Always Thai

Not bad. Solid flavors and generous portions. We ordered takeout… Tom Kha Soup, was coconut and Limey just the way it should be. The Panang Curry had a perfect spicy kick, but too sweet in my opinion. The pad Thai was my favorite. Moist and flavorful. There are a ton of really great Thai spots in Chicago. This one is not the best I’ve had but is good and I would definitely return for some affordable takeout.

Best Panang Curry in the city!
The owner is so nice and everything is prepared fast and fresh.

No idea why this place has 3 stars. Then again, one of the most recent reviews has a person who uses the word «cuz» in place of because… Back to Always Thai, I have made many lunch orders for pick-​up and it’s always delicious and prompt. There are 3 Thai restaurants next to my work and I walk 3 blocks to get my food here. It’s great and I’m very picky.

I love this place, it’s always clean and food is fresh. The owners are such a sweet people if you take the time to know them. I have a reaction to lard and over used fry oil so this place has been the safest of all. I have tried other Thai around the neighborhood since there are many around. I have nothing to complain and its been 9 years.

First time I ate there I ordered crab Rangoon and Yellow curry with chicken. The crab Rangoon was good and from what I could taste of the yellow curry it was good but a lot of the flavor was inhibited by spiciness. I asked for it to be mild and not spicy but it was incredibly spicy still. I decided to go back today and I ordered the Thai egg rolls which were very yummy, and Sweet and Sour chicken. Yes, I know that’s known as a Chinese dish and this is a Thai restaurant, but it wasn’t good. The chicken wasn’t fried but not only that, there were only a few small pieces of chicken. The entire dish was over run with vegetables with very little chicken, even though it is a chicken dish. I didn’t like it. It was NOTHING like a sweet and sour chicken. I actually can’t even finish it and I usually eat anything.

This is my second post on Unilocal,and the last one was like 5 years ago. I just order pickup from here cuz they are literally right next door to me. I was hungry and wanted something quick before work in a few hours. The prices are pretty good. I got two soups, an entrée and a Thai iced tea for 19 and some change.
I ordered Tom Yum and Tom Kha, I usually order both cuz I can never decide. I also ordered «Chili pepper dish», this is what it is called on the menu. Now granted, I’m munching on this has we speak, because I paid for it and it is sustenance. I’ve eaten the Tom Yum and it was not good, it was mostly bamboo shoots, which are inedible, like 4 mushroom and 2 tiny pieces of tomato. I haven’t opened the Tom Kha yet, but I hope it’s better, I love that soup. I’m eating the chili pepper entrée, and it has a lot of veggies in it, so that’s good, but it doesn’t have much flavor. The sauce that it’s in taste like tomato soup.
On the other hand, when I picked it up the staff was very polite and I picked up 10 minutes after I ordered and it was already packed up and still hot, so there’s that I guess. I wouldn’t ordered from here again. I love Thai food too much and I have had great Thai in this city, but this doesn’t make the cut. I should have ordered from favorite place, Anna’s, which is right across the street.

I moved in to the neighborhood early fall and was overwhelmed with the amount of Thai restaurants in the area. After my first time visiting Always Thai, I was hooked. I always order the Panang dish and instead of rice order deep fried noodles. The staff here are very nice and accurate with pick up time which is great. It is conveniently located right off the Irving Park brown line CTA stop as well. They have a cute dining space as well, I’d say 50% of the time I dine in. I would def recommend this restaurant!

Good place, decent Thai at a decent price. We ate in, and will definitely bring booze next time, we were only ones not byob’ing. Vegetable egg rolls were the best item I had, maybe the best egg rolls I’ve ever had. I tried the Thai iced, tasted good, kinda sugary. We ordered pad the Mao and soup, and it did not disappoint. Always Thai will now be my new delivery place. Good stuff.

I think I eat their tofu pad thai and crab rangoon at least once a week. The ladies who work there are really nice and pleasant
Their lunch special is a nice sized portion. Can’t go wrong for 7 dollars. I usually get it to go and its done within 10 minutes. Highly recommend this place.

Great take out spicy fried rice! Really hit the spot! I’ve found my new «go to» Thai place. :-D

The place was empty on Friday night but the woman behind the counter was busy taking orders over the phone. The menu is full of Thai favorites including green curry. Different Thai places tend to have different curry recipes. Always Thai uses a thin curry sauce with fresh vegetables with enough spice to make your nose water a bit. The beef was thinly sliced but not shaved. The rice was cooked well and the was enough to sop up the remaining delicious sauce.
I have a hard time giving five stars to any place, mostly because I below the best Thai food should be in Thailand. I will go back to this place many times for my Thai food in the future and I plan on trying other dishes as well.

