Champa Garden

I hadn’t been to the original in Oakland for years so we stopped by this new branch and were pleasantly surprised. The space here is much more inviting than Oakland, but the food remains true to its roots. We shared the sampler (sausage was delicious!), papaya salad Lao style, and Larp with pork. Everything was great, and went well with the ice cold Beer Lao. The bar has 3 seats if you want to catch a Dubs game like we did.

Very busy place and I can see why! Despite the wait being longer than usual the food NEVER fails to disappoint. We ordered: wonton noodle soup (REALLY good surprisingly), salmon salad (great tangy flavor), BBQ chicken, and pad kee Mao with beef (spicy!). Everything was delicious and we always accidentally over order but the price is good. Be careful of the hot chili paste there, it is 10x spicier than typical Asian restaurants. My lips were so numb from 1 dallop!

Wow! I never thought I’d randomly (thank you Unilocal!) find an amazing Thai restaurant so close to where I was staying! Bf and I were here for vacay and decided to grab a bite before going to a concert. I noticed that the reviews for here were booming, and they had DUCK CURRY so of course we had to come:
Duck curry:
. Seriously, there was plentiful duck meats and other yummy goodies, swimming in a bowl of creamy, delicious curry that had just a hint of sweetness. I could eat this all day, with OR without rice omg. Bf was stealing bits and pieces of bamboo and duck throughout the meal, but there was plenty to go around so I didn’t mind!
Panang curry: This is much more savory than the duck curry, but also a delicious dish – goes better with rice due to the savoriness. Very rich, very legit. We took it home and I killed almost all of it later that night (only left a spoonful for the poor hungry bf).
Champa wings: The wings had wonderful texture and was cooked to perfection. The sauce was tangy, yet sweet and savory all at once, and the wings themselves were juicy and tender. Another amazing dish.
Service was so-​so – they seemed to be understaffed so flagging down waiters, ordering, getting checks, etc was a bit of a headache. They are definitely a popular restaurant, so having more staff would definitely benefit the store – minus a star for all the waiting, eyeing the waiters with puppy eyes, and desperately trying to flag them down so we wouldn’t be late for our show. I look forward to coming back though, if I am ever back in San Francisco.

Great Thai and Laos fare with extremely reasonable pricing! Ordered the thai-​style larp, fried rice ball salad, pad thai, and special bbq chicken. The highlights of the meal would be the pad thai and the rice ball salad. The lycée sake cocktail was very good, but very sweet– tasted like a lycée jelly cup (which at first was surprising, but actually very tasty.) I’d say this is a great addition to the neighborhood and would definitely come again!

They got better. And thank god for the space. The dishes arent so oily or unbalanced anymore.
The laotian salad and pad see ew are on point.
Kinda wish they had a more rotating menu sometimes since theres no good thai or cambodian places in the city anymore

Yesterday was my first time going to the Champa Garden in San Francisco, I love their Oakland location.
The location is a decent sized space with nice décor. Their menu is the same as their Oakland space, I’d recommend their Champa Sampler, Champa Wings, Catfish Special and Pumpkin Curry among other things. If you have a nut allergy let me know up front and they’ll make sure to accommodate but not including or putting the nuts on the side
Yesterday while we had gotten most of our food the power went out across the entire block. The staff were pretty calm and came by with candles. The kitchen I guess used a gas stove and was still cooking. I guess the telling part is when the power is out and people are still walking in and getting their orders taken. The power came on maybe half an hour later.
The food is great, I’d recommend this to those who like Lao/​Thai food.

I had the appetizer sampler which was great. I loved the salad and the spring rolls. The sausage was a bit spicy which was delicious. A couple friends had different curries and were good but nothing special. They also seemingly forgot about one of my friends order and had to ask several times about it and by the time they brought it out we were already done with our meal. Not to mention the people next to us sat down after we’d ordered and still managed to get all their food before my friend. Service was definitely lacking. I doubt I’ll be back because of location as well. But if you just go… get the sampler!

One of my favourite spots in the city. A transplant from the original in Oaktown, you’ll find this Champa also tucked away in a neighbourhood sort of spot. Let’s think about what we want when we’re thinking Thai/​SEA fare:
— Full spices flavour
— Noodle soups
— Basil stir fry w/​strong wok flavour
— Spicy
— Curries of all colours with no discrimination
Forgive me for spoiling your experience, but Champa does all of that, and has a few extra perks:
— the nicest personnel
— very comfortable and clean space
— AMAZING PRICES
— HUGE PORTIONS
— unique Laotian dishes /​appetizers on top of the typical Thai offerings
WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR?!
There’s a reason there’s a 30 minute line anytime you go in Oakland, come to this lesser known SF gem.

