Simply Thalia

I really love the food, but the Panang curry and Bangkok Phở soup are no longer on the menu! Watch out if you use Unilocal to place your order, because it will not notify you!

I ate here today because I was looking for some vegetarian food while I was in the area and I’m pretty bummed that I did. I ordered a seaweed salad, which was actually pretty tasty and was a good sized portion, it’s also the only thing keeping this from being a one star review. I also ordered a tofu satay bunh mi (I’ve always seen it banh mi, but not here) and the bread that they served it on was so stale that I could barely eat it. A banh mi needs to be served on a nice french bread and this roll tasted worse than day old. The filling of the sandwich wasn’t anything to write home about, but I could have lived with that that if it was served on a decent roll. My wife ordered a vegetarian sushi roll and the roll was really skimpy and cut too thin, it was basically half the size of what we’d expect for almost 7 dollars. You may walk by this place transferring from the Blue Line to the Red Line, or visa versa; Do your self a favor and keep walking.

Amazing Sushi. I come here almost every week and I’ve never been disappointed. Go with the Bangkok roll or the Burmese Samosa — they’re consistently excellent. I occasionally go for the Malaysian Roti Canai — very unique and fresh.

So I come here often enough to know that this restaurant is not very good to eat at. I work nearby at ranging hours so I’ve eaten here for lunch and dinner. More so for dinner. It’s more of a last resort kind of place but after today I will not be eating here again.
The food here can be good sometimes. I feel like it’s a hit or miss. As of late I usually get the miso soup because it’s my favorite and you can’t really mess it up. Every single time I’ve eaten it, I’ll have stomach problems. At first I thought it was the sushi I had with it but today I just had the soup and same thing. Other food I have tried just didn’t taste good. And I’m hardly ever picky with my food. The edamame tastes old. Some soups I get are cold. I kept giving this place the benefit of the doubt but I noticed a few things that are not sanitary as well.
One being the tables are wiped down with what smells to be a very old and used rag. Every once in a while I’ll see little flies around the tables. And lastly, while in the public bathroom in the pedway, I saw one of the waitress leave the stall with out washing her hands. That did it for me. I’d rather go hungry than eat from this place and get sick again.

Very disappointed! I’ve been here 3 times since starting to work in the area. The food is good, the problem is the portion size. They have a $ 5.99 lunch special, which comes with a cup of soup, edamame and 2 dumplings. The first time i had the special i was really pleased with the flavor of everything and portion size. Today i go and order the same thing and when i get back to work i notice the have decided to change the portion size of the soup to literally a extra small styrofoam cup. I ate my lunch but i am still hungry. Plus to get chicken added to my Tom Yum soup i had to pay an extra dollar. So over all i paid almost $ 8 for soup and was cheated. Ughhh so irritating!

I pass this place every morning and night while walking to/​from the red line. Decided to stop in for an impromptu dinner last night and wasn’t disappointed!
Service was fine, though, how could it not be? It was just myself and one other patron while I visited…
I ordered the sashimi bento box which came with miso, cucumber salad, two chicken pot stickers and an almond cookie. I ate everything except the cookie (sad sad day when I decline a cookie, but I’m trying to keep myself in check!) The chicken pot stickers were full of flavor. In fact, I wanted more! (But, again… in check.) The sashimi (tuna, salmon and two white fish — not sure what) was fairly good. The tuna had some chew to it which rubbed me the wrong way, so I only ate one piece. The rest were good, though. Loved the simple cucumber salad — sesame seeds and dressing, mm!
I didn’t know they had a wednesday wine special, otherwise I would have imbibed on a $ 5 glass. They should mention specials and give a cocktail menu to patrons… but, not a real big deal.
I’ll definitely frequent this spot again in the future.

Occasional stop on the pedway on my way home. The sushi is very good. The Fat Boss is my favorite roll. I also highly recommend the volcano soup, it’s packed with seafood. The wait staff could try to be a bit more friendly.

Came here last night…
Walked in, no one sat us (or acknowledged us), so we just sat ourselves. A kind gentleman came over with water, but no ice in it. It was room temperature. Only one of us had a menu so we had to ask for a second one.
Waitress came over and unfortunately she was just very, very difficult to understand. We placed our orders because she said the kitchen was closing… it was SEVEN THIRTY PM. Your kitchen is closing during prime dinner hours???
Food came. Sushi was actually great and fresh. Pad Thai was so sweet it could have qualified as desert; wasn’t very good at all.
My friend and I had not seen each other in a while and sat and talked for a bit. As we were doing so, I noticed them closing up the restaurant. Finally around 8:30 – again, prime dinner hour – the waitress came over and asked us to leave because they were closing. Guess I need to check this place’s hours because it does say they close at 8pm – why, I just have no idea. Oh well.

