Lam’s

Lam’s is gone and I miss it. The food was great, the staff friendly and efficient, the ambiance pleasant. It’s such a shame that the landlord raised their rent and we’ve lost a great neighborhood place. I’m so sad.

Lam’s is gone !!! The landlord raised their rent and wanted a 10 year lease.
No plans to relocate.

Food taste like it came out of a frozen TV dinner. Very dated interior and bar. Staff was nice though.

Lam’s is one of my FAVORITE restaurants. I go there at least twice a month. The service is great — the waitresses are always beyond helpful, sweet, and friendly. checking it during your meal, repeating your order. The food comes out quickly and is always fresh!
I usually get the same thing —
Fresh summer and/​or spring rolls. The peanut sauce is amazing.
Eggplant salad. A little spicy but the shrimp & eggplant compliment each other!
Pad Thai with vegetables, tofu and shrimp. So filling and enough for two people!
Salmon with Black Bean Sauce. My favorite dish. Light, savory, and the salmon melts in your mouth.
Seafood with vegetables in an oyster sauce. Again, light, savory, and amazing!
Get all dinner dishes with a side of brown rice.
I have probably been to every Thai restaurant in Newton, and Lam’s exceeds my expectations every time.
5 stars across the board.

American Fusion at its worse, typical blend of random Asian dishes trying to be a jack of all trades leading to low quality products. There’s a reason why specialty restaurants excel, this place just combines popular items like phở and lo mein pad Thai etc which means they just do everything at a C+ rate.

LAM’S…sigh. Let’s start off with the fact that when we chose to go to Lam’s I had just picked up my THAI mother from the airport COMING BACK from THAILAND for three months. The last thing she wanted was Thai food, BUT… alas, I’m not sure what kind of karma was going on here, somehow we ended up here thinking it was a Vietnamese restaurant. Now I will FIRST say I am MAJORLY disappointed with the lack of Vietnamese restaurant’s in the Waltham/​Newton area, and so ending up here was our attempt to avoid Boston and crossing our fingers for some good Vietnamese food.
It was pouring rain that night, and when we walked in we could immediately sense the «THAI» in the air. Oh… no. When we sat down the menu was… THAI? I say that with a question mark because the menu made NO ATTEMPT to put the dishes into the rightful Thai names that their food should mirror. Not also that, the PHO section had 4 – 5 choices. My mom was P. O’ed. Great. Not to be a poor sport though, my mom decided to stay and we ordered a few app’s and dishes. Our Thai waiter suggested to my mom the fried fish soup, and I hesitantly chose the chicken bun. My sister had seafood phở.
The food was NO GOOD. I hate giving Thai restaurants bad reviews, but I owe it to the people who wander in here thinking they are getting a great deal out of this restaurant being here when the food has no reflection off the wonderful tastes that Vietnamese food should have. I say Vietnamese since the majority of what we had was that.
I would give our food a one star, but the FACT that we did not try any Thai dishes does not make it right to totally dump on them, but I do not agree with the fact that they put an emphasis on Vietnamese food when clearly the chefs DO NOT know how to cook it. I think they are better off pulling the whole Vietnamese attempt out of their menu and just work on their Thai food. Unfortunately I will not be back ever to give them a chance on the Thai food simply because there are way too many great Thai restaurant around my area that this place ceases to exist in my options for the future.
Luckily there was three parties in the restaurant since there seemed to only be one waitress. Even then our waters stayed empty till another waiter came on towards the end of our meal to refill.
BLAH.

