Thep-Naaree

It’s closed now. Replaced by Sumo Japanese Restaurant. Gone, too, are the paintings of naked nubile women. Life goes on.

We’ve been having lunch at Thep Naree for years and I would have been happy to give 5 stars in the early days.
But something has happened and the place is not what it was.
In the early days the wait staff wore beautiful Thai outfits. The food was reliably good.
But things changed. There was a fire in the business upstairs and Thep Naree had to close while they dealt with fire damage.
I think they’ve not recovered from that unfortunate accident.
I had lunch with a friend there yesterday. The food was not of the standard It used to be. My seafood lunch plate was lukewarm and my friend’s spring rolls looked scorched. We ate anyway and enjoyed the time together. But there were few customers.
Visually, it’s a beautiful restaurant and I’d hate to see it close, but how can it survive without customers?

This is reliably the best good Thai restaurant I’ve eaten in in the Berkeley area. It is really good. Over time, I’ve had 7 – 8 entrees & appetizers, and all have been exceptionally well-​prepared & tasty. It’s not gourmet food, but it’s not far-​off from it. It’s a big cut above other Thai restaurants. I too cannot understand why the place isn’t packed.

Came here last night for my birthday. Loved it! Friendly and attentive service, charming décor, reasonably priced, surprisingly good wine list. But the reason we’ll keep coming back is the great food. I haven’t been to Thailand yet, so I don’t know what «authentic» Thai food should taste like. But Thep Naaree’s food is clearly a cut above the ordinary. We had two special appetizers, the baked coconut on spinach leaves and an eggplant salad; both were delicious but not so filling that we couldn’t do justice to our entrees, the yellow curry and Pra Ram, both with chicken. The Pra Ram was outstanding: the yellow curry was good, but since I’m not a big fan of potatoes, I let my husband have the lion’s share. What is special about their food? The inventive combinations of textures and flavors and super-​fresh ingredients; you get to choose how spicy you want it.

Food:
1) Papaya salad: Gave you a pretty large proportion here but I didn’t think it was flavorful enough. It lacked some extra vinegar kick to it and it was not spicy enough either. But it was different because it had long beans in it, so that was pretty special.
2) Green curry: I thought they could have put more ingredients in the curry because there was only chicken and eggplant in it. I’m used to green curry with a lot more stuff in it. The flavor was pretty good.
3) Spicy pork: Two baseball card sized pieces of pork chops. Not what I expected. It wasn’t that flavorful and it wasn’t that special. I wouldn’t recommend ordering this.
4) Pad Thai: The noodles were flavorful and chewy, the shrimp tasted fresh, the tofu was good, and the general taste of it all thrown together was REALLY yummy! I really liked the Pad Thai here! Well done!
Service:
Very friendly and good with refilling water. But otherwise, they weren’t too attentive to us.
Ambiance:
I really liked how this restaurant is decorated. There are regular booths, tables and chairs, but there is also this area with «Thai style» seating. It’s where you sit on a cushion and the «floor» is your chair type style. It was very cute. The whole restaurant looked very new and presentable.
Price:
The prices weren’t bad. The whole meal cost us ~$ 40. It’s not cheap but it’s not too pricey for Thai food. The prices here are in the ball park of everywhere else.
Overall:
It was a good experience but wasn’t good enough to get me to come back. Very average on everything and nothing really stood out to me. Two words: «It’s alright».

Have been going here for years and turned several friends into fans. Had my husband’s birthday party there last week. They did us proud. I brought in a cake and champagne bottles. They got me candles and no corkage fees, and loads of fantastic food. Everyone had a great time. Since I am such a fan, I ordered for the whole table. No one had a single complaint except to get another glass of wine. Fantastic job!

I was definitely not impressed… my first visit (and perhaps my last?)
Shrimp pad thai: staple order for a lunch, right? Tamarind was not favorful (or maybe not enough)… no ground peanuts? What? Shrimp was paltry. small and few. Think total was $ 7.5?
Not a soul was in the restaurant; i took it to go. Not a big fan… very very meh experience. Must add –on though: décor and interior of the restaurant was decent and almost… nice.

