Restaurants in Review: Pad Thai Cafe in Boston

If you’re looking for cheap and fast Thai cuisine that doesn’t sacrifice flavor, try Pad Thai Café by Berklee School of Music. Home to the some of the most authentic Thai food in Boston, it’s worth a trip out of Harvard Square.

The atmosphere is welcoming, and the restaurant’s bus-your-own-table policy works surprisingly well; rarely is there any trash to be seen. The place is packed with lively Berklee students and one end of the room, a man welcomes patrons from a colorful desk, decorated with a fish tank and Buddhist and Thai ornaments. The giant blue-board menu claims a quarter of the wall-space and boasts daily special, often times written in Thai, in the lower left-hand corner.

Though the dining area is great, the best part about Pad Thai Café is definitely the food. While their pancake ($4.75) resembles the popular scallion pancakes in Chinese restaurants, the Pad Thai Café version uses a fluffy rice flour and has much more filling than those at the Kong.

The classic Tom Kah Soup ($3.75), made with coconut milk, mushrooms, and cilantro, is generous on the chicken or shrimp (though slightly overcooked). For a more authentic dish, try the Yum Nuah ($9.30) which is grilled beef mixed with chili paste, cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms, lemongrass, red onion, and scallions, with a squeeze of lime juice. The Pad Thai Café is liberal with their lime, so this dish may be too sour for those who aren’t use to it. Yum Nuah is traditionally eaten with white rice, so don’t forget that important step!

Pad Thai Café also offers a variety of rice and noodle dishes, most of which are generously portioned. While the the Pad Thai ($7.60) has a bit too much fish sauce, the Pad See You ($7.15) and Pad Woon Sen ($7.60) are good alternatives..

As for the rice dishes, the variety of curries are enough to make any foodie’s head spin. My personal favorite, the Hot Basil (with beef, $9.95) is the spiciest of them all. The aroma of the basil mingles with the flavor of the Thai chili, yielding an extremely spicy yet refreshing dish.

All this means that by the end of a meal at Pad Thai Café, dessert becomes a chore.

Though Cambridge boasts a fair number of restaurants, the simple yet savory cuisine of Pad Thai Café, accessible from the Green Line and Newbury St.., make this restaurant a hidden gem of Boston. Treat yourself to a night on the Town and be sure to start it a Pad Thai Café.