Elephant Café

We are new to Thai food. We’ve had it before but not often. Chose Elephant Café based on a recommendation from a friend and Unilocal reviews.
It was a very hot day and several outdoor events going on around town. Therefore, not many people in the restaurant. We were greeted warmly and offered to sit anywhere. The waiter’s friendliness never changed throughout the meal. He was very helpful, patient and respectful with great recommendations.
We started with the spring rolls which were very refreshing on a 90 degree day. The were light and the vegetables were very crisp. The dipping sauce was very flavorful and the perfect compliment to the spring rolls. I then had the Tom Kha soup based on my friend’s recommendation. It was fantastic as was my wife’s ginger soup. Our waiter recommended the pad siew (I’ve had pad thai and wanted something new). I’m very happy we went with the recommendation. There was a great balance between sweet and salty; soft and crunchy. Great dish. The pineapple fried rice had a great curry flavor, wish it had more pineapple though.
As with most parents, we don’t get a night without kids often. However, I’d gladly use that freedom to return to Elephant Café.

Wow. Great Thai food. Everything was amazing. Delicious pork spring rolls, and the hot pot was beyond amazing. Best Thai soup I have ever had. Complex, and perfectly spicy. Enough to hurt a little, but not enough to make my head explode. (Spicy level «4», if you want to know. I would have to be brave to try the «5»).
Attentive service, and a comfortable atmosphere too! I can’t recommend this place enough. Well done!

The owners of EE-​Sane also own Elephant Café, which is a hint alone that the Thai food is great. Located on Farwell, the restaurant has a quiet atmosphere. Good for groups of 2 – 5. Serves alcohol. Closed on Mondays.
First of all, Elephant Café has the best Tom Kha with Tofu soup I have tried in Milwaukee! Tried the Pad Basil and Ginger Delight once, and was disappointed only because I absolutely love the flavor of the Fried Rice entrees better, especially the Pineapple Fried Rice– Simple, but hits the spot. Also, GREAT curry. The menu has a wide range to choose from. Order your food with 3 or 4 spice level for a kick, and a 2 spice level if you can’t handle as much spice. Great portions. And don’t forget to save room for dessert!

Wonderful place to come, excellent food and service. The satay chicken and shrimp spring rolls are delicious! But the green curry chicken entrée was the best!

Great food!!! A definite place to go if you love Thai. Spring rolls and squid appetizers were perfect. The shrimp yellow curry dish was perfect.

Solid thai food. Beware — spice scale is serious! Service is a little slow, but food is worth it.
Tom Kha w Shrimp — Really nice flavors here, but maybe lacking a little more coconut flavor. Shrimp was very tender. Recommend, especially on a cold day! «Bowl» is enough for an entrée for 1, or app for 2
Pad thai — classic judge of any Thai restaurant. Elephant’s is quite good! Noodles might be a little sticky, and there weren’t enough peanuts for the amount of pad thai, but overall a good dish
Yellow curry — good flavor. We got really odd gluey rice though (was promptly replaced when asked)

got some chicken pad se ew to go… when i picked up the bag it seriously felt like it weighed 5lb. amazing amount of food, at least 2 meals’ worth. the flavor was on point, too… better than thainamite. i will definitely come back again!

My coworker introduced me to this place.
The food is fantastic — they have lunch specials are greatly priced.
My only complaint is the service can be slow. I don’t know if it’s because when we go during the week, there only appears to be one waitress. But for the working folk who have a limited time for lunch, timeliness is key.

Nice clean place.
Came here for the first time to try it out and since it’s the sister restaurant to EESANE, definitely did had to try it out.
Well, I ordered egg rolls and a bowl of phở. My lady ordered their version of crispy duck and some fried rice.
Their egg rolls came out a bit burnt throughout. Left a terribly after taste. After that, my phở came out and it was terrible phở. Their version of crispy duck was good, I liked it but the fried rice, not my personal like but I can see why folks like it.
The phở tho… don’t go here for phở. Just dont.

Delicious food, it’s my go-​to for Thai food. I even prefer it over ee-​sane which is another local thai food restaurant. I typically get the Pad Thai, on of their curries or Papaya Salad (which I love but is hard to find) an often pick it up or get delivery rather than eat in. The food is spicier than you would expect (which I love). If you typically order Indian or Chinese food as «spicy“pick a level 3, which has a good kick. If you prefer it more mild, I recommend a 1 or 2. One time I ordered a new item that was highly recommended, however it very bland and not good (the rest of my usual order was good). I called them to tell them about my bad experience, and they apologized, notified me there was a new chef in the kitchen and then refunded me the money for the dish, which was appreciated and made me feel like a valued customer!

