Food is so good! And the portions & price are some of the best in the city. The workers there are also really nice. I've never ate in so I'm not sure how their service is but pickup is 10/10. read more

This Thai food restaurant has the best chicken cashew I've ever had. I've tried this plate at different restaurants but none tasted better to me than their way of making it. I usually get the chicken cashew with extra cashew. It's an extra charge but it's definitely worth it. The meal also comes with white rice which is a perfect mix. I definitely urge you to try this plate and tell me what you think. read more

It had been a while that I didn't stop by this Thai restaurant but recently went for their Lunch Special. The place is not "fancy" but who cares when the food/prices are decent. Their lunch special alone is pretty filling that by the time the main entree came out, I was pretty much filled with the soup and appetizer they give you. Although the pad thai is a bit more on the greasy side than I normally like, its still pretty darn good and you get a huge portion. If you believe in portion control like I do, you certainly will not finish the whole thing in one sitting. The only downside(s) was that the pad thai special does not include any meat to it...seems pretty petty to charge extra for tofu..chicken..etc.. why not just include it as part of the price? so that $6.95 becomes $7.95.. 2nd thing..seems there is only one waiter taking orders....very sweet man but when there is more than one table to tend to , the service suffers a tiny bit...longer wait times and noone else around to help. And finally, Im a big fan of Thai iced tea/coffee..but here it is SUPER sweet.. I had to water it down almost with one glass of water.. Despite the downsides, its still a good deal if you are in a pinch and want a filling meal. read more

I have been going to this restaurant since I was a kid and now I'm 32- they're the only Thai place that has Spicy Rice Namsod salad- a must! Fresh ginger crunchy stir fried rice and pork and a vibrant dressing... amazing. Also the chicken satay, and Tom Yum Kai soup is amazing- order it Medium The only downside is expect slow service and plan on ordering everything at once read more

This place has delicious food and I love the environment as well. Super traditional to the culture. The service of the waiter is exceptional. I would definitely recommend anyone in this area to try this place. You won't regretted read more

Stopped by Thai Valley when visiting a friend and was not disappointed by the tasty Pad Thai with Chicken; the sauce is the smoothest. My friends loved the Pad Woon Sen with lots of pork, shrimp, eggs and fish. They also tried the Panan with savory coconut sauce with red curry. I cannot miss the egg rolls which were packed with taste! Although I moved from the neighborhood, I make a point of stopping by when I am there. read more

First time here Had the fried rice, crab Ragoon and soup. Very surprised how delicious and fresh everything was. read more

I left a an extremely positive review about 4 weeks ago and expressed the hope that the recent surge in quality would continue. Not sure why it took so long but we did another takeout tonight and the food was again superb so you can consider us regular customers from this point on. We did the pad prik again along with the "tasty veggie "dish and both dishes were really memorable with wonderful sauces. Still not ready for dine in but takeout and delivery available. We are marginal vegans and eat virtually no meat and were reluctant to try the place because the menu makes it look like meat is unavoidable but in reality on almost every dish meat can be replaced with tofu or extra veggies. They should make that more clear. read more

This has always been my to-go-to place every time I am craving for Thai food. Price is reasonable with excellent taste of food.

I will never again set foot in this awful place. My husband and I used to get food there on an almost weekly basis. We loved it. Then one extremely cold, wintry day, we decided to grab a late dinner there. We called ahead and asked for two orders of pad si eiw for pickup. We were exhausted, got our food, paid, and left. We got home and realized that they had given us pad thai. This was not going to do. We were both craving pad si ew something fierce. I called them and told them what happened. They apologized and told us to bring the food back, and they'd replace it. We got all bundled up again and went back into the freezing cold. It was close to 10pm by now. We were frustrated because we were hungry, tired, and cold, but mistakes happen - we weren't upset with them - until they tried to charge us the difference between the pad thai and the pad si eiw! We're talking about $3 here. They f****d up our orders, we had to go back out into the freezing cold, and they want to charge us more?!! I politely disagreed with them at first, but then when the owner started yelling at us, that was the last straw. I told him I'd be sure to write a scathing review (too bad I'm a few months late), and he threw our food at us. Thank goodness that the food was already out of the kitchen, at least. Never again. I don't care if it's a mom and pop joint. If you feel like you can't afford to comp someone a measly $3.00 after you screwed up their order and inconvenienced them, you don't deserve to have good customers. read more

