Yum Ped Yang
Dara Thai Lao Cuisine

Dara Thai Lao Cuisine

1549 Shattuck AveCA 947091516, Berkeley, United States

Tea • Thai • Fish • Meat


"I wish I had given this restaurant zero stars. I ate in this restaurant a few years ago and the food was decent, not great, but reasonable. We had dinner there last Saturday night and the food was nothing less terrible. Now I have been a little pampered since I lived in Thailand and my wife is from the Isian area of Northeast Thailand (Nongbua Lamphu Province). At first we were attracted to this place because the chalkboard in front of the restaurant advertised both Lao Raw Beef Salad and Ant Egg Salad (Ant Eggs imported from Laos). Since my wife loves both dishes because they are popular in her hometown, we went in. As it turned out, the restaurant had neither even though we were there at 6:30. We ordered Som Tam Ba La (Lao style), but the waitress said they did not have Ba La (not sure how you cook Lao style food without it). My wife spoke to them in Thai and told them to make them “Thai spice as in Thailand” but the court came only slightly spicy. We ordered Larb Pla, a Thai salad, made from slightly cooked minced meat and spiced with rice powder. The dish they had brought out had pieces of deep fried fish and many Khao Taut (Fried Rice Cake pieces) and no spices at all. We also ordered Pla Rad Prik and the sauce tasted as it had been made with canned tomato paste. But the thing that really told me that this was not a Thai/Lao restaurant was the rice. We ordered Khao Neow (Clebrian rice) but what they brought us was the short-grained, non-glutinous rice that is very common in northeast China, Korea and Japan and not the Thai sweet (glutinous) rice that is common for Thai/lao cuisine. I would avoid this place at all costs."

Thai Tanic

Thai Tanic

1326 14th St NW, Washington, United States Of America, 20005

Thai • Sushi • Asian • Vegan


"The food is delicious and savory! The menu is pretty big with a large selection of food where the first half of the menu is comprised of Thai dishes and the second half is comprised of sushi. Ordered a few Thai dishes, so I don't know how the sushi taste, but the food is one of the best Thai I've had in the DC metropolitan area. Ordered the Khao Gree'ap Bpaak Maw and Tung Tohng for appetizer, Khao Soi Gai for entree, and Kanom Krok for dessert. The Khao Gree'ap Bpaak Maw is really good, and the peanut taste overpowers the taste of the other ingredients, but eating it with the chili pepper makes it taste better as it helps balance it out. The Tung Tohng is pretty good, and you can taste the ground chicken and shrimp, and the sweet chili sauce helped enhance the flavor. Khao Soi Gai was amazing! The presentation was outstanding, and I will definitely return just to eat more of this dish. The chicken was moist and tender, and crispy egg noodles were crunchy. The cooked egg noodles were wide and soft. It has a nice kick to it from the spice, so if you can't handle your spice, I would stay away from this dish or ask the server to tone down the spice. Overall, this dish exceeded my expectations. The Kanom Krok was delicious, and the coconut flavor was refreshing to finish off the spicy entree. It definitely reminded me of Thai street food because there are food stands that sell this dessert hot and crispy. My only complaint was the Thai Tea, although it was refreshing, it was a little too sweet, and it came with too much ice. Overall, this is one of the best Thai restaurants I've had in the area, and will return again for the Khao Soi Gai!"