I've been coming to Fresh Side for YEARS. I have used it for several dates, and for solo tea time, and friendly get togethers. It always shines. The food is always yummy. I love the tea in the cast iron pots. (This place is what made me get cast iron for home. It's perfect for tea.) I usually get 2 rolls (Typically curry and ginger.) Sometimes I'll get the peanut noodles. The only thing I've not liked as much from here is the Jasmine tea (but that's more a failing of my taste than the tea itself.) and the mochi. (Because once a friend of mine and I ordered all the varieties they had, and eating all of them was a bit overwhelming and has put me off mochi since. But this is not a fault of the places mochi.) The service can be... Odd at times. But, I've never had a BAD experience with them. The last time they put all of our orders in with an iPhone. Also: I'm not sure why, but I had not noticed the teevee in the dining room area before... Has it been there long? It was off. read more

These tea rolls are really stellar. We came to fresh side since my boyfriend used to go to school here and he wanted to stop by for a snack. We had the curry chicken tea rolls and I loved them. They were really tasty and refreshing and the perfect size for a snack. Would highly recommend! read more

Ordered delivery thru Door Dash and it arrived freshly made and delicious. I had the Thai noodle salad and spicy bean tea roll. They both were great! read more

It is the worst food I have had for a while. I ordered the coconut curry. It doesn't have any curry flavor. I feel they just mixed all over boiled things with some coconut flavor seasoning. read more

They are very tasty and have great tea. My friend had the vegan pad Thai and loved it, and I had the beef udon thingy which was great. They have a bunch of teas, including Thai iced tea! They are super yummy! read more

This place used to be good. Our meals were terrible. I got the beef bowl. It was covered with fat, attached to little bits of beef. The tea rolls - I don't know what happened to them. There was chicken on the top, over rolled-up pita bread - I think there was cabbage below the chicken. These used to be great. No more. My husband had the ribs in Korean sauce. It was mostly bone. We won't be going back. read more

I've been to Fresh Side a number of times and the following items is what I recommend. I got the 4 piece Pad Thai Tea rolls with chicken, the egg drop soup, and the bibim omelet fried rice with chicken. The tea rolls come with a peanut sauce. It tends to fall apart after having a couple bites. The egg drop soup wasnt just eggs. It had seaweed, mushrooms, carrots and other veggies. The only fried rice was bit spicy, but you can ask them to make it less or more spicy. The servers are really nice and accommodating. They always came by to fill up my water and ask how everything is doing. I recommend this place! read more

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I have no idea what happened to Fresh Side but the days of it being quality are over. When I first attended UMASS in 2009 this was one of my favorite spots to take my family. I returned recently to discover that the food quality has really gone down hill. The Tea Rolls first off have never impressed me, they've always been so dry. I usually got the pad Thai (I'm a sucker for a good pad Thai). The pad Thai was almost inedible now- super dry (maybe the forgot the peanut sauce it used to come with) and weird tasting. I can say sadly that my days with Fresh Side are over. Also, the mochi isn't ice cream in the middle- it's just red bean paste. read more

Amazing Peanut Noodle Salad, Carrot Cake worth its weight in platinum, and perfect service! Terrific for small groups who enjoy delicious food! Clean, efficient, and fairly priced. read more

Oh fresh side how I love you. Where do I even begin? I started college in Amherst in 2000 at which time began my 4 year love affair with fresh side. I went at least one, sometimes two days a week on my modest college budget. It was worth it and a very refreshing change to the bland cafeteria food. I graduated in 2004 and said good bye to my beloved fresh side. Since then I dream about the place and my mouth waters just thinking about it. I crave it all the time! If you aren't giving it 5 stars then you aren't ordering the right thing. I'll tell you what to order. Tea rolls- pad Thai, Edo, Thai and Vietnamese Entree- 8 treasure rice, Asian noodle salad, pad Thai Top it off with a mochi if you so desire I was reunited with my beloved fresh side after 12 long years in August 2016 after driving 7 hours for a wedding. It was like seeing an old friend- nothing had changed. It was every bit as delicious as I remembered it to be. The owners were friendly and lovely as usual. It was a different, more spacious, location- a welcomed change to accommodate their growing success. Now if only they could become a chain or publish a cookbook so I can get my fix more often. Until then, I'll keep dreaming about the tastiest, most unique and freshest food in the states. You won't find any other place like it. read more