Seriously? I don't know whether you guys who gave this place better than 2 stars have had Thai food outside of Chicago (because so far Chicago thai restaurants are FAIL) but this half-assed garbage does not even rate. Ordered the tom ka, papaya salad, basil fried rice, and pad see ew. Tom ka we ordered with tofu but got it with chicken. Nothing special about it, tasted like they heated up a can of coconut milk and threw in some chicken. Papaya salad was actually decent, though nothing special. Basil fried rice...well I don't know how they can call this fried rice because there is nothing fried about it. I got some sad wilted basil leaves, mushy steak and a mess of bell peppers and onions (supposed to be hot peppers) over plain old steamed rice. Absolutely not fried rice by any stretch of the imagination. Even for what it was it sucked. Pad see ew- Yuck. A meager smattering of overcooked broccoli and dry chicken accompanied overcooked noodles that were baaaaaarely sauced and certainly not sauteed to a nice caramelized glaze like they're supposed to be. Tasted like they dunked old noodles back into tepid dirty water, chucked in old chicken and broccoli cooked yesterday and called it a day. We ordered take out and I guess if I had ever set foot in the place beforehand I would never have ordered from there in the first place...place smells of stale cigarettes and they have a TV blaring in the back while people in the front get to eat to it as background music. Yuck, just yuck. read more

love it the rice is always amazing always good service all the time and super amazing fast too great cooks

I'm Thai, and I'm not usually impressed with Thai food because frankly, anything most people make, my Grandma can make it better, or I can. However, I did really enjoy the food here at Thai Valley. It was very reasonably priced, and I really like sitting at the tables near the front window to watch people passing by. My reason for the -2 stars is the service. I've NEVER gotten good service here. I have always had to go and find my server to ask for anything. They bring you your food and then never come back, so be sure you order everything at once, or you'll be stuck searching for your waiter or waiting for 1/2 hour. I'd go back for the food and the prices, but already assuming that the service iwill be terrible. read more

This tastes like Thai food made by some guy who learned to make Thai food from a guy who learned to make Thai food from a guy that learned to make Thai food from a guy that visited Thailand once in 1972, Tried it out twice because I'm a glutton for punishment. The first time got some curry and the FRIED PAD SEE EWW!!! FRIED! I have been to a lot of Thai restaurants. Lots. It's a favorite ethnic go-to... Chicago has made me sad in this regard. Most places just don't cut it and all of these 'fusion' asian restaurants just spread the mediocrity around the various style so that they all just suck. But I digress: I have been to a lof of Thai restaurants and have never heard of this FRIED Pad See Ew. I mean, the dish is actually named "Fried with Soy Sauce", so FRIED Pad See Ew sounds redundant, but there it was next to regular Pad see Ew for a dollar up charge. Oh my, what a novelty. I could see myself buying this from a stand at some local festival while I watch toddlers scream for funnel cakes. Yet a novelty does not save a restaurant from its myriad other failures. First order was take-out. Ready in 30 minutes the fellow on the phone said. I headed over there and announced myself at about 25 minutes. It wasn't ready, but no worries, I'm 5 minutes early or so. Not sure why it takes THIRTY MINUTES to make Coconut Milk Soup and Curry that you already made hours ago and just have simmering on the pot waiting to throw in whatever meat I choose, but whatever. The inside of this place was odd. In the front near the windows facing the street was the dine in area, which seemed fine. But in the back sitting area which doubled as the waiting for pick-up area was a large TV. So if you were in the dine-in area, you got to hear it but not see it. Cozy. So when I got there, the TV was on number 15 of the countdown of the TOP TWENTY STUPID DAREDEVILS! Quality television for the discerning intellectual. Before my food was ready, I got to watch the rest of the show in its entirety. I was even prepared to get mad when I got to see the number 2 STUPIDEST DAREDEVIL but then get my food and leave, never knowing who had the dubious distinction of being number one. Because that's how it always works. Except this time. I got to finish the show. For anyone that's counting, this puts me in the restaurant for FORTY FIVE MINUTES. So what the guy on the phone really meant when he said 'ready in 30 minutes' was 'ready in an hour and ten minutes'. Anyway, took that home and had some bland Thai food, not at all inspiring. Sad sad sad. Except for the Fried Fried with Soy Sauce. That was fun. So why did I go a second time? Because the first time may have been a fluke. Head Chef might have been out sick that night or who knows?!? Yeah, lightning strikes TWICE! Bland, boring, not properly cooked, poor presentation. 'Fried rice' that was just white rice with sauteed vegetables thrown over it. The Tom Kha was OK, but how do you mess up Tom Kha? Anyway, sorry for you guys that think its great. I pray for your palette. read more

Believe me, I know how LUCKY I am to have this place in my neighborhood! Consistently good, fresh Thai food. The prices are so reasonable, it's unreal. I'm hungry now....must get Thai food from Thai Valley soooooon......!!! ***tummy rumbling*** read more

