Mina’s Cafe

We love this place! Always fresh and delicious! I like to try something new each time and I have yet to be disappointed. We love Thai food and this place makes for an easy decision every time!

I love this café! The food is fresh and wholesome and the bubble tea is a excellent. There are little signs on the wall that have compliments and doodles drawn by customers (mainly children) and they are soo cute.
The owner was also more than willing to adjust my orders to be vegan, too, which I’m really grateful for.
I’ve recommended this place to many of my friends and I look forward to ordering again.

My girls and I ate a delicious lunch here. The café is cute, clean and very pleasant. We had the pad Thai and it was delicious! The owner made us feel extremely welcome and was extremely gracious. I highly recommend!

Cute, quaint, little establishment. Upon entering we were just going for the Bubble/​boba drinks because there aren’t many place in Oregon that do that yet and we are from California where is it a staple. We ordered our drinks from the lady:
Caribbean
Passion
Coffee Mocha
It took some time for the drinks to come out, but we did not mind as we were catching up. But unfortunately they missed it on a family wanting to dine in because they did not come to greet them when they came in.
We also ordered the fried cheese cake. It was delicious.
We will come back again for the desserts we didn’t try the food this time around.

Gross! Spent over $ 60 on dinner for the family and everyone was disappointed. Half the food was so cold it seemed like it had been refrigerated. The Pad Thai was just a big mass of gelatinous mush noodles. Tastes too much like onions. I was really looking forward to checking out a new place and now I just feel ripped off. If you like food that tastes better than McDonald’s, don’t even bother wasting your time or money here.

The owner of this business is very friendly and its very clean and super fast I ordered too go so it was perfect! Definitely will be back.

Very good food, reasonably priced and really friendly. highly recommend drunken noodles and bubble tea! :)

Great food & really nice people. I had the Stir Fried Chicken in Peanut Sauce and my husband had the Crazy Asian Stir Fry and both were delicious. Each dishes was under $ 10 each, which is a great deal. Highly recommend!

Owner is very sweet and talkative. Service is good if you are the only patron. On various visits, we’ve either been served right away or neglected for 10 minutes. The food is so-​so. Pad Thai is not my favorite. Drunken noodles are delicious. Can’t comment on the sandwiches which seem misplaced for an Asian restaurant.

Good food. Had the chicken pad Thai. LOVE the bubble tea. Server wasn’t super friendly but wasn’t necessarily rude. I will definitely go back again sometime to try the curry.

Great bubble tea. The spring rolls are great although last time the sauce wasn’t the normal peanut sauce and that was a bummer.

Food: We ordered drunken noodles and pad thai. The drunken noodles were pretty good. Great flavor. The pad thai was not. It was dry and disappointing.
Service: Horrible. For this reason alone, I will not be back. I called in an order and came in to pick it up with my daughter. First, the woman acted like she didn’t know what I was talking about. Then she asked me if I was using a Groupon. I told her yes. She said it was for dine in only and how would she know that I was taking these two entrees home for two people to consume. The Groupon makes no mention of dine in only. I looked prior to calling. And I’m sorry, but who cares how many people it is for? Isn’t the point of Groupon to get people to try your business and hope they come back? Well, unfortunately, this customer was lost. Luckily, there are other great Thai places in Salem.

Today is my birthday and thought it would be nice to try somewhere new to eat, but I was highly disappointed after eating when it came time to pay because of some confusion between Mina’s Café and Groupon regarding typos (which is not my problem) that sort of became an issue when redeeming at dinner. For instance, on the Groupon website the $ 20 worth $ 40 is supposed to be for four or more people BUT on the actual webpage it says «two or more people.» When redeeming at dinner, Mina pointed out the typo was caused by Groupon and basically told me I need to handle it with Groupon. She then blew me off and just disappeared. Fortunately, a young lady came to my table and handled the situation. After everything was paid for, I peeked at the receipt one more time and noticed Mina overcharged us! I will not be going back ever again.

There are not many Thai food restaurants in Salem, so when I saw so many good reviews for Mina’s café, I had to try it out.
First, the restaurant is clean, and furnished nicely. Second is Mina! She is so sweet and willing to help you with your order and just to chat.
I tried the special which was pineapple fried rice and a green tea bubble tea.
The portion was HUGE! I brought it home and barely got through a quarter of it, very tasty. The bubble tea was just ok.
What will bring me back is the service. I can’t wait to try more.

