Wat Mongkolratanaram

Small temple in Berkeley, close to the flea market, in between the Tilden Regional Park and the Berkeley Pier.
One main Buddha on the second floor of the Victorian home
Every Sundays from 10am to 1pm, the temple offers both vegetarian and meat dishes. Trade dollars for tokens, tokens as donation to the temple for your food! 1 dollar for 1 token
Mango sticky rice (5 tokens): so good, get this togo if you are too full
Noodle bowl: broth is an explosion of flavor, so good, must come back for this
Pad Thai — would skip
Thai Tea (2 tokens): a bit watered down for my taste
Thai Coffee (2 tokens): will have to come back and try
Curry Over rice (6−7−8 tokens): this was my least favorite, the long line for this was a hype! The panang curry with beef was just beef I couldn’t taste the curry, fried green beans — super good, and the yellow curry with chicken was okay.
Kanom bah-​bin (6 tokens): taro and coconut flakes, was alright
Kanom krok (6 tokens): rice flour with coconut milk and 3 flavors (green onion, cinnamon, and plain). This was my favorite, I need to come back and order 3 servings because it is perfect, not too sweet or too plain.

Hands down the best Thai food in the Bay Area! If you love Thai food, you’ll love it more! If you’ve never had it, you’ll start loving it! I understand that this creates an incredible level of expectation but believe me, it lives up to the hype! Observe all of the exclamation points.

I’ve had this place hyped up to me for quite some time now, and it certainly lived up to my massive expectations! If you’re into Thai food, this is a must try.
We tried: the yellow chicken curry, pad thai, mango and sticky rice, chive coconut pancakes, cinnamon coconut pancakes, and taro cakes. All of these things we got for under $ 25 for two people. All were absolutely amazing, and needless to say we were about to explode after we left. They also have stews and phở as well which I definitely want to try next time.
Parking is the only thing that makes this place a little less awesome, but we were able to find parking over by Berkeley Bowl about 3 blocks away within 10 minutes of searching around.
Do yourself a favor and try this place, it’s truly a unique dining experience and you’re supporting a local buddhist temple which is pretty neat.

If you’re ever in Berkeley, you have to try this. It’s only open on Sundays, but it’s worth it – when else are you going to say you’ve been to brunch at a Thai temple?
Location: Right by the Ashby BART station.
Atmosphere: Outdoor seating at communal tables — get there early because it gets hella busy.
Food: There’s not an overwhelming amount of options, which is just as well, because everything looks fantastic. My friend and I split the noodle soup and the fried chicken, and we couldn’t finish either.
The food is amazing. The noodle soup (you can pick from the width of the noodles) are made with rice noodles and are in a savory but not too rich broth. It’s honestly one of the best bowls of noodle soup I’ve had in America. The fried chicken was also really good — not fried so much as it was just crispy, and equally as flavorful.
I’d definitely come back to try the mango sticky rice and the other delicious-​looking food!
Price: $ 1 for a token; most meals are around 6 tokens. Cash only.

Plenty of selection: vegetarian, meat, curry, spring rolls, banana leaf rice, fried chicken, appetizer/​dessert stuff, mango sticky rice, egg rolls, curry puffs, Thai tea, Thai coffee, etc. $ 1 = 1 token and you can get cash if you have tokens left. Lots of seats, lots of people. Sundays only. Street parking.

I’ve been here a few times, and it’s a really fun experience and a great way to interact with the community.
Get here early (its 9 – 1), as they sell out of popular dishes and the quality goes down significantly as it gets later.
Bring cash, as when you arrive you’ll have to switch it over to coins and make a ‘donation’ to buy your food. I recommend around $ 10−12/per person, but you can always get more and trade it back the leftover coins at the end of your visit for money. It’s in the back on the left, and there’s usually a bit of a line.
There’s several lines (with veggie or meat designations), a lot of times people forget about #3 though, so keep an eye out for that shorter line. Everything comes with rice, and they have a few curries, pad Thai, and some tasty green beans with loads of spice. Generally, if you choose one item its 6 tokens, 7 for two, and 8 for three. They also have fresh rolls, and some thai soups.
They have lots of tables, but I suggest heading toward the back to the garden, where they supply rugs to sit on and enjoy the sunshine.
All in all, it’s okay food, but you’re mostly just going for the experience. Thai tea + mango sticky rice though are AMAZING.