Always seemed empty inside and now I know why. 1) Smells like cat pee inside 2) Bad staff 3) Even worse food - the tom ka kai was actually inedible, weird thick consistency and intensely lemony (so much so that no other flavors came through). I will NEVER go back. Way too many other good Thai restaurants in the neighborhood to waste your money on this place. read more

I read reviews on this place before i walked in thinking everyone has their own taste buds and i would try this place out for myself since i dont live that far away. I walk into this place and there is not a single person to take my take out order. The i think owner finally gets up to take my order from watching iron man on tv off in the corner. I order chicken pad thai and spring rolls. I get home and the pad thai tastes like it sat underneath a heat lamp for an hour coming from a box at the grocery store. It was not true pad thai by any means. and if a thai food place cant get pad thai correct there is something really wrong. I open up my spring rolls thinking they can redeem themselves. and my spring roll looks like its sushi. It looked and tasted like it was wrapped in Styrofoam. It was awful. Please I want to let you know, if you like thai food you will want to go somewhere else. I wish i would have gone to mcdonalds right next door instead. I am not the one to really write extremely bad reviews because i understand small business's are trying to make it in corporate america, but do yourself a favor and go to a different small business in the area. read more

Last night I had an awesome meal here with one of my friends (his recommendation). BYOB was the theme of the night and this place fit the bill. We picked 6 cold Breckenridge Brewery bottles and headed to the restaurant. The place is very welcoming when you walk in with a good seating arrangement and plenty of tables. The staff was very friendly and we were seated and placed orders in quick fashion. The Lowdown: I live about 50 blocks from this place and I would return for the Yum Nue alone. It was excellent. If you' like the Tiger Cry at Opart then you will love this dish. I actually preferred it to Opart. We also had the Tom Yum soup; I know, Tom Yum big deal, everybody does it and 90% of the time it's good. I can honestly say this was a step above normal and they serve it in a heated container so it stays nice and hot. Finally, I had the red curry with duck and it was perfect. Nice and spicy; not over-sweetened and plenty of vegetables and rice. (I had enough left over for a full lunch the next day). Anyways, I've eaten at probably 15-20 thai eateries in Chicago and this one gets in to my top 3, easily. Try it out, you'll probably like it. read more

Mr T. used to come here often. I pity the fool who has never experienced a great value for tasty Thai food. Faves are: Beef Broccoli, Chicken Satay and Combo Fried Rice w/Roast Duck. There are only 3 1/2 people who work here: the owner, the cook, the cardboard cutout lady and the guy who does EVERYTHING else!! read more

Finally, a Thai restaurant without the punny name. It's not Thai One On, or Thai Me Up, just a nice bucolic "Thai Valley." A friend took me to lunch here and the first thing I noticed was the very clean and classy decor, and the real trailing plants nicely snaked around the windows. It's very comfortable and it instilled confidence in this new customer. After agonizing over the lunch special vs. the regular menus (lunch specials are $5.95 and three items are included.), we settled for a la carte. What is unusual about the lunch specials, though, is that $5.95 is a "base price" or "MSRP", and $1.00 more if you want meat or seafood. This is a little different from most lunch specials which include those. We settled on Basil Leaves over rice with chicken, and Noodle kee Mow with Beef. And at the last minute, we threw in some Crab Cream Cheese appetizers. Those were a little cold upon arrival and just OK. The entrees were excellent ,and the layers of flavors done very well, with the heat at medium, as requested. The beef dish had the perfect mix of sweet and hot. Portions were moderate. The thing which impressed me most was our server's hair. He was a latino chap with the smoothest hair I'd ever seen. And this on the heel of watching the original Star Trek re-runs and thinking: "Geez, these guys all have such smooth shiny hair. How did they do that?" And boom, right there at the Thai Chuck Wagon was a nicely dressed guy with a Spock Pompadour. I wondered if he had been beamed down. The food really impressed me, but the hairdo blew me away. And the service was, well, sufficiently Thai. Check out the lunch specials here, though. They have some interesting combinations. But remember to bring your extra $1.00 if you're a meat-eater. I would definitely come back here to the Smooth Do Thai Palace. (I need a damn haircut!) read more

two words: LUNCH SPECIALS I've been going here for years , usually for the lunch specials. So much food is given when you get their lunch specials. I usually get the pad thai lunch special, which also comes with a bowl of tom yum soup and vegetable tempura. I am always so full when I leave, and I always have money left over. The lunch specials are under $7! I love their pad thai; noodles are always cooked nicely. Their portions are large too. I also recommend getting the crab rangoons. They're always so crispy and with the right amount of filling. No frills here. Don't expect top-notch customer service, but know they try their best. You walk in, choose your place to sit, and if the waiter is a bit busy, you can always grab a couple menus at the front desk yourself. Everyone is really friendly! If I'm starving and craving great food for reasonable prices, I never go wrong by going here. read more