My absolute favorite Thai in town! I have several allergies and she is always sure to address them all, she even comes to our table herself to clarify and be sure. She works very hard to run her own business and with little help but does wonderfully.
The food is very tasty and delicious, I even get an order to go for later when I’m not staying in town. She has bubble tea, Thai food, American food, and though I am not familiar with it she offers what I can assume is lottery and gambling in the next room.
There is seating for dine in, you can take out, but no delivery. The food is worth the pickup. There may be a little language barrier but be patient it’s worth it.

Just local small bar very comfortable pool tables and gaming machines. Simple bar food meal available. pricing is right

Just go here — everything was delicious and the portions were good sized — and the service was so personable and friendly! It’s like visiting a friend in their home — Mina has a grand personality and the food was outstanding!
We had: drunken chicken noodles, drunken pork noodles, crazy Asian stir fry and pad Thai with pork. We sort of all passed around the plates and ate off each other’s — not one was better than the next because they were soooo yummy!
Also had strawberry banana bubble tea — YUM and fried wonton (?) wrapped bananas with ice cream for dessert.
Take the chance — you won’t regret it!

Maybe my expectations were a little too high after reading the reviews. I do love the Thai-​American hybrid menu and the fact that they have bubble tea!
I’ll start with my least favorite, the Reuben. My favorite sandwich of all time. If it’s on the menu I order it. My love for these sandwiches started when I was 4 – 5 y/​o, my dad would make them for me after hours in the kitchen of the La Playa hotel where he worked as a chef. Been ordering them ever since. This sandwich was unbuttered and barely toasted, the bread was cold and somewhat soggy, lacked that buttery crisp when biting in. In addition the Rueben, typically piled high, was not. Minimal amounts of meat and sauerkraut. Came with fries, which I would rate as average. Would not order again.
On the other hand the fried egg rolls were excellent. Wrapped in spring roll wrappers, not the thick egg roll wraps. They were served hot, fresh and crispy. The filling was also good and flavorful.
My bf ordered the pad-​thai which was absolutely delicious. Actually one of the best pad thai’s I’ve tried. Would def order this again.
And then we ordered 2 taro bubble tea’s. FYI it is served frozen, not over ice. Which I actually didn’t mind too much, it was delicious. Aside from the fact that my tapioca pearls were not cooked, at all. Many of them were completely hard and I had to keep spitting them out. I thought maybe it was the frozen aspect that was hardening them? But I’ve ordered many iced taro bubble tea’s before where the pearls hadn’t hardened. Maybe I would order again with the pearls? Or I’m thinking this was an isolated case and will try them again? Will see.
Even though I’m only giving 3 stars, I am open to going back and trying them again. Thinking their Thai menu options are a better choice.

We live near Mina’s and to be honest, the location isn’t great, and I wondered if it was any good. Plus, they have video gaming, and to me that spells D-​I-​V-​E. We decided to try it tonight and were VERY pleased. The food was as good as any we’ve had in Portland, and that’s saying a lot. I had the Drunken Noodles with chicken – the meat was tender and the entire dish was delicious. Awesome rice noodles.
One of their specials was New York Steak and baked potato with veggies. My husband skeptically ordered that (how good could a steak BE at an Asian restaurant?) – and it was very good. Cooked just right.
For an appetizer, we ordered the shrimp veggie spring rolls wrapped in rice paper and they were fabulous. Super fresh.
Only 2 kinds of wine – red and white. Actually, the only negative was the red wine, which was a «red blend.» My hubby got the impression that they dumped several «leftovers» into a bottle and called it their red blend. Not very good. My Chardonnay was good.
Great, friendly service from Savannah and good food. The décor is an interesting mix of Asian and Pinterest/​homey. Mina has worked hard to make this unusual space inviting and pleasing. I suppose if the décor was top notch, you’d pay a higher price for your food, so I’m fine with it the way it is. We plan to be regulars here.

Good food, but long wait.
If you have lots of time to hang out and great company then you won’t mind the wait time at Mina’s. They are friendly, but understaffed and the table we sat at had a stained tablecloth.
Our food came at different times so I got to watch my friend finish their meal while I was still waiting for mine.
The Pad Thai had a mild yet delicious flavor and the drunken noodle was also excellent. It was quite redeeming after a long wait and the ingredients tasted fresh.