Thai Cafe On Roscoe

Service is not great so people may have a better experience by getting their food to go. We ordered Thai spring rolls and neither my friend nor I liked them. They were wrapped in a starchy, thick, rice paper that wasn’t good. We both tried it, didnt like it, and told our server when she brought our food. We weren’t sure how they would handle it but at least hoped they’d clear it from the table. It became a bit of an awkward inquisition on what we didnt like about it. We didnt ask for a refund but our server went to the manager and the consensus was that we could only get a half credit bc we both tried it. It was just awkward.
I ordered the basil entrée with chicken. Heads up, the chicken is ground chicken not chicken breast. Other than the protein, the flavor was good. My friend ordered the yellow curry – the peas were under-​cooked, a little crunchy. The thai tea was very good but heads up, my friend was charged 4 instead of the 2.50 on the menu. At that point we just didnt want to complain any more.

I really enjoyed my meal at Thai Linda, and would give it 3.5 stars. The décor was pleasant, I like that it’s BYO, and the wait staff were attentive and efficient. We ordered simple dishes — pad see yew, pad kee mao (sorry, I’m sure I’m spelling those wrong) and the massaman curry. All three were delicious, in my opinion. The crab ran goons were the best I’ve had for awhile! I wasn’t a huge fan of the Thai spring rolls, as I was expecting a hot/​fried dish (these were cold, probably how they’re meant to be but I didn’t realize). All in all, I recommend this place — and it’s definitely really great value for money with a really large menu!

Their online ordering system is an absolute joke, completely incompetent service provided. It was terrible!
My boyfriend and I placed an online order at 6:05PM. We waited 1 hour and 15 minutes before we decided to call and check on the order. We were told that it will arrive in a few minutes. So, we waited for an additional 35 minutes. We called again, stating that it’s been close to 2 hours and if the order does not arrive in 5 minutes, we don’t want it anymore.
Whoever answered offered no reason as to why it took 2 hours to get our food. The food arrived within 3 minutes of that call, however, both appetizers were cold. It wasn’t cooked thoroughly. It was bland and unseasoned. All the side sauces tasted old — the peanut sauce had a thick layer of oil on top, almost as it they just scooped the top layer of separated sauce into a sauce container. In addition, they forgot our drinks.
The driver offered no apology or reason as to why it took so long. He took our money and walked off.
We called again to report the issue and was told that they will call us back when the drinks arrive. An hour later, and the drinks have not arrived. We called again and they said they can only offer store credit. That’s ridiculous! It’s a terrible establishment. I’m absolutely appalled they continue to run this business with such terrible service.

Their online ordering system is an absolute joke. Order placed at 6:10 with their stated «ASAP» availability. I show up 25 min later, they never started my order and I stand here waiting. Skip this place if you are one of those rare creatures who realize their time is the most valuable asset.

Thought the food here was really good; they have an unbelievably diverse menu, so not sure how some of the other pan-​Asian items are b/​c everyone in our party of 4 chose thai staples (pad thai, pad see eiw but w/​crispy noodles, red curry, basil fried rice). All great w/​no complaints, and the service was very friendly. The place was pretty empty on a Saturday around 7pm, but there was a fest outside that was probably hurting normal foot traffic. Also had the green tea boba, which was a little too icy but really good once melted a little. Definitely have placed this on my top 3 chicago Thai lists (along w/​Thai Aree House and Yes, Thai).
I do wish however, that they would fix the listed name on Unilocal!So many ppl call this Thai Linda, which just doesn’t pull up :-/

Got the sesame chicken, it was ok nothing special if this place wasn’t in walking distance I wouldn’t go back

Not the worst but def. not the best. We ordered take out from here because it is one of the closest Thai restaurants by our apartment. I got my usual pad se eew as well as gyoza. I was pretty disappointed because the pad se eew that I am used to has a lot of sauce. This one lacked sauce, in fact it had none. We also asked if the gyoza was pan fried or fried, and we were told it was on a pan but when I got the order, it was fried which causes it to lose flavor. Overall, although the food wasn’t great it was cheap but I don’t think we will be ordering from here again.

