Erawan

What a nice find! Walking all over Walnut Creek to find something different and good to eat, we ended up here.
It’s a nice small place with great service. We had the lunch specials here. My meal was quite tasty because it was what I was craving and it came with a roll also!
I always start off with a thai iced tea. It wasn’t too sweet or too spicy, it was just right.
I decided to order the panang beef curry, which is half yellow and half red which balances everything out. It was a nice mix of both because I couldn’t decide what I wanted. It was just the right amount of spice too. The beef was a bit on the chewy side though, maybe next time I’m in the area I’ll try the chicken instead. The fresh roll that came with my lunch was made with tofu, which was nice and fresh. I liked it as well.
My mom ordered the clay pot special with chicken. She really enjoyed it.
I don’t think we had anything negative to say about the place. Everything was yummy!

Cosy place, Amazing food amazing service…
Especially the ERAWAN beef !!!

Came here with my husband because we were relocating from SoCal. Walnut Creek was the place we really liked as far as location. After a long day of apartment search, we came across this place in hopes to try out what downtown restaurants at WC had to offer.
Unfortunately, they’re food ayte!!! I love Thai food and this place was not my favorite at all. Food was bland, it took forever for our food to come (and there were only 5 tables being served).
The only thing authentic was the servers, don’t know about the cook.
Husband hardly touched his plate. We took my husbands dish to go because we didn’t want them to feel bad that it wasn’t good. We just threw it out after.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m a HUGE fan of Thai food. It’s usually one of my favorite types of cuisine.
Sadly, this place did not live up to the shining reviews. Perhaps the chef was hungover from last night, because our dishes were not prepared well. One curry was much too watery, the consistency of a broth, while the other was very thick, not resembling a liquid at all. The veggies were tasty, but there wasn’t much tofu in my curry, maybe five small cubes.
Honestly, it was pretty disappointing. If the waiter notices that the food isn’t right, he should ask the chef to re-​do it. I’d rather wait 10 more minutes than be served something that clearly appears to be wrong. My dining companion agreed that the taste was there, but the execution wasn’t.
I might go back in hopes that they can prepare their curries with much more quality control. Also, I would avoid lunchtime on Sunday, unless you want to pay for the dinner price. It costs almost $ 10 for the curry a la carte, plus an extra $ 1.50 if you want rice, or $ 2.50 if you want brown rice. Seems ridiculous.
If it’s12pm, have the lunch menu available for people, no matter what day it is.

4 stars JUST for the spicy basil tofu. it is SO good. the service is quick, attentive and super polite. i really should try something else here, but i love the basil tofu so much.
i usually end up eating here when i come to walnut creek, so now it’s becoming a tradition. this is a very cozy and charming restaurant-​the décor is really nice and they always have fresh flowers on the tables as well.
i will definitely come back here next time i’m in walnut creek.

Dear Erawan Thai,
It’s really confusing and annoying when you put «Thai Delivery Walnut Creek» all over your website, when really, YOU DON’T DELIVER.
TAKE IT OFF your website.
Thanks.

Well I was all set to give a three star review based on the average food but… I bumped it up for good service. Apparently the free drink with check in was discontinued months ago but Unilocal didn’t remove it. The waiter graciously honored it anyway. Granted, I think that’s what he should do anyway but good service always speaks volumes to me. On the food, as I said, it was just average. I’m coming to the conclusion there is just way too much average thai food going on. Poo. Even my complimentary thai iced coffee left something to be desired.

YUMMO. This place is really good. We get the Praram tofu and masuman curry… they are fish sauce free! The food is very tasty, and because they don’t seem to have many customers when we go, the food always comes out really fast. And, since they don’t use fish sauce, it is super vegetarian/​vegan friendly!
The restaurant itself is really nice. It is small with very cool and authentic-​looking decorations. The people who work there are very nice, quick to get you what you need, and seem very laid back and ready to help.
I say «YES!» to Erawan.

Erawan is in the old Royal Thai location on Main Street. They haven’t done much to it beyond some newer furnishings. Walnut Creek offers an incredible selection of Asian cuisines including some excellent Thai. Quite frankly, I would choose both Plearn and Katcha over Erawan. Both of those restaurants have a more pleasant atmosphere, competetive prices and, most importantly, food that is more artfully prepared. We found that most every dish at Erawan simply did not measure up to the competition. Nothing was bad but nothing was really good either.
Should you try it, you won’t hate it, but you won’t remember it either.

Service has gone downhill recently. I think it may be because the owner is in Thailand. One of our entrees wasn’t warm, and their parking validation machine was broken. The food is still good, but they need to make sure the food is warm and everything is working correctly.

