Edited today on 27th July 2023 - what a shame of this place to hire a rude staff especially in the restaurant. We have been waiting for us to serve as we are dine in here. The lady who came for take away even said that I am first and she can wait. This rude staff said that no worries I will take your order. I complained that we have been waiting and they are serving take away orders three people instead of serving us. I today left without ordering anything. You lost one of loyal customer for racist staff! See my first review of this place below. What a shame of this place with rude staffs from Thai restaurant! One of the best thai authentic foods in south london with very reasonable price. The place is lovely but it is sometimes very crowded though especially in summer. Hard to find the place in rooftop. If you can hold spices, seafood fire is the best dish to try.I love pad Thai, fried rice and papaya salad also. But don’t go when they are to close, the food can be a bit less of quality than usual.
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
£20–30

Brilliant food but bad service (on the day we went). Took over 1 hour for my main to arrive. They told me they couldn't find my table (1 of 3 outside tables...??), and then told me I'd ordered the wrong food when they tried to give me the wrong food items from the menu. When it arrived, the drunken noodles were fantastic, however not worthwhile on the day because of the service. Clearly there had been an earlier error with who got what food, but to not sort that out within 40 minutes and to then accuse customers of being at fault and ordering the incorrect items, is simply not acceptable. Eat here, hope it goes well, and you'll have a good experience. If mains take longer than 15 minutes; chase them!!!!
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
£10–20
Food: 5
Service: 1
Atmosphere: 3

I'm a local and I do love the food here. Best pad thai I have ever had. However, the restaurant itself is completely soulless. Awful overhead lighting and zero atmosphere. Sit in the bar or in the garden and order. Unfortunately on tonight's visit we had to sit in the restaurant itself. The service was utterly laughable. The paper menu literally stuck to the table because it was so filthy. We had to ask the waiter to clean it, which he did halfheartedly and with wet wipes. When the food arrived the waiter said "enjoy your meal" but we had been given no plates or cutlery! In the end we had to take cutlery from behind the bar ourselves. Possibly the worst service I've ever had anywhere. The food was just wonderful though.

My friend literally nearly died after eating here - she's deadly allergic to bamboo shoots, 4 of us went into the restaurant to ensure there was no cross-contamination with meals that included them. They assured us there wasn't in her chosen meal. An hour after the meal, we were in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. EVEN IF THERE'S THE SMALLEST CHANCE OF CROSS-CONTAMINATION, WHEN AN ALLERGY IS INVOLVED, TELL THE CUSTOMER!!! We flagged with the restaurant, while on the phone with the ambulance, they continued to insist there wasn't any. Tests came back confirming it was a reaction to bamboo shoots. Not cool, just be honest, especially when someones life could be at stake.

4 of us went in on Sunday. Each of the mains came out 10 minutes apart, so one person's food came out at 9 and the 4th person's at 9:30 (their rice/noodles came at 9:10 and were cold by then but we were told they were out of noodles and the kitchen was closing). They kept just saying everything was nearly done but it didn't materialise. Other tables seemed to be having the same issue. The food was tasty but I don't think we'll be going back given the awful service - they did knock off about £15 from the bill but it didn't make up for the really bad experience.

This is the best thai restaurant I have been to in south london and it's as authentic as most I have been to in Thailand. It's a very sweet little place out the back of the pub. The staff are pleasant and the food is superb!!! I think the lady who has given the one bad review on here must be a disgruntled customer and obviously extremely nasty and stupid to boot. I mean if someone had found a cockroach in their takeaway in the uk, the restaurant would be closed down. Of course in thailand it's normal to eat them :)

Visited this place after seeing some good reviews and really enjoyed it! We had to wait a bit longer than expected for our mains because of a large group in at the same time but the service was very friendly. Green curry was nice and spicy and the chicken pad Thai was very fresh. The garden platter starter was a bit small to share between two people! Overall the prices are fairly cheap (same price as a takeaway place) and it's nice to find a good, local Thai place where you can sit and eat. Will definitely go back!