I'm sure they can care less about reviews so I won't go there with how they need to hire more staff. No I think I'll go there! Owner lets one man bus/wait the entire restaurant making you wait ridiculously long for your order, your food, and your check. I love their food but their service needs a lot of work. I despise going there during lunch because my entire stay takes an hour and a half just to eat pad Thai and an egg roll. Insane. I don't have that much time during lunch! Back to food. Soup is awesome. Never had anything like it. Hot sauce is unique with a Spanish (sofrito) flavor. Try their crispy padsee eww. Very nice and crispy. read more

Wonderful food! Consistently the best Thai food for over 20 years!

Daughter had Pad Thai. Had no taste. None. Almost no chicken. I had Pad Kee Mao(sic). Awful, burnt, licorice taste. Greasy and just yuck. Same problem with the chicken. Almost none. Spring Rolls were awful, too. How do you mess up Spring Rolls? I don't give out bad reviews easily and only when warranted. I love Thai Food and this was just bad. read more

Got takeout from here several months ago when we first moved to Albany Park. Eh......it wasn't great. Maybe I'm spoiled, having lived in Lincoln Square and having eaten nothing but Spoon and Opart Thai House for 2 years, but I wasn't impressed with Thai Valley. Maybe the pad thai is spiced to match traditional Thai tastes, but it didn't taste good to me. I also had a slight tummy ache afterwards. There's got to be better Thai in Albany Park........has anybody found it? read more

The fried rice combo from this place is to dieeeee for. Been going to this place ever since I was a kid and it's by far my favorite place to get fried rice. read more

Is there a menu here? Because all I ever get is the same darn thing! I can't break away from my addiction...which is the Spicy Tofu Pad YUMMY! The staff is so nice, food is great, and portions are generous. I usually can split it in half and have lunch the next day. I have seen signs there that they have a lunch special during the week. One day I will venture over there midweek and give that a whirl. read more

I live around the corner from Thai Valley, so when I first moved here, I was a regular. I think the red curry with chicken and panang curry are quite good. You can't beat the crab rangoons...very tasty. I prefer not to eat in the dining room, usually opting for take out. I just can't get into the decor, and the table service leaves a bit to be desired. Otherwise, I will always be a Thai Valley customer. Great prices, too! read more

This place is a hidden gem. I would go there literally every weekend when I lived in Chicago. Fairly affordable price, especially their lunch special, and the portion is HUGE. Satay was my favorite from this place--tender marinated chicken, skewered and charcoal-broiled, served with peanut sauce & cucumber salad. You get to pick your own choice of fried rice as well. I would always go with beef fried rice. Sooooo good. Now I miss this place. I discovered I had a huge appetite Thai food when I first checked out this place about 5 years ago. Just try it, you won't regret it. P.S. : The only thing was I could never get used to their appetizer soup though. I don't know what it's called but I was never a big fan of it. read more

Every Sunday my death metal band and I go to Thai Valley to get sweaty with hot peppers. Some weeks the food comes out fresh and fast, other weeks, we have to wait 25 minutes just to get our orders in. The speed of the service doesn't seem at all correlated with the number of customers though. Sometimes it's jam packed and we get great service. Other times, we're the only ones there and end up having stomach growling contests before we even get to speak to the waiter. When I say 'the waiter' I really mean, the one and only waiter. Again, regardless of how busy the place is, it's always just this one guy! I don't get it! The food itself is also hit or miss, but for $6, the lunch special (soup, appetizer and entre) never fails to satisfy. They've always been good with special requests and made me suffer (in a good way) once when I mentioned that their 'hot' wasn't hot enough the previous time. All in all, I like the tradition of coming to this place but in the grand scheme of Thai restaurants, it's Thai Valley only shines with three stars. read more

This place is a hidden gem! The food is super tasty, I love how quiet and cozy it is. The waiter is very nice and is always checking up on his customers. This place is always a go for me and my boyfriend's date night. There is never a wait and overall is great service. I drive 45 minutes away from home just to have my favorite Thai food. read more

I love this place so much!! It has the best shrimp fried rice in all of Chicago. The prices are affordable and the workers are so sweet and accommodating. I definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a new place to try! read more

