Char’s Thai

This is the best Thai food in town! The food is excellent, and the service is quick and helpful. Prices are totally reasonable, and not overpriced.
This is a great lunch or dinner spot, perfect for Thai food lovers, or 1^st timers!

I love this place. Great veg options, sweet staff, perfectly blended curries and soups. They carry the balanced feeling of Thailand and Buddhism into their business. Prices are not too high or low, but reasonable and the proportions veggie heavy and average sized, but packed with veggies where some places give more rice and sauce and less variety of veggies or meat. Only complaint they close in the day awhile but nothing is perfect

This used to be good but they increased prices and lowered portion sizes. You have lost a long time customer and will not be coming back.

Used to be big fan of Char Thai and long time client till last night. It had been a few months since out last visit and I was shocked to find that the prices had increased and the portions decreased. I used to be able to get 2 meals out of my pad Thai, last night barely made one. To add insult to injury, the next day my husband and I both woke up and had VERY upset stomachs.

Glad I discovered this place! Always love finding a good Thai restaurant.
The interior is decorated nicely, and I thoroughly enjoyed the hot male actor/​man of the year collage on the table we sat at.
We ordered to go, so while we waited we split a Singha in two very frosty mugs.
We ordered pad thai (always looking for a good one), yellow chicken coconut curry, and tom kha gai soup. All of it absolutely excellent, and probably the best pad thai I’ve ever had (the noodles actually had flavor!). The curry was creamy and delicious, though a bit thin, but nothing the rice couldn’t sop up. The soup was generous for two people and great as well.
The portions are a bit small besides the soup, but I still had leftovers. Will definitely be returning!

If you like poor quality chicken that tastes old and filled with gristle, you would love this hole on the wall! This was recommended by a friend. I no longer accept recommendations from that friend.

We decided to try this place out, while we are in town. We came here for lunch with hopes of finding a good thai restaurant. We were not disappointed! We were seated right away and it didn’t take long for them to come and take our order. The waitress was very knowledgeable and answered all our questions. She was also able to recall dishes from the menus. They took our order at 12:18pm and our food was ready by 12:29. Which was perfect because we had to be back at work at 1pm. Loved it and would totally come back.

The Best Thai Food in Tucson — consistently over ten years. They have never let me down.
Be adventurous. If you want eggrolls and fried rice, you may be happier elsewhere. If you want to savor flavor and spice and wake up your tastebuds… Try the Larb or Yumn Neau or the Naem Sohd for an appetizer. Entrees: Squid with ginger and green pepper, Thai Roast Duck or even the Pad Thai with extra heat. Cycling 70 miles tomorrow? Savor the beef noodle soup and fish cakes. Incredible food that won’t obliterate your spending plan.
Enjoy!

2÷20÷13 Only had Tom Yum with shrimp and it was very good. Portion was small for the $ 12 price. Easy to miss in little strip especially at night where city lighting is kept at minimal brightness.

So we decided to give it another try. We got there and there were only two more tables at 12:15. We notice that they are open on Sunday’s now. The guy was short and not very friendly the food came out in a decent time. First thing we notice is Where Is my FOOD.
One thing that drives me crazy is when restaurants cut the portions and give you less food for smaller portions. Please don’t do that. I do t mind paying more but I want my food. The food was good but not excellent like it use to be. I waited 3 months to come back and yes I’m still very desapointed.

Here’s the thing, so the service may be terrible, but the food is just so good! I will keep going back.

I got take out for the family a couple of weeks ago. I would probably have gone with three stars and given this place another shot but based on the customer service while picking up my order I’ll probably just try another place. I simply asked the lady if they had paper plates. A simple no would have sufficed but she seemed to be irritated by the question and told me to rip the kids off the styrofoam containers. Ok… I’m familiar with this technique but not sure why the message needed to be delivered with the attitude. It would have been kind of funny if I wasn’t handing over $ 60. The portions were on the small side except for the rice which was very generous. The flavor of the food was ok. It’s too bad as they are right around the corner from my house and would have been super convenient. I’ll venture a little further next time and see what else is available.

My family had never had Thai food, this place is as authentic as it gets! They loved all of the dishes & experience. We will all be coming back for sure.

Really enjoyed this place! Got a rich curry with green beans and rice. Something about it was SO satisfying and delicious! My boyfriend enjoyed his meal as well. We keep saying we can’t wait to go back. The staff were friendly and you could tell it was a family owned business. Love to support great places like these!
Reasonable prices
Fresh ingredients
Interesting décor
Friendly staff
good in my book!

Best Thai in Tucson! I love Thai food, so I’ve tried a few restaurants in town. This is the closest to authentic that I’ve had so far.

