Laughing Monk Cafe

Everyone should know from my last review how obsessed I am with laughing monk.TL:DR I have allergies and they're super accommodating for adjustments, and super kind overall. I go here WAY too often to the point that everyone here knows my order when I walk in, but recently Ive been starting to try some other stuff (like the moo ping is SO GOOD). My boyfriend gets various soups and those are always super tasty and recently he's been getting the Yum Talay which is the seafood salad and he LOVES it. I don't wanna rave about this place too much cause I don't want it to get busy but also who am I to gatekeep, this is my favorite Thai place anywhere I've been (Seattle, NYC, DC, Boston are my main places)If I had a last meal on death row, breakfast lunch and dinner it would be this place. Their Pad Thai... so sorry I started drooling P.S. please enjoy all of these photos of the same meal cause I can't help but take photos of how good it looks to send to my friend max whenever I go :)

The food here is surprisingly good at a restaurant that's about as big as a 1 bedroom apartment. We came for a casual dinner in between afternoon and evening classes at nearby Boston University. The dining room was sort of clean and extremely drafty, so definitely do not come for a sit-down meal during the winter. Even on an April evening when it was in the high 50s Fahrenheit I had to keep my jacket on.My date and I shared a fried chicken gyoza appetizer and each had a thai iced tea. I had the chili basil stir fried entree with ground pork and she had the pad see ew with chicken. Jasmine rice cost extra. Everything was very tasty and portion sizes were reasonable. After tax and tip the bill came to $75.Service was provided by the same young woman working the cash register for all the carryout orders piled up behind the counter. Fortunately there are so few seats in the dining room that the waitress took our orders and served our food without too much delay.We'll be back!

This was a very cute place with large portions! I loved the food here - we got crab rangoons to share for the table which was a good choice. I got the massaman curry but one thing to note when ordering their curry is that a bowl of rice is a separate and extra charge. I also got the Thai iced tea which tasted spectacular. The servers were also extremely nice and gave us spices we could add, and also made sure that our water was always refilled. I had a great experience here!

An authentic thai place in Allston! It is small and only has around 5/6 tables for seating. The service is great and the servers there are friendly.All the dishes are really authentic and you can request to adjust spice level to your liking as well.

This is just one of Laughing Monk's locations! This location is closer to Boston in the Allston area so it's much easier to get to with public transportation. Food:I got the Tom Yum soup and the Pork Belly skewers. The soup was so hearty, delicious, and warm. I loved the sourness of the soup. Unfortunately, the noodles were clumpy and were breaking apart. This is such a fixable mistake so that wasn't great. The pork had good seasoning and liked the fish sauce it was paired with.Ambiance:This is a smaller location than the Wellesley or Boston locations but allows for more casual dining. Price:It was about $18 for the soups. Not bad for Boston pricing but I wish there were more noodles in the soup and that the noodles had been loosened before.Overall, I would go again just to try other dishes and it offers Thai dishes that not every restaurant offers.

Good here is always great. My favorite Thai restaurant in the Boston areas. This branch of the Laughing Monk Cafe is especially great, compared to the other branches that don't serve the Eastern/Eastern-San thai dishes and are geared more towards the Fusion with Japanese rolls. Not this branch--it's all authentic Thai E-San/Eastern dishes here.Yummy and definitely my favorite Thai restaurant in the areas.

I was reading good reviews on yelp, so I tried Laughing Monk Cafe for first time, take out at dinner time I orderd Pad See Ew with Fried Tofu (flat rice noodle, egg, carrot, Chinese broccoli :listed $14.95) but I was charged only $13.50 !Although carrot was not included. Nice and sweet as American standard, but I could use slightly more portion, probably chef forgot carrot or out of ingredients ? Who knows but hey, less than listed price is always welcome ! As you see on my photos, package on two orders were really nice, I like these much better. Nam Tok Kor Moo YangI was paying attention to online menu description and photos, but I got regular lettuce and cucumber instead of mint leaves ? and I got two pieces whole chilli instead of ground chili, mistakes ? make me wonder in the kitchen worker's level. Mint leaves are quite important for authentic Thai meal and should not be replaced by lettuce and cucumber at all in my opinion. Probably there are someone in the kitchen confused with other order ? Maybe online price are higher than on site price, dunno...Nam Tok Kor Moo Yang sounds Thai dish to me, I didn't want to have my mistake from my side, so I wrote my order down on paper to be exact. BUT !!! I was charged again less than menu list online, instead of $21.00, I was charged $20.00 !! so I should be happy. I am quite cheap guy, you might have noticed.And this Nam Tok Kor Moo Yang, tasted really automatically great, I mean not too authentic. It was medium spicey level in Thai standard. Lady server was so nice and very professional, taking care of full house and take outs nicely just by herself. So my review star level is more like 4.75 !Food tasted great !

