Chaba

02/23/09

Thai at it's Best

by jwpraus at Citysearch

This is definitely one of my favorite Thai restaurants. It has a very pleasant interior and decor. The cozy dining room seems to have a "zen" about it and is not too crowded. The staff is very friendly and attentive. Ask for Ken, the bartender if around at Happy Hour time to enjoy the great drink specials. Of, course the cuisine is delicious and is a generous portion. Check it out.

02/16/09

Excellent Thai for those that remember Chandarette in MDR

by petersil at Citysearch

I'm not sure why this terrific Thai restaurant has mixed reviews, because I went there last night, and it ranks as having superb food, great value, and good service. For those of you that remember Chandarette in Marina del Rey, Chaba is owned by the same family (as Chandara) but the food, in my opinion, is much better than Chandara, and closely approaches the late lamented Chandarette. Everything we ordered (I'll get to that in a moment) came out hot, wonderfully prepared, and extremely tasty. Portions were generous as well. We started with Chicken Satay, cooked expertly and tasty even without the peanut dipping sauce (which had a little too much honey in it but it was still good); then we ordered hot Sake (excellent and a large bottle), Chicken Larb (very well balanced and flavorful, and not so hot to the tongue that it was a struggle to eat), Dumplings (excellent), and a small bowl of Tom Cha Gai (coconut chicken soup with mushrooms - absolutely excellent). Main courses were Panang Curry with Shrimp (all 3 of us), with brown, sticky, and white rice. The curry was wonderful, the bowl had numerous large perfectly cooked shrimp, some vegetables, and an extremely flavorful curry sauce (not watery). It was very very good and reminded us (although not the same) of the Panang Curry at Chandarette. Also on the menu were many of the same items from the Chandarette menu (catfish, salads, and lamb and beef dishes). All in all, I think this is about the best Thai food I've eaten, with the exception of another Chandarette offshoot that also closed last year (Chandaretta in Santa Clarita), where one of the original lady chefs from Chandarette in MDR went to work for a while - she was an absolute genius in food preparation! If anyone knows where she went I would sure like to know - I'd follow her almost anywhere.

• Pros: Food, prep, taste, service was excellent
• Cons: No cons, but they need our help because they were quiet on a Sunday nite.

03/22/08

Used to be good, but now it's a place to AVOID

by bugmenot21856 at Citysearch

I have been eating at Chaba Thai ever since they opened its doors. Over the years, they have steadily increased their prices, in some cases by as much as 30%! I don't mind when a successful restaurant does this, as long you get something back for all that extra money (i.e the food quality is maintained or, even better, it is of better quality).

In the case of Chaba Thai, I am sad to report that this not true. The increase in prices has not resulted in anything of higher quality. Quite the opposite, I'm sad to say.

I ate there on 3/22/08 and ordered the Crying Tiger Salad and Chicken Pad Thai. In the case of the Crying Tiger Salad, most of the beef that is served in this dish was very, very chewy. I don't know what caused it, but the beef seemed to be of very poor quality and very fatty.

It was so bad, that I spat about 3/4 of the beef in the salad. It was literally not edible. This is completely unacceptable, at any price.

The chicken in my Chicken Pad Thai suffered the same fate. Although not nearly as bad as the Crying Tiger Salad, it was also very "chewy." It appeared to me to be mostly bad cuts of chicken. For $11, you would think they at least throw in a couple pieces of chicken breast meat... but you won't find any chicken pieces of that quality in their Chicken Pad Thai.

I'm very sad that Chaba Thai is losing me as a long-time customer. I really liked going there. But I have my limits, and after spitting out most of my meal, I felt a bit ripped off.

• Pros: Nice Interior
• Cons: Food Quality is Terrible