Erawan is a nice little Thai establishment on restaurant row in Walnut Creek. There are about 12 small tables, simple décor with a few obligatory Thai artifacts like the sequined wall hanging carpet and picture of the King.
I came for a quick lunch, and they had a very good and affordable lunch offering.
For $ 9.50, I ordered the Yellow Curry lunch special.
Almost immediately I was served a nice little chilled salad and water. Not much after, i received a nice platter, with a bowl shaped mound of rice, a bowl with the Chicken Curry with crispy fried coconut toppings, 2 egg rolls cut in half each to make four pieces, and its sweet chili dipping sauce and a little spoon with it.
The food was tasty and good, and really hit the spot.
Service was prompt and with a smile. I was in and out during lunch in about 30 minutes.
I’d go back again!

I love little hole in the wall places. This place definitely has that feel. However, there is nothing else about the place I like.
The food is sub-​par.
The service is slow and difficult.
The selection leave A LOT to be desired, and I had a bug in my water. Sorry, the bug thing happens everywhere, but I thought I’d just throw it in.
Seriously though, the selection sucks. My kid loves Thai food and he wasn’t sure what to get here because a bunch of his Thai standards aren’t on the menu.
Just avoid this place. I know they have their staff in «authentic» Thai clothing, and they have cool wood carved menus, but it’s just not worth it.
Go to Plearn one block north. It’s worth it.

For whatever reason, my affinity for Thai cuisine has gone through highs & lows over time. Back when I was in Cal, I discovered Erawan during one of my college shopping excursions to Broadway Plaza. At that point in my life, I had not been exposed to a lot of Thai food and I thought this place was pretty damn awesome. In fact, I would say it basically sparked my initial love for Thai food. In my following four years in med school, I took my love for Thai dining to an outrageous extreme where I think I probably achieved record-​breaking levels for pad thai & curry consumption.
This however ultimately left me in a completely overdosed state where I could barely even tolerate the thought of eating a single morsel of anything Thai for a good several years.
Though I’ve now been living in the Creek for over a year, I held off on trying Erawan cause I think I was still detoxing from my prior addiction. Last night, we however decided that it was finally time to give Thai food a shot again.
So we dropped into Erawan and ordered the Tom Yum soup, Panang Beef Curry and Pad-​See-​Ewe noodles. All my tastebuds had to say was one thing…“Thai food. I’ve missed you. Welcome Home :)“
All the dishes were extremely flavorful. Portions were generous and service was attentive. I’m not normally a soup kind of guy, but I have to say that the Tom Yum soup was amazingly good!
Overall, Erawan serves up well-​prepared authentic Thai cuisine. Check it out… just don’t OD like I once did in my prior life.

I have given Erawan two chances, and I think I’m done. The first time I went was with some friends from Houston. It was after 3 so no more lunch special and I ordered some kind of tofu/​veggie dish with peanut sauce on it (forget the name of it) but anyway it was like some just took some watered down peanut butter and dumped it on some veggies. Was kind of disappointed.
Decided to try it again recently with my boyfriend and get one of their lunch specials. First of all «lunch special» is deceiving-​his dish was $ 10.50 and mine was $ 9.50 with an extra $ 1 if I wanted brown rice. For $ 9.50 I got a limp, small bowl of lettuce as the «house salad» and then for my meal ordered the red pumpkin curry. No kick to it at all-​literally counted 3 red bell peppers in the whole dish, two soggy pieces of tofu and some okay broccoli. I am just not having any luck with this place. My boyfriend got some yellow curry chicken dish which he thought was okay-​but then found some weird shreds of something in it that didn’t look like it belonged. He asked the waiter what it was and he had no idea.
Do yourself a favor and go to Plearn, just down the street. I really don’t think Plearn is that much more expensive than Erawan and the food is 100% time better.
Just disappointing and boring.

This place is ok, certainly no comparison to its neighbor Plearn Thai down the street.
I have been here a few times. They are less expensive than Plearn (though still too pricey) however, after I sit down I am reminded why.
The place is small, the décor is nice. Well Adorned with the typical old world Thai ambiance throughout, a picture of the king adorned on the wall, gold figurines placed thoughout, vases with flowers here and there, very cozy. The dishes are ok. I usually get the Chicken Pra ram and my friend will usually get the clay pot which we ordered today.
Chicken Pra Ram has a descent flavor with good texture; however after going to Plearn Thai and other exceptional Thai Restaurants, there really is no comparison. I have ordered one of there curries there before which lacked in flavor and was certainly nothing to write about.
Though the thing that I’m least impressed with here is the service. The few times we have gone here, the personalities from the servers have both been a little flat and lifeless, you definitely get the feeling that it’s just a job, they are here to serve and that’s it… Kind of disappointing.
But then again that’s why I am always reminded to go to Plearn… phenomenal food… Exceptional service. Little pricier though well worth It.!!

