Chaba Thai Noodle & Grill

Wow, what a fantastic meal. This is yet another gem of a find.

Let's start with the basics: it's a small, mom & pop family restaurant with an unassuming storefront and location. It's the kind of place you come back again and again because they produce a good product.

Sad they are closed.

The Pad Thai was amazing!
The Thai iced coffee was nasty! Yucky!
Pad Thai was on point though. I will need to go back and explore other food options.

Yelp challenge 2015 25/365 *updated review*

Chaba Thai and
Close Your eyes
And you will eat
A big surprise

Chaba Thai Noodle and Grill located at the corner of Knott and Cerritos, is a true hidden gem that has been a local Thai stop of mine for years. Easy in and easy out. And they deliver for FREE!! Up to 3 miles. I can either drive a minute or two, or have them bring it to my front door.

This place is tiny, Im talking a few tables. Its nothing fancy by any means. But it is fresh, made to order, catered to your level of heat. I like it hot, so I get it medium. It has just enough fire in it to burn my lips, and make my eyes water and I love it. They offer Thai iced coffee and Thai ice tea to put out the eat.

I usually order the cashew chicken, which is pretty good. Its made with chicken, mixed veggies, water chestnuts and cashews bathed in a light sauce. I pair it along with some kind of noodle dish, Pad Thai or drunken noodle. The hubsters likes the BBQ chicken or curry chicken.

The hubsters and I do disagree on the 5 stars. He gives it closer to a 4 than a 5. But service can either make it and break it for me. Service via phone and in person has always been wonderful and on target. Prices are always cheap. Iced Coffee has always been yummy.

Solid 4- 4.5 stars for service, price and variety.

*updated*

Our first time here. We were craving some Thai food and stumbled thru this on Yelp. It was so yummy!! The service was so nice too.

Starting from the beginning; it's a little hard to find because the restaurant is in a really small area n the sign lights are half lit up half not. So it took us a while but we found it eventually. The lady was extremely kind when we got there. The place was empty so we had it to ourselves.

I was confused between pad Thai and pad se ew. I got the last choice. And can I just say that it was absolutely delicious!! So so good and tasty. I loved it! I loved the amount of spice and flavor with the tofu and veggies in.

My friend got the drunken noodles with tofu n she got it with spicy. She loved em so much. We both enjoyed our dishes immensely !! Will def come back here!! So good.

I'm not happy to do it, but I have to update this review...

While I would have recommended this place in the past, I don't anymore. It's a very casual place, so service and ambiance don't mean a whole lot here, but I do care about food safety and I don't feel safe eating here. As I get older, I have become more cautious about restaurants with less than stellar food handling.

On our last visit:
-One friend had a fly creep out of the middle of his beef salad. It crawled out like it had been in there for a while and lost its ability to fly. I know that flies can happen almost anywhere, but if a restaurant leaves their front and back/kitchen doors open, I think this increases the odds (and is probably a health code violation).

-My brown rice tasted old. Like yucky-refrigerator-tasting-old. When I mentioned it to the employee, she said they make it fresh everyday and maybe it got dried out. It wasn't dry, it tasted rotten. I don't need excuses and I really don't believe this rice was less than 24 hours old. Sorry to my table mates who I made taste it to make sure it wasn't just me.

-Sweet and sour tofu entree was not heated properly. They obviously rushed through this dish and did not cook it thoroughly. I've experienced restaurant food that has cooled a little in the kitchen or on its way to me but is still hot in the middle. This dish was warm on the outside but not even close to hot on the inside. Improperly heated food can be very dangerous and I'm not taking my chances with this. If they don't take the time to properly cook food, what else are they taking shortcuts on in the kitchen? I don't want to gamble with my health.

I liked this place and want to give little shops a chance and give them my business, but not when I am concerned about the way they handle food and how it may impact my health.

Although the presentation gets an A+, the som tum (Traditional Papaya Salad) felt more like I was eating a salad with lime dressing. It didn't look like they put any of the items in a pestle which mashed the flavors together. It wasn't up to par with what I normally have so I was a little disappointed. I would have paid and usually pay more for this particular item at other restaurants. Try Kapows Thai Cuisine's Som Tum which is currently my favorite. (full review on that). It's my opinion that some restaurants are excellent at some items while others are terrible at others.

On the other hand, I ordered Pad Kee Mao (drunken noodle). By the time I ate this one my mouth was already on fire, so I couldn't finish the dish, and I had already consumed all my water. This was an good sized portion and excellent taste from other restaurants. They cooked this with a high fire which added much to the taste of the noodle.

All in all, I would come back and perhaps when I bring a friend I will order less spicy than what I'm accustomed to since the additive effect of all the dishes was quite overwhelming.

This hole in the wall restaurant is tucked away off of Cerritos and Knott ave. The parking area is the next fenced lot next to the car wash, it's in the same parking lot as the liquor store and the laundry mat. You wouldn't expect to find a Thai restaurant in this area. Don't let the looks fool you, I found the food to be delicious.

We ordered Pad Thai with tofu, an egg plant dish, yellow curry with shrimp, and some kind of Thai salad. My favorite dish was the Yellow Curry, I paid an extra $2 for shrimp. Other choices were chicken, beef or veggies. I liked all the dishes, but my fav was the curry. I was not disappointed with the food. Everything was good. I will definitely return and try something else.

I used to like this place. Pretty decent Thai food for a small hole in the wall place. But why does it seem like everyone here hates working here.

The greeting and vibes I get from here are just downright upsetting. Hospitality is a big part of a restaurant. Not only does the food need to taste good, but anyone representing your store should have a smile on their face and be happy to have any guest there.

You lost me as a customer. I can get Thai food all over the OC. Nothing about this place makes me want to come back.

Yelp did not let me down for this lunch stop. The place is very clean but small and I recommend this stop for lunch but probably not date night. Walk up to order but they will bring your order to you. The food is very good. I highly recommend the Thai iced coffee. The sweet will help put out the fire if you overdo the hot peppers and such you can add to your meal. The potstickers were good but I've honestly had better. The Pad Thai was the star of the meal and very good. I had mine with chicken and it was very good. I did overdo the peppers with some innocent looking green ones. Whooo! Try it for lunch!

FOOD POISONING .... FOOD POISONING ...
I was SO glad to find out that this place got shut down! There have been many people that got FOOD POISONING from Chaba Thai. = Also, the delivery guy they had would mess with the food that probably contributed to it, and I made sure to put that information in the county report I filed (plus info on unsanitary prep in the kitchen). But be careful, because the "new" little restaurant that has replaced Chaba Thai reportedly has the same staff... and the new place is called 'Mine Eathai'... so I definitely will not be eating there, and others should be leery of this "new" place too unless you don't mind food poisoning.

Also, for future reference yelpers, if you or someone you know ever gets food poisoning from a restaurant... not only should you report it to the city the restaurant lives in, but you can also file two other reports with the county and the state that you live in.