Chao Phra Ya

Good Food, reasonably priced. Restaurant is not fancy, and service is a bit slow.

Seafood Pad Pik Khing
The best! We’ll go back so everybody can order it. 5 star!
Duck with Chili and Basil
stir fry duck very overcooked — too crunchy like sakata
skip it
SPECIAL COMBO SAMPLER — good appetizer
but next time we want the
SPECIAL SEAFOOD COMBO SAMPLER!

Strolling (okay, driving) around Herndon in search for a bite to eat, I turned into the Village Center at Dulles which offers a number of places to eat. Chao Phra Ya has a sign out front which read, «From Thailand to Potomac» and it caught my eye. I haven’t had Thai food in a long time and before I went in, I stood outside, opened my Unilocal app and did some quick research on Chao Phra Ya.
It was dinner time, and I arrived half seven. CPY didn’t seem crowded, but after a few minutes, couples and groups started coming in. The staff seemed welcoming and hospitable. I browsed the menu and rather than being adventurous, I stuck with a dish that was familiar, and which also happens to be their house specialty — Shrimp Pad Thai. I wanted to try a few appetizers, but it was just me and my phone sitting at a booth and my appetite wasn’t that big.
I started off with a refreshing Thai iced tea with black tapioca pearls. Yum! Washington humidity is settling in for the summer and this icy yet not-​so-​sweet beverage hit the spot. A few minutes after slurping up my tea and browsing my phone, my Shrimp Pad Thai arrived. These delicious drunken stir-​fried noodles were tasty — spring onions, bean sprouts, garlic, egg, and roasted peanuts. Not bad. I’ll be back.

Come here for years. Love the their drunken noodle. Nice decorations too. Good place for a quite personal meal or co-​worker lunch party.

Walking by around dinner time and decided to give this place a try without any prior knowledge or research. Quickly created by friendly staff who appeared eager to serve. I decided to get the order to go so was seats at the front counter while I reviewed the menu. Plenty of authentic options on the menu at what appear to be reasonable prices. I went with the seafood drunken noodles which turned out to be amazing. Portion was big enough for two with plenty of seafood mixed in. Since I got the food to go, I can’t comment on the wait staff, but based on the price, taste, portion size and how quick I was served, I would return again and recommend the place.

Authentic Thai food with perfectly balanced flavors. Ambience is good and the hostesses were very polite and gracious. Would recommend the pad thai and red curry any day.

Located next to the Irish Pub!
Food is good. They have a lunch menu option, which is only a $ 1 less than normal dinner prices yet the portions are smaller, but comes with a spring roll.
I don’t care for spring rolls, so I ordered a chicken pad thai and it was a huge portion and like I mentioned, only a dollar more than the lunch option. So it was $ 10 and some change. My friend ordered the same thing but the lunch menu so I was able to compare how much of a difference the portion is for a buck less.
It’s good. Flavors good, priced are good. I like the restaurant, spacious and clean. Service is good.

My first experience was good.
Ordered drunken noodle and Calamari for pick up, and when went there to pick it up the parking lot was full of cars so I called in asking them if they can take out the food to my car (I was in front of the store) they agreed on that, the food was delicious the Drunken noodle wasnt spicy enough, even though I wrote on «Special Instructions» To make it Spicy hot… but other than that everything went well.
I’ll be back: P

Service is excellent !! Food is delicious ! Highly recommend for the «road warrior» or family. Love this place.

Super delicious! Went for the first time last week and am already dying to go back!
Lemongrass soup was a great starter, and the Drunken Noodles with Duck was mouthwatering good

I ate the drunken noodles for lunch and they were tasty. Every Thai restaurant has their own version and this one is good as well… Small place with a great staff.

Solid 2.5. I’ve been here a couple of times for lunch, and this place is always packed. It’s a good enough space for big groups or just you and another person. I like the layout, and the fact that the tables are spread out. Finally a casual restaurant whose interior designers don’t want customers to be sitting on top of each other!
On one occasion, I came here with a big group. We were taken care of well — fast, organized, and clean service. There is a lunch special available here which is worth it over the normal menu. The portion is perfect for one person, and your entrée comes with a veggie spring roll. I got the drunken noodles with chicken and the spice tray on the side. The interesting thing is that the default cut of the chicken is chopped, not thick slices/​pieces. You should specify when ordering. The drunken noodles were marked as spicy in the menu, but they were very bland. The spice tray also wasn’t spicy — I had to add a ton of spices and mix them all to add some flavor to the noodles. The dish overall didn’t have any Thai flavor that I’m used to. Plus, the tomatoes it came with were mushy. My friend ordered the same dish and got broccoli added — they charge $ 1.50 for broccoli. I think that’s a rip off.
On another occasion, it was only two of us. We were seated at a table near the window, and we quickly felt like we were forgotten about. No one came for a while, and even after ordering, it took a long time for our food to come out. The service was very spacey. I got the panang curry with chicken, and it was okay. I asked for it to be spicy, and the chef obliged (I still added more spice from the tray). Unfortunately, some of the chicken pieces were a little weird texturally.
Bottom line: this place can be hit or miss, and the food is pretty tame.