Fresh Side - Thai top Edo bottom (it could serve as a dessert Rolland has peanut sauce) - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Amherst, Massachusetts

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I used to like Fresh Side, but the last time I went with friends , it disappointed the whole table. The main fault was that they sent out raw tofu on everything from Miso salad to sautéed ginger veggies and tofu. No heat whatsoever. Just a handful of raw tofu and a few vegetables- also on the raw side. Won't recommend it anymore. read more

I've been eating at Fresh Side for about 10 years. The first time I ate there I ordered tea rolls- the dish that put them on the "map" in Amherst - and really enjoyed them. I've been going back for years, usually with guests, hoping for the same experience. I still recommend their tea rolls. However every other dish I've had has been, in a word, uninspired. The issue for me is that there are lots of other restaurants that do it better. Do you like Indian food? There is an Indian restaurant. Do you like Vietnamese food? There is a Vietnamese restaurant. Do you like Japanese food? There is a Japanese restaurant. Do you like Chinese food? There is an excellent Chinese restaurant on the edge of town. For your money, you can do better than Fresh Side. read more

My boyfriend and I drive an hour to come get the tea rolls. They are incredible!! My favorite is the seaweed rice, Thai, and pad Thai with bean curd. We have only ordered takeout here but the staff is attentive and kind. read more

Once upon a time I loved Fresh Side. The last few times I've been there over the past year have totally changed my mind. Don't think I'll be going back again any time soon. The service is truly terrible. I stood in the door way next to the host stand for several minutes, as it was unclear as to if I should seat myself of wait to be seated, and there is not sign to indicate either way. Finally, I asked a waiter if I should go again and seat myself. I then waited over 10 minutes to even be brought a glass of water! I was ready to order my tea and appetizer, but the waiter ran away before I even had a chance! If your really want to eat here, I suggest sticking to the tea rolls. Every entree I've tried has been pretty awful. And STAY AWAY FROM THEIR MUSHROOMS! Unless you are ready to spend an hour in the bathroom... such a shame. I love mushrooms. But the last two times I've ordered something with mushrooms in it I've had some serious tummy issues. Not good. Maybe Fresh Side isn't so fresh? I don't know what happened to this place, but it's seriously gone downhill. I've heard their cocktails are good. And it's never been crowded when I've been there. Still, I plan to steer clear from now on. read more

On the college tour slog through Amherst, we asked the extremely friendly woman in the office at Hampshire College for a lunch recommendation. Fresh Side was the first of her recommendations we drove by, so that decided lunch for us. We were a bit leery when the wannabe America's Next Top Model and her obnoxious mother from the Hampshire tour walked in right after us, (Who changes clothes between tours? I can see if you spilled something on yourself, but this girl even had different shoes and a new HAIRSTYLE! As if the admissions office will be swayed by the intricacies of your braid? But I digress...) Sweet and cute waiter brings us a bottle of water, and returns quickly for our order. Satay pastas and some tofu rice. We shared, and enjoyed the pasta dishes a lot more than the pretty flavorless rice. Thought we were too full for dessert, but got talked into some mochi. The red bean was tasty, but the peanut was delicious--like some kind of candy you used to love as a kid but gave up when it started pulling your teeth out. A relaxing stop on the death march of 8 colleges in four days. read more

Can a great peanut sauce save plain rice and pad Thai noodles? You decide, when you try the Fresh Side's underwhelming, dry tea rolls. We got tea rolls and a chicken teriyaki rice bowl, and felt happy to eat but wished it were better. The tea rolls were nearly flavorless and dry without the sauce, and the chicken in the rice bowl had a strange texture like it was microwaved. The best part? Definitely the $0.95 mini mochi. The peanut flavor was all sold out, but the red bean ones were like little pillows from heaven. I'd return for mochi only. Skip the tea rolls. This may fly for college students as cheap food, but ten years out of college with yuppie taste buds, I wish I had paid more for something more worthwhile. read more