I saw the review for the Beef Almond & called to order it, but she acted as if she had no idea what I was talking about. To be fair, the menus in Unilocal aren’t always consistent with the restaurants’.
So I ordered my stand-​by, Lime Chicken — which is outstanding at Thai Linda!
Never had a problem with their meals & delivery has always been timely.
Asparagus Rolls are very tasty, too!

I stopped by Thai Linda Café last night with my roommate. I would absolutely recommend this restaurant to anyone craving Thai.
This is a great place to order take-​out from on a Friday night. It was definitely easy to get a last minute reservation. From our experience it was clearly not the happening place to be on a Friday night in Roscoe. It was us and one other couple in the restaurant that night.
Service was just fine, I think there was only really one person working that night. I should also note that this place is BYOB. They’ll give you a bottle opener and some glasses, but that’s really as far as their BYOB service goes.
We ordered the Aloha Fried Rice, Kung Pao, Crab Rangoon and Pad Thai.
–The Pad Thai wasn’t very different from any other Pad Thai.
–Aloha Fried Rice was good, it’s your typical pineapple fried rice with raisins.
–I usually substitute meat for tofu, I think the Kung Pao could have used a little more vegetables a little less tofu.
–Crab Rangoons were good, not your typical chinese food restaurant ones. These almost tasted homemade.
10% discount if you pay with cash!

Ordered through Grubhub last night and was disappointed. Our bubble teas were probably the only good thing out of our whole order.
We ordered phở and let’s just say. It was not phở. It’s as if they weren’t expecting a phở delivery order at 8pm on a Tuesday because it was horrible. The broth was very dark almost black, the noddles weren’t even noddles just some crammed up mushy stuff in a container we had to add to the phở ourselves. It had absolutely no flavor and the beef were just chunks thick THICK meat not nicely thin… Won’t be ordering again…

Another triumph! I know how cliché it is to order Pad Thai at a Thai restaurant but, wow, was it worth it! The balance of flavors was incredible and the shrimp were perfectly prepared. If you appreciate good Thai cuisine, run, don’t walk, to the Thai Linda Café on Roscoe Street!

Easily the worst food I’ve had in Chicago. Ordered the Panang steak, and it was actually inedible. Go anywhere else. Overpriced, poor delivery (wrong address, wrong time), and the food when/​if it arrives is really bad.

My husband and I ordered from Thai Linda on a rainy night. Parts of my experience were very off-​putting and others were positive. We tried to order online, but there was a problem with the website. Not sure what, but we ended up having to order over the phone– not a big deal.
I went to go pick up the food. I walk in the restaurant and no one is anywhere to be seen. There is one girl who is doing homework in the corner– I’m guessing the owner’s daughter. But other than that, there’s no one. I waited FOREVER for someone to appear. At one point, a man from the kitchen emerged. He saw me and made no acknowledgement of my existence. It didn’t even look like he told anyone that I was waiting. Finally, a woman emerged and I paid and left. But I was probably waiting for a good 5 – 7 minutes.
The food was good. We ordered the crab rangoon. One complaint with that is the container of sweet and sour was much too small to dip the rangoon into. They should get bigger containers. I ordered the veggie fried rice and it was great. We got the Tom Kha Soup and omg it was delicious! It was tart, but sweet. Oy– amazing!
Overall, the food was good. But having to wait that long for someone to provide any service was very off-​putting.

Myself and one other went Sunday afternoon on a whim and we were not disappointed. The menu was much larger than I had anticipated which was a pleasant surprise.
We tried their chicken satay as an app, and a thing of Pad Thai and a bowl of chicken massaman curry for the mains. Although the satay was not chunky, it was still good. The dishes could have been a bit more spicy, but our noses still ran a bit and the overall taste did not suffer.
One thing that is worth noting was their Thai Tea which was delicious.