I wonder how many waitresses there are for the dinner shift — ours seemed exceptionallly busy that night.
Normally spiced at 2 stars, I ordered the non-​spicy version of the eggplant tofu basil noodle $ 8.50 (Noodle Tofu Basil $ 8.50 (Pan-​fried large rice noodles with fried tofu, egg, eggplant, string beans and fresh basil). Unfortunately the first rendition was still a tad too spicy for me, so I let the waitress know, and she brought a new non-​spicy version over before the rest of my party was done eating. Other than the string beans being on the raw side, it was tasty and I would order it again.
While waiting for my replacement dish, one friend offered me a beef satay stick from her appetizer order. The beef satay (6) $ 7 came with a small mound of rice noodles and generous sides of peanut sauce and sweet & sour sauce. The beef was tender and tasty, and the rice noodles drizzled with the sauces made for a pleasant side.
The most impressive looking dish to arrive at the table was a friend’s aluminum foiled ball of a seafood entrée — I suspect it may have been the Haw Mok Seafood $ 15.50. But the Hanoi Sea Scallops $ 13.50 looked absolutely creamy and delicious while the brown rice $ 1.50 arrived in a bowl in a pleasingly overfilled manner and more enticing than it sounds.
Prices are a bit high to regularly frequent this place.

its a GREAT thai restaurant… the place is nice and roomy… the service is great… and the food is VERY suckulent… the taste of the food jumps at you because of its unique marinated spices…
its definatly unique… oh and the price is verry reasonable

Decent Pan-​Asian in Newton. Not one of my favorites but not bad.
Definitely a throwback Asian restaurant experience.

This is good, basic Thai food. We snuck in during the break at the PaintBar class, and they were able to quickly accommodate us. They didn’t even give us flack for decided to open our take-​out bags at the impressively-​stocked bar.

KOW SOY MANDALAY.
remember that.
Kow Soy Mandalay.
it is the best soup i have ever had. i had it 2 weeks ago and i am still talking/​thinking about it.
just get it. it is like a big mouth hug.

My boyfriend and I went last night for dinner, we liked it. The service is fast, the prices are pretty reasonable. I think it was $ 29 for 2 entrees and an ap. I was on the fence between 2 dishes and the waitress helped me out suggesting the «bun» noodle. We liked everything we got, the restaurant is clean, and parking wasn’t a problem for us (Thursday night).

Life-​long resident of Newton, and Lams is my absolute FAVORITE place on the planet. Used to come here for half-​days in high school and still crave the summer rolls from Lams with peanut sauce. Their peanut sauce is the best, every last drop. I always thought the food was Vietnamese but apparently they say it’s Thai. Pretty sure it’s not Thai, I did work at a Thai restaurant in college for 3 years so… I’m really confused why they say it’s Thai. Who cares though, it’s delicious. Favorite dishes: Tangerine Chicken, Tamarind Tofu, Duck Noodle Soup, Summer Rolls. ALSO the BROWN RICE is incredible. It doesn’t taste like typical brown rice, it’s awesome and purple– so DO brown rice if you’re going to Lams.

Pretty good Thai food, quick, and at a good price. We had dumplings and some noodle dishes. A quick and easy place to go for lunch.

The menu describes this restaurant as «Asian Thai Cuisine» so I was surprised to even see Phở on the menu.
That’s why I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t arrive at my table looking or tasting like traditional Phở (no fresh herbs, lime juice, sprouts or jalapeño’s on the side) and the noodles didn’t look or taste like rice noodles. If you read the other reviews you’ll notice that I’m not the first one to mention this. But, I may be among the few who were not bothered by this.
What I ate was a tasty, satisfying bowl of beef noodle soup. The broth was a bit on the mild side, but I didn’t mind. I was glad that it wasn’t too salty and I added a lot of chili sauce. The noodles were plentiful and the beef was tender and tasty. Did I miss the lime, sprouts and all the rest? Maybe a little but I still enjoyed my soup.
I’m on a quest to find new and exciting lunch options near work and I now have a new addition. I’m happy — but next time I’m getting take-​out. I had a hard time concentrating on the magazine I was reading because the women next to me were talking very loudly about alcoholic boyfriends and contracting STDs. That was far more annoying than the inauthenticity of my so-​called Phở.

