Siam

Great find in Hyde Park, one of the best Thai restaurants in Chicago!

I have now tried all three Thai places on 55th street and this is without a doubt the best of the bunch. We had the tofu panang and pad kee mao. The pad kee mao was especially good. I started with kai tom kha soup. I love Thai coconut-based soups and this is one of the best I have ever had. It was creamy, yet a little spicy, and incredibly satisfying. Warning, the appetizer soup is large! I highly recommend Siam. The atmosphere is rather plain, and the service is average. However, the food is incredible and very cheap.

We like this the best of the 3 Thai restaurants on 55th, and have yet to find anything better in Chicago since Rosded's in the old days. We like heat, and the baby clam chili, tom yum goong, green curry chicken, e.g., are very good. They are also exceptionally nice folks.

I've lived in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco over the last three decades. Been in Hyde Park for ten years, I've eaten at dozens of Thai Restaurants -- a great hole in the wall called Tasty Thai in the Inner Richmond in San Fran -- Super Thai experience called The Palms with singing Elvis impersonater in LA -- Ive eaten up and down the country -- and when I got to Hyde Park - I was told that Snail Thai was the best -- so I ate there and it was okay -- pretty average. Thai 55 was a big step down from Snail -- and even the 150 dollar a meal Thai place on the northside whose name Im forgetting -- was very good but not great. I have to say -- against all the odds -- this little place is great. Like, shockingly good. It's hands down the biggest food surprise in Hyde Park and one of the biggest in Chicago -- I will go out on a limb here and say flat out: the people who diss this place are out of their minds. Sure, its decor is slack; but the food that comes out of that kitchen is just a major cut above...mainly its the ingredients -- the ginger, the basil, the sauces -- they are calibrated to hit American palates the right way -- big taste, a fair amount of spice, and big portions. Eat here, I am certain that you will not regret it. The Truthteller

As the other reviewers reported, it also took for me a while until I finally try out this restaurant because of the gloomy outside of it. However, once I entered, the inside of the shop is neat, luminous and warm. The whole atmosphere is so nice, mainly because of cute ornaments and nice staffs. I took a lunch special, costed 6.95 (or so), including a cup of soup, an egg roll with sauce, and the main (I chose green chicken curry). Every dish is very good. They all are decently cooked, tasted, and carefully arranged. I was even moved with their effort for service. Moved-in last month, experienced a lot of differences about food service between in Tokyo I was from and Chicago, and disappointed so many times with purported Japanese kitchens. I have had many experiences to visit Thai restaurant in Tokyo. There are a lot of good ones. But still I can say this Sham is one the best I have ever had, especially so, considered their modest price range. This is not a high-end restaurant, but a truly satisfying one. With its authentic taste and service, it actually remembered me Tokyo at the first time in this one month...

I was hungry and did not want to cook so I called Siam restaraunt. The guy on the phone was very polite. The order arrived quickly. The delivery guy was just as polite as the guy on the phone. Food was hot and tasted fresh. I had the crab rangoon and they were really good. The yellow curry chicken tasted a little to much like lemon grass but it was good.

Everything tastes good here. Good portions for the price. Fast and polite service as well. I order take out from Siam all the time and like it too much to even consider trying the more expensive Thai joints near by.