Fresh Side is good. I really like it, especially the tea rolls; they've always been my favorite things to get there. However, for a number of reasons, it's not getting a good rating. Its service and quality used to be so, so much better, before it moved. I completely agree with Andy T., that these have gone down considerably since Fresh Side moved from its old location next to Town Hall, to its more prominent spot by Hastings. I'm glad that they are receiving more business - they clearly have a stronger, younger patron population now than they did before. At the same time, their waitstaff has changed to reflect this. They are among the snobbiest and least helpful waiters in the area. That's not usually enough to turn me off, but crappy service in general is. The past few times that I went there, my friends and I were forgotten about, or it took way too long for us to be served our food. I appreciate that they are busy, but after this happened multiple times to me and my friends, individually, it was too much. I miss it, but I've sworn off going there. That's just the service. As for the quality, I usually get tea rolls and chicken. If you like dry chicken, I recommend it. It feels like Fresh Side is experiencing growing pains, between the service, the food, and the decor. At the same time, given that this was an established Amherst institution, I'm doubtful that this is the case. read more

My husband and I really enjoy Fresh Side. It's one of our few must haves when we are in Amherst. The tea rolls are yummy and very light. The vegetable fried rice and 8 treasure rice are delicious but our absolutely favorite is the curry noodle soup with tofu and vegetables. In fact, my mouth is watering as I think about it. The only reason I gave four stars rather than five is because for some reason it's always freezing inside when you dine in. I had to eat with my jacket on last time we were there. Food definitely gets five but I couldn't give five stars because consistently it's been cold whenever we dine in. read more

Fresh Side - Curry noodle soup - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Amherst, Massachusetts

4 words.. SPICY CHICKEN TEA ROLL. That really sums up Fresh Side for me. I made the cardinal error of ordering only 2 spicy chicken tea rolls, and tried 2 pad thai tea rolls with chicken as well. They were merely "ok" and kind of dry. The "peanut sauce" that they came with was actually just melted peanut butter as far as I can tell. Peanut butter's a good thing, but combined with the dry roll things got a little hard to swallow, literally. Would have given it 4 stars if only I had ordered 4 spicy chicken like I planned. Of course I ordered 12 spicy chicken to go. I don't drive all the way to Amherst and come back with no tea rolls! read more

The tea rolls are just as good as when they were when I was in college! I was in town so I decided to take a trip down memory lane and go to Fresh Side. And I'm so glad I did. I had the pad Thai tea rolls and a pho. The tea rolls were as good as I remember them which was a delight. But the best part of my meal was the pho. The soup came with thinly sliced beef and was nicely seasoned which a slightly spicy, ginger kick. All this for only $11.77! My only issue is that you have to order my favorite shrimp tea rolls in 4 pieces! Not two. Will definitely spring for them next time I'm in town. read more

In a (compound) word: hit-or-miss. Don't get me wrong--Fresh Side is very reliable, affordable, and outrageously tasty... but ONLY if you know what to order. The main draw of Fresh Side (for college kids or otherwise) is the fresh, cheap food they offer in moderate to generous portions. I could never believe that anyone could finish one entire serving of their fabulous Japanese Omelet Rice (or "omuraisu"). It could easily serve two people. Similarly, other pasta dishes should be reserved for times when Val (sorry for the Amherst reference) has been serving hamburger soup and baked scrod for several days in a row. Definitely try the Thai Basil Pasta, but be sure to order it with the chewy WHEAT noodles instead of the Vermicelli rice noodles--an easy favorite :] On the other hand, their noodle soups are relatively small for approximately the same price. Tea rolls can be filling, but they're mostly rice or rice noodles. Be sure to ask for peanut sauce even though they've recently charged extra for a small cup of the addictive stuff. I'd recommend any of the RICE tea rolls at the top of the menu (rice noodles just aren't my thing AND they get very messy to eat inside a roll) such as Seaweed or Thai. I can't stress the peanut sauce enough so I'm saying it twice. If you're looking for a salad, I can only really recommend the Japanese Seaweed Salad, a healthy serving of sesame-drenched seaweed over tender greens. All the other salads are essentially a big pile of relatively tasteless cabbage with peanuts or other Asian-inspired ingredients. Finally, the service and price. Typically, the waitresses and waiters are very busy waiting on their numerous tables. Usually they're very polite and quick about things, but be prepared to ask twice if the place is busy. In addition, sitting outside means you have to either be very good at looking incredibly anxious, very tall, or not shy to flag down a waiter. Price-wise, all I have to say is very affordable, bordering on cheap. Nothing on the menu is more than $15 and most are around $6 or 7 for both lunch and dinner. Overall a great Pan-Asian restaurant, but only if you figure out what you like and what you don't. I'm sure plenty of people like the rice noodle tea rolls and small soups, but I just stick with the regulars. read more

