Soi 4 Bangkok Eatery

Soi 4 is a mainstay in Rockridge. I had not been in a few years so I welcomed the chance to have dinner with friends. The minute I walked in I remembered… Oh, YES — Lychee cocktails and turnip cakes! They were even better than I remembered. A lightly-​dressed salad with pink grapefruit and cashews was also stand-​out winner as was the stir-​fried chicken with basil. The wine list was a disappointment. There was not much from which to choose, but the bartender came to our table and told us that he was going to help the owner update the wine list in the future. The lemon drop cocktails were also delish. Next time, I’ll designate a driver so I can have a couple of lychee cocktails. If you like extra spicy on any dish, ask for a side of their red Thai chili sauce. It’s not a very big space, so reservations are recommended.

Charming place, very busy and affordable prices. Ordered the fried cat fish. They’ll give you water and chips before the food get out. They also have a bar with proper drinks. It got two floors!

What more can you ask for? This place is elegant yet casual and family friendly. The food is excellent, the bar tender went out of his way to show love to my family and I. Seriously, the food was delicious. We had 7 appetizers be 6 entrees… Next time I must leave room for dinner. The upstairs loft area was warm and intimate for a evening of great food and story telling.

MSG alert. My wife is allergic to MSG, and within minutes of having dinner here she had all the (horrible) symptoms of MSG… Such a pity, since the food was tasty (thanks in part to MSG, obviously).

Unfortunately, my first and only experience was mediocre. We chose this place for New Year’s Eve dinner. Their menu said the Brussels sprouts were pan fried. They appeared to be steamed. Big disappointment. The spring rolls were dry and rather tasteless. The eggplant was mushy. I’ve had much better coconut soup, too. Theirs was runny, not rich and flavorful. I have nothing positive to say except the chicken satay was good. But really, how difficult is that? Grilled chicken with peanut sauce. Whoopie. I can make that.
My last comment: a waiter came by our table (not the initial one, a different one) to clear some dishes, and asked if I wanted another beer. I said yes. It never came. :(

I used to love this place, but stopped going for a long while because I thought it was lacking. Went back the other evening and had a great experience.
We went with a number of the server’s recommendations and had the turnip cakes, papaya salad, the tofu with red curry, a special appetizer (I think an onion cake), and pad thai. Get the turnip cakes – they were so good we ordered another. The appetizer was really good, while the other dishes were good. Service was excellent and fun. The main server Tuan was awesome.
Soi 4 is great for vegetarians/​vegans, as there are a lot of non-​dead animal options. As for the reviewers that make statements like «the worst I ever had» or other such nonsense – they must be total losers, have a loser palette, or both. There is no way that the food is bad. None. At worst, some dishes might be ok. Just goes to show you what crap so-​called vacuous foodie morons like to post.

This is the best Thai in the area. The staff is friendly, the food is amazing and the location is convenient to Oakland, San Fran and all east bay locations. The pork shoulder was perfect for sharing as well as the warm squid salad. Good tea and coffee is a must and they nailed both. The dessert menu is tempting and the warm berries and ice cream was delish to end the night. I’ll be coming back.

Really good food… we’d go back for sure!
Yo Yo

Soi 4 seems to put a bit more effort into creating a classy ambiance rather than into cooking up authentic Thai dishes. I ordered Pad Kee Mao (drunken noodles), a classic, and asked for it spicy. The waiter raised his eyebrows at me in the way waiters at Thai restaurants do when people ask for spicy, as if to say, «Are you SURE you wish to subject yourself to Thai Spicy?» And my answer was YES. I like to sweat when I eat my Thai food.
Not only did the dish come out with absolutely zero spice, it was completely tasteless. Some patches of noodles had minimally detectable flavor, but not much. I was so disappointed. The vibe (ahem, and price) at Soi 4 makes you think you are getting quality food but all I received was watered down, Americanized Thai food.
That being said, some of my friends ordered other dishes that were not authentic Thai dishes but could be described as «American seafood with a Thai twist» and they were very pleased with their dishes. I may have had a better experience if I was expecting Thai Fusion rather than authentic Thai food.
Service was «meh» but we had a big party, so I wouldn’t fault them for it.

I came here on a Friday night to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The ambiance was very classy but unfortunately, the food fell short.
First off, it took almost an hour from the time we arrived for our 7pm reservation until all 9 of us had our food. Portions are pretty small for the price. I am rarely able to finish a whole plate of anything by myself but I easily ate all of my dish. I promise, it’s not just because I was hungry! Three of us ordered pad kee mao, all different spice levels, yet they tasted exactly the same. There was no spice! I sampled some of the papaya salad and garlic noodles, both of which were good but not very remarkable.

