I am constantly amazed at how different cuisines are when demonstrated on two sides of the United States. The food here was good, but it seemed to be missing some of that Thai pizazz the West coast so easily represents. We sat in the back, on the tranquil patio before all the other diners arrived, and the views of the sunlight trees swaying over the parking lot was picturesque and soothing. It reminded me of Napa Valley's onset of commercialism. The little plug-in radio was tuned to static, but after adjusting it to a nice classical jazz station, hubby and I felt like we had aged 40 years and were rich and retired, enjoying our own dinner on our private balcony overlooking mere mortals. THe food was fine, just not spicy enough. All of the serving dishes are in these irregular shapes, and kept me entertained while I guzzled my German wine. I left full, which was nice, and left the loser vegetables in my curry bowl. No eggplant for me, thank you! read more

My benchmark for Thai food is usually either pad thai or pineapple fried rice. The pad Thai at Patou is pretty good. It's been a long time since I have had great Pad Thai so I am really excited Patou is not too far from home. Their pineapple fried rice is good too, but it didn't have raisins and was instead topped with dried shredded pork. I didn't really like the addition of the shredded pork as I don't typically like that stuff, but you might. Looks like a bunch of hair or ear wax to me hehe. But everything else I have had here is pretty good. My work uses this place a lot for functions and recently, we had another dinner there. The owner of the restaurant called my boss from Thailand (!!!) just to make sure that everything was all set for the event. My boss was thoroughly impressed by this customer service and so am I. I am so glad I discovered Patou through work and I will definitely be back for more. Try sitting on the back patio for a nice romantic, quiet dinner. There is also free 2 hour parking in the rear lot which is a bonus! read more

Maybe judging a place by its takeout is not really the best way to gauge a restaurant, but the take out from Patou Thai was very so-so. We ordered 5 plates in total, including the pad thai (fair to good), wide rice noodles (fair), fried rice (good) and a strange spicy pork dish (not ordering that again). I like some of the other Cambridge/Arlington Thai places a bit better. In its defense, despite its central location, Patou has a large seating area and convenient parking lot behind it. The decor is sparse but clean, and there are privacy barriers which jut out from wall corners to make it a little more intimate feeling. They even have some outdoor tables in the back as well. The prices are very reasonable.. The service was friendly but plodding, and some of the workers don't speak much English. read more

After two+ years of living in Belmont, we ventured on to the "other" Thai restaurant (we live close to Pho & Thai and are used to ordering from them) and were very pleasantly surprised. We only got takeout: Country Style Chicken Basil (as per a fellow Yelper's review), rice and Pad Thai with shrimp. The food was fresh and very delicious. The chicken dish was pretty spicy, but very tasty nonetheless. It did not come with rice, so it had to be ordered separately. As I walked into the restaurant, I was so pleasantly surprised by the decor. It was not kitschy as some Thai restaurants can be. I was told that weather permitting, they have outdoor patio seating as well. Patou Thai is Zagat rated (2011-2012). We will definitely be back. read more

The chicken hot basil was delicious. It was flavorful and the heat of the spice was great. It left a lingering sting. The interior is contemporary and flows well. They did a great job with layout dealing with a front and rear entrance (unlike another restaurant in the same block). The staff is very friendly and welcoming. The downside is the price. I had this for lunch at $9 and change and it really wasn't much chicken. If there was more chicken or the price was lower I would consider going more frequently. At this point I'll only go if its convenient. read more

Just like the rest of the comments on here, this place is a must visit if you happen to be residing or passing through Belmont center. The price is extremely well for the quality of food you will receive. My favorites include Short Ribs (Very Tender, and a must have), Savory Noodles, Pad Thai, Beef Panang and lots more. Everyone working there are extremely friendly and welcoming, the atmosphere is quiet and relaxing. A lot of people order for take out also, but i would much rather sit in. If you've already read most of these reviews, you owe yourself to at least try once, trust me you'll get hooked. "Dan's the man" read more

Patou is still my favorite thai restaurant by far. Came here last night when friends from another towns; and they loved it! We tried spicy mussels for the first time, and it was delicious. read more

Very impressed with the food at Patou. We ordered the garden roll and chicken wings as appetizers- the garden roll was fresh and very tasty and the chicken wings were cooked to my wife's liking! Very crispy as we requested! For an the main course, we ordered the yellow curry dish with chicken. Again full of flavor and perfect portion size for 2. I would recommend this restaurant for some good Thai food in Belmont. read more