Take out here is always easy, fast, and delicious. The wait time and service while eating at the restaurant is hit or miss, but the food is worth it.

Was excited to find this place as it is a 5min walk from our condo. U fortunately whenever I pick it up-​everyone there is very unfriendly. I am not looking for in depth conversation but some eye contact wouldn’t hurt.
Twice I have ordered pad thai. They are not joking when they ask spice level-​I once did a level 4 and had to throw it away bc it was so damn hot-​and I like hot. The next time just to be cautious I did level 2 which still had some heat but was fed more tolerable. Nothing like what I had in Thailand but definitely not the worst PT I’ve ever had. The Panang curry on the other hand was not good-​not good at all. Watery and not much chicken-​blah. Their egg roles are so/​so, definitely have had worse.
Will probably continue to order bc of location but I will not hold out for a smile…

This is my new favorite take-​out spot. I have yet to try something I don’t love and the service is always fantastic.

This place is bigger on the inside! Seriously there is a surprisingly spacious dining area in the back. Our waitress on a weekday lunchtime was very sweet, conscientious, swift and accommodating. Their Thom Ka soup was amazing! Creamy texture with plenty of spice and flavor. I don’t know if they serve it every day though — it was the soup of the day. I loved their green curry dish with chicken and will be taking it home for dinner very soon!

Came here and was looking forward to it with all the reviews I had read. The family and I were seated quickly In a rather small eating area. The whole restaurant must have had a total of 10 tables and two servers.
We ordered the egg rolls, the tofu spring rolls, papaya Salad and chicken satay as appetizers to start off our meal. And then ordered three main dishes for the family and chicken wings for me. Little did we know this would be one of the few times we would ever see our server.
It took nearly an hour to get the first appetizer without a visit from our server too. The spring rolls came out and were bland. Seemed to miss something. 15 minutes later we received the egg rolls. Again no flavor. The chicken satay finally comes out after maybe 15 more minutes. The presentation was nice with the little mini grill.
We ask how much longer for the dishes as we had been waiting for well over an hour and the severs apologized and advised the kitchen was busy. That would be nice to know and it was stated as a matter of fact instead of with empathy. It would have been nice if the servers were more attentive too. The bare min is to refill the water cup. Hmm. Mine was empty for quite a while. And stayed empty till the end of dinner.
We were ready to cancel our meals. But the main dishes finally come out. Of course one at a time and well spaced out in time. (sarcastic).
Then we realize the papaya salad never came out. It was an appetizer! It finally comes out nearly two hours after our order. Needless to say we barely ate any of it. We were ready to go and it took 20 minutes before I could get the servers attention to get to go boxes and the check. I walked around the restaurant and there were only three tables with guests. Why did it take so long to get any attention ???
Pathetic service. Absolutely pathetic. Food was just ok. Would never recommend this place unless you like to be annoyed avoided and angered.

Their food is delicious, last time I ordered they have not disappoint me… Simply delicious

Unlike other Thai places in Milwaukee they pre-​make their fried appetizers like crab Rangoon, other Thai places make them fresh and you can request them as you like. Lazy of them.

Excellent place! I am eating it twice this week. A smaller, homey place with great service. Food may take a while depending on when you go, but totally worth it!

The restaurant is an fairly short walk from the McKinley marina, where we were docked for the night — we typically stick to restaurants on Brady Street, but fellow Unilocalers steered us to Elephant Café and we were not disappointed. The only hitch is that the restaurant closed after lunch service; we arrived at 4:30pm and had to wait a half hour for the restaurant to re-​open. It was a beautiful night, and there was a bench outside, so no problem… but with a different mood or a different state of hunger, we would have moved on. Call first.
Service was friendly and attentive. The chicken satay and red curry chicken were delicious, hot and served promptly. Portion sizes are generous. My husband ordered his meal with a 3 out of 5 for heat, and I went with a 2.5… we were also given the option of making it spicier with pepper flakes, if necessary (it wasn’t).
There is nothing fancy nor objectionable about the décor, and floors/​tables were very clean. The restaurant was not crowded, but they were doing a healthy carry-​out business for a Tuesday evening. We’ll be back.