I’ve tried all the local Thai spots– and this one always takes the ribbon! The food is delicious, holds true to tradition, and the staff always treat you like family!
Order the som tum and green curry! Aroi mak mak

I’ve been here many times. Honestly, you could serve this food via flying monkey and I’d eat it. The food is great — it hasn’t changed, but there has been one change. A new employee made for a new experience. I’ll explain…
#1 — When my co-​worker and I walked in, there was no greeting. The first thing he said was «You separate?» referring to the person who had walked in a minute ahead of us. He then turned on the lights — yes, the lights were off — which was a bit creepy. Refer to Goodfellas when Pesci walks into the room with plastic on the floor.
#2 — The restaurant was empty except for the aforementioned guy placing a to-​go order. So he asked if we wanted to sit «near the cooler?» On a mild day, does anyone want to sit where their food will be cold?
#3 — His accent is odd — can’t really place it. Let’s just say there’s a super creep factor. If you were trying to pin down his accent on a map, it would be nowhere near Thailand. Plus, he mumbles, but at least there’s a good chance you’ll get the gist based on the last three words.
#4 — So all of that is passable — not a big deal. But then there’s the mannerisms … okay, so, you know when a stranger is close to you and you really want to move away from them and it’s awkward, but you really, really want to? Yeah, that. He made me wish the booth cushions were an extra five feet long. I was worried that a) he would show me his dead insect collection along with the killing jar, b) I would end up on the dinner menu, c) my used napkin would become part of some scrapbook and/​or d) he would hold us hostage for his ventriloquist show. Think Martin Vanger/​Jame Gumb/​Garland Greene/​Ramsey Snow. I don’t like hoses and didn’t bring lotion.
All in all, I’m not going to stop eating at Char’s. It’s great, but this new addition makes it more of an adventure. When my co-​worker and I left the restaurant we said «I’m really glad you were there.» Not because we were fearful, but because someone else needed to understand and witness the experience. Please eat here — at lunch — have the experience.

Was working nearby, so I raced over on a short lunch break to try this place out. After I placed my order, the peanut curry, she told me it would be about 15 minutes, which kind of gave me a heart attack as I didn’t have that much time. BUT… my order came out in 7 minutes so that was great.
First impression concerned me because when I first came in, there was a distinctive fish sauce smell. Not that appetizing and I was afraid that they might use the sauce heavily in their dishes.
What came with my order was two deep fried wonton wraps, a decent egg roll, a type of soup, and the curry with a fried rice on the side. Deep fried wontons… I don’t know. I ate them because they were there. The egg roll was a decent size and had a decent filler. The soup had a slightly salty broth, but it was good. I don’t know what kind it was, but it had some carrot in it, green onions, and cabbage in it as well as what looked like egg white similar to egg drop soup.
The rice was a brown rice. I thought that rather different for Thai. And it also was sort of a fried rice with egg and carrots, etc. Also different for Thai. It was OK and tasted decent. The peanut curry was good. I ordered medium hotness and for me, that’s what they gave me. I thought the peanut part was slightly too much peanut. The beef was tender, though, and I always hesitate to order beef at a place because you don’t know if it is going to be cheap and tough.
Char’s was good. Didn’t knock my socks off, though that deserves a 4+ star rating, which means I will not be returning, but certainly can recommend that you try it in conjunction with reading other reviews to see what experience you would have.

Birthday lunch for a coworker and Char’s Thai was the celebration spot of choice. The four of us were greeted, quickly given a table in the dining room, handed menus and glasses of ice water. Super efficient and friendly service.
Our culinary choices to be shared were Panang curry chicken (extra spicy please), Pad Thai with chicken (regular spice for the one wienie amongst us) and Pad Kra Prao beef (extra spicy) along with a bowl of brown rice and Thai iced tea all around.
I’m not an expert on Thai food, in fact I was a Thai food virgin until today’s lunch. With that said, I will tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed everything we ordered. The Pad Thai with chicken was delicious and slightly sweet, a very good choice for that wienie I mentioned. The Panang curry chicken was nice and spicy to where you feel the heat on your tongue for a minute after swallowing — good stuff. But the standout for me was the Pad Kra Prao beef. Tender strips of beef, perfectly cooked green bellpepper and fresh mint. Yummy.
As mentioned by several other Unilocalers, the décor is interesting. The tables have different themed pictures under the glass top and there is of course your traditional Asian décor. What cracked me up were the GIANT Southwestern landscape paintings on the wall. I can only guess that the paintings were there when Char’s moved in and they didn’t want to get rid of them. So what did they do to Asian-​ize them? Well, one painting now has little warriors doing battle in the desert and the other now sports a massive temple as big as the mountains. It’s actually quite funny.
Try Char’s — I think you’ll like it.

We were seated at the Lady Diana booth, which I thought was highly appropriate, since my mom has always told me that I act like a princess. The tabletop featured a retro découpage of photos, captions and all things Diana. It occurred to me that she died at 36… the age that I am now.
Service started out very slow, and I wouldn’t describe our server as friendly. My husband went with a duck entrée and I ordered vegetarian pad Thai with tofu. We also got some seafood soup to share. I saw some shells, tentacles and a claw floating around. While that’s not really my thing, my husband said it was excellent. I tried some of the broth, which was extremely tangy and unusual.
We were both superbly happy with our meals. My husband finished his entire plate. I have leftovers. The tofu was the best I’ve ever had. It really did taste like chicken! I still couldn’t convince my husband to try it. As Saba B. noted in her review — we both did find our dishes to be on the sweet side, but for us, it wasn’t a negative.
One of things I always love about Thai restaurants is the tea service. I was disappointed that they don’t offer that here. They just bring your tea in a nondescript brown mug, no teapot, no nothing. The odd thing — the tea itself was orange. It was OK, but I probably won’t order it again.