They give you a discount if you pay cash. BYOB and they have a patio.
I don’t know what went wrong but I ordered pad thai and it smelled and tasted awful. Since I’ve personally worked in many a restaurant, I don’t EVER, and I mean EVER send food back. I either choke it down or I don’t eat it. And if the server or management is smart, they’ll ask «was there something wrong with your dish?» at which point I would tell them how gross it was and so on and so forth. The pad thai was very odd.
The menu is huge here, maybe they need to consolidate to focus on areas that need to be improved.

I honestly don’t get all of the so-​so reviews. In my opinion, Thai Linda is WAY better than the Thai place that’s one minute away.
The Panang Curry is awesome. The Basi Fried rice is delicious. The Hawaiian Fried Rice is delightful. The Sesame Chicken was just okay.
The service is great.

Another disappointing, over priced and low quality Roscoe Village restaurant. Would someone please come and open a good restaurant in the neighborhood? My girlfriend and I eat Thai food at least once a week, as we are big fans. We tried this place for the first time about a month ago, and we were very disappointed.
The good is pretty bland, the portions are small and the quality of the ingredients are poor. We had there pad Thai, chicken satay, their spicy basil chicken. I really can’t tell you much more, except that none of the dishes would make me go back.
We did notice, it was a Friday night, and their was only one other table in tjebwhle place, enough said…

There’s some really mixed reviews for good old Linda here. I didn’t think she fell into an extreme category — I thought it was a perfectly good, casual spot to grab dinner.
On a Friday night me and the man were hungry. I was craving Thai, so we walked down to pay a visit to Linda. There were several other full tables, and a lot of take-​out orders on the front counter waiting to be picked up.
We were seated, immediately served water and we place our orders for some apps — crab rangoon (my usual) and a beef-​wrapped asparagus. The apps came out pretty quick — and they were good; not great.
Entrees — we split the chx pad se eew and the lard nar. The lard nar was served in a deep bowl and was the most soupy I’ve ever seen it. I prefer that dish more on the dry side because I don’t enjoy eating spoonfuls of gravy — but it did taste good… The pad se eew was our preferred dish — that had much better texture and flavor.
By the time we got our bill, we were the only table in the restaurant. Still, the take-​outs and deliveries were steady. Bonus: they served a delightful little fortune cookie roll — I’ve never seen that kind, but it was way tastier than a regular fortune cookie.
Was this the best Thai ever? No. But it certainly wasn’t terrible (or even bad). We had a nice dinner, the space was calm and quiet — I would come back again for another low-​key meal anytime.

After getting delivery over the past 3 years, I finally had the opportunity to go to the actual place. Not too big, not too small as it was a nice space. It was virtually empty when we walked in. We started out with the thai dumplings which were very good. For my entrée, I got the Spicy Fried Rice with Vegetable and it was definitely spicy! Their delicious thai iced tea definitely helped keep my mouth cool.
I love that I finally showed up as the staff was pretty nice and its a nice joint… will return more often as this is one of my favorite thai places in the city… Also this joint is BYOB!

I think I have figured out what is wrong with this place after having eaten here 3 times. They have good recipes, but do not know how to cook properly.
The first time I ordered, our beef was overcooked, almost burnt.
The second time, the noodles were mushy and again the meat was burnt. But the flavors were still good and so I wanted to give them one last try to see if they’d worked out their kinks.
The third and last time… my shrimp was almost completely raw, like see through, and they were not de-​veined. Disgusting. There was a very young person waiting on us and I felt bad hassling him. So I just pushed the shrimp to the side and ate my rice and veggies. The sauce was amazing, but how can I get past raw shrimp that still has it’s poop in it?! Mortifying.
I will not be back. The sauces for all of their dishes are very tasty so I wish they just knew how to cook food. Very sad.