Lightning fast delivery right to the door, delicious shu mai, Pad Thai and stuffed Chicken make this an absolutely wonderful place to order from!

If I am in the mood for thai and don’t want to travel too far, this is the place I go to/​order from. Really like the drunken noodles here, and my husband likes their crabmeat fried rice. I recently ordered a tray of spring rolls for a party, they were nice and crispy even after an hour of getting them.
Overall, the food is great and is decently priced!

Been here couple times with friends and family, and we liked their food very much except they lack consistency in quality and portion. Sometimes they do it really well, and sometimes not that great. Hit or miss.
Service has been alright except last time we went for lunch. We had problem communicating with the waitress the whole time, and she seemed really awkward with us, dull and quiet. We asked to be seated at the booth, but she said no because booth is only for party for four. I guess is ok if they really get busy, but by the time we left, only two groups of people came in the whole time we were there. What’s more awkward was that one of them was a party of 2 just like us, but were seated at the booth that we asked for.
For that day, food is good but were very greasy. The bubbles of the bubble tea were hard and cold — I know they were leftovers from last night (can’t fool me. i am a regular bubble drinker…). I think they did that because it was right at lunch opening; last time during dinner, they were nice and chewy.
i wish they keep up with the consistency of the food quality and portion. Service too.
3.5÷5

I got the tom yum noodle soup, which was basically mild tom yum soup broth, thin rice noodles, and chicken. It lacked authentic flavor, but was still good. It also came with a spring roll for the lunch special. To drink, I got a Thai iced coffee with boba, which tasted like Thai iced tea…

Mmm… been coming here for years and never had a bad meal here.
I’ve had LOTS of Thai food growing up and this place has the seasoning on point. My favorites here are the drunken noodles with chicken. I used to frequent Thai by Thai in sterling but they’ve been sucking the past year.
The Thai iced tea here is good as well, it’s not too sweet and tastes just right.
Nothing else to say other than if you’re craving Thai, don’t be afraid to try this place!

have come here on and off for years. Never had a bad experience. Not my #1 favorite place for Thai, but yeah, I’m a fan.
In short: Try the duck as your protein.
Came twice recently:
Drunken noodle beef lunch special: was good, but sad they used ground beef instead of sliced beef. Flavor was good, although it was greasier than I like.
KaPow Duck lunch special: THIS is what you should get if you like duck. I’m not generally a fan of duck because I usually think it’s too fatty and the texture isn’t my favorite. This place makes the best crispy duck I can remember having. It was actually crispy and not a lot of fat. Just kind of a thin layer on the skin. It had a lot of crunch and the meat was good. The sauce of the KaPow was also very flavorful without being too salty; a problem I find with KaPow at a lot of other places. It was ever so slightly thicker than most KaPow sauces I’ve had elsewhere… I wouldn’t describe the sauce as thick, because it isn’t… but they must use a little more oyster sauce or something in it to make it slightly thicker than most which are usually more towards the consistency of soy sauce. Very delicious.
Yum. Go here, and whatever «flavor or number» you decide to order, give the duck a try if you’re tired of eating chicken and beef everywhere else.
Also worth mentioning… we came here for lunch, the place was pretty packed… but they still got us taken care of quickly. The timing was pretty perfect from sitting down to paying the bill and everything in between.

Chao Phra Ya is pretty good. They do a rushed lunch hour right. Food arrives quickly, service is efficient and you’re in and out in a very timely fashion. Pickup is always accurate with their time estimate. The food is pretty tasty, too. The drunken noodles are always spicy and they hook it up with a ton of veggies since I order no meat. They are super close to work and I’ve never had a bad experience. Parking is good and I’m a regular.

I discovered this place by accident, I don’t live in the neighborhood, but staying at the Hilton nearby and was looking for a place to eat. I guess this place is one of the those secret suburb good food hang out place. Located inside a small shopping centre. I believe it is family run, and the service could be slow, but the food is very good.
The Pineapple Fried Rice with Shrimps was divine, and the Sauté Chicken with Brocolli is seasoned well and cooked well, served with rice. I was disappointed that there was no Mango Sticky Rice but we were served with some kind of Coconut Pudding, it was good. The Fried Bananas with Ice Cream is great. No doubt I will be dining there whenever I am nearby. A little Thai Gem tuck away near the airport.