I heard a lot about Wat Mongkolratanaram so was glad to finally check out their 10am to 1pm Sunday brunch. The Thai temple where it happens is a short walk from the Ashby BART where the Berkeley Flea Market happens every Sun & is located right next to the South Berkeley Public Library that happens to be closed on Sun yet is useful for the book drop for returns!
This is a quintessential Berkeley experience well worth experiencing. It gets busy here yet I arrived about noon & still was fine despite having a little bit of a wait on the line. I had no problem finding a seat to eat at either yet if you are coming with a group you might aim to come on the early side if you want your group to sit together.
The brunch is donation based. You pay cash for tokens & $ 1 per token is a good rule of thumb.
There were three main lines. One line for vegetarian & two lines for non-​vegetarian. I was happy to see that the vegetarian line was the longest line even if it meant having to wait longer as made me happy people were going to enjoy vegetarian food. At other lines you can get drinks, deserts like sweet mango rice, spring rolls & soup.
For 8 tokens you can get 3 items over rice. I told my server I was vegan & she didn’t understand what this meant yet with a little explanation she understood explaining to me that most of the dishes were vegan expect one dish had egg which was easy enough to avoid.
I decided to go with curried eggplant, curried squash, & tofu w/​veggies all over rice. It was wholesome & nourishing. Also worth noting is that Berkeley Bowl is a short walk away to stock up on groceries at one of my favorite natural food stores on the planet as well as my second favorite in the Bay Area as Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco gets top honors!
All in all Wat Mongkolratanaram is a cool cultural experience right here in Berkeley.
I look forward to coming back here sometime soon.

I’ve heard about this place for so many years and I finally decided to drop by and give it a try. There are several lines at this place. A line to buy tokens. line to buy phở. line for meat dishes. line for veggie dishes. line for dessert and appetizers. So many lines it is difficult to choose which one to go with except you have to buy tokens first before anything else. After that it’s a free for all.
We opted for opted for the meat line first cause it had the most variety. Loved everything we ordered, fried fish, beef panang red curry, porks, eggs, and tofu. Dessert and appetizers line was empty so I quickly snagged a mango sticky rice.
Tried my friend’s beef phở soup and it was absolutely delicious. The broth was extremely flavorful and I’d definitely order one for myself next time I come.
Tips:
Cash only!
Seating is in a communal area and it wasn’t too difficult to find seating.
Tokens can be redeemed for cash if you have extras.
Place is only open on Sundays.
Make sure to arrive early!

Wow, really cool experience of Thai «brunch» (really lunch) — donation-​based food court-​style food paid by tokens. Seating and food are all outdoors, so it definitely helps that we came on a beautiful sunny day in April when the roses were blooming. There was also a grassy backyard type of area that you could sit at. The other seating was cafeteria-​style rows with communal tables.
Entrees cost 7 – 8 tokens while desserts and appetizers were around 5 tokens. It’s up to you how much you want to pay per token, but a rule of thumb would be $ 1 = 1 token.
They open at 10 and there are usually short lines around 10:30 or so, and it can get pretty crowded by high noon or prime time lunch.
THE FOOD: flavors on point
Fried chicken: basically deep fried chicken (no batter) with sticky rice and sweet and sour sauce on the side. The sticky rice was pretty addictive with a nice chewy texture similar to mochi.
3 entrees over rice: vegetarian or meat option. fish is one token extra. I choose meat, and there were about 6 – 7 different types of meat dishes to choose from (3 chicken, 1 beef, 2 pork, 1 fish)
Sweet mango with rice: really SWEET mango~ along with some egg custard and coconut sticky rice
I definitely need to come back. Next time, I’d like to try the noodle soup, roti, a couple of the hot vegetable dishes, and that freshly made Kanom Krok (coconut pancakes)!