Came here on a first date and it was a perfect choice: white table cloths, quiet (on a Saturday night), and great menu choices. I had the yellow chicken curry with white rice, and it was perfectly done and very tasty, although I'd have liked a bit more rice (which is not included with the dish, but the prices are reasonable). I don't have a lot to say, but just wanted to give this place a good rating and look forward to coming back and trying their other dishes. read more

This restaurant is getting the Chicago Bears 3-star review. A couple of years ago, the Bears had an awesome defense, and they were spectacular on special teams. By doing all the OTHER things right, they managed to be an A-ok team despite the fact that they weren't very good at the most important thing in football, Scoring touchdowns. Patou is sorta like that. We took some French people there last night, and Patou did a solid job on defense and special teams..... the service was excellent, the table they sat us at was very neat, with a glass top and a bunch of very intricate hardwood carvings underneath. We didn't have to wait, the wine was good. The only trouble was that the actual food we were served was just ok. Mediocre. I had the Siam BBQ chicken, and it tasted like I was at a wedding or something. My wife had the Masaman Curry, and she said the same thing I did. Meh. None of the French finished their meals. read more

Patou Thai has been my restaurant of choice in Belmont Center since it opened. Dan and his staff offer the freshest ingredients and top-notch friendly service. The lunch and dinner selections are broad, and consistently prepared with the highest quality food and great care. If you're looking for a great lunch, try the lunch special, which includes two appetizers, plus soup or salad and a delicious entrée. The atmosphere is peaceful and beautiful as well. All around, Patou Thai is one of my favorite restaurants for the food, great service and lovely ambience. read more

Patou is a wonderful restaurant. The owner Dan, along with his staff, are the nicest people. The food is delicious and there is a lot to choose from. The decor is lovely. They have a nice wine selection. They have indoor and outdoor dining. They cater to allergies like gluten free. There is plenty of parking, and Belmont Center, with its little shops, is a lovely spot to take a walk through. If you are looking for great Thai, and a nice atmosphere and overall experience, you have it here at Patou. read more

we visited because a friend wanted to meet there on a weekly basis for a short period of time. I guess he got the idea that it was fantastic. and it was. pad Thai was great. other noodle dishes were spectacular, but something was missing to make it a five star. perhaps the ambiance was lacking, or that things just weren't entirely all that special. read more

Authentic with great flavors. My favorite dish is the Salmon Pad cha, notably one of the spiciest things on the menu. This is a great place to sit down and enjoy a nice meal. Its not fast food so if you're in a rush takeout better option. Staff is awesome too! Thank you for bringing great Thai food to Belmont area! read more

There were so many mixed reviews on this place, I wanted to give it a try. I went there for lunch and ordered my 2 favorite foods: eggplant and scallops. First off, no one working in this place greets you or expresses any sort of smile. For me, this is mistake number one. The second mistake was giving me food that was down right bland. How could this happen at a Thai restaurant. I told my waiter and he just said there were levels of spiciness for each meal that are listed on the menu. Anyway, I had to ask for the red pepper sauce to add to my bland meal. The eggplant was properly cooked and the scallops looked slightly under done. Also, the portion size of the meal minus the rice was extremely small and I am not a big portion eater. This is a large restaurant that has been open for 10 years. Obviously, someone loves it, but it is not me. Too many other restaurants around that are much better. I think what attracts people to this place are the lunch prices. Anyway, move on people. I'll continue to go to Lana Thai in Woburn. Way better food. read more

Came in for a late lunch around 2:30. Was the only one dinning in. Waited about 5 mins before getting seated. They had a special for $13 for 2 app option, soup/salad and a entree. So I went with that with wings and beef satay, papaya salad and pad Thai. Not bad for the price and what you get but the wings were so over done that you can tell that it's been cooked more than once. Pad Thai was decent and plentiful. My only gripe is that they need to turn on the AC on a 90 degree weather like today. Overall the service is okay. I wouldn't expect anything amazing. read more

Dependably good Thai food served in a quiet, elegant atmosphere. This is a Belmont Center institution. I have eaten here or ordered out maybe 40 times over the last ten years, and I've never had a bad meal. We love their appetizers -- their chicken wings especially. We usually order appetizers plus an order of pad thai and that makes a decent meal. The staff is friendly, low-key, and attentive. Surprisingly kid-friendly-- paper tablecloths and gel pens are standard issue. Beer and wine available. read more