During my recent visit to the bay area, I was taken to Champa Garden to get some papaya salad. I was told that this is one of the only places where Thai/​Lao food were served. While we were there, we decided to dine in instead.
The environment was very clean but dark. A long bench ran along one side of the main dining area. Their hostess/​bar is located on the opposite. They have several square tables that seat 2 on each side, however the tables are small enough to be about to make into a larger configuration if needed.
We had a group of 11. They were able to quickly move the tables to accommodate us.
We ordered: papaya salad; pad thai; padsee ew; beef larb, and their sampler (lao sausage, rice mixed sausage) and sticky rice.
The food was nothing compared to what is served here in the Fresno area. The noodle plates and beef larb had no taste. The best plate may have been the sampler for me.
Their restroom was clean but they ran out of hand foam soap.
The service: The food came quickly. But we were not checked on until the end when we were done with our dinner.
The bottom line, if you have cravings for good Lao/​Thai food, this is not the best place to go. However, if you are desperate, then this place might hold you over for a day.

Something is always «off» here. Most of the food either bland or is strangely missing some essential Lao flavor. It’s as if the recipes were all randomly changed by a senile chef with non-​functioning taste buds.
The servers don’t check in after bringing dishes. Empty glasses sit unfilled. Utensils are missing. Part of the order is lost. The servers are nice, but they’re all a bit clueless when it comes to anticipating needs.
The entire order arrives at once — while you rush to finish your soup and appetizers, the main dishes are chilled by the draft. Speaking of the draft, the double doors send a blast of cold air in every time they’re opened. This is especially disturbing when the temperature is in the 40s. Dress warmly in the winter!
I’ve been coming since they’ve opened. I keep waiting to have a great experience here. However I now know that this is it. It’s never going to be more than mediocre. Oh and the $ 3 for a tiny bowl of rice is an insulting joke.
Although they’ve made some attempts to improve on the cold, sterile concrete box (adding a colored acoustical treatment to the ceiling, placing upholstered seating around the walls) this place retains a chilly feel and it quickly gets loud. And the bland food — not good!

The duck curry is a must! The curry is so creamy and flavorful and the duck just melts in your mouth! It’s also goes well with their sticky rice. I also go their Champa sampler and the dipping sauce was nice and spicy. The rice ball salad was a little bit on the salty side since after I got home I was downing water like crazy. They also ran out of lettuce leaves so instead we asked for some cabbage and it worked well with the rice ball salad. We also got the Kaow poont, which was okay. It wasn’t as flavorful as I expected it to be but it was a huge bowl for $ 8.
Overall, the food was pretty good. I would love to come back and try their other dishes and hoping that the saltiness of the rice ball salad was just a mistake.

This place is great — I would give it a five, if not for the fact that that one of the dishes was too spicy for us (and we have pretty high spice tolerance)! Overall, excellent food, decent service, and elegant décor.
My husband and I shared the following dishes, and were generally quite impressed with the quality of the food:
1) Champa sampler (fried rice, egg rolls, and sausage) — hands-​down amazing! We loved this dish!
2) Duck curry — very flavorful
3) Basil chicken — tasty
4) Pad kee mow — good, but just too spicy for us (my husband, who loves his habanero sauce, found it to be too much, and I had to gulp down my entire water glass!)
The service was polite and prompt, though they never came to check on us mid-​meal to see how we were doing.
The décor was nice — loved the Ganesh painting on the wall!
Overall — a very good spot.