This hidden little gem in South Berkeley was absolutely amazing. So amazing that I wanted to keep this place all to myself, but that would be too selfish.
We went on Sunday for lunch, and it was packed. You first exchange bills for tokens, and you can use the tokens to get food at the various stations — there’s curry, chicken, noodles, drinks, desserts, etc!
My usual at this place is the thai tea and the beef noodles. The noodles are amazing! The broth is super savory, and they don’t skimp out on the meat! I’ve also had their coconut & taro dessert and it was really good as well. I’ve never tried the curry because that line is always super long.
The lines do get long, and the place gets packed. People have had to sit on the grass to eat because there’s not enough table seating.
What’s really nice about this place is that if you buy too many tokens in the beginning, you can change it back to dollars. They are really nice about that, and I really appreciate it!

This is a hole in the wall environment but it is definitely not a hidden spot. The lines on Sunday starts getting crazy at around 11, by crazy, I mean about an hour from line until you finally get to sit down and eat.
I can see how it’s a fun and novel idea to be eating at a temple so it has always been on my bucket list of things to try. I finally tried it today and the food was good but nothing to rave about. As some other folks mentioned, DO NOT get the pad thai. It straight up tastes like ketchup. I got the red curry beef and egg and tofu combo, also got the noodles, both were good. Thai ice tea and ice coffees were also good.
Are there tons of other Thai restaurants that serve better food? Definitely. Would I drive more than 20 mins to eat here? Probably not.

I was super excited to come here after reading all of the reviews. Unfortunately, the food here does not live up to all the hype. It’s mass produced which I understand, but the flavours were not very authentic and most of the food was cold when served to me (except for the noodle soup).
The sticky rice and mango was actually pretty good. But not for $ 5 (tokens). Pretty overpriced for that.
The pad Thai was awful and tasted like ketchup.
Their chicken yellow curry was alright but nothing I would come back for.
Their noodle soup was also not bad.
All in all I probably wouldn’t come back here — not worth it. But I respect that it’s raising money for the Thai temple and hope that you will come and decide for yourself how you feel about the food.

The Thai temple is a perfect embodiment of Berkeley’s eclectic spirit. Once you walk past the gorgeous entrance, you exchange your money for tokens and proceed to any of the five stalls lining the garden wall (where there are probably long lines already). There are plenty of tables lined up nearby, so seating isn’t a problem. Most of the food is of the savory variety, but I had eyes for just one thing: the mango sticky rice. And it was amazing! The flavorful and ripe mangos provided just the right amount of contrast to the taste and texture of the semisweet rice. In short, a very unique spot and a fantastic breakfast/​brunch.

I have been going to Wat M since I was enrolled in their thai school when I was a child. Growing up thai/​american, the temple was always that one cultural place that was part of my life growing up. However, it was not until recently that I actually tried the Sunday lunch offers (I usually eat with my family upstairs after prayer).
The Sunday lunch have a nice variety of different thai dishes. Everything in general is ok regarding taste but my standards may be a little high.
The reason for the 3 stars is not because of the food but the people who visits. Overall, the Sunday lunch is a great way for the temple to raise money but by attracting the masses, there come problems.
Wat M is a place for people to come and pray and bring their respects. However, I always see visitors to the Sunday lunch disrespecting the grounds by littering or treating the place like a cafeteria.
Just be mindful people.

This place has been on my mind for over 2 years but somehow we just never made it here due to busy scheduling and me working at a barre studio on alternating Sunday mornings for the last year. Finally we said nothing was going to stand in our way and made it a point to wake up early on a Sunday morning and try their yummy dishes.
BF got the chicken green curry and pad thai and I got the beef panang red curry and pad thai. Then, even though we were full, we got the fried chicken with sticky rice to just try a little and take the rest home. Everything was so damn delicious. The curries were flavorful and generous portions, the pad thai was not too oily and perfectly cooked and the chicken is like crack, you just have to try it. I actually liked the chicken more when we reheated it in the toaster oven for dinner as the skin is crispy and made it even more yummy.
The Thai iced tea was a little too sweet in my opinion and doesn’t taste much different than canned version from the super market.
You can be green and bring your own food container if you’d like for them to fill up. I suggest about $ 10 – 12 tokens a person if you want to try more than one dish. We were sad we were too full to try the coconut pancakes and noodle soup.
Come early, there are plenty of seating, but by the time we left (around 1130), not many seats were left.
As I was typing this review I am dreaming about that chicken again, it is THAT good.