Delicious food with a very good mix of vegetables. Portion size and overall environment great.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
£20–30
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Recommended dishes
Green Curry
Recommendation for vegetarians
Highly recommend
Vegetarian offerings
Clearly labeled vegetarian dishes
Vegetarian options
My vegetarian husband and I were both very satisfied with the choice.

Chai’s is in a great location but with dirty tables and floors, more importantly with below average Thai food. A dinner of four came to an abrupt end when staff switched off the light at 10pm with the manager shouting at customers to leave “now”. Any restaurant would tell customers in advance or apologise about any inconvenience. This place needs staff trained in the very basics of customer service.

3 star but only because the interior looks great and staff are really nice. food wise it's mediocre at best, tried a number of things on the menu and I can honestly say I have had better Thai dishes at home or on dinner parties. Everything taste like it was a ready meal from Food warehouse. Presentation is nice though and everyone who served us were super nice.

Ordered takeaway on a Saturday evening and was pleased and surprised when the delivery arrived much faster than the 45 mins quoted. The quality and flavour of each dish was exceptional - the chicken satay, even without the sauce was wonderfully flavoured and the Tamarind Duck was excellent. Would only say the Prawn Cracker portion (whilst free) was too small.

This place is magical!! And part of the voted number 1 pub in London 2023! The food is so authentic and absolutely amazing every time. If you haven't already experienced it you need to!!!
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
£30–40
Food: 5
Service: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Recommended dishes
Green Curry

Very nice traditional Thai food, very friendly staff and lovely atmosphere. Highly recommend everyone to go if they enjoy Thai cuisine. However the only complaint is about the sweet and sour pork, because the pork was 90% batter and only 10% actual pork. But I do recommend Sea food lovers to get the seafood of fire, which was very nice and spicy!

This is the nicest Thai food I've had in while! Really fresh flavours and non greasy. Generous portions in the take away. Only criticism is although I loved the satay chicken, I would have loved some peanut sauce instead of sweet chilli. Noone else seemed to mind though! Really glad I've found this place. Looking forward to dining in come 2021.

Lovely staff & really cool setting/decor. Food, not good. All meat was over cooked. Rice over cooked. Not aromatic, balanced or authentic Thai food. Acidic flavours, and no 'freshness' element. Wasn't very kind on our stomachs :( Maybe if there were less items on the menu the quality would be better. Pub-grub vibes.

Used to be good :-/ I turned up to collect a £70 B'day dinner for my partner, but when I arrived they said sorry we're running late and there's no salads today. So no classic Thai Som Tam salad that we'd ordered, the highlight for us!! Frankly, the rest of the stuff was meh at best.
Food: 1
Service: 1

Amazing Thai food next to a great pub. Unfortunately staff are really dismissive. They wouldn’t let us use the bathroom and made us go to the pub upstairs. Such a shame as we love the food but staff make it hard to want to return.
Food: 4
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 4

Lovely little thai restaurant the pa nang curry was nice just missing the slight kick. The coconut rice did not taste of anything and was overcooked. Service was A+ absolutely love Henry. Drinks were reasonably priced. Would return for a quick lunch but not a main event. More

Excellent Thai food, quite last night when we ate although it was a Thursday night and we were late in lovely attentive waitress who made us feel very welcome. I have marked this as a four rather than a five only because it could have been a little warmer in the restaurant.

Terrible food and tiny portions, but worse service. Unbelievably rude woman running the place who literally shouted at me for ordering food to the adjacent table (because mine didn't have a table number). Genuinely astonishing
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner

Nice garden and cozy restaurant, the sea food soup we ordered was very tasty. If I don't rate this place better is because The drunken noodles were dry and didn't test as freshly made. Service was ok; they were putting pressure on us to leave before finishing our food.