I haven't been here in awhile, but I used to frequent this place quite a bit. I'm fairly boring and tend to stick with beef friend rice, which is nothing to write home about. The crab rangoon, pot stickers and egg rolls are delish, and plenty enough for two people. I did try to Lard Nar once and it was really watery. I wouldn't get that again. read more

I'm a fan of cripst pad see ew, and this place doesn't disappoint. I order here once in a while when I do get the urge to eat. I have only eaten here once and I carry out mostly, the carry out times are mostly on point. I've never showed up and my food isn't ready. The family that owns this place is super nice, and whenever I order they throw in free cokes! The basil chicken is made to order to be mild or super spicy and you can get it made from ground chicken or just chicken pieces. The crispy pad see ew is made to perfection! One of the best that I have had. I would get it everytime, and probably will from now on. The pad thai is very good as well. I would also suggest the shrimp friend rice! I actually don't like friend rice but this I would make an exception for. It's an authentic, family owned, thai restaurant. Can't get better than that. read more

My family and I have been ordering takeout from them for years. Easily the best Thai restaurant in the neighborhood. Ordering doesn't take too long and you get A LOT of food for your order. read more

Stopped in here on sunday night to get some take out and it took FORTY minutes. I amused myself by watching the discovery channel in back, but still. come on! that said, the man who took my order was very polite and offered me some free soda for my troubles. and the satay was really, really tasty. some of the best i've ever had. but their pad si ewe was nothing to write home about. I may give it one more shot, but my first experiece was obviously not all that. read more

Ok, ...a lot of people seem to like this place, but we weren't so excited by it, so I'll share our experience. I tried the "crispy" Pad See-Ew based on some yelper's opinions of it. Not knocking their love of it. But I personally found it horrible. So bad I didn't eat it. Let me preface this with the fact that I love deep fried things. I don't dab the grease of my pizza with a napkin, I'll eat an entire funnel cake by myself, I think deep fried twinkies are amazing. But this crispy Pad See-Ew was yucky. Each of the noodles are deep fried, in theory this sounds wonderful. In practice, I think their oil was about 100 degrees too cold. Those noodles soaked up so much oil.... when you bit into the noodle you got a mouth full of oil. Also, the "rest" of the dish tasted like it had no sauce. So it was deep fried noodles with tofu and egg...and it tasted like deep fried noodles, with plain tofu and plain egg. My husband got the pepper and garlic tofu. He also was unimpressed, he added a bunch of crap from around the house and made it tolerable for himself, but we both looked at each other and decided we never needed to try this place again. We tried to get the pot stickers, but they either don't make or were out of veggie ones. So we got the spring rolls. I didn't have any major complaints about them but my husband thought they weren't good, so I guess it worked out well. I ate the spring rolls for dinner because mine was awful, and he ate his doctored pepper and garlic tofu. If you're thinking about trying this place for the first time, maybe don't try these items... I bet the WHOLE menu isn't awful, but our opinion of these were so poor, we don't feel the need to (potentially) waste more money trying. read more

I've been here several times and the food is always delicious and the people who work here are great. Never have disappointed me. I've been to so many Thai restaurants and they're my #1 spot when it comes to the chicken pad Thai. Did I mention they have mouth watering shrimp rolls? Great place quiet and very clean! read more

We ordered from this place a couple weeks ago. I really wanted to like it because they deliver to my place and we don't have many Thai delivery options in the area. We ordered basil chicken, the bass and pad thai. The basil chicken was really good. No complaints there. Now the pad thai....actually I don't think I can even call it pad thai. It was a different type of noodle from what I've ever experienced and there was no taste at all. I thought maybe they forgot to add seasonings to it and just gave us the cooked noodles. There is no way that was pad thai. It was so bad we didn't even eat it. The bass was pretty gross. They serve it whole, which doesn't scare me. My family eats whole fish all the time, with head, tail and all. The problem here is that they did not scale it well. All the scales were left on the tail, head and sides of the fish. I know it's deep fried, so maybe that doesn't matter, but who wants to eat fish with scales on it? The taste was ok, I've had much better. It did come with a nice garlic sauce. I don't think I'll give this place another try. My boyfriend and I are really particular with Thai food since it's one of our favs and this place just didn't do it for us. Lately it's been Dharma Garden or pick up at Sticky Rice. read more

The food here is super-tasty. I particularly like their Thom Ka Gai and their curries. Their Tod Mun and -of course- Pad Thai are excellent. Owner is a wonderful man! And the prices are VERY reasonable! If you are on a budget and want some tasty Thai food, don't miss Thai Valley! Have some excellent lunch deals, too. Pleasant interior and generally good service, although since it is a small place there is some waiting at peak times. read more