Love this dining experience! Very non-​traditional, here we go:
COME EARLY
Go straight to the back and left, past the temple to switch from dollars to tokens — I imagine they do this so that they can collect all the dough they make as a tax exempt donation? Not quite sure why but maybe thats it! Get at least $ 20 work of tokens for two people — it actually goes a long way! You can always go back for more but I dont think they’ll reimburse you for tokens!
Once you have your stash, go back to the entrance and get in line in the meat or veggie line. Again, it’s key to come early because these lines get LONG as the brunch period progresses.
Once its your turn, you have many options to choose from — pad thai, curries, spicy green beans, etc. DONT forget dessert (another lines but far shorter and extremely crucial part of the meal!).
I’ve never had the Phở here but always wanted to try it — next time I will!!!
Stop by the temple to pay your respects and have a wonderful Sunday :)

I freaken love thai temple — and come here literally every other Sunday. This is such a hidden gem in Berkeley! The temple serves food every Sunday morning to fundraise money, and the quality & taste of their food is quite good and authentic. They have a hawker-​style system, whereby you exchange tokens to buy food from different stalls (noodle booth, rice/​padthai/​curry booth, dessert booth, etc.) The atmosphere is amazing — always very lively with both small and large groups sitting at communal long tables & picnic areas on the grass!
TIP #1: for the veggie/​meat line, there’s always TWO meat lines — people always line up in the long one, and don’t see the shorter one that’s right next to it because the building blocks it. So next time, skip that long line that extends to the street (esp when you go too late), and go to the 3^rd line to the right of it.
TIP #2: try to get there a little earlier at around 10AM to avoid the crowd and lines. Typically, it gets hard to find seats later in the morning. Also, they run out of the mango sticky rice & fried chicken because there’s only a set amount!
TIP #3: bring enough cash! it’s cash-​only and you use it to exchange tokens (they use tokens so that they don’t directly touch the money when serving you food!) I normally exchange around $ 15 worth of tokens (1:1 cash token ratio) — thats enough for a main entrée ($ 8), dessert ($ 5), thai ice tea ($ 2). If you end up exchanging too much, you can get your cash back when you leave!
Some negatives however:
–quite pricey compared to other thai options in Berkeley — but hey, it’s for a good cause!
–portions vary — sometimes they will serve you more, sometimes less

I’ve never had a Sunday brunch experience quite like this. Wat M is a functioning Buddhist temple in Berkeley, complete with ornate gold-​and-​red facades and multi-​tiered roof, that serves authentic Thai curries, soups, and desserts on Sundays. Unsurprisingly, the novelty and home-​made food draws hundreds of eager folks into lines that snake around the interior courtyard. Their payment system is a bit strange; you basically exchange dollars for tokens in a 1:1 ratio, and then use these coins to purchase whatever you like.
We didn’t want to stand around for an hour, so we went for the beef noodle soup. $ 7 (i.e., 7 tokens) gets you a massive bowl of spicy broth, thick or thin noodles, tasty meatballs, assorted veggies, and a few morsels of hearty beef. I got mine with pumpkin as well for some added sweetness. It definitely hit the spot after a late Saturday night. We slurped down the soup while lounging in the grass out back, which wasn’t a bad alternative to sitting at one of the crowded picnic tables. Afterward, I was disappointed to find they had run out of the fresh mango and sticky rice, which would have made for a refreshing finish. Instead, we sampled the Kanom Krok, which are sweet coconut pancakes you’ll find on most Thai street corners. These were seriously perfect: slightly crispy on the outside, with a mildly sweet, custardy center studded with green onions. I must’ve had at least 5.
Next time I’m in town, I look forward to trying some of their more substantial dishes. And that mango and sticky rice dessert of course. Hopefully I’ll also be with cooler friends, who won’t spend an hour cracking up about my Unilocal reviews…