Got Padh Thai to go here on a quick lunch drive-​by, mainly because they give a percentage via eScrip to my son’s school. Nice interior, nice, clean bathroom, and oddly-​culturally twisted tatami-​style tables taking up half the dining area.
The woman took my order for Padh Thai with pork, and had a plastic bag of hot noodles ready for me in ten minutes. Like other reviewers noted, the noodles were quite sticky and could use a bit more moisture, so they don’t clump up in your throat. And the pork somehow morphed into shrimp, which was an unexpected upgrade for me.
I’d be willing to try Thep Naaree again, but my heart and stomach are promised eternally to Lao Thai Kitchen in Albany, so I may not get the chance.

Came here with friends. There was nothing that wasn’t satisfyingly delicious. The service was great and the food was delicious.

Meh — boring non-​spicy food. Everything was bland and boring.

«Blaaaaaah!» (the sound coming from my stomach after being introduced to Thep-Naaree’s pad thai)
The interior is amazing, though. It has a lovely ambiance and I could project cutesy dates happening. However, my pad thai date and I were mostly concerened with the food.
We started with Thai iced teas (which were good, not the best I’ve had, but top five) and the crab cake appetizer. They were spongey. Sponges should not be the first thing to come to mind during a meal. In fact, no cleaning supplies should be. I doused mine in fish sauce to get them down. When I’m hungry, I’m motivated.
Quickly after, pad thai came. Ok, I’m obsessed with pad thai and have tried it at quite a few places (actually, this is the fifth this week) and I’ve gotten a bit critical on pad thai. This was not impressive. It seemed, hm, what’s the word… re-​heated. Some bunches of noodles stuck together, the way they would if you brought them home the night before and tried to eat them the next day. I picked at the tofu and the few loose noodles and took them togo.
This morning i stir fried them and they were far better. I shouldn’t be able to cook thai food better than a thai restaurant.
Bonus points for ambiance and server being very sweet and quick. However, when I paid, my card was not back in the check presenter. It was in the server’s apron. Yes, it happens. I’m a server, but my OCD and perfectionism makes it so I check to make sure all change and cards are returned.
When the leftovers are better than the initial meal, I won’t be back by choice.

their pineapple fried rice has raisins in it and is put back into the pineapple they fruited it from. hella good.
yellow curry is really creamy and delis!
sucks that they charge for rice.
nice cute place. ]

I enjoyed our meal with a few reservations. The soup was delicious (tom yum with chicken) — spicy, limey and the chicken in it was actually good — I often eat around boiled chicken. The stuffed chicken wings were only OK — they were fine but I’ve had much better (say at Phnom Pehn). We also had the green curry with eggplant, peppers, and chicken. I love spicy but my wife doesn’t so I asked for it mild and it was still spicy enough for my lips to be tingling when I was done with it and she did not take seconds. I would have rathered that they said the dish was just spicy and to order something else. Also got the pad thai and that was good as well. Portions were on the small side. A plus was that the chairs were comfortable and that the tables are not jammed close together.

I used to come here often (usually for take-​out) and decided to get take-​out recently as I hadn’t been here in a while.
I have to say this time I was disappointed. I ordered two soups (very watery, no lemon grass), one chicken and one beef dish ala cart (didn’t order rice). When I got home I was shocked to see how little meat there was in everything (including the soup). I paid about $ 28 and to be honest I felt ripped off for the price I paid. There was a lot of bamboo shoots for the chicken and the portion on the beef/​bean dish was unusually small. I’m not a fan of large portions but this was not enough for one person.
They certainly were nice and prompt (and I probably should have called to complain) but it’s just one of those things that leaves a «bad taste» in your mouth. If the food was excellent, then I’d understand a bit more but this was just average Thai food. Nothing special.
Maybe they are hurting because of the slow economy but to see this much of a change (from my previous visits) was shocking to me. Needless to say, I won’t be going back anytime soon. :-(
Just read some other reviews and saw similar feedback. That’s not a good way to stay in business!