Ever since this little place popped up on Farwell Ave., I’ve always wanted to try it, but never seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Last night, I finally decided to address the (**lame joke warning**) «Elephant» in the room, and check it out. Oh man, I’m so glad I did!
We started out with Thai Iced Coffees, which are always a must at any Thai place, and Tofu Spring Rolls. DANG! Those spring rolls are HUGE and delicious… and that peanut dipping sauce tho… I could bathe in it.
Then for the main course, I ordered the Squash Curry and my lovely lady ordered the Mee Heng. Each dish knocked it out of the park! The Squash curry has a really nice blend of veggies and squash slices and the amazing, peanut sauce-​like curry sauce was plentiful. I ordered it at a spice level of three. This made it spicy enough to have a pleasant burn, but not enough to make you have a runny nose or cause you to chug water the entire time you eat.
The Mee Heng was awesome as well. The thin noodle base with fresh veggies and herbs, like cilantro and mint, and chicken on top made this dish very feel very fresh, light and satisfying, but did not leave you with that heavy, Asian-​take-​out like feeling in your tummy. The chili sauce really pulls the Mee Heng dish together in the end. She ordered with a spice level two, and the spice was there, but barely noticeable.
The portion sizes were huge for each dish and provided a sizable portion for left overs the next day, even though we had a serious struggle about deciding when to stop eating. IT WAS JUST SOOO GOOD, WE COULDN’T STOP!
All in all, this place has taken the crown as my new favorite Thai place in Milwaukee. Can’t say enough about how genuine this food felt and tasted. Did not get the traditional, Asian-​take-​out feel at all from this place.

I hardly ever have anything bad to report at any restaurants; however, this one took the cake. I put all of the onus on the management here. Although I understand it was a Sunday evening, they were understaffed and the staff did not appear to be well trained in dealing with that kind of rush.
First were were told that a table of four would be 30 minutes, when there were open tables and an open bar area without any indication if there was a reservation that we would be infringing on if they were to seat us (they did put some tables together to seat us about 10 minutes later). When people in our party had questions about the menu they were met with dull, uneducated answers. It took between 15 – 20 minutes before anyone even took our drink order. They had also run out of one of the appetizers we asked for and we didn’t hear about it until 10 minutes after we placed the order.
Now that I am finished documenting what was wrong I can tell you that there are some very good things about this restaurant that would make me willing to give it one last shot. For one, the satay chicken was a very tasty and fun appetizer. It came out with a tiny grill for you to add some additional char if you desired, which was a nice touch. The food itself was quite good, although I wish they had given me the option to make my curry spicier like most other Thai restaurants do. The fried rice and Crying Tiger were excellent and the Thai ice tea was quite good as well.
If you guys can redeem yourself with better service this would be one of the better Thai restaurants I have tried in Milwaukee.

Generous portions! My BF and I had plenty for lunch the next day, which js a rare occurrence. 1. Pad Thai– ok, not the best I’ve had and I prefer pad thai that is drier and less sauce. This one was quite saucy, however it was not too sweet or didn’t have an overwhelming peanut flavor.
2. Volcano Duck– pretty good, great flavor and loved the crispy outer skin on the duck. On the sweet side, not spicy enough for me.
Overall, good experience came in around dinner time on a Friday night and was seated and served right away.

I unfortunately had a disappointing experience at Elephant Café last night. It was 7pm on a Saturday night, but only a few tables were full. Fine by us, especially because we got seated right away.
Even though it wasn’t that busy, it still took an hour for our two curry dishes to be brought out. After waiting 50 minutes, our waitress told us their rice cooker had broken and we had to pick either brown rice or rice noodles to eat our curries with.
When the food (finally) came out, it was tasty. The green curry was especially good. However, my mussuman was odd. It was lacking in potatoes and peanuts and was way too heavy on the green and red peppers. Personally, not my preference for a mussuman curry dish.
Very unlikely we’ll be back, as the service just completely turned us off.

