Araya's Place-Vegan Thai Food: Restaurant Review

After a disappointing meal and food selection, my friends and I decided to walk around and see what would be another good alternative for lunch. At first we were skeptical about this place, because they were doing Thai food but Vegan! I love Thai food, and I know they use a lot of fish sauce and different meats and seafood, so I was curious to see how the dishes would turn out to be.

Walking into this place was even a nice experience. From the street, you're not quite sure what to expect, but when you walk further into the path to the restaurant, you see a beautiful deck space with seating available along with lovely decorations surrounding the space.

Inside is nice and bright with white walls and seating and open spaces for natural light. It was a very warm and welcoming place.

The Salad bar right by the entrance with different choices of condiments, salads, kimchi, fruits and different pickled veggies.

We absolutely loved the Thai iced tea/ iced coffee. Since this is a vegan restaurant, the 'cream' that was used for this drink is either soy milk or coconut milk, whichever you prefer! I had the Thai iced tea with coconut milk and it was really good and tasted almost as if it was a regular Thai tea, just with a hint of coconut to it.  Of course, since it was iced, the coconut milk would solidify a little bit, but it's nothing a little stirring can't fix. PLUS, the drinks were served in little mason jars with handles!!! How frikken cute!

 

 

We went during lunch so there was a special deal going on where you could choose either; Pad Thai, Pa-nang Curry and a couple other entrée courses, and you get rice, egg rolls, and the salad bar all for around $12. Not a bad deal!

 

 

I got the Pa-nang curry and loved the sweetness in it. It was interesting to see how the flavor would pan out without any fish sauce, but it was pretty legit! I liked the addition of the coconut milk too for a creamier touch. The only downside was the amount of zucchini in this dish. I'm not a huge fan of zucchini, so this made a good left over for my mom. The tofu was good and this was enough food for me to bring for lunch the next day.

 

 

 

 

And of course, what is a trip to a Thai restaurant without some mango sticky rice or black rice

pudding?!

The mango was nice and sweet, not too tart, and the rice wasn't mushy or too hard and was flavored just right with the right amount of saltiness.

As for the black rice pudding, it was a nice change because it had coconut ice cream on top (made vegan of course out of coconut milk).

 At one point of my life (like a couple years ago), I was addicted to the black rice pudding and would have to eat it once a week. It was just something I would crave and had to have. This definitely satisfied any craving I would have, but I just wishes the coconut milk they pour along with the ice cream was a bit more salty.

 

Overall, this was a surprisingly great experience. Everything from the atmosphere, to service to quality of food was awesome. If you are looking for a Vegan restaurant and want to try some Asian food, then this is the place for you! This will definitely cater to those who have a stricter diet, without lacking flavor! Of course I miss my dishes with shrimp and what not, but this is a good change of scenery from the usual Thai food I eat. Plus, the whole neighborhood around this restaurant is just so nice and relaxing to walk around in.

 

Do you like Thai food? What is your favorite Thai dish?!