Crap just crap Everything disappointing Chicken satay half the size and flavorless/burnt wit an extra weird flavor, not to mention the peanut sauce old and congealed. Brown rice that was ordered burnt and dry, I tried the Pumpkin Curry ....BLAND...I'm not sure if I know if I want to try the corn fritters don't even think I want to try them yet so have fun for 12am Thai food. I guess it's okay but I'll never again. It'll be pizza. Crap just crap. read more

I meant to order from a different Thai place and accidentally ordered here, so I thought I'd try it. I regret everything. Never again. The chef and the counter guy weren't wearing masks at all. And the counter guy was hella creepy, he kept calling me babe and saying I was beautiful. I didn't come to get hit on. Then I got home and tried the food. Even the white rice was bad like it was made with too much water. The yellow curry was not spicy at all and the Thai tea was too sweet. I won't make the mistake of ordering takeout here again. read more

In what can only be described as a scary drive to this restaurant, where Fred assured me "it's okay, those guys on the street corner staring into your car won't jump us cause there are 3 of us here" I wondered how this place exists. Maybe coming here during the light of day would have been a different experience altogether. It's a cute place in a homey sort of way. Where you grab a seat and the kids' of the owner is at the table next to you drinking thai ice tea and doing her math homework. Typical Thai menu broken out by meats. I got the Spicy pork with string beans and also shared in my sisters coconut chicken curry and Fred's crystal noodle salad. The food was all pretty tasty though I especially liked the brown rice. (Is it weird to remember the rice at a restaurant?). If I were to return (and it's a big if cause there's no shortage of good Thai restaurants in less dark dead end streets) I'll probably get a curry dish. read more

Lost in an industrial part of town is a little hole in the wall with a super genuine chef and server. Its very unassuming and honestly in a little sketchy area but it's well worth the trip. We ordered the garlic chicken wings, panang curry, pad see ew, pad thai noodles, and gai yang (bbq chicken). All we pretty good but the chicken wings were definitely worth a third order. The chef and server were extremely kind and genuine. Besides the good food and warm ambiance, they made the experience feel like I was eating at a friends house and their mom making us our favorite dishes. I'll be back, and bringing more friends when I'm in town read more

I really do feel bad for giving this rating. I'm reviewing mainly for the delivery portion. I ordered something at 7:42pm, and didn't hear from them until 9:24pm to say that they've arrived with the order. I would have totally appreciated a call or something from them to say they were running really late or whatever. I tried more than a few times to give them a call, but the mailbox is full. Had I received a call sooner, then I wouldn't have cancelled my order. The man on the phone sounded like a very nice person. I'm sure with the invention of the online ordering systems, there must be a large volume. However, it really would have been fine to call and say that they're running late. I don't think I'll ever be ordering or visiting this establishment. read more

I been going here for years the food is great! My favorite is the Salmon in the Coconut Curry. read more

Sooooo nasty disgusting my food didn't smell fresh it smelled spoiled or old. The smell was disgusting ommmg don't go here. Doordash needs to take this off their options. read more

I used to eat here YEARS ago. This is such a disappointment. I threw the rice out and made my own. I smelled strange and looked like a mix of what was at the very bottom of a rice cooker mixed in with rice cooked in a bit too much water. The Tom Kha Gai was not spicy at all, EXTREMELY watered down. You only know there is coconut milk because it's not clear. It is primarily ONIONS with some chicken and 4 mushrooms. I honestly want my money back! 10.00 for this thin mildly flavored soup!! read more

The Vulcan Cafe - Tom Kha Gai - Thai Near Me - Oakland, California

Ordered pad Thai and beef with brocolli. The pad Thai was a singular clump of soggy noodles that were burnt on the bottom. Worst $30 I spent in quite some time. The beef was okay but there it was a small portion for the price. read more

As much as I would like to sympathize with the guy working there, the food was straight up horrible. No taste. And look what i Found in my fried rice. read more

The Vulcan Cafe - Ps its a piece of steel scrub. - Thai Near Me - Oakland, California

Great spot. Love the Larb Gai. Staff is always friendly, the owner is usually there taking your order and cooking the food.

Garbage. Delivery order more than half wrong. Nothing tasted even remotely correct. Paid way too much for a now full trash can.

One of the most disappointing Thai food experience I've ever had. We ordered through Door Dash but the problem wasn't that it was delivery. The green curry was very watery and almost tasteless. The pad thai used spaghetti noodles, not traditional noodles and it was sweet and sticky. Never again. read more

Friendly staff, delicious food! They remember (masked) customers' faces! Everything is fairly priced and comes in large portions.