After biking around Golden Gate Bridge for 3 hours, we were starving. I didn’t quite know what to expect with this location because we went through the neighborhoods near Twin Peaks. We thought it was going to be out of a house or something rather. but when we reached the destination it was right next to a cute café and other establishments… guess it was just a shortcut.
There were plenty of street parking and we were able to park right out front for 7pm on a Sunday. That was an added star off the bat from me. This location is definitely on the upscale side compared to the one in Oakland. Modern décor and they even had a bar to watch the game on the flat screens. We were greeted by a nice fella at the door and seated right away.
In regards to the food, I enjoyed everything we ordered! Two of us shared the following:
Champa Garden Sampler– Oh my!!! This is my favorite dish from Champa, period! I was introduced to this dish last year and have always craved it eversince then. This comes with the rice ball salad, lao sausages, noodles and egg rolls. Think lettuce wraps when you order this. It’s a great combination altogether and the (nuoc mam maybe) sauce complements well. This comes with a lot so it’s a perfect dish to share and can be ordered as an entrée alone. This is a MUST HAVE! You’re welcome.
Kasoy– Finally got to try this for the first time. The soup base is ‘fermented bean flavor’ and comes with flat white noodles and tons of pieces of chicken and veggies. My friend said it lacked more cabbage but I actually preferred it the way it was served. This came in an extra large bowl, fyi.
Angel wings– Stuffed chicken wings. Came with two medium sized pieces as this is an item from the appetizer menu. The stuffing looks exactly like what the egg rolls have in them. This was tasty especially with the sauce that it came with… similar to sweet and sour. My friend said he’s had this better at a diff location but I thought it was superb already.
Panang Curry (Chicken or your meat of choice) — I asked for veggies to be added to this dish but that was just my personal preference. It was very good and had a generous amount of chicken unlike other places. Only thing was, I sort of questioned why our server didn’t ask how spicy we wanted this but it was fine because they served it to us mild… if you wanted this spicier then you might want to address that upon ordering.
Thai Iced Coffee– another first time for me. LOVED IT. Somewhere in the middle of a viet coffee and a thai iced tea as you could imagine. It was soo good!
So like I’ve said, everything was delicious and also in generous portions. My only complaint would be that it all came out at the same time… sampler came first then the soup then the angel wings then the curry… by the time we were done wrapping and eating our first «lettuce wrap,» the soup had gotten cold and we had to ask for it to be re-​heated. And as we ate our small bowl of that kasoy, the rest of our dishes were getting cold as well. I really hope they would acknowledge this and work on their time management better. It would certainly make a huge difference.
Overall, my first time here at this location was a great experience! The wait staff were very nice and friendly and always checked on us throughout our whole meal. Altogether with the food, service, location, parking and even bathrooms… it was all up to par. I’ll be back at this location for sure!

My friend (a local) decided to take me here because she said it’s one of her favorite spots, and I can definitely see why.
This place does get busy but we were able to get seats with in 10 – 15 minutes.
We had the drunken noodles, shrimp fried rice, and fresh spring rolls but my favorite dish was the Nam Kaow. It was soooo good that I probably could have ate the entire plate by myself! My friends and I were fighting over the last bit that was on the plate lol Don’t get me wrong, everything else was good but the Nam Kaow had me wanting more!

OH MY GOD I HAVE FINALLY FOUND THE PLACE!!!
Every thai place I go to, I order their pineapple curry to try to find one that closely tastes like Osha Thai’s Prawns Pineapple curry. Osha is expensive ($ 22) so I need to find a cheaper alternative. Today is the day I have found one that alternative. Champa Garden’s Pineapple Shrimp Clay Pot ($ 12). It tastes so much like Osha’s dish just less sweet and less spicy. I am so happy that I have finally found it. I can now order this curry dish whenever I want without breaking the bank. Plus is it’s also close to where I live yay!
Alright enough about the curry. Down to the other stuff. Service is good when there’s no one. It goes downhill when there’s a lot of people. I entered and was not greeted or instructed what to do. I saw a waitlist so I put my name down. The waiter also got my order wrong. Was offered a remake but whatever, they’re busy so it’s ok.
Food was just ok. I had their pineapple fried rice on many occasions. First few times, not that much flavor but this last time, it was heavily salted. Their Pad Se Ew was good. Pad Thai was just meh. Sampler is good but I’m not really into the whole sausage thing.
Definitely going to be coming back for their Pineapple Shrimp Clay Pot. Yee so excited!