Wowza. I’ve been meaning to visit this particular temple for many months. After finally getting through the crazy holiday season at work, we finally made it! We didn’t arrive until almost noon… but we were able to still grab a few things.
Don’t forget to stop to exchange your cash for tokens. We initially got $ 30 worth just in case. You could always exchange your tokens back at the end or save them for your next trip… believe me, there will be a next trip.
The longest line had to be for the desserts. They offer coconut pancakes (plain, chives, and cinnamon) and fried taro (similar to a hash brown). Both were super delish! The cinnamon was definitely my favorite.
We also picked up a bowl of noodle soup. You have your choice of noodles but by the time we got there, we could only get the thin ones. Still delish, served piping hot, with a good amount of meat. Great pick up on a cold day.
We also rushed to the meat and rice line. Unfortunately, they were out of mostly everything. We were left with the pork, tofu, and egg which was a perfect combination. The serving sizes are also monstrous.
They offer a number of other home cooked items which were out of our reach. It’s probably best to come early and separate with your friends, meet up, and share.
The overall ambiance was just a perfect complement to the food. It’s nice to know that the money is being used to upkeep the temple. These people are working hard to get through those neverending lines and cooking to feed our happy bellies. 5 stars and I’d go back every single Sunday.

Sawatdi Khrap!
If you’re looking for a different kind of Sunday Brunch experience, I would highly suggest you check this place in Berkeley. Wat Mongkolratanaram is a Thai Buddhist Temple that serves food to the public every Sundays. I believe it’s run on donations, but patrons can pay for tokens in exchange for their dishes. 1 dollar is equal to 1 token and nothing is priced higher than 8 tokens.
The food stand is located in the back of the temple, but you would need to get in line to get the tokens. Don’t worry if you get too much tokens as you can always exchange them back to US currency afterwards. They have a vegetarian section, meat section, soup, drinks and desserts. Fall in line and choose your order in exchange with the tokens. I would suggest splitting up to maximize your time and have someone grab and reserve a table for your group.
Seating is communal on long tables and benches, and there is also a grassy area in the back should you choose to eat squatting down. Definitely come early before it starts getting busy, or come later as the crowds dwindle down. However, the Johnny-come-lately’s will run out of your favorite dish.
Being this as our first time here, I told the Wifey want I wanted from the meat section and dashed over to the soup section (I only wanted the Fried Chicken with Rice — 8 tokens). The soup is only 6 tokens and you can choose from a variety of three types of noodles. There is only one type of broth (I was told it was beef broth), and it pretty much comes with the same fillings. There’s a table next to the soup section with different types of condiments to customize the flavor according to your palate. The broth is pretty good all by itself.
In addition to the Fried Chicken, Wifey had a plate of the Beef Panang, with Egg over Rice (8 tokens) and got the Coconut Pancake for desserts. I also had a cup of Thai Tea and Thai Coffee (2 tokens each). You know I’m a typical Unilocaler where I have to take a pic of the food, but Wifey was hungry and she had already took a bite of the Fried Chicken and almost finished her order of Beef Panang by the time I returned to the table.
The soup was good as I enjoyed the taste of the broth as it wasn’t too heavy. I had the thin noodles (a little al dente) but I liked the rest of the ingredients. It was a nice balance of everything on the bowl. I particularly liked the Fried Chicken as I thought it was a bargain for 8 tokens. You get three pieces of chicken, sticky rice and sweet and sour sauce. The chicken was marinated in something before it was fried. The meat was moist and tender and the skin was crispy, but not too crispy. The Beef Panang (or what was left of it) was excellent. All the flavors just burst in my mouth or ‘Broke Da Mouth’ if I said it Pidgin.
The Coconut Pancakes were delicious (careful since they come out hot) as it definitely delivered on the coconut on every bite. There’s a burst of creamy coconut in the middle and the texture was fluffy and fun to eat. The only things we didn’t particularly like were the drinks. I believe they were store-​bought and both were just too sweet for our taste. I had to dilute them with water as it was just too sweet.
All in all, we would likely return here and try their other dishes and desserts. I’ve already spread the word among my family, friends and co-​workers.
Sawatdi Khrap!