What is this food supposed to be? Asian fusion? I was a little confused when I first started going to Fresh Side, but I've learned to accept it for what it is: Fresh Side. Here are some key things to know about a potential Fresh Side experience: 1) TEA ROLLS - This Fresh Side invention should be a new food group. I'm no vegetarian, so I can't comment on those options, but my favorites are Pad Thai with chicken, and Kimchi with beef (although my like for the Kimchi tea rolls has decreased somewhat, ever since they stopped putting cucumber in them). I've also tried spicy chicken and teriyaki chicken. The spicy chicken topping was good...but it the actual body of the tea roll was just stuffed with cabbage-like substance, while a little spoonful of chicken mixture sits on top. The teriyaki chicken is also pleasing, but not as awesome as Pad Thai and Kimchi. 2) PEANUT SAUCE - This is crack. 4) DRINKS - Their Vietnamese iced coffee is better than Miss Saigon's, with a huge dollop of sweet condensed milk. Yay! I've also tried their green tea and ginger honey tea, served hot. The tea itself is pretty good, but holy shit do they need to get better tea cups. The ones they give you are nearly impossible to pick up, because they provide NO INSULATION from the scalding tea. Note about the water: I always think my water tastes funny. Maybe it's the cheap plastic glasses they serve it in, which might have soap residue on them. At any rate, the waiter will never offer you a water refill anyways. In terms of entrees, I've tried the pad thai with beef, and the bibim rice wrapped in an egg omelet. The pad thai is nothing like authentic pad thai, but whatever it is, it tastes delicious with a bucket of peanut sauce/crack. The bibim rice omelet is really boring. Just a bunch of rice with bibim sauce (there may have been tiny specks of kimchi in there), wrapped with a tasteless plain omelet. Also, if you're in the mood for miso soup, the portion is really huge...but the flavor is totally lacking. read more

I will never get over the time I went to this place, was seated, ordered salads, appetizers, and 2 entrees. It was all brought out by the staff, and then 10 minutes later they came over and told us we hd to leave because they were closing. Why did you seat us and allow us to order three courses then?!?! This is a sit down restaurant, not fast food, or cafe. read more

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press and Fresh Side invited the tea roll. I am still debating why one took off and the other didn't, as I consider them pretty much equally brilliant. How many times do you go to a pan Asian restaurant and need to make the painful sushi versus dim sum decision? At Fresh Side, you can do both! Together! And, somehow, it works! Fresh Side is the ultimate place to replenish your body after too many nights of all night coughing, all night studying or all night drinking. The Thai Salad with bean curd is another great bet. I am going to agree with other reviewers and suggest you pour their peanut sauce on absolutely everything. Tea rolls though. They deserve a Nobel prize for that one. For me, the ultimate let down of post college, post valley, working life is that, no matter how hard I look, I can never find a tea roll again. read more

Favorite place in Amherst, hands down. The first few times I went here I had no idea what to order (what's a tea roll?!) and wasn't in love with it, but I've since made my way through their entire menu. Once you discover your favorites, you'll be here daily. My favorites: any of the tea rolls, but especially the pad thai tea roll. I could eat 20 of those mofos. Ask for extra peanut sauce. Be advised that some of the tea rolls come hot and some of them come cold. I'm not sure the menu specifies. If that's something that matters to you, ask first. The shittake mushroom fried rice is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Get it with bean curd. Then also get the 8 treasure rice because it's so damn good. And then also get a seaweed salad and a Thai tea, hot or iced. Just in case I'm not making it clear how much I love this food: I once chose waiting for Fresh Side take out over catching the last bus home, and had to walk 2 miles home in the dark clutching my little bag of tea rolls and rice, and it was worth it. read more

fresh side, my love, when will you come to new york? the trifecta: thai iced tea + 8 treasure rice + pad thai tea rolls done and done. perfection... granted, not everything on the menu is as delicious as this and probably warrant the lesser reviews below. but if you stick with this, fresh side most definitely earns the 5 stars. plus the owner/manager guy who is always there looks like an elderly asian harry potter...swooooon read more