Food: 3 stars
Service: 2.75 stars
Value: 2.75 stars
We’ve been here about a year ago and we’ve decided to try it again. Honestly, I was a little disappointed during this second visit.
We ordered a Thai iced tea ($ 2.5) and it was way too sweet — sweeter than other Thai iced tea I’ve tried before. The drink didn’t taste good. The tom yum soup ($ 9.95) with veggie was pretty good and in a decent size. But then the two other dishes we ordered, a green curry with beef ($ 9.95) and a homemade sweet curry sauce sauteed with fish ($ 11.95), were not too good. The green curry had no curry taste except a super heavy coconut milk taste. Luckily, the eggplant inside the green curry tasted good and firm instead of mushy and oily like some other places. In the homemade sweet curry sauce dish, the sauce tasted a little weird but not too bad. The fish was the worst! They were dry and overcooked. The mango sticky rice ($ 5.5) was okay. The mango tasted good but it was cut very ugly. The sticky rice was a little hard and dry.
The service was not good. When we were just starting to have the soup, the main dishes came. And when we finished the soup, the fish dish was not hot any more. Was the chef in a hurry? They didn’t even wait for the customers to finish the soup. Also, since we were sitting at a small table, we barely had the room to fit all the plates and bowls. But not one waitress came to pick up our soup bowls even they saw us finished the soup. And the restaurant was not even busy at that time. We finally had to wave and asked them to do that. That was a big deduction.
Overall, the food was just so-​so and the service was not great either. I know two-​stars seems a little harsh, but I don’t really think «A-​OK» fits my experience. It is absolutely not the best Thai restaurant in the East Bay. You really can skip it!

Girls Night Out, here we go!
First off, this place was really really petite. Parking sucked ass tho. I circled around 3 times trying to find parking!!! Yeah, Saturday nights are usually crazy!
What I love most about this restaurant is that they have VERY comfy booths. Even throw pillows for your back while you eat. Loved it! And their menus had a gorgeous decoration – basically 3D! I could touch Thailand with a stroke of my finger!!! =)
Ordered the Par-​ram. Yumm. I wish the peanut sauce were a little thicker, but the taste was still good. Also tried the Pad-​Thai which was a little bland. And the Seafood Pumpkin Curry – which was really good. Ask for extra spicy if you order this bcuz the flavors are exceptionally delicious. And also the Drunken Noodles w/​Duck… hmmm, again a little bland.
Each plate was around $ 10 for a big portion. The girls and I did it as family style, and still ended up having 5 – 6 to-​go boxes since we had a hard time finishing our meals.
Service was nice. The environment, very cute. I think we did entertain an old man, who kept glaring at us and laughing. Ease dropping to our conversations I must say. All in all. it was good, but not OMG good. =)

I love me some Thai food. Well… I love me some excellent Thai food. I don’t love me some Erawan.
We walk in at around 8:30 on a Thursday night, and my first impression was a great one. The guy who seated us was this ADORABLE Thai guy, with a neon pink blouse (yes, the word blouse is necessary to accurately describe his shirt.) The ambience was great — everything was very consistent and seemingly authentic… except then I realize that they are pumping artists like Gwen Stefani and The Pussycat Dolls on the surround sound. I know Gwen has some Harajuku girls, but I wouldn’t say that it added to the ambience. 1 star down.
We ordered the calamari to start, and it was… well…it was interesting. It was more like a tempura than a regular calamari breading — which sounds like it would be good, right? Eh… I’m pretty picky about my calamari, but this wasn’t so great even for the untrained tongue. Another star down.
As our main course, we had Drunken Noodles and Pumpkin Seafood Special. I asked for the noodles to be pretty spicy — they only had three levels — mild, medium, and hot. I requested medium-​hot. Maybe in Thai, hot means «so mild I would purée it and give it to a newborn baby.» …It may as well have anyway. The tofu was cooked perfectly though — but oddly, the dish didn’t feature green beans, (as the menu said,) the noodles were clumpy, and as I mentioned, it lacked in spice. Down another star.
The pumpkin seafood dish was alright. Nothing spectacular, but decent. It was kind of bland, and the seafood didn’t really do it for me.
There we have it folks, a 2 star review.

This is by far the best whole-​in-​the-​wall Thai place in Walnut Creek! The specials are always interesting, and a good deal if you get something with meat. For the vegetarians, there is this amazing Mango Fried Rice special that you can order with veggies.
I would recommend the Tom Yum soup, which is great anytime of the year. It’s a little spicy, so you might want to go for something a little less hot during the summer. If you aren’t on a date though, I guess a little sweat wouldn’t hurt anybody.
The Dancing Prawns are a delicious appetizer, and the Green Curry is fabulous! The servers are really friendly, and while the ambiance might not be phenomenal there are ALWAYS fresh flowers on the tables.

I went here this afternoon for a little treat after having a hectic day so it was nice to relax against the pillow seat provided. I heard about this place on Unilocal and they’re so awesome for having a Unilocal sticker in their window.
The décor was cute and the napkins that were stuck in the glasses reminded me of lilies. The menu and check cover were so darling, decorated with an elephant. I had the Pad Thai, which was wonderful. So yummy and so what I needed. I finished off the meal with fried bananas and coconut ice cream. The bananas themselves were a little too strong in flavoring, but with the ice cream they were just right. There’s a minimum charge of 15 dollars required on any credit card and I don’t think they take checks.
I will be back, hopefully sans my phone and the upset friend on the other end. Sorry!