Best asian food I have ever had, by far. I decided to try Elephant Café due to my girlfriend’s friend request and I was not disappointed. This is the second time I have had thai food and the other time was at «The Taste of Madison» so I guess I cannot compare basically a food truck to a restaurant.
I decided to come to this spot around 6:00 on a cold Wisconsin Sunday night with my mom and girlfriend. The place wasn’t busy at all, which concerned us a bit since it was dinner time on the weekend with no Packer game. The staff greeted us with a smile, and we felt at home. The decorations weren’t the typical asian everywhere in your face décor which was nice. Very casual but a nice feel. It was quite cold sitting by the window. Prices are very good for the amount of food you get. Fresh ingredients were obviously used. I also really like how they give you a spicy rating system 1 – 5 which is unique.
1. Mee-​Heng — OMG. The perfect combination of noodles, chicken, AMAZING sweet chili sauce, and a great addition of ground peanuts. This was seriously the best asian dish I have ever had in my life. The portion sized was also generous. I am not a small person to say the least and this filled me up nicely. You know how you get that kinda gross feeling after eating Chinese food? Never got a hint of that. I WILL be back and their is a good chance I will get this again. I ordered the 2 spiciness level.
2. Oyster Sauce Delight — If you’re looking for a perfect serving of veggies with white rice and delicious oyster sauce, Oyster Sauce Delight is your go-​to. This was also my girlfriend’s first time trying Thai food in a restaurant. She said she loved it so much she wants to come back for more AND crab rangoons. Ordered the 1 spiciness level.
3. Pork Egg Rolls — Unlike other restaurants that use packaged frozen egg rolls, Elephant Café does not. These outside of the roll is a flaky wonderful texture that wasn’t too hard or too soft. The plum sauce was really really good. Had a bit of spiciness end too it that made it different than other sauces. They served us three of them at only 3.75. Just a really good appetizer at a great price.
Elephant Café is a perfect place for a first date, family gathering, or just a night out with some friends. Alright staff who are willing to assist you with any questions or concerns you may have. Definitely a great Thai food joint that I will be back to numerous times.

So, I know we ordered a 3… Also defined as medium on the mild to spicy scale. But I found the food inedible. And I’m no weakling. Nor were the others with us. It’s too bad, because we have a table full of food and no one can eat.
When we tried to address the server about the issue, she laughed it off: apparently we can’t handle spice. That’s neither true nor good customer service.

Living on the eastside, I had been meaning to stop into Elephant Café ever since it opened. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that my boyfriend and I actually went for a date night and tried it out. and it was SO good!
It was a Friday night around 7pm when we walked in. The tables were full, so we just decided to eat at the bar. The bartender helped us pick out some beers (I wanted to try a Thai one) and was super friendly. I ordered the Thom Kah soup for an appetizer after the bartender’s recommendation. I’m glad I did because it was really good. Interesting, but good! It definitely had a kick to it that I wasn’t expecting, but it was manageable. Note: I am so sensitive to spice, as in, I order a 0 or 1 when I go to Thai places. Others may not find this soup spicy at all.
For dinner, I ordered the Squash Curry. I can’t remember what my boyfriend ordered, but it was one of the curry dishes. We both really loved our food. He ordered a level 4 spice (we’re opposite!) and was sweating! But, he said it was the good kind of hot/​spicy where the dish still had a ton of flavor. We were both so full after dinner that we didn’t have room for dessert.
I definitely recommend Elephant Café; we had a great experience and will be back :)

Same owners as EE-​Sane.
Same cuisine as EE-​Sane (for the most part.)
This is a good thing, people.
The ambiance is cozier and a little more inviting/​chic, but aside from that?
Elephant Café = nestled right next to the Pasta Tree on Farwell. At first I was all «Why would they open an almost identical place just a few blocks away from the OG?» And then I was all «I don’t care this is DELICIOUS and FANTASTIC and I’m coming back for sure. For real.»
The menu at Elephant is pared down in comparison to EE-Sane’s. They have phở, however (to the best of my knowledge EE-​Sane does not) as well as a few other items that looked delightful that I didn’t recognize as being available at EE. (Some sort of bean thread soup and a pretty solid array of salad options including papaya, to name just a few.)
We started with the shumai (pork-​stuffed wontons). Delicious!
L ordered phở and was quite pleased with it, and I finally tried that squash curry that everyone just raves about… and guess what? ALL OF YOU WERE RIGHT AS RAIN about that dish. It’s flavorful, rich, delicious… seriously.
Of note: Elephant does their spice scale different than EE, too. EE = 1 – 10, Elephant = 1 – 5. This spice-​loving yet still interested in tasting food gal? I ordered my dish at a 3 and it was just about perfect.
Check ‘em out!