Fresh Side - 8 treasure rice + thai iced tea - Coffee & Tea Near Me - Amherst, Massachusetts

First time here with a friend for a late lunch. We opted to sit outside because it was so nice out. Downside to outside seating-tables are so close to each other. We could hear everything our neighbors were saying. Also-giant fern plants reaching their long fronds out to touch the back of every seat against the building. All I kept thinking was there had to be bugs coming from them onto me. Ick. Anyway we each order a tea roll and an entree. I also had the ginger honey iced tea and it was good. Not sweet at all with ginger shavings at the bottom. My tea roll and cold Thai noodle salad arrived together while my friend only received their tea roll to start. Sigh. Why would you bring an app and an entree to me all at once? The table barely had enough room to fit all these things. And on top of it, the salad was poorly plated. A rectangular dish topped super high with salad and chicken so any movement I made within the dish, forced a lot of greens and chicken to fall off onto the table. My spicy Thai chicken tea roll was good. Not spicy but good. The noodle salad while a disaster to try and eat, was very good. The fresh basil and scallions work really well with the light gingery vinaigrette dressing. While service could use an improvement as well as logistics of outdoor seating and meal plating, I was happy we chose to have lunch here and would definitely give it another whirl! read more

Fresh Side is consistently fantastic. They offer quality, healthy food at a fair price - it's one of the few nice yet casual places you can go and have a meal for two for under $20 each time. Two pretty hungry people can get their fill here and not have to shell out. Whenever I am in Noho I make a point to wander over to Amherst for my very favourite area fare! Being a vegan at Fresh Side is no problem - they have a delightfully broad selection of vegan treats to choose from, and I have always been satisfied with soups, salads, entrees, and tea rolls alike! My boyfriend, who is a meat eater, utterly adores the chicken pad thai; he once sent word to the chef, via our server, because his meal was so delicious. Needless to say, most sit-down joints would charge $10+ for a pad thai entree, where Fresh Side's chicken pad thai is $9ish. Not bad for great food! Finally, I highly recommend the MOCHI for a light dessert! The green tea and red bean mochi are authentically gooey, soft, and full of flavour! They are, of course, reasonably priced! read more

You see a film preview, full of atmospheric details and poignant master shots. You shell out to see the film, and are presented with removal of all color and soundtrack, and a narrative which neither ties itself off with a bow fulfilling its promises nor leaves you aching with unanswered questions. You leave the theater shrugging at the loss of an hour and a half that didn't even contain enough to spur an impassioned negative review. We've all done that. So you should get this: Slide into sparse setting, even lines, light, and palette, warming and cooling simultaneously, soothing the tongue for alimentation and conversation. Sweeping through the menu, a dilution of pan-asian cuisine turned light and bright will doubtlessly stir appetite and interest- you'll order while eyeing glistening desserts under the glass cabinet next to the cashier. You wait and wait. (Where are the cooks? Where is the staff?) Tea rolls arrive and prove less than half their description, lacking filling, flavor and 'freshness', wrappers too thick and dry, rice too plentiful and dry. Ok, ok, maybe it's an off day (repeat: one, two, three times and months apart, always the same). Curried noddle soup, curry noodles, where are you, curry? Where are you, vegetables promised to me? Tofu does not replace a lack of balance in texture, flavor, and overall missing content. Size does not make up for price of a glorified warmed can of coconut milk (then glorified warmed can of mushroom broth, then flavorless, misoless miso). Salads of various kinds- white white white iceberg lettuce is a bed for the same ingredients appearing in every soup and noodle dish: cucumber, carrot, bamboo shoots, scallion. Cucumber and carrot limp, canned bamboo shoots leaving that tin aftertaste, miso dressing with more oil than miso. Ok, bad choice, essentially a side salad, less than fresh, but restaurant business is business. Later: cold, oily congealed mass of noodles further redefines "fresh" and "salad", later: one sprig of mint, barely more than one crushed peanut added to the original equation, I give up. Fried rice? Guess the problems? General lack of content, engagement, freshness, moisture. (Note: After three strikes, fresh side is out. I'd only go back if someone paid for my meal, and I kept it to a sparse salad). read more

