Cha Yen Thai Cookery

Didn’t like my Pad Thai at all, wasn’t the best. The chicken satay was good but not filling. Ice cream was amazing though!

This is probably the best Thai restaurant around. It is really small, so most people just go for takeout. But I love how wholesome their ingredients are, and how they do not use artificial flavors in their cooking. Their green curry is great! Drunken noodles and pad thai are great too! Basically I think everything on their menu is great! The highlight is their home made ice cream! The flavors change all the time — we tried durian ice cream — and it was sooo naturally good. The staff are pretty friendly too!

The most fresh, flavorful, and affordable (and most conveniently located to me) Thai food in the city! I’m vegan and even though they probably hate it when I ask, they kindly make a separate curry without fish sauce or oyster sauce. My dream night is sitting at home in front of a movie with their green curry.

A very refined little cookery. The tom yum soup is okay. The sukhothai with seafood looks amazing but tastes a little bland. The kee mao drunken noodle is quite spicy and delicious but a bit too I oily to me.
In general I like the place and will come back for more dishes.

Loved this place! Delicious, authentic Thai food. The best items that we had IMO were the tom yum soup and the green curry. Highly recommended!

This place rules! Last night we had the beef brisket and I’m still thinking about how great it was, we also had the squid appetizer and a couple other things that were also both fantastic. Their menu as all the things you’d want at a Thai restaurant but lots of unexpected things that are wonderful too. The staff was all super nice and the prices are great too. If you are looking for a great Thai restaurant I highly recommend this place!

This place has the BEST Tom Yum Noodle Soup I’ve ever had. Hands down. The Kee Mao is really good too.

We ordered a take out from this restaurant for the first time tonight. The food was not good– not tasty at all. We had the Thai green curry, very watery, same as the Tom yan soup, the satay chicken was also rubber– like. I will not be ordering again from this restaurant

I think I finally found a Thai place tastier than Rod Dee in Cambridge. This place is better than 90% of the food I ate in Thailand, has a unique atmosphere and great staff, and is well priced. My strategy is to go super late, or order take-​out.

«This is Gangsta!» «This is Money!» «We’re Riding the Bus to Flavortown!» «Shut the Front Door.»
All those Guy Fieri-​isms. Food is so good here. Watertown is very lucky to have them. When is a Boston location opening up? It’s hard coming out to Watertown even though it taste so good when I’m here. Cha Yen Thai Cookery is off the chain. Whatever that means.

4.444 Stars
CYTC is a tough get because it’s so small. Most people do takeout. There are two tables and ¾ counter seats at the front window. If you are 3 or less people in you party, I would suggest you do eat in though. The food comes up fairly quick for your instant gratification.
* parking: on the street. a trying endeavour.
* standouts: Larb, the Roast Duck, Pork dishes, Noodle dishes.
* very friendly and helpful staff.
* If I lived is this neighborhood I would eat here 6 – 10 times a month.
* In the top 3 Thai food restos in the Greater Boston area.
* really wish they had a true sit down place (this the less than 5)

When some coworkers mentioned that there was a great new Thai restaurant within walking distance of our office in Watertown, I was immediately skeptical. «How good could it possibly be?» Answer: extremely good.
I’ve been to Cha Yen about a dozen times at this point, almost always for lunch. The corn cake appetizer is phenomenal, though a bit heavy. The larb, a Thai salad of ground chicken or pork with cilantro, lime, and a plethora of chilis, is a dish that many local Thai spots omit from the menu completely. Cha Yen’s version is superlative and better than Rod Dee, something I did not believe to be possible. I also recommend the Sukothai with egg noodles and duck.
It is helpful to get here early to beat the lunchtime rush, especially if you plan on dining in. The dining room is quite small, with only two tables and a handful of counter seats.

This is small place located in Waltham. However, the good quality here is inversely proportional to the size of this restaurant. I had ordered the basil fried rice. It was really good. The spices used in the basil fried rice were top notch. A friend of mine had ordered the drunken noodles. He seemed to enjoy it. Another member of my party ordered the chicken sautee, which according to her was good. Beverages here are served in interestingly shaped containers. I look forward to visting this place again and try more dishes.