I ordered twice from Simple Thalia
the first time i ordered a pad thai and a thai ice tea; the pad thai was not good and the thai ice tea tasted weird.
the second time i ordered their twin maki bento with sake (salmon) roll and Unagi roll for $ 15.95. It’s way over price, maki was so small and the sushi rice was so hard.
I don’t think i will give this place a third try.

I like the food and selection at Simply Thalia, and the location is pretty great for me too, but the service is really lacking.
I know a lot of loop restaurants are just looking to get people in and out (especially during lunch) but at some point it’s just too annoying. The off and on offering delivery is really frustrating too. Do you deliver? I live a block away but I’m outside your delivery area? If delivery isn’t an option then make that change to the websites that are showing you do (eg, Unilocal,your own site!, etc).
The spicy basil eggplant will keep me coming back, but I’ll mumble under my breath about the lack of service while I enjoy my food.

Worst Customer Service!!! Food quality and taste was Excellent!!! staff very cold and not Friendly!!! The staff did not seem like they wanted me there. The girls did not even say hello! I was not greeted or welcomed! I had to ask for a refill on my water!!! Worst customer service in Chicago!!! Food quality was great!!!

I ordered the Dim Sum platter and the Shanghai Ramen. The food was sup bar to say the least. But that wasn’t the worst part. In the middle of my meal I felt horrible. So I grabbed the check and ran straight to the nearest trash can. I have never felt this sick from food in my life.

Pretty good for lunch. Yummy food, friendly staff, reasonable price and nice environment!

I have been here many times before and it had been a while since I’ve been here. I stopped in for lunch last week and on my last visit I was very disappointed. I ordered my usual Spicy Tom Yum Ramen.
The noodles were soooooo dry and hard. The broth also had a weird taste to it. Not sure if this is a one off experience or there doing something new. I also noticed it was a lot less crowded than it usually in during lunch time.

When I am shooting wedding at The City Hall that’s my absolutely FAVORITE place to go for lunch. Why? So that is why: soup for $ 3.00. Salads $ 3.00. YUMMY for a GOOD price!

Very glad I didn’t waste my money on trying anything besides the Bangkok rolls. It was just filled with bean sprouts and super bland, they didn’t even add salt! The sauce it came with was too thick and overwhelming sweet. A total waste of my money there was 6 rolls I forced myself to eat 2 despite it tasting like card boards. The other things on the menu don’t sound or look appetizing and after reading some reviews it’s really not.
The interiors are small and cozy and I guess good enough for a mall restaurant.
The customer service was slow, and they seemed to be busy socializing with each other rather than taking care of customers. And when asking about the different items on the menu, some of the staff were very clueless and didn’t have much knowledge.
The only thing that’s great is the $ 3 bud light you can get. And an amazing deal considering its in the heart of downtown Chicago.
Go for the beer but don’t stay for the food. Wouldn’t recommend this place.

I ran into this cute little place on Saturday afternoon. We only had drinks but I would stop in here again to try the food. They have plenty of seating and a bar. Great service and reasonable prices. I will try to stop in here again for a meal.

Simply Thalia’s menu is far from simple. It’s pan Asian covering Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Malaysian dishes. An ambitious menu where there are expected highs and lows but the unique items and daily specials make it worth a try.
The Bangkok Riverboat noodles (guadeuw rua) and the Malaysian Laksa noodles are two dishes that are hard to come by. The Bangkok Riverboat dish is like a Thai version of phở that is more rich and flavored with lemongrass, ginger, miso, and soy to make for a complex broth. For only $ 8.95, these two rare dishes are a steal. There are even three course lunch specials for $ 10.99 and $ 5.99 deals for half a soup and sandwich — uncommon prices for the location.
This is one of the places that you need to visit more than once to get a real feel of the menu with the expectation of some hits and misses. With deals like 50% off sushi on Tuesdays from 4−6pm and more daily specials, it’s worth trying again.

Came in for quick lunch, as lines and crowd was too much for me at the Macy’s next door. I was in the mood for something spicy and soupy, and the sign outside recommended the Thaila Laksa. So that’s what I ordered when I went in.
It came out fast and looked delicious, but it was much too sweet for my liking. I would’ve also liked to increase the fish sauce and the heat. There was sriracha sauce, but the soup was more of a curry base so I didn’t want to ruin the flavor. I liked the fried onions, but for $ 11, I expected a little more than 2 shrimp and a few pieces of squid.
As for asian fusion, I thought it was ok. It’s never going to be authentic to any one asian nation. It’s made for American taste, hence the sweetness and lack of a fishy smell. Can’t wait to go home to LA to eat real laksa.

My friend ordered the pad thai (looked like a pile of noodles in a pale soup) and I ordered the papaya salad (no spice at all, overwhelmingly sweet).
The lunch special seems to be a good deal?