Excellent food. The staff is friendly and quick. They also are rather patient, even when your party is a bit boisterous

My new obsession is the Tom Yum Noodle Soup - subtly hot, sour, salty, and sweet, and worth ordering in the middle of summer. Tiny but pleasant patio seating in warm weather. read more

If there were a zero-star option, that is what I would give it. Place was not full, but waitstaff ran around like headless chickens and acted like they were doing me a favor by seating me. The appetizers and soup accompanying the "special" lunch were both insultingly dinky and flavorless.. main dish pad thai was edible but not good. Waiter basically simultaneously shoved/dropped it in front of me. On top of all of the foregoing, "service" was painfully slow, with waiter whining about how the owner was on vacation. Awful in every respect. read more

When you ask if something can be made gluten free, and request gluten free, it better damn be gluten free. No respect for the health and welfare of their customers. Two bites of a $23.01 order and it was a wrap. Never again. read more

If you enjoy awkward service and average Thai, I'd recommend Patou in a heartbeat. We were sat in the back of the restaurant, which was empty and freezing. It took almost 10 minutes for anyone to realize we were there, and when they finally took our order we were surprised to find out that rice doesn't come with any of the dishes - it's a dollar more. Not that it breaks the bank or anything, but I've never heard of a Thai restaurant charging for white rice on main dishes. Maybe they do things differently in New England. Dishes arrived hot but after a minute or so they quickly cooled down in the freezing room. Not that it mattered much - our food was extremely spicy. We love spice, so it didn't bother us too much, but I feel the best Thai dishes incorporate more flavor vs heat. Overall we were dying to get out of there. The service was really slow for a place that only has three tables full in the middle of peak dining hours, and it kind of bums me out that we spent $40 for two sub-par entrees. Lesson learned! read more

I have been a customer of this restaurant for a decade. My favorite dish has been "Tom Yum Noodle (not soup)!" It's so flavorful! You must try it! read more

We've been looking for a Thai restaurant to call home after our favorite, Sala Thai in Arlington Heights, closed this past fall. We've tried several in Arlington and Lexington, and all have been just ok--nothing special. When we walked into Patou this evening, we were very impressed with the decor, as many of the other reviewers have commented upon. A leggy, 12-year-old-looking girl greeted us after we waited around the lobby area for roughly 5 mins and took us to a table. We sat down, made our menu selections, and proceeded to wait for a waitress to come by to greet us, bring us (tap) water, and perhaps even take our order. We waited, and waited, and waited. I tried to catch the waitress' eye and even wave down the 12-year-old (who was too busy prancing about the restaurant looking pretty) to let people know we were there (sitting at the window, no less), but to no avail. After 15 minutes, my husband and I got fed up, as we didn't want to sit around and wait perhaps even longer for the food to arrive. At this rate, we might not have made it out in under 3 hrs--too long for a weeknight meal! Unfortunately, we didn't wait around long enough to place our order or taste the food. So, they get a one-star for abysmal service and not making it worth our wait. Lucky for us, we discovered Stone Hearth Pizza, just a couple of doors down, which is our new favorite pizza place! read more

This IS the best restaurant in Belmont. Beautifully and serene interior decoration. Elegantly set tables. The food however is superb - and freshly prepared - hence the wait of a few minutes, mentioned by other reviewers, before it is served! Good food doesn't come with junk food speed! I wouldn't order Pad Thai when there are far more exciting and unusual dishes on offer - ones hard to find elsewhere. Papaya salad, short ribs, both Mussels preparations, Red snapper, the Salmon dishes - are our favorites - outstanding and elegantly presented and a riot of fresh flavors. We usually order the inexpensive and very nice glasses of house red to go with our meal. Easy parking behind Macy's. Super place for a dinner for two or for a family celebration! Head and shoulders above Kahish (the Indian down the street - and I'm Indian) or any other Belmont restaurant - and we've been to most. read more

The chicken pad Thai was fantastic! The best of any I've had in the Greater Boston area. The service was prompt and the waiters were contagiously happy. The atmosphere is fairly good, although slow jams on the saxophone is never bad music to have at a restaurant, I was hoping for something more authentic. The location is great, there are plenty of nearby shops and parking wasn't too bad. Surprisingly there weren't many other patrons, but I was dining on a Saturday for lunch, and a filling lunch it was at a fair price ($9 for pad Thai). read more