Oh how I LOVEEE this place! It’s fresh, Thai food, the place is small but perfect for pick up. There’s a couple seats if you’d like to sit. They cook the food right there, you can see EVERYTHING! It’s great. I always get Pad Se Ew. So delicious. Customer service is on point. They add peppers and noodles to my order and it’s always right! We’ve had the beef grill, those were really good too. Everything so far has been awesome. They really care and put a lot into this food. I’m happy to see they are so busy, it’s def worth the drive to pick it up. Great quality, and price. My favorite Thai around.

Delicious, authentic Thai food!
I wish the restaurant itself was a little bigger, but, the food itself is fantastic.

Delicious food! What a pleasant surprise. Limited by seating, but worth trying at least for take out. May be our favorite Thai place in town now.

Been here a few times, and it’s been really good each time. Fresh, tasty food all around. They do a good job with stir fried veggies! Everything here has been outstanding, or better than average at worst.
The really good stuff I tried includes the awesome corn cakes, the kra pao, and the Massaman curry. Pad Thai was also really tasty, along with the basil fried rice. Less stellar, but still good were the Tom Yum soup and the pad see you.
Really tiny place, so don’t come here with a group expecting to sit. Nice place for two people to come and eat, or else do takeout.
Parking here can be a pain, but there are more Cambridge meters if you go right past the storefront and turn right.

I think my experience would probably warrant 4.5 stars but I’m going to round up because there isn’t very good Thai food in the Boston area. Also because Manita is just so cute!
This place is probably more for take out as there are only a few small tables and a few stools in terms of seating, but the food I’ve tried so far has all been delicious. I tried the corn appetizer and a spring-​roll type dish whose name I can’t recall right now, and they were both so delicious. Not oily at all, and the latter tasted rather healthy actually. I couldn’t decide between a sweet or spicy curry and they said they could make the massaman curry more spicy! It was unlike any other Thai curry I’ve had before, and in a good way! I think the vegetables could have cooked a little longer, and I was slightly disappointed when the menu said the curry came with sweet potatoes and I found white potatoes in my dish.
I think Manita has a new menu coming up, and I can’t wait to go back and try what else she has in store!
P. S. They make ice cream. It’s kind of delicious. Their Thai tea is also pretty good, and tastes even better because it’s served in a mason jar!

I love this little Thai café! And when I say little I mean LITTLE. There are 2 tables. One is meant for 2 people and the other is meant for 2 but you can fit another chair on the side and finally there is counter seating along the front window.
First time I came here because I wanted my boyfriend to try roti. It’s not as good as the roti canai at Penang but it’s different. Not very malleable but more stiff and crispy. Still good nonetheless. The papaya salad is also slightly different from most as well; again still all right. My boyfriend got Pik Pow chicken his first time and I got Sukothai. GET THE SUKOTHAI. It’s the first time I’ve had it and have never seen it offered anywhere before. It’s the shit man. Deliciously flavorful.
Second time I tried the Tom Yum Soup — don’t get this. Just mushrooms and cilantro in some overly-​lime-​y tom yum broth. Boyfriend got garlic chicken (can you tell he’s white) and I got green duck curry. Similar to my boyfriend’s Pik Pow chicken from the first time, the green curry was very spicy. They do not kid around here; they’re serious with their spice and I like it.
I see more visits to Cha Yen Thai Cookery in the future. I’m definitely going back for the Sukothai.

Sometimes, I get stuck in a rut and feel like everything tastes the same to me, whether it’s greek, chinese, indian, thai, american, or whatever. I can’t think of a flavor I actually want to *taste* (first world problem, I know I know). Then come a place like Cha Yen Thai that blows all other Thai places out of the water. I’ve only been to one other Thai place that had the same effect on me.
I had the Sukothai, full of seafood goodness, spicy and sweet at the same time. My husband had the lemongrass fish (Pla Pad Kun Chai), another flavor we were not familiar with. I wish we lived closer so we can come here more often!
My only complaint — I wish they had more space for tables (they operate more like a takeout joint) and a bathroom that customers could use!