretty good. but they need to get on it with their cleanliness. The past two times I’ve been here, I’ve found a piece of hair. Both times I ordered the basil & chili chicken lunch special. The first time I found it in the chicken and the second in the brown rice. IDK what it is. but i’m probably not going to be ordering the basil & chili chicken anymore. They did take 10% off the check. but still made me lose my appetite.
Maybe invest in some hair nets?

Das ist so ein Schnell-​Service-​Restaurant, wo man das Essen auch online bestellen kann. Nichts dagegen — die Qualität ist gut. Alle möglichen asiatischen Gerichte werden zwar tatsächlich ziemlich schnell, aber echt gut zubereitet. Am besten mittags hingehen und zum Beispiel Curry Chicken Brown Rice ($ 10) oder L-​Eggplant Tofu Soft Brown Rice (auch $ 10). Lecker.