Thai Canteen Midtown - Sacramento

Well, this place definitely redeemed itself! I have been quite a few times. I can definitely recommend the Kang Kari... Chicken breast meat, carrot, and potato in yellow curry sauce. It's definitely my favorite dish at this place. It's very similar to a Japanese style curry. it has a lot more flavor and is a bit more bold tasting. I just continue to order this every time I go there now. The Tom Kha... (soup) Chicken, lemon grass, kaffir leaf, cilantro, and mushroom in coconut milk broth. It's very good but I wish it had a bit more vegetables in it. It has one of the best broths I've tasted. If you wanna make it a little bit more robust... add some rice to it. Brown rice they have here... is very much a brown wild rice style. Even the white rice is of good quality. One of the biggest selling points is that they're open late. Display tends to be very popular and seating is limited. So, definitely give yourself time to find a seat. It's so worth it!!!

I want to start off by saying the food is always good here. I've always been a fan of Thai Canteen when it first started in Davis and then opened up in Sac. The food is always good. I usually order either pad Thai or pad kee mao (drunken noodles), depending on what I'm craving. The pad Thai is as close to authentic as you can get in Sac, and the pad kee mao has so much flavor in it. I also get a side of sticky rice and the fried pork as appetizers, and MUST order when dining here. I will say I was disappointed in the Thai tea. Normally, Thai tea would be either too sweet or too milky, but hardly ever perfect, and I never expect perfect. But the last time I came in and got one, it tasted like water. I didn't even let it sit that would allow the ice to melt. The orange color that should be in Thai tea was not there, nor was there a milky color. It was just watery. Service is usually always good. But when I ordered my food, I got charged an automatic gratuity just because we had five people in our group. And then after telling me about the auto gratuity, I get handed a cup and was told the water is self-served. Yes, they brought out our food, but McDonald's does that. And I was a server for 7+ years, so I'm all about tipping, but when it's deserved. There were no servers attending us, so water refills and extra napkins we would have to go get them ourselves. So an auto grat of 18-20% is a lot for having done nothing. That policy needs to be changed.

I popped in for lunch recently. It's been a long hot minute since I've dined here, over seven years ago. The place looks exactly the same. The food is pretty tasty but I'm no expert on Thai food. It was quite comical trying to order. The cashier seem to unintentionally speak at the volume of a whisper. They have some odd acoustics in there. We fumbled our way through the ordering process. I still had no idea what she was saying, so I just went on to tell her my order of Panang Nuer at the mildest version they can make it for dine in. She told me the price, but again I couldn't hear her. The Panang Nuer is sliced beef in semi-spicy panang curry. The curry tasted like peanut butter and had a kicky spice level. Ohhh I broke into bit of a sweat. I can take some level of heat. So if you can't handle spicy heat, I don't recommend getting this dish. Also the slices of beef were super thin. There were a few slices of red and green bell peppers. Those slices were also scarce and inconsequential. There was plenty of the liquid curry though. The curry was served with a side of white rice. The price was $16, there were no lunch special pricing. The curry was tasty! Just not hearty enough to fill me up, and it was an entree serving size.

I came here for a late night meal, and was very impressed! It was very busy and the long got quite long after we ordered. We had the pad thai and the spring rolls, and both were a very generous portion and kept us full. The staff were very friendly and accommodating. We loved the indoor decor and the comfortable outdoor seating. They're open late until 1am, so it was nice to enjoy our dinner without feeling rushed.

This place is open late and very tasty! Very Affordable for the portion sizes and quality of the food. The service is quick even when it's really busy! So don't let a busy night turn you away. I'm not a fan of how they let people get their own ice cream, sometimes people leave the tongs in the ice and it's gross, but I'm weird about that.