Cozy and cute place. Owners so nice and the food was really good. Please don't judge the book by its cover. read more

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DoorDash order on 5/22 Order shrimp pad Thai, shrimp tasted spoiled and smelled bad. The mango sticky rice dessert was hard and not fresh. Very disappointing, definitely will not be ordering from this place again! read more

Ordered crab fried rice and there was barely any crab on it and not to mention anything else that was in the rice. It tasted bland because of the lack of ingredients used. Really felt like they just put one egg and a teaspoon of crab in the mix. Pretty disappointed. read more

Disgusting. No idea how this place is open for business. Flies buzzing in the dining area, it looks like the employees live in the camper in the parking lot. Maybe this place survives on takeout. I can't imagine anybody sees this place and willingly eats there. read more

Please do not order from here. The pad Thai was awful and even worse, it smelled awful. I literally couldn't eat it. I called to speak to the manager, she was completely unprofessional. She said something was wrong with me, don't call back, and hung up on me. She also blamed "beyond menu" and said it was because I ordered through them. I will never to here again and I'd suggest you don't either read more

The food wasn't so great. We ordered two mango and sticky rice. Which took about 25 minutes. Also the mangoes were dark and bruised. When we were finished we had to yell to get someone's attention so we could pay and leave. The lights weren't on and the place looked eerie. read more

I decided to try this place out because I bought a Groupon. We had the vegetarian egg rolls for an appetizer. The sauce with them was really good. The actual egg rolls were good but are made a small step up from frozen ones. I had the pad Thai with shrimp. They sauce flavor was great and the shrimp was cooked perfectly. However, the waiter had his finger in my chopped peanuts when he carried the plate over to me and the eggs in the pad Thai were over cooked and tough. My boyfriend had the tofu curry. All of the veggies were under cooked. I won't be eating here again. read more

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Ordered when I was craving pad Thai. Order didn't take too long, the pad Thai was very good, only complaint is that you can't order two meats online other than that no other complaints. Also order mango sticky rice which was very good. read more

Well flavored but to spend two dollars extra for shrimp and only get one shrimp is unacceptable and disappointing would NEVER order from this Thai restaurant ever again gave them a chance and VULCAN CAFE FAILED read more

The last time I ate here was 2 years ago so I thought to give this a second try since the first time I came here with my husband, we found hair in one of our dishes. Also the food sucks so bad knowing that we eat a lot of Thai food from different Thai Restaurants. So I came here for the second time with my husband 2 days ago. The lady who took our order was the one who cook our food. We ordered Papaya salad, Red curry, Pad Thai, Chicken Larp, 2 sticky rice, and a Thai iced Tea. When our food came in she never give us the utensils so we have to self-serve ourselves. The Larp was not good at all, it tasted salty and it just doesn't tasted like the ones I usually eat. While my husband & I almost finished the Papaya dish, I found a medium length of HAIR in it. We were about to throw up but we held it back. I wanted to complain about it but my husband said to not. He felt bad because she's the only one that is working here. We were hoping not to see any more hair in the other dishes. The 2 Sticky rice was microwaved (I heard her microwaving it) and it was still hard. We only ate half of each poach. That was a waste of money and very disappointing. Red curry was so watery. 1-10 I would give it a 3. The Pad Thai was not good at all. After this experienced, I hope no one comes here. This really discussed me. I hope this restaurant closes. I was really disappointed in how this experience came out. We could of complain but we just kept it quiet and paid our bills and walk out. read more

This is my first time here because I brought a Groupon. But this is the worst thing I ever purchased. We ordered a Thai tea and it tasted like fish sauce!!!! I DONT EVEN KNOW HOW CAN A THAI TEA TASTE LIKE FISH SAUCE. Then I ordered a green curry and pad thai. The curry was too watery and the pad thai tasted okay. I will never come back to this place anymore. I don't even know how can this place get a 3 and a half stars on Yelp. read more

We had a big order that needed to be picked up early in the day. I placed the order through yelp and later called them to make sure they could fulfill the order at the time requested. The lady said no problem and that she would see me tomorrow. When we got there everything was cooked, packed up and ready to go. The lady was so sweet and she fulfilled the order exactly as requested. Turns out she woke up early to get started on the order. The food was great and everyone was left full with plenty to spare. I'll definitely go there again when I'm in the area. The parking is tight and the neighborhood is a bit sketchy but good food and awesome service makes it worth it. read more