In Oakland for the weekend and saw Soi 4 had great reviews and after going there, I can honestly say it’s just OK. Not great, not terrible, just OK.
The ambiance is nice, but the service isn’t. They basically work table service by committee, meaning whoever is around will take your order whenever they get to it. I ordered my food with one server, put in my Thai iced tea order with another (it never came btw), and a different server cleared my table and brought me the check. Maybe they ignored me bc I was a single diner and wasn’t in a large party? Whatever the case, I was let down by the service.
I ordered the coconut-​braised pork shoulder (Kang kua mu) with squash in red curry after seeing all the glowing reviews on it. It was OK. The curry was pretty mild for a red and the pork shoulder was in very large chunks that weren’t tender enough to break apart with my fork. So most of my meal was spent chewing giant rocks of beef sans iced tea. Like I said up top, it’s OK but it wasn’t anything to write home about.
Nice ambiance if you want a low lot restaurant, but the service and food were nothing special.

We really enjoyed the ambiance, service, and the food was spot on. So often Thai food can be on the oily side, they manage the perfect balance. They also have some fun cocktails that are worth a try.

Tried Soi 4 last week and thoroughly enjoyed it! I just loved to SF from Boston where there is very minimal and not that good thai food and this place was great. We started with the Roti appetizer which had a lot of great flavors then we had the Pad Kee Mao with tofu and the duck curry.
I docked this place 1 star for the tofu. It just wasn’t cooked that well and didn’t have much flavor. Other than that it was all delicious! There are also a bunch of great options for vegetarians, pescetarians and meat eaters.
They also have great service and a nice ambiance.

Horrible. Ordered take out. Was told it would be 20 minutes. And yes I would give it some leeway, but I was told everything was made except for the mango sticky rice. That needed to be prepared. Really. It takes over 15 minutes to cut mango? If that was only the end of it.
Pad Thai. The most horrible version I’ve ever had. After bringing it home it was a giant glob. The noodles completely stuck together. The color was pale. The flavor was missing that quintessential sweet and sour umami-​ness. It was bland and one dimension. Utter failure. Never coming back.

Generally decent Thai food served in a clean, upscale setting that makes it more palatable to the almost exclusively white (read: non-​Thai) clientele. That having been said, I’m not of Thai descent myself, but, overall, I found that the dishes leaned a bit more towards the greasier and oiler side than I’m used to. Some of the drinks weren’t bad, and service was efficient.
Overall, it’s nice to have some culinary diversity along the College Ave. corridor.

Last minute dinner here during the Oakland Restaurants week. It was extraordinarily busy for a Sunday night and they were booked solid for reservations.
Perhaps the hostess could sense how desperately I didn’t want to cook and agreed to seat us if we promised to keep it quick.
Ambiance is fancy and swanky. Service was good, but they were definitely understaffed. No follow-​up once food was served and we got attention once the server saw me going to the water station for much needed refills.
Food was really good and more upscale and gourmet than your typical Thai joint. Fair pricing too, especially for drinks.

We came here during restuarant week, as an alternative Sukho Thai across the street. Unfortunately, the prix fixe menu wasn’t vegan friendly, so I opted for some of the other items, including the clay pot.
We had come without a reservation, so were asked to finish within 45 mins, which was OK. For a Sunday night, this place was very busy, and we almost had to get our own water refill since the single waitress was so busy.
This is a great sit down Thai place, and there are some, but not lots, of vegan options. The food is no better than Sukho, although the presentation is. Minus points for not taking Discover card though.

Nice little place Thai restaurant on college. We got a reservation for 5:30 Sunday. They crowd was already forgoing before the site opened. They sat us fairly fast. We didn’t realize they have happy hour! So with that being said I got the ginger drop 6 bucks. then we ordered our food. The service was super fast! Our food came out quick and piping hot. Thanks to Oakland restaurant week we finally gave them a try and we will be back!

Very impressed. The salad (Larb) was just about perfect. And they accommodated my request since the crowd had not yet arrived…
Then the beef curry made me very happy with its subtle sensational flavors.
Reasonable rices, I’ll be back!

Fancy Thai restaurant, with white linen cloths and good Thai food.
I came with 2 friends and all 3 of us ordered under the «rice & noodles» section, but we all liked them!
FOOD: Pretty good —
1. Kao mun gai (the first one) — good cucumber, cilantro, ginger-​chili sweet soy dipping sauce
2. Pad ke-​mao (the second one) — good wide rice noodles and sauce
3. Bamee talay (I ordered) — Mmm stir-​fried garlic noodles with manila clams and fresh basil. This had potential to be 5 stars because I love clams and the garlic noodles were so tasty, however they didn’t clean the clams! There was always sand in them and I was constantly crunching, as if it was like I was eating dirt and sand. Why don’t you clean the clams?!
DRINKS: They were also really good. ~$ ¹⁰⁄₁₂ I got the one with lychee, and it nice and strong, just wish I had more of it.
AMBIANCE: Classy, intimate, romantic. I came for dinner so it was dimly lit with candles.
SERVICE: Very good, they also gave us free shrimp chips with a delicious sauce!
OVERALL: Good drinks & food (though clean those clams!!), great service and ambiance, and restaurant always gets an extra point if you give something delicious on that house ;)