Love this place. Great tea rolls - my favorite is Spicy chicken. My favorite dish is Five Spice Beef Rice. It's a simple restaurant but comfortable. The servings are enough for 2 meals. read more

I am IN LOVE with Fresh Side, and many people I know are, too! The tea rolls, noodles, soups and salads are all so good. The food is really fresh, healthy, unique, and perfect for a quick meal. After going there once, probably you will be craving it again soon. The tea rolls are especially good-lots and lots of vegetarian choices, which is excellent. My top choices are the curry rolls, thai rolls, and pad thai rolls. I'm not alone in saying that I could eat here all the time :) read more

Fresh Side is pretty much the only place in the Valley to get a (decent) bowl of Five Spice Beef Noodle Soup, so for that I have to give it a lot of points. They also have a really good peanut noodle salad and their Thai iced tea is pretty amazing (despite being small and pricey, which actually isn't that bad until you consider the fact that it used to be much bigger and cheaper before they moved to the main street). Their Eight Treasure Rice (w/ tofu) is one of my favorite vegetarian dishes in Amherst in general despite the fact that I'm not vegetarian. What else? Hmm... I guess I should talk about the tea rolls. Tea rolls are basically kinda like Vietnamese spring rolls, except they're pretty creative and have tasty rolls like curried chicken rolls and black bean tofu rolls. They are simple but absolutely wonderful. Cheap (for smaller people who only need 2 to 4 to fill up; I do not recommend tea rolls for college munchies), too. The thing is that even though lots have changed, Amherst alumni still come back and go to Fresh Side every reunion or homecoming or whatever. And so far, seven years since I first went to Fresh Side, their quality is still pretty consistent and my friends and I still try to stop by every single time we're in town. (And if I was still dating my ex-girlfriend she'd make me bring back tea rolls every time I go to Amherst.) This is not only because their food is great but because Fresh Side is pretty much the least likely to be offensive option of dining in town: it's super vegetarian and vegan friendly, it's relatively cheap and it's not filled with drunk/high/loud people. So for me group meals tend to drift towards Fresh Side as a default. The service is not perfect, especially since it was perfect years ago. So, minus one star for that. In exchange though now the place is BYOB. Otherwise Fresh Side is a perfectly fine place to go to in Amherst and probably the best bet if you're meeting new people or taking some hippies out to dinner. read more

I have lately been awoken by restless dreams about pad thai tea rolls. Seriously? Yes, they are that delicious. Clearly, I need to be back in Amherst sometime soon! Despite the somewhat slow service, this is one of my most favorite restaurants in the world. Probably just nostalgia (and they do say absence makes the heart grow fonder) but I never miss it when I'm in the area. Fresh Side may or may not one day bring me back here singlehandedly...just to get my pad-thai-tea-roll-and-maybe-beef-pho-noodle-soup fix. Dangerous...but so worth it! read more

I didn't know what a tea roll was and I'll never have another one. Bleh. I'm also pretty sure the bottled water is just tap water- nice. read more

Delicious and extremely good entree dishes. I'd swing 4.5 for a few minor things, but that rounds up, so! The only weak spot was dessert, and the Vietnamese coffee wasn't great, but I suspect that's because we didn't like Vietnamese coffee, not because it was bad (it's coffee and condensed milk), though the coffee was just okay. But that's fine - their teas were fabulous which made up for it. After ordering an iced tea - I think some iced jasmine green with milk or something of the sort - to drink, we were off and onward to tea rolls and appetizers. We got the chicken tea roll with curry rice; the two-piece was definitely the right size to get for two people ordering two main dishes - they're pretty large. Ours was fresh and tasty, not extremely flavorful, but the sort of yummy serenity to the flavors made it seem just like a "tea roll." The wrapping almost seemed like a thin wheat tortilla but was quite good. I ordered the coconut rice curry with panko fish. The dish was wonderful, flavorful, and creamy without being overbearingly rich with the coconut sauce. The word "garden veggies" always makes me nervous, but the cabbage, carrots, and potatoes (weird, but great) it came with complimented the dish very nicely. I wonder if these change with the season and what they have in the kitchen. They were fresh and still crisp, not overcooked at all. The panko fish tasted very nice. The person I was with got the curry omelet fried rice. This was completely huge and so beautiful. The rice was very good for a fried rice (I'm not the biggest fried rice fan), and the apply curry sauce it's served with is wonderful in my opinion - like a curried, dark apple sauce. For dessert, I ordered a Thai tea (delicious as always, pretty standard), and we also ordered Vietnamese coffee and a piece of pomegranate cranberry cheesecake, which was just some really plain cheesecake in a graham cracker crust, I think, with some pomegranate syrup and dried cranberries on top. A little pathetic, but probably our mistake for ordering cheesecake here; it doesn't seem it would be their specialty. It was still edible and fine. No big thing. Just wouldn't get it again. As a note, we had tons of leftovers - we could have gotten another meal from both our entrees. read more