Always Thai isn’t bad but it’s not amazing. It’s just okay, which is fine if you just want some quick easy Thai food and you don’t want to think about it. I’m giving it a 3 star because they have Papaya salad, which happens to be a salad I love but it’s hard to find. I’ve had delivery and sat down, I prefer delivery as the take out menu offers more and the ambiance is not that wonderful.

I just left lunch with a friend of mine at Always Thai and I would have to say that the meal was nothing extraordinary. I had the duck pad thai and he got the basil fried rice. I wanted my pad thai spicy and he asked for his fried rice with no spice. Once we got our meals he had the spicy fried rice and I had pad thai with no spice. It’s not that big of deal for either of us so we just let it go. It definitely didn’t stop us from eating and I wouldn’t say it was inedible but I have had many pad thai’s in the city and this one doesn’t stand out.
I would say, other than the spicy slip up, the service was good and fast.

Everything I’ve ordered has been great, but their Tom Yum soup is THE BEST in the entire city.

We are from Atlanta, came to Chicago on vacation. Groupon brought us to this location. The location is just great; very accessible to trains. Took the Brown train, stopped at Irving station and this place was a a block away. We went at about 7 pm or so. My wife ordered Panang curry (Spice at ⁶⁄₁₀) and i went with Always Thai noodles with thin noodles instead of the fat noodles that came with it. I liked the Always Thai noodles, it came with chicken, shrimp and squid. Next time, I probably would ask to replace squid and shrimp with chicken. The dish was tatsty. Panang curry at spice level of 6 was too bland and sweet. Adding some chilli helped. So we would order it at a spice level of 7 or 8 next time. The food was good and cheap as well.
The bad side — Restrooms were dirty and old. Need renovation. Every thing else is good. Will go back again for food.

I’m not a tough critic by any stretch but I done just got ripped. So i placed an online order, which ran smoothly and picked it up within ten mins. That alone gets two stars. The food almost took one of those away. It wasn’t bad but this wouldn’t be special even by POW standards. A lil rice, couple of vegies, chicken strips, and a very very very small appetizer. Not impressive or worth going back to… I did want to like it as i live across the street but sometimes things don’t go as planned. It is better than the Chinese place down the street though if you want faux asian

Decent prices, quick delivery and pretty good food. It’s probably the best Thai delivery that I’ve had in our area. My only complaint is that their «spicy» isn’t!
Favorites include the Thai BBQ pork skewers, the larb kai, spicy basil noodles, pad thai and potstickers. The veggie tom yum soup is simply delicious — packed with tons of fresh veggies, very light and without that grease factor that Asian soups sometimes have.
Glad to finally have a good delivery spot!

Good pad thai, fast delivery on weeknights. The cucumber salad is bland compared to other places so I would steer clear of it.
after 2 good experiences, i will definitely add always thai to my cellphone!

I really need to take advantage of the BYOB here one of these days! So far though I’ve only had a few dishes here. I was pleased with all of them.
I’m not sure what it is, but I love the Crab Rangoon here! The Thai fried rice is also very good and filling, but possibly a little bland for me. We have always stuck with basic dishes like chicken or shrimp pad Thai. Nothing has ever been disappointing.
A few things to note. They are very stingy with sauces for carryout! Make sure you ask for extra. If you really like spicy I would mention that when ordering. Things aren’t quite spicy enough for me, but I like extra spicy.
Prices are very reasonable and check out their website for specials!

I used to come to Always Thai back 9 years ago. The food was amazing! My family and I would order it for carry out when my sister in law lived in the near by Lofts at Ravenswood. So delicious.
But upon coming back i have been disappointed but hopeful. I am not sure if they changed owners or what, but I have gone 3 times this past year to give the restaurant that I enjoyed so much in the past a fighting chance.
No such luck!
I ordered their panang curry with shrimp that I had used to order in the past and that was the big give away that something was just not right. The panang was just there, a bit bland, a bit sugary, no hard spicy kick like before. i figured eh! I just may have had a bad day.
Another attempt at another time, I ordered their pad se ew with beef, and really just ok at best.
Third time was today and I ordered their spicy basil with beef. VERY SAD. It was not spicy basil, it wasn’t spicy at all, and I think I just saw one basil leaf! Gah! That just made me sad and disappointed that now I have to try another place that may be more of a distance from me but can sacrifice the ride for consistent tasty Thai food.