Gumrai Thai

I heard many great things of this restaurant and I was finally in the area to try it. The young man at the door was very nice, greeted me and brought me to my table. I ordered the sampler platter which had 3 Crab Ragon (which were pretty good, the homemade sauce was different then the normal sweet & sour sauce), 3 Fried Pot Stickers (which were very tasty with the sweet soy sauce), and 3 Egg Rolls (which were very disappointing. It had so much cabbage in it and no taste of anything else. )

I also ordered the Khao Soi with Fried Tofu and specified that i want Crispy Tofu. It was fried for sure but it was like they pre fried it and then put it in the curry. It wasn't Crispy at all. The noodles were luke warm not hot in temperature. I've had Khao Soi before and it's usually more flavorful then this. You usually taste the spiciness from the curry, they usually put pickled cabbage in it for the tartness with the lime. But unfortunately they didn't have pickled cabbage. They had Shallots, cilantro, ginger and lime. Overall it was ok. If you ask if I would be back. Unfortunately, no I will not be returning to this restaurant.

Also, the ambiance was very clean. But in the women's restaurant it smelled like someone was smoking inside or near there. It smelled really bad.

The One Star is for the only young man with glasses serving who tried hard to make everyone happy. I understand working in a restaurant where your not familiar with the food can be hard. I feel the young boy needs a bit more training on Thai food.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2

Ordered take out and food was ok. Certainly not the best Thai food I had but not the worst either. I definitely don’t think it was worth it for the price. Mostly giving 4 stars because they didn’t even include utensils, napkins, or condiments. You’d think at that price they would include something. Wish I hadn’t left a tip.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 3

I should have read other reviews before trying out this place. What they serve IS NOT THAI FOOD! Pad kee mao is not supposed to be sweet like pad thai. What i got was very greasy, slimy mushy noodles in overly sweet red sauce. Noodles were way overcooked so were all cut into small pieces and had no texture. Beef pieces were tough like beef jerky. The flavor of the sauce was very weird, not thai not chinese, a very weird sweet suace that i never tasted before. Khao soy, flavor wise, it was not bad. But again the noodles were overdone. You can very easily tell the cooks do not know how to cook thai food or even just cooking noodles or veggies properly. they were not trained properly. If i was the owner of this restaurant and if i saw similar reviews where people complain about the quality of the food, i would do something about it. Another thing i wanted to mention was they had latin music playing from inside the kitchen so loud. It was not a pleasant dining experience, food was bad.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 2

The best Tom Yum sea food in NW suburbs!
Highly recommended!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Excellent Pad Thai and beef Panang! We will be back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great value. Delicious food.

Vegetarian options: Tofu

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Yellow Curry

Great place with amazing food, spacious dining room and lovely staff! I always get leftovers for the next day!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Curry Fried Rice, Crab Rangoon 6pcs, Thai Curry, Beef Salad, Satay, Pad Thai, Chicken Satay, Yellow Curry, Peanut Sauce

This place is the best place to try Thai food. I don’t live near by, but when my niece told that we should try this place it did not disappoint. The service was 10/10. The staff makes you feel welcome, not only that but the place is such a good vibe. I asked the waitress on what she recommended and she had told me that about the curry’s and noodles. I order a chicken panang curry and my niece got the vegetable pad thai. The curry was delicious and it was delicious you can tast the coconut milk a bit. I ended up trying my nieces noodles and those were amazing too. As a dessert we ended up sharing the banana custard and the banana sticky rice. Both of them 10/10. If you haven’t tried the banana sticky rice you should. It was covered around this green leaf with I later on found out you’re not supposed to eat it. It looks and taste really good. The custard was amazing too, it was topped with Chocolate syrup and crushed peanuts. This place did not disappoint and I highly recommend it. After all, I think the price is decent and affordable. You go somewhere else and you will be spending the same amount for only two people.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Satay, Pad Thai, Panang Curry