Sweet service and a pretty restaurant — having good food makes it a four star joint for sure! We stopped by during our search for wood flooring for our new kitchen. We were exhausted and starving.
My hon of hons husband had the tasty red curry with chicken — lots of white meat chicken and the curry had some lingering heat to it. My dish was a little less successful — I just chose the Pad Thai ’cause I was being lazy. Well, it served me right that it wasn’t very good — just kind of mediocre and lacking in any type of spices. The big pieces of scallion didn’t exactly add anything to the dish either.
We’ll be back — just not for the Pad Thai.

3.5 stars.
I came here for an early dinner with my family on a Sunday night. All 4 of us have lived in Thailand from between 4 months to about 3 years. More if you add up all the extended trips.
We ordered:
Papaya salad — I thought it was alright, but the rest of my family didn’t care for it much. My sister described it as eating garnish.
Tom Yum Kung — I enjoyed the soup though I think instead of whole mushrooms floating around in my bowl, they should have cut the mushrooms into slices. My dad thought it was too salty.
Red Curry with chicken — pretty good.
Pad Basil — delicious. I drenched my rice in this sauce.
Spicy Crispy Catfish — Pretty good, but after learning that catfish are scum sucking bottom dwellers, it’s never tasted the same to me again.
Green beans with pork — didn’t care for this dish much because I like my beans just a bit softer.
Service was friendly, food was alright — but not amazing. I thought the portions were small.

This is the 3^rd or 4^th time we’ve eaten here and it is better each time. Tonight we joined a couple of friends, so we had a wider range of dishes than when it’s just the two of us. I was disappointed when they didn’t have Meang Kum, my very favorite appetizer, but their angel wings and an eggplant dish from their specials menu made up for it. Mostly. We had their special fish (I think they call it Wonderfish on the menu) and it was quite good, crispy, w/​a slightly sweet sauce and plenty of vegetables. A mixed vegetable dish was just OK. Pork w/​a green curry was tasty and the Pad Thai was excellent. We used to love Top Thai, above the Budget Motel across from Safeway and Dani, who owned it and whose mother was the cook, told us that Pad Thai is the test of a good cook. This was the best since Top Thai. Service was attentive and good.

A neighborhood staple, Thep Naaree is thai fine dining and a great lunch spot all in one. When I got back from thailand I appreciated this place even more. The dishes have originality, terrific presentation, and great taste. Vegan friendly, vege friendly, and fish fantastic.
My favorite is the noodle soup lunch menu; a whole other menu available with soups for all. I am way into it.
And the thai goddess mural does’nt hurt, either!

This quiet establishment is a great place for nice sit-​down, cloth-​napkin thai food that won’t break the bank.
We went here last night for my birthday and had an AMAZING meal:
the «veggie delight» sampler, the corncakes and som tum (papaya salad), with a nice tofu yellow curry and sticky rice.
The veggie delight was a great starter, but even better complimented with the fried corn cakes, which, when we talked to the owner, we found out were VEGAN! (they use cornstarch instead of milk products!)
The papaya salad was fresh, crispy, well flavored and rightly spicey.
Our tofu yellow curry entrée was delicious. A wonderful blend of curry and coconut, with just enough veggies. (I admit, I would have liked more). And you can never go wrong with sticky rice… mmmmm.
Since it was MY birthday, I didn’t pick up the tab, but most appetizers were around $ 6 a plate, and most entrees around $ 8 – 10.
Iced coffees and teas are good here as well (a departure for Thai restaurants!)
I really enjoy eating here as its always impeccably clean, the service is always helpful and outstanding (my water glass is never empty!) and the owners are really nice people.

Had I not gotten mild food poisoning from my meal, I would have rated this place as fair to middlin’.
When trying a new Thai place, I usually get tom yum goong (shrimp), som tum (papaya salad), and kra prao beef. I asked for everything «medium spicy.»
The tom yum had no galanga or lemongrass at all, zero. It was essentially broth with two shrimp — a one-​dimensional, disappointing start.
The papaya salad was excellent, however — spicy, well balanced, and plentiful.
The beef was tough, just average tasting at best. It was far too mild to be considered anything close to medium spicy.
I ordered my meal to go, so I can’t comment on the service. But the next morning, I found out what «to go» really meant. I’ll stick with Ruen Pair down the street.