We live in the Bay Area; a place with fantastic Asian food of all varieties. So what I can't understand is who in their right mind thinks that this place is 4 or even 3 stars?!?! I ordered food from here through grub hub. Hands down some of THE WORST Thai food I've ever had. Absolutely none of the nuanced balance between spicy , sweet, sour & salty that is quintessentially Thai. I asked for extra spicy and found that the dishes didn't even come slightly hot, despite the fact that many of the dishes are described as such "spicy". I paid extra to have shrimp in a couple of dishes and was disgusted to find that they hadn't cleaned and deveined them! Aside from the quality, the portion size was really small as compared to what you normally get at any Asian restaurant for a $10 to $12 entree. Each dish came complete with basically a measuring cup of entree and about 1/2 a cup of rice. Two people, 6 dishes and $90 later, there's very little in the way of left overs to snack on the next day. If it's delicious, I wouldn't care about the price, but this was just horrible! You'd have a better result if you made your own using some generic bottled Asian sauce from Safeway! read more

The Vulcan Cafe - Who needs shrimp to be cleaned? Huh? - Thai Near Me - Oakland, California

Crab fried rice is so yummy! I haven't had the pleasure of dinning in but the delivery has been great. The mango sticky rice is delicious. My go to Thai noddle dish is pad see ew and it was my favorite so far!!! Can't wait to try some other things off the menu! read more

This place is kind of hidden away, but its a hidden gem! the food was delicious and very friendly staff, cute atmosphere

This is not a review about the food. This is a review about the lack of safety precautions post-Covid and the way we were treated when we politely asked for safety precautions we needed, and that would have required almost no effort on their part. In the restaurant, no one was masked, no one was wearing gloves, people were just hanging out inside the enclosed space. When we politely asked if our finished order could be brought to the door (five feet?), the owner (?) was rude, angry, came right up to us without a mask despite gentle requests, and slammed the door behind him. I have worked in service and know that this was not a "crowded moment" situation where everyone is stressed and the tiniest requests can feel like a big deal. Different safety needs are an access issue, if we were treated this way, I can't imagine how they care for the safety or their employees or for patrons with different access issues. We don't know how the food was. (Yes, we would have called ahead to check in about curbside pickup, but their phone was off the hook for an hour). I will consider taking down this review if Vulcan commits to better safety practices. read more

I love this place. It's a hidden jewel - I've gone several times and each time the food was amazing. I love the subtle flavors of the dishes. The food is prepared fresh as you order. The owners are so sweet. Definitely worth 5 stars read more

I never like writing 1 star reviews but I need to after getting take out from Vulcan Cafe last night. Ive recently move back to the Bay Area and I had fond memories of this Thai food restaurant because this was one of my favorite places to go with my family. I went last night and ordered Tom Kai Soup, Angel Wings and Pepper Beef with Onions to go. The place was deserted. Only the family that now owns it and their 2 small children were there. I ordered and was out the door within 10 mins. My first mistake was not double checking my order. I was just trying to get home asap. Once home I found that my Angel wings (boneless stuffed chicken wings) was actually 1 mutha flubbin stuffed chicken wing. YES ONLY 1 WING AND I PAID FRICKRN 6 BUCKS FOR IT. My Tom Kai soup container was only filled half way (what a rip off) if a resturant wants to give less food perhaps they should invest in smaller to go boxes instead of only filling a regular sized container half way (the soup was flavorless to me but my mom loved it). My pepper beef was ok, not bad but certainly not special. Not sure if the food or service is better if you eat there but I won't be returning to find out. read more

This place is in the weirdest location, just off of San Leandro Blvd in the warehouse district of East Oakland. But don't let that steer your clear of this place, it really is worth the trip. The little street that it's on is home to an artist commune and some work-live artist spaces, which brings a nice funky hipster vibe that Vulcan complements very nicely. The cafe itself has a nice wooden front patio with several tables, surrounded by lush vegetation. Apart from the BART trains rolling by, it is a really peaceful place to grab a bite. The wait-staff is friendly and helpful, and prices are reasonable. And the food - excellent! Everything I have ordered there has been wonderful. Favorites are the chicken with ginger and mixed mushrooms, beef with green beans, and the calamari salad. Friends rave about the pineapple fried rice, although I'd recommend that for dine-in only, as they (understandably) don't send you home with half a pineapple like the way they serve it at the restaurant. Apart from that, the quality appears to be the same for dine-in vs. take-out. Highly recommended! Update 12/12/2011: They have been unable to get my order correct on my last several visits. Each time I have ordered the Pad-Prik-Gai (chicken with green beans and basil in chile paste), and each time they have given me something more like Ka-Prow-Gai (chicken in a garlic sauce). At least this time it had green beans in it. If this is any indication of the new management's ability to preserve the menu, I am worried. read more