Fresh side has my favorite interpretation of Pad Thai with lots of fresh veggies and big portions (almost twice the size of what you get at Thai Corner). Let's be honest though, if you're coming here you can't leave without their signature Tea Rolls, with the Kimchi and Pad Thai tea rolls being personal favorites. Their drink selection is also excellent with a variety of original and delicious drinks. Fair warning: THEY NEVER REFILL YOUR WATER!!! read more

I returned for a weekend lunch. Oh, the curse of the second visit... First strike, the lunch menu was not offered on weekends. Second strike, I ordered a miso salad and the lettuce and was old and brown, the carrots were cooked? and the tomatoes taste like freezer burn. Only the tofu and turnip slices ? we're edible. Oh Amherst, when will you discover the virtues of quality control... Also I got an iced Moroccan mint tea which I'm not a huge fan of. Overall, overpriced and disappointing. read more

I like the T-rolls (spicy chicken and pad thai) the most. I've had the panko fish for which I liked the mushroom rice that came with it. The food is pretty simple, fresh, and unique. read more

I'm going with a 3.5 on this one. Despite living in the pioneer valley for about 3 years now, I'd never made it to Fresh Side before last weekend because no one seemed particularly wowed by it. -Tasty Thai Beef Basil tea rolls (~$4) but I could see how they'd be a bit bland without the peanut-hoisin sauce. A bit dry as well but the texture of the crunchy peanuts, fresh cabbage and beef was pretty great. -Bibim Noodle Salad (~$8.50)- Lots of fresh veggies on top as well as chicken. Could've used a bit more of the bibim sauce. It tastes fresh but again, I can see how people might say that it's a bit on the blander side. Pretty large portion though. -Pork Rib Udon ($9)- AMAZING DEAL. The menu said "pork rib" so I was expecting one rib but my udon soup (egg, shiitake mushrooms, napa cabbage, carrots, zucchini) came with FIVE ribs. They were tender, delicately spice, and delicious although a little fatty. But I didn't mind that. The udon soup had a nice hit of sour in the miso broth and lots of mushrooms, which I loved. The ribs don't really go that well with the soup but hey, it was like having two entrees. Pretty cool. So the food is fresh and the portions are larger than expected--both the bf and I had leftovers. Service was okay, nothing special. Great for a healthy, veggie-heavy meal! read more

Not that impressed with Fresh Side for the following reasons: - Service - Speed - Overall flavor A group of 6 of us came and were immediately informed that they would not be able to split the check whatsoever. Appreciate the heads up, but that doesn't mitigate the inconvenience. Service was sloOoOoOow. And then the food finally came and what should have been warm was cold, what should have been hot was SCALDING hot and burned my mouth, just mis-timed completely. I had the shrimp tea roll and it was COMPLETELY flavorless. The sauce it comes with was spicy but because the roll was totally bland all I could taste was spicy sauce. Not excited. The texture was good and my friend got the curry chicken which actually tasted good, so I guess you need to know the menu to score at Fresh Side. I also had the curried apple cinnamon chicken dish, and -- despite it being SO HOT I almost spit it out, the flavor was actually pretty good. Nothing to write home about, but good. I had the vodka ginger lemonade, it was great. Highlight of the meal. The check came, and we gave the waiter cash for some and the rest on one card. He said nope, needed to be all one form of payment! Never heard of such a thing. Really REALLY inconvenient for anyone other than couples in whom ONE person is paying for the entire meal. Seriously? I might come back to try the curry chicken tea roll, but that would be it. Not worth it for me. read more