Disappointed! The staff could not understand english enough to take our order correctly, neither to take the payment. The order arrived impleted. The manager hung up phone when i express the mistake in the order and accused me. They also over charge me! never again!

Food has gone down terribly.. Staff don't care., more interested in taking selfies (long dark haired girl in restaurant) and another blonde who was actually vaping inside restaurant at 9pm. Pub of the year.. Perhaps upstairs but a different story down...

I went to Chai's garden over the weekend with my boyfriend and it was lovely. The food and service was great. I was served by Susana who made really nice food recommendations and I will definitely be back.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner

Decent Thai curries and the fish on fire is a good choice too. Do not order anything else as in some dishes they add msg. Staff usually OK, although tonight one of the waitresses was rude and didn't believe that the noodle I ordered was not edible.

We have dined here for many years and have enjoyed the food as it's lovely, and the place is nice and unusual. However, we'd not been for a while and thought we'd have a spontaneous early Sunday dinner. We were so disappointed by the

I’ve been a regular customer at this venue for a number of years and it has been consistently first rate in all respects. Thanks to the lovely staff also.
Service
Dine in
Meal type
Dinner
Price per person
£10–20

Great service, great prices, very friendly atmosphere and the food was delicious. First time eating at this restaurant after living so close to it for so long and I can 100% say that I will be returning. 10/10 thankyou

A large party was in the night we went came in and sat next to us very noisy so we was sat over the other side of the restaurant very good service the food was very good left stuffed good night we will be back

Really good quality Thai food: fresh, tasty, delivered quickly, and friendly service! All you can ask for really. The restaurant is worth visiting to eat in, too - a real oasis in the back streets of Nunhead!

Just been for my husbands birthday. Lovely meal and lovely friendly staff. Great to see Lin and her daughter again. Food perfect as usual. It's great to get out again. Mary and Jim Arbuthnot Road.

Ate here on Sunday and again had a great meal. Try to get there when we come up to visit family and always thoroughly enjoyed the food there. Will certainly visit when next in area

Consistently delicious. You wouldn't expect this place to serve up such great food but it really does. And the service is always quick. A little local gem.

One of the best Thai's in London before you factor in the fact that the value is unbelievably good. Nice staff, quick service and really nice AMBIENCE.

Most plates are badly chipped, not a good start, waiter had a permanent smile on his face, very friendly. Won't return unless new plates are on table.

Found a cockroach floating in our takeaway thai green curry. Disgusting. Strongly advise you NOT to visit this restaurant or order takeout from here.

Mediocre Thai food. Microwaved rice. Packet noodles. Tasteless curries. Ribs were decent.
Food: 2
Service: 2
Atmosphere: 2

My visiting parents and I visited two months ago. We enjoyed a laid back and cheap Thai meal. It’s clean and friendly. Only issue: no desserts!

Great place to come for your desserts.Staff are really friendly and full of energy and make you very welcome.I highly recommend this place.

The real deal. Fantastic Thai restaurant in Nunhead. I have been to Thailand and Chai's Garden's Green Curry is as authentic as it gets.

Not the place we expected it to be. The staff are nice and the food are great. I recommend the pad thai if you’re in to noodles.

A fantastic place hidden behind the pub, really good food and very reasonable prices. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Good service. The tea is always on point. Doughnuts are also amazing. Would definitely go back again and highly recommend.

Love it here. Friendly staff, good value for money with a great menu that will keep those with keen eyes entertained.

Fried rice was hard, tasted like it has been microwave and tiny portion. But the Green Thai curry was delicious.

I absolutely love this place! Amazing food (recommend trying the green beef curry)
Service…
More

One of our favourite restaurants. Food is always good and service pleasant. It can get busy though.

Great atmosphere, very cosy place. Very fresh, good Thai food. Definitely I will be back soon.

Fantastic restaurant, perfect hideaway eatery, great service.

Really tasty food and nice outdoor atmosphere.