The worst thai food we have ever had and worst dining experience in general. I strongly advise to stay away from this place if you don’t want get sick or simply disappointed.
We entered the place on Saturday’s afternoon and was completely empty. We were one and only clients but the servers still didn't pay attention to us. The waitress gave us a face and didn’t even asked how we liked the food. But she had no problem with asking for a tip.
Silverware was dirty and gross.
But still - food was the worse, absolutely disgusting. Both tofu and shrimp dishes were simply soaked in the oil or some of fatty sauce and overstuffed with soy sauce. Egg in pad thai was smelly.
We are still amazed how servers can be that rude and careless.
I wouldn’t recommend this place to my enemy.
Not really sure if inedible pad thai is worth almost $18.
I regret that I didn’t speak to the manager.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Here is a summary of our experience from Saturday 8/10/2024 in order.
- We entered this place around 4pm on Saturday and it was completely empty. Staff looked uninterested, utensils weren't clean and the whole ambiance just seemed odd. We still decided to try this place, so we ordered a tofu appetizer and two noodle dishes. Our server acted indifferent making us feel like intruders. She looked at how we moved bar/drink menu to the side and exhaled saying "so you don't want this". Fast forward and we're 15+ mins later and I am absorbing knowledge from other recent negative reviews left on google. It's all starting to come together... Appetizer finally shows up on our table with no further words and eye contact from our server. It's very greasy and soaked in oil.
- Both main dishes are ready on the table and... calling them mediocre or even thai would be a huge compliment. It's not that they lack flavor or something. They both taste like a mess drowning in too much sauce and it was just unacceptable to serve quality wise. I forced myself to eat most of my entree while my wife just couldn't handle that. We looked around multiple times and saw our server on her phone by the bar/front desk area. No communication and no interpersonal skills coming from her whatsoever. I get how we all have problems and good and bad days, but maybe consider trying to pretend that you care especially if you're in service/customer service industry?!
- Overall, we felt like we were trespassing patiently waiting for someone to approach us to inform that we were a part of some weak hidden-camera prank. Sadly that was not the case here. Feeling like we hit a jackpot of negative restaurant related things and issues from the food to service and to the general 'restaurant' vibe.
- By the time we asked for a check and for a takeout box our server seemed to realize that something was wrong, but she did not bother to ask. The tension concluded when I attempted to pay by putting my card in a server book & the server took it out standing right by me with a card terminal where I had to press multiple buttons to leave a 10% tip. It definitely felt odd with her just standing above me looking at that screen all the way until the end.
- I have two major regrets. The first one relates to curiosity, because I really wanted to try this thai place since I drove by it many times. This place felt off since we sat down and I regret not getting up to leave before I got myself & my wife in this mess. We do have two thai restaurants that we regularly visit and thinking about expanding that list by giving this 'restaurant' a chance was not a wise choice. The second regret relates to not being vocal about a number of mess ups that turned into big disaster, but at the same time I was aware that everything that could possibly go wrong actually went wrong, so there was no way of offering an acceptable solution or 'fix'.

I almost forgot the thrill associated with driving back home where we were contemplating whether we'll get sick from ingesting this food.

TL;DR avoid now and thank me later

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

Place is really cool and really good food really clean and nice

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Curry Fried Rice, Crab Rangoon 6pcs, Basil Fried Rice, Pad Thai, Orange Chicken

Delicious food, we enjoyed leftovers for days. Very friendly staff. Would definitely return again!

Kid-friendliness: My daughter loved the food

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Crab Rangoon 6pcs, Basil Fried Rice, Thai Curry

I was disappointed with my recent visit to Gumrai Thai. It is our favorite Thai restaurant and we have visited many times, usually it’s a 5 star experience. We brought out of town guests and had a party of 10. Our food took an hour to be served. Our waiter did not check on us, and we had to waive him down to refill our waters.

I understand he does not control how fast the food comes out, but it would have been nice to get some updates and at least refill our waters or ask if anyone needed anything. He also told us at the end of the night as we were paying our bill that they are short staffed. Again, this is understandable but it would’ve been more helpful to tell us at the beginning so we could adjust our expectations. The restaurant appeared pretty empty but I’m guessing the kitchen was busy with take out orders. I am a patient person but a 1 hour wait with no explanation or apology is unacceptable to me. The food was good but I hope they can improve their service.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 1

Recommended dishes: Curry, Pad Thai

Worst dining experience ever.

The Panang curry (I get the combination, beef, chicken, and shrimp ) is amazing! One of my top five favorite dishes anywhere). I’ve had it six times in the last 3 months and it’s consistently wonderful with a nice amount of spice. Kantigo is the manager and always very welcoming. The red curry is also very good.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5