Omgggggggg. This is THE best place for Thai food in San Francisco in my opinion. My new favorite place for Thai… In my honest opinion I think sf’s Thai food options are a bit weak, but after eating at champa garden, my opinion of that has changed. Champa garden is THAT good!!!
I got the basil fried rice. I was debating between that and the tom yum fried rice. They both sounded good, so I asked the waiter for his recommendation and he said he preferred the basil fried rice. Thanks for the suggestion because it was yummmmmyyy! It tasted like pad kee Mao but in a fried rice version.
My friend got the pad thai, which was sooo good. He wasn’t hungry since he had eaten earlier, so he didn’t really finish. I happily finished his pad Thai for him, hehehe. It’s like the perfect mix between salty and sweet. The noodles were nice and chewy too.
Prices were not bad either. Less than $ 10 per entrée. which is probably some of the cheapest in the city. I wanna come back! I’m definitely adding this to my dinner rotation suggestions. I wanna try some of the Laotian food. how exotic! ;D

A great spot I enjoy going to whenever I’m in the Ingleside neighborhood! They serve delicious Thai, Laotian fusion dishes, sometimes I eat-​in, sometimes I get take-​out.
Their business has gotten really good, and there is usually a wait around dinner time. They do take reservations so that is a plus. Call ahead of time to check.
Champa Garden serves traditional yellow, orange and red curry. I particularly enjoyed the red curry. Its creamy, rich and just the right amount of spice. If you want fried rice, try the Champas Fried Rice with shrimp cooked in tom yum sauce and onions! It is seasoned with shrimpy flavor in every grain, piping hot and the shrimp is very fresh.
Sometimes it gets really busy and they are obviously understaffed at times, so don’t expect speedy service when that happens.

After frequenting Champa about a half a dozen times, I think it’s safe to say that they’ve grown on me. If it’s your first time here, you should definitely get the Champa Sampler ($ 12). It comes with a flavorful, texturally pleasing rice ball salad (basically really awesome fried rice), Lao sausage, fried spring rolls, and noodles that you can make a lettuce wrap out of. The appetizer dish can easily feed 4 people and really does offer a great variety of options from the menu on one plate.
The Pad See Ew (flat noodles w/​soy sauce and broccoli) and Pad Kee Mao (flat noodles w/​thai basil) are both solid noodle picks and even though I’ve had better Pad Thai elsewhere, if you love it, it’s still worth a shot here. My favorite curry dishes are the duck and pumpkin curries. They’re both delicious over rice and have a good amount of meat and veggies.
I’ve ordered the fried catfish special with chili oil sauce and while it did have an impressive presentation, there wasn’t very much actual fish to it. Not to mention it had tons of bones and the actual deconstruction process was challenging. Still tasty, but not worth it.
Fried banana w/​coconut ice cream is always a favorite and big enough to share. I just wish the fried banana was a tad crispier!
All the servers are friendly and even though I’ve encountered slow service during busier hours, they’re pretty good about noticing you when you flag them down. Champa has a well-​rounded menu, affordable prices, and pretty good food. My go-​to Thai restaurant in the neighborhood and easily one of the best restaurants along Ocean Avenue!

Cool nice little restaurant.
Came in for dinner when it was half full. Then after 10 minutes or so, people started rolling in since it was dinner time.
Looking at the menu, they have so many food choices to choose from
1. Champa sampler: something you have must. It comes with lao sausage (has that spicy pepper sauce), fried spring roll, and fried rice ball salad. It also comes with lettuce and mint and fish sauce so you can it like lettuce wrap.
2. Eggplants with beef and bell pepper: good amount of flavor from whatever sauce they pour the sauce over this dish
3. Larp salad — laos style with chicken — it has that spicy after taste after you take a bite out of it but its still good.
4. Pad kea moa aka drunken noodle with pork: it has a lite flavor from soy sauce.
I enjoyed my meal here for dinner with couple friends. Friendly staff. They brought out our food at a reasonable amount of time. Since it was a little busy, they werent attentive as much. But its okay the foods here were yummy and we were just minding to our own food. Will come here again on another occasion

You HAVE to try the fried spring rolls they are crazy delicious. You get these little fried sushi sized pieces of spring roll and wrap them in basil, cilantro, noodles and lettuce and dip it in this sauce and its SOOOO GOOOOD I’ve never eaten spring rolls this way I’ve obviously been missing out my entire life.
I also ordered the eggplant basil stir fry with tofu as the protein option. Their tofu (meat) to vegetable ratio in these dishes are wack, I mean if you enjoy eating that much tofu you’d be in heaven but I could barely eat half the tofu but finished all the veggies. Next time I’m going to ask for half that amount of tofu… I was drowning in tofu. So minus one star for tofu overdose, but otherwise everything was great!