chantanee thai restaurant & bar

the food is asgoodas it was in the old location, but the new location and the addition of the yuppie cocktail bar is a turn-off for me (and probably anyone with kids). i would recommend pen thai (in bothell, same owner i think) or o'char (in eastgate) over this pretentious place.

have been to this place multiple times in the last 3 years. it is one of my favorite thai restaurants in downtown bellevue. just a block away from my work, and just next to bellevue transit center. 

food : a+ my favorites first - penang curry - i go 4* spice level and my friend tried 2*. both of us loved it. excellent taste. their phad thai and shrimp fried rice also are some must try. they do provide house soup for free, which tastes great.  

service : a.goodservice, may experience some variations in service level when it gets super crowded during lunch time.  
it tends to get little noisy as well during lunch hours, but have been here for dinner - it is even awesome place to be there for dinner.
pro tip : for lunch the best time to visit on a working day is 11-11.45 am when it does not get super crowded. 12 onwards expect to wait before you get a seat

i would visit this place again, may be multiple times :)

one of two couples for dinner. service was ok but nothing to write home about. food was not asgoodas expected. not worth the money.

loved the panang curry! spicy without making you sorry you ordered it that way. beautiful inside, and a nice atmosphere. want thai in downtown bellevue...this is agoodone!

dissapointed in takeout. when i first visited this restaurant i was blown away that i hadnt heard of it sooner. i had great service and even better food. today i checked out reviews to see about dish recommendations others have mentioned as beinggoodand saw plenty of bad reviews which at the time i didnt want to believe. i tried calling a to-go order which based on their phone systems directed me to a dead end. i called back, this time got someone on the line, then he hung up. then, he calls me back to get my to-go order. i make my order and says it will be ready in 15-20 mins. showup, foods not ready, for an entire hour after it was supposed to be. got the food home, and it is cold. if i ever go back, i will definitely go sit down vs. try to take out. the food is still delicious, and it will be hard not to crave some of their dishes (chantanee noodle, crispy garlic chicken, heavenly beef, mussaman curry) but i will be sure to avoid takeout!

wonderful dinner. we had a great dinner -goodfood, great service (it was pretty quiet on a midweek night) and a very nice atmosphere.

the steamed potstickers were very good, but the turmeric lamb was the big winner.

we had the crispy garlic chicken (which was amazing) with vegetable phad khi mao. who knows if the desserts aregoodas we had no room to try.

the video to show how to get to the parking and up to the restaurant was great (a little editing to shorten it would make it better, but still a verygoodidea).

the menu is huge and there's so much more to try - i'm sure we'll be back.

better than expected, but pricey and lacking authenticity.. we had been to the "old" chantanee once before, at the recommendation of a friend, and weren't crazy about the food or atmosphere.

much to our delight, both have improved (but, keep reading) since the move to their new location at the bottom of the key center building in downtown bellevue. my wife and i enjoyed quality glasses of red wine, on happy hour, appetizers and entrees. the food was very well-prepared, it tasted great, and the portions were generous, but not huge. we had some leftovers. my wife had a craving for phad thai that night (we had just returned from a vacation in mexico and were in dire need of something other than chips, salsa y guacamole) and she left very satisfied. i ordered the garlic lovers from the "wok-fried" section of the menu. we appreciated that the menu clearly gave us the option to substitute mushroom sauce for oyster sauce, since my wife is vegan-"ish." that was extremely helpful.

however... i'm all for variety, but the menu was too large, in my opinion. i'm a believer in "do few things extremely well," instead of "do many things, but be average." i think the large menu could take away from chantanee being seen as a quality, authentic thai restaurant and instead lump it into the "asian fusion" category.

also, although we enjoyed our food/drinks, the bill was my least favorite part of the experience. this is probably the most expensive thai restaurant i've been to (maybe i'm cheap?). there's definitely a bellevue premium, and leasing that particular space can't be cheap, so i can't say i don't understand, but still... not sure i'll be willing to pay that much for thai when i know of other, equallygood(dare i say, better?), more affordable places on the other side of the lake.

one more observation, then i'll shut up - it was very modern for a thai place. our server was in black dress pants, a dress shirt, tie and vest. it didn't do much for the authenticity factor. again, probably a result of the location, but it just didn't "fit."

are you kidding?. this place is about as disappointing for a dining experience as you can get. food was the best part but last i checked, ambiance, service and just logistically it's a huge failure.
first off it shouldn't really call it a thai restaurant but thai/indian.
first off, getting to restaurant is a joke. they have a video on their website that even tells you how to find them. great idea, but all of the signs they said would direct us were gone. once we finally found the parking, we were lost in a building only to be saved by a guy who said, yeah, they use to have a sign here ah, you'd never find it if i hadn't walked up and then proceeded to show us the way. we then were greeted with a surprised look and said yes we have your reservation, but we only have a table in the bar, and showed us a tiny little table after walking past maybe 6 empty tables. she acquiesced and let us have a booth for 4 and then were left alone for about 10 full minutes. and this is thegoodpart of the service. rather than write a complete dissertation, the service was horrible to say the least, again food wasgoodbut i am not paying these prices for faux thai food and have the lights turned on full over us with a "get out we're closing" attitude an hour and half after we sat done. pass on this failure. its a waste of money.

chantanee now open at their new location.... dined at the new location last night.
very nice place,goodservice -goodfood.
the atmosphere is decidedly more upscale from the previous location.
they are at the key bank building but not accessible from inside the building. rather - you have to get out the building and enter their establishment from outside, via the stair walkway between the bellevue transit center and galleria.
their new menu is now available online at their website.
nice new bar, too...

good to have them back!

impressed with my first visit. popped over to chantanee for lunch with my officemates yesterday. i hadn't heard of the place, but at 11:15am on a friday there was a line out the door.goodsign (but not for my stomach)! we all stuck to lunch entree dishes: pad thai (chicken), chatanee noodles (chicken), and one other. all weregoodand i enjoyed the sampling of the pad thai i had as well. definitely a place i'm going to try again.