Absolutely Ridiculous. Walked in with no staff to seat us down with rarely any customers in the restaurant. Took the waiter 15 minutes to come take our order. It was also extremely slow for them to prepare the food with one or two tables having people. By the time I got my Pad Thai, the table next to us (who arrived at about the same time) has already finished their food and left for a while. When I checked with the waiter for the food, she simply said "it's coming" and left. I got my food about 10 minutes after she said the food is coming. Here is where it gets even more absurd. A relatively large piece of metal scrub (about 2 inches and an inch thick) was in the food. I did not realize that after I spit the food out. We waited, again, for the waiter to come out of the kitchen to tell her about the metal scrub. She quickly took away the metal scrub and went back into the kitchen and indicated that the dish was on the house, nothing else. Overall, the service was poor (very very slow) and it was dangerous to consume their food. Would not recommend this place. read more

Open at 11:30 (as all good lunch restaurants should be), Patou Thai is a lovely newish Thai place in Belmont, which is always wont for good restaurants. Very handsomely appointed, a bit more formal than an average neighborhood Thai place. I had the Pad Thai with tofu (no shrimp) and it was one of the better versions I've had in the Boston area. My dining partners had the Lemon Thai Chicken and a pineapple chicken dish, both which looked very appealing and with which they were happy. All the ingredients used were fresh, and the food was neither bland nor overly spiced in all directions (like a number of other local places I can think of). Prices for lunch were very reasonable for the quality. Not "The Best Thai in the World" but a solid addition to Belmont Center. read more

I have eaten there a couple of times, and I am very impressed. The last time I was there, I ordered some special that still makes my mouth water just to think about it. The decor is beautiful, especially some of the tables. The food is absolutely delicious. And the service is very good, as well! A win all around. read more

I went with BFF yesterday for lunch and wasn't impressed at all. The siam rolls were EXTREMELY greasy and overpriced. The Tom Yum's broth wasn't as rich as I'm used to. Also, there were no sauces, condiments on any of the tables, which I thought a bit odd for a Thai place. My companion's food was super salty (beef and broccoli). Service was slow. Go down the road to Pho and Thai for a tastier experience. read more

We decided to try Patou after looking at the Zagat ratings and all the positive reviews on Yelp. We are vegetarians and hence ordered from the Vegetarian corner. The food was horribly bad and the quantity was extremely less. The red curry had only the sauce in it and very few vegetables. The noodles dish looked like it was an appetizer and not an entree. Another vegetable dish that we ordered had no flavor it - looked like it was diluted soy sauce mixed with vegetables. Never would recommend and never would go there again. read more

We have been here so many times, and never had a bad experience. I work down the street and come here a few times a month for lunch. I've come for dinner with friends and for date night with my boyfriend a number of times. The atmosphere is nice, the staff has always been friendly and very attentive. The food is always fresh and delicious. There are a few differences between lunch and dinner. Lunch portions come with rice, dinner portions do not (its costs a little extra) and there is a slightly different dinner menu. Our favorite lunch dish is the savory noodles, really wide rice noodles, with lots of fresh basil and sauteed bell peppers with ground chicken in an amazing spicy sauce. It's so good...but you have to like spicy food to handle this one...some days it can make you sweat! Our favorite dinner dish is very similar to the savory noodles, called Country Style Chicken Basil. We usually order it with brown rice. Again it varies but it can be very spicy! I also highly recommend the fresh spring rolls! Those are our personal favorites, but so far we haven't tried anything we haven't liked. read more

Not impressed. I just ate there today (10/9/13) for lunch. I ordered a duck dish, because well, I love duck. Big disappointment. I has four pieces of duck on my plate, and two of them were nothing but bone, fat, and gristle. The other two were thin backstrips. Seems incredible, but I imagined them giving me left over duck parts after someone picked a bird clean. The spice of the dish was right, but sheesh, how about paying attention to water glass levels folks. Never got a refill, never saw the waitress until I threw a 20 on the table. Then they mistakenly gave the table next to me my change. Not a good experience folks. I live in Belmont and like to support our local establishments, but not too sure about this one. I will give it one more try in a week or two and do an update. Foodie Dave read more