The Twin Cities Thai scene clusters along University Avenue in St. Paul, with a handful of strong neighborhood rooms across Minneapolis. The deepest menus are in Frogtown and Hamline-Midway, where regional dishes get the same attention as the standards. This list is being built; if we missed your spot, send a tip.
A Frogtown stalwart on University Avenue with one of the deepest Thai menus in the metro. The boat noodle is the move, the khao soi runs a close second, and the regional dishes most places skip are cooked here without explanation. Cash-and-counter feel, lines at noon, worth them.
Read full entry →Chef-owner On Khumchaya runs a hundred-plus-item menu out of a small University Avenue room. Hard-to-find regional dishes share the page with the standards, and the kitchen treats both the same. The crispy garlic chicken alone has built a following.
Read full entry →A family operation that has served downtown St. Paul since 1989 and recently relocated to a new Wabasha Street space. The Lao influence shows up on the menu in the larb and the sticky-rice plates. The kind of consistency that comes from cooking the same thing for thirty-plus years.
Read full entry →A small Linden Hills storefront on West 43rd serving refined takes on Thai standards in a calmer, candlelit room than most of its peers. The pad see ew, the panang curry, the dishes you wanted to like better elsewhere.
Read full entry →A Nicollet Avenue storefront with a steady neighborhood following, generous portions, and a notably accommodating gluten-free menu. The kind of place that becomes the default within four blocks.
Read full entry →A casual sit-down spot two doors from Bangkok Thai Deli, offering a quieter room and a friendlier-paced version of the same University Avenue Thai energy. Pad Thai, drunken noodles, basil chicken, all done with care.
Read full entry →A Central Avenue room a block from where Sen Yai Sen Lek used to live, running pad Thai, Thai fried rice, and Thai chicken wings out of a small kitchen. Closed Tuesdays. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options on the menu without the usual fuss.
Read full entry →A Hennepin Avenue Uptown standby running the standards in a sit-down room. Reliable green curry, dependable service, the kind of place locals send out-of-town colleagues without thinking twice.
Read full entry →The first Thai restaurant in the five-state area when it opened in 1983, still family-run, in a warehouse-turned-dining-room with a gold-leaf ceiling near the riverfront. The pad Thai and the lunch buffet are the workhorses, and the full bar makes it an easy pre-game stop before a Twins night.
Read full entry →A University Avenue room running both Thai and Vietnamese, with weekday lunch specials that are some of the cheapest sit-down plates on the corridor. Closed Wednesdays. The kind of unfussy neighborhood spot that the office crowd keeps in heavy rotation.
Read full entry →A University Avenue storefront a few blocks down from Bangkok Thai Deli, doing the standards in a quiet room with a loyal following. Closed Mondays. Dependable curries and noodle plates, the kind of place that rewards the regulars who skip the bigger names nearby.
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