Chai Yo Thai Cuisine

What we thought would be a casual Thai joint in San Mateo turned out to be one of the best veggie meals we've had in a long time. Our group of three split a couple of mainstay dishes including their Papaya Salad, Tom Kha with Tofu, and entrees such as their Fried "Fish" and Minced Basil Soymeat. Everything came in large portions that we were barely able to finish most of them without taking a few bites home. The salad and tom kha were my two favorites - each having so much depth and flavor to each dish. The mock fish was also a standout and really goes well with a serving of rice, so don't forget to order some. Looks like they used to be a fully vegetarian/vegan restaurant but have since started serving animal products. Despite that, I encourage anyone to give them a try because their food and service were fantastic.

Great selections on their menu, and super flavorful!

They offer regular meat, too. I had the vegan penang curry with soy chicken and the soy chicken skewers with the peanut sauce. The appetizer was really nice. Curry was great, not the best I had

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

My favorite Thai place in the Peninsula.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Consistently good food and a nice place to enjoy a meal.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Fantastic Thai place, our go to! Try the spring rolls or the Tom Ka with rice noodles added in!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We went here with high hopes after reading the existing reviews. We ordered a Thai iced tea, chickin satay, fried tofu, yellow curry with jasmine rice, pad ki mao , and two wok dishes - king pri and another one non spicy. Turns out even the spicy dishes are not spiced well and yellow curry was too watery and sweet. Fried tofu was literally fried tofu with not so flavorful sauce on the side. Chicken satay was decent. Overall nothing stood out for us in terms of food and the only real positive was the food was fresh and service was fast. I wouldn't recommend the place for the price we paid but if you like not so flavorful non spicy vegetarian food then I would recommend giving it a shot.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 4

Absolutely Delicious!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Really delicious food here. An excellent selection of vegetarian and vegan options as well which was a delight. We tried the soy chicken satay, the kua gai and the katsu soy chicken. They were all super delicious. We also had the Lychee Iced Tea and Thai Iced Tea which were also great. Highly recommend.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Amazing family owned business with delicious vegetarian and non-veg/meat options as well!

My partner and I are vegetarian and love their pad thai, pad kee mao, yellow curry, and their roti and curry! Delicious, flavorful, and fresh always :)

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Yellow Curry, Coconut Rice, Drunken Noodles, Roti with Yellow Curry

I ordered the chicken spears and they were hard and dry

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 5

Chicken wings, skewers beef noodles. All vegan and super tasty. Amazing place

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Vegan

Delicious food, i ordered chef special vegan duck, so crispy and yummy, loved their bbq fried rice too, the service is awesome and they are very informative on the ingredients if it is vegan or not. 5 star for the food flavor and customer service as well.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The food is tasty and not too sweet or greasy for me. I enjoyed the pineapple fried rice and pad se eew.

Although Google Maps mark it as vegetarian restaurant, you can still find meat option here

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the Thai food here. My son ordered Crispy fish with sweet garlic sauce, and he said it’s as great as the other Thai restaurant that we regularly patronize on the East Bay. I ordered the vegetarian Panang curry and it was delicious. It has fresh vegetable. When I looked at the menu online before coming (perhaps old info), I thought it was a vegetarian/vegan restaurant only . It is actually serving both meat/fish and vegetarian dishes, which fits our family perfectly. I would suggest the owner to change the restaurant description online as vegetarian / vegan friendly. And I would upload the latest menus which include meat/fish.
My son also shared my vegetarian curry and he likes it a lot.
The server was attentive and polite. Food was served fairly quickly.
We definitely will come back again, since it’s close by, to try on other dishes

Vegetarian options: Plenty of choices, and ingredients are fresh! They even have options for you to select tofu or imitated (soy) beef/ shrimp

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5