Great food quick good service. Great taste as well. A nice find in the Boston area small place good service and quick to.

Food: 5 starsFig.1 and Fig.2I will never get tired of the delicious Thai style sashimi shrimp forever. Laughing Monk Cafe surely knows how to bring more umami and fresh flavors to shrimp by adding the traditional Thai chili sauce with garlic and Perilla leaves. Fig.3I really appreciate the good amount of spiciness in this red curry dish. In addition, the beef tendon has the next-level tenderness, which could almost melts in my mouth with a tiny bite.Service: 5 starsThe servant is very welcoming. Once a time I asked for a box to pack up the unfinished fried rice to go. I was thinking having some red curry sauce on the top of fried rice could be perfect. However, the servant had already taken away the red curry dish. After she knew my intention to get some red curry sauce later, she felt so very sorry and wanted to bring a Thai milk tea to me for free. Of course I did not let her do that. My point is the servant really cares about customers' feelings.Atmospheres: 3.5 starsThe place is a bit small which only has a few tables there. If you plan to come to the restaurant Friday or weekends, you'd better get yourselves prepared for a long waiting.Overall, I will still give the Laughing Monk Cafe a five star rating for their delicious foods as well as warming services. Good job!

Tiny Thai restaurant with seating for only about a dozen people at a time; fortunately the stiff competition from the heavily concentrated Allston dining scene is your ally--at least as far as seating goes. Parking can be tougher but it's easier than you'd think. No bells and whistles, it's all about the food, and it is both excellent and authentic.Moo Ping (marinated and grilled pork skewers): Very tender (even more than you can imagine) and moist (make that full-fledged juicy), full flavor from the marinade, and an extra boost from the thin, acid-and-herb dipping sauce.Gai Ping (grilled marinated chicken): Different flavor from the pork, but same dipping sauce. Moist, flavorful, and enjoyable, but if you're torn between pork and chicken, go with the pork.Som Tum Thai (papaya salad): One of a dozen different varieties of papaya salad, this basic one had nice crunch, a mix of tart and spicy, and some funk from fish sauce and tiny dried shrimp. Refreshing but by no means a hiatus from lively flavors--not that we needed one.Isan Style Sausage: Ground pork, rice, and herbs, it wasn't as spicy as versions had elsewhere, but extremely flavorful, and interesting plump shape, presumably from being sliced prior to frying. Served with several accompaniments, including peanuts, cilantro, ginger slices, and Thai chili peppers.Khao Phot: Sweet corn and julienned carrot salad with tomatoes, salted egg, yard long beans, fresh chili, garlic, palm sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. Refreshing start and a good complement to heartier and/or spicier appetizers like pork sausage, fried pork belly, or any of the skewers.Vegetable Gyoza: My wife's appetizer choice (she's not a meat eater), this steamed dumpling (can also be had fried) had cabbage, peas, carrot, edamame, wheat flour, garlic powder, and sesame oil. Surprisingly robust flavor and not at all a spinachy-but-not-much-else approach kind of dumpling. As a staunch carnivore, I still enjoyed it.Yum Talay (spicy lime salad with steamed seafood): Nicely done, with spice and gentle textures, though I found the protein a little boring. The only item I didn't love.Deep Fried Pork Belly: A fantastic dish, pretty much along the lines of chicken katsu. Good juiciness. Nothing special flavor-wise about the batter, but it had good crunch and was just the right thickness. Loved the spicy-tart-crunchy dipping sauce that was more of a pickle or salsa. Great combination. My only (possible) regret is that it might not reheat as well as the other items. (Solution: eat the whole thing in one sitting.)Pad Ka Pow: Chile-Basil protein in a spicy, thinned-down black bean sauce; I chose chicken. Excellent rendition: crumbly, tender and moist even aside from the sauce, with all of the flavors bold but none outshouting any of the others. I typically use this dish as my barometer for any first time visit to a Thai restaurant, and Laughing Monk laughed all the way to the bank on this one. Because we ordered so many dishes, and held off on ordering the last two until mid-meal, the server assumed we wanted them to go, hence the different plating in the photo. Wasn't worth having them replace it (I'm not that guy).Pad Ped: Fried catfish (choice of protein, can alternately choose pork belly or beef) with chili, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, fresh peppercorns, herbs. Dark semi-spicy flavor, served with jars of accompaniments (Thai chili pepper, fish sauce, jalapeño-like peppers, Thai chili powder) to spice it further. Crisp, flavorful, superb. Just be careful to avoid sharp fishbones if you opt for the catfish version.Pad Thai with Tofu: An item from the "American Thai" menu, as the server put it; the rest were from the "Authentic Isan" menu. Slightly sweet but nice noodle-forward texture; not the over-sweetened, excessively wet Pad Thai that's turned me off to the dish in general.