A hole in the wall restaurant, I've driven by this restaurant so many times but never went inside. The parking is weird, I mean it's small and you kind of just park wherever. there's a bunch of plants around the entrance and I like it. First thought when I came inside was, wow this place is bigger than I thought. There wasn't a lot of business and I was hesitant to stay. The waitress handed us our menus and I already knew what I wanted because I was already craving Thai food. We got pad see ew, spicy catfish and red curry. They were all really good! The pad see ew wasn't too sweet or too salty, it was very balanced. The spicy catfish wasn't spicy but it came with a delicious curry sauce which was mild and a little sweet, the fish was moist and crispy. I love red curry and it wasn't spicy, a little hint of pepper but I liked it a lot! This place is an amazing hole in the wall that deserves more business. The people who work here work hard and the food is great and reasonably priced. read more

Delicious. I had green curry with chicken and cucumber salad. Everything was very tasty, seasonings were subtle, flavors were soft and mild. This was my first visit, and I'm glad I read everyone's reviews. I'll be back. read more

The Vulcan Cafe - Always my fave dish... Green curry with chicken. And cucumber salad. Delish! - Thai Near Me - Oakland, California

I have been going to vulcan cafe for 10 years however i took an 18 month hiatus. When i found myself in the area i was excited to see my old friends again. Unfortunately it did not work out as i hoped.There has been a change of ownership and quality has suffered. Prices have gone up. Rice was old and dry. My fish was greasy. My wifes fish was chewy. Portions were small. An older gentleman in an apron (presumably the cook) kept walking out from the kitchen and looking over - he looked pissed! I have no idea what that was about but it did'nt make for a nice atmostphere. About all i can say is our server was good and the food came out fast. Yelpers beware, do not be fooled by the 4+ rating, that was a legit rating under the old managent but not now. Furthermore I suspect that the new owners are posting bogus reviews on yelp to counteract the bad reviews. Take a look and decide for yourself. read more

I live right next to this restaurant and it is AMAZING! I lived in Thailand for a year after college and I am very grateful to have access to delicious, authentic and affordable Thai food. The owners are incredibly welcoming, silly and kind. The chefs are from Lomsak and Phetchabun Thailand, which is in the Thai countryside located in the north between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. A lot of times, I will go to Thai Restaruants and the chefs will be Chinese or some other non-Thai race, here the chefs are FROM THAILAND and are incredibly talented at making a plethora of tasty foods. The cuisine here is scrumptious and the place has a communal, homey, non-pretentious feel. I eat here about once a month and love it. Thank you for existing so close to my home. Ca pun mak ca! Ah roi mak! read more

I seriously love this place. If you are looking for a small, quiet, hole in the wall spot for Thai, this is it! Extra points for being away from the hustle and bustle of the more gentrified areas of Oakland. The food is always bomb and on point. Depending on the time, you might be the only folks in there, but the food still comes out pretty quick. the price is right as well! They even have an outdoor patio - somehow I always come here when it's raining but I look forward to dining out there at some point. A head's up the area for parking is small. read more

It has been forever since I wanted to eat Pad Thai, so I decided to google the Thai Resturants near my job. I called to see if they did over the phone orders (which they did) I ordered the Pad-Thai, As I went in to pick up the food. The Staff was SooOoo Nice, the girl gave me a Salad and Water so i had somthing to eat while I waited. this was by far the best place in Oakland that i have stumbled upon. I SO RECOMMEND. HIDDEN BUT WELL WORTH THE FIND read more

Ordered thru ubereats.. I ordered fried calamari which i seen of the other people's pictures its supposed to be rings!! What i got was like 6 pieces of the tentacles! NOT HAPPY FOR $8!! are you kidding me?! No wonder your prices are cheaper than the other restaurants listed. Will NOT be ordering from again. read more

The Vulcan Cafe - "fried calamari for $7.95!??? " - Thai Near Me - Oakland, California