You’re visiting friends Newton and you want Asian food? Where do you go? *counting number of places on one hand* That’s how we ended up at Lam’s.
ATMOSPHERE — Kind of a typical Asian eatery… tablecloth with glass on top.
SERVICE — Perfectly fine.
FOOD — I asked the waitress what «Shanghai noodles» were and her response was that this was a Thai restaurant and they didn’t cook Chinese food. Okay, what are Shanghai noodles then? Because the last time I checked, Shanghai is in China. They also make Vietnamese bun. There is also some Malay food mixed in there.
Vegetable spring rolls — Grease laden but not bad.
Beef satay — The beef was actually quite good but their stay sauce wasn’t peanutty enough.
Pad thai — They make the oilier and heavier version of pad thai (versus the dryer and lighter version). This dish was a little off and I suspect may have been missing a few ingredients (I think the tamarind and red chili pepper) but my knowledge of Thai cuisine isn’t that extensive so I couldn’t place it.
Overall, edible in a pinch but there are certainly better Thai places around.

What’s Thai for Mmm mmm good?
I love pad thai with all my heart and soul, so it’s hard to get me to order anything else, but I am so glad I did!
The noodle tofu basil was divine. Vegetable curry and brown rice was just the boost of vitamins I needed after my day of bad eating on Superbowl Sunday.
Great prices for lunch and excellent service. Plenty of parking and a very quick ride on the 544 bus to get there. Everything you could ask for a fantastic Thai meal.

There’s no reason why I shouldn’t give this place 5 stars. It’s so dependable and since my last review, I’ve tried many other things and enjoyed it all.
Let me introduce you to the Kow Soy Mandalay. It’s the same curry as what’s in the Ca Ri Ga but with crispy yellow noodles (!!). The noodles that are in the curry soften while the part that’s above stays crispy = heavenly (for those of you who love double pan fried noodles, you know what i’m talking about).
P. S. The duck noodle soup is also excellent.
P. P. S. This restaurant is great for groups. I’ve had to coordinate at least two group meals here for work and they were very accommodating and easy to work with. Both meals had to take place in a small window of time and they were helpful in making sure everything we ordered was on the table pretty soon after we arrived.

Mom and I went here after a job interview. I had crispy rolls and the chicken hunan. Mom had the Cantonese something or other (beef with broccoli).
The food was fantastic.
The atmosphere was neat and clean and comfortable.
The service was good (the servers English could have been better and I needed a water refill for a little longer than I liked with my spicy dish but it wasn’t a bad wait).
The price was super good too. $ 25 for a dinner for two plus appetizer.
The best Asian food I’ve ever had.
The best spicy food I’ve ever had.
Sadly I didn’t get the job so I probably won’t be in the area again.

When I walked up to Lam’s, the signs said «Closed,» and I thought «great, now we need to find somewhere else.» Well, lo & behold, there was my other party, waving at me from a table!
The waitress was very nice and the service was fast.
We started off with an order of steamed chicken dumplings — they were a pretty good size, but had a lot of extra dough. I liked the sesame seeds drizzled on them and there were 6, so we each got 3. Quite tasty!
My friend got the Grilled Eggplant Salad: Southern Vietnam dish, barbecued long eggplants and white cabbage topped with shrimps, spicy lime dressing and accented with aromatic parsley. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do the dressing on the side, as the food (eggplant & shrimp maybe?) are cooked in it. There was a lot of dressing left on the bottom, but it was basically a vinaigrette. She said it was tasty (and ate the entire thing) but different.
Instead of my usual Pad Thai, I went for Chicken Basil: Sliced sirloin chicken sautéed with fresh basil leaves, red and green peppers, mushroom, green beans and onion in a minced hot pepper sauce. I asked for no mushrooms, but received a few mushrooms in the food. Not major, but still annoying. The brown rice was a bit purple and somewhat rough (like barley), but still very tasty.
All together, it was a very tasty meal and came out to about $ 21, which is somewhat pricey for lunch for 2 people, but not when you consider it was 1 app & 2 meals. I would go back if I was in the area.