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Business & Tech

Satisfy Your Thai Food Cravings at Bangkok Village

You can get food as hot and spicy as you want from Naperville's first Thai restaurant.

, which markets itself as Naperville’s first Thai restaurant, opened in 2007 in downtown Naperville.

Located across the street from the parking garage on Chicago Avenue, it’s a quaint, small restaurant that’s easy to miss.

When I say small, I am not exaggerating.  There is seating for maybe 40 people.

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The restaurant has a few U-shaped booths, which seat five or six people, and are built on a platform. Meaning, if you move around too much, you may find yourself toppling onto the floor. 

If you are seated at the platform tables, you also will be seated back-to-back with the people at the table behind you. This may make some people uncomfortable.

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The décor is minimal but nice, Adorned with pictures of Thai royalty and mythology.  Walls are painted a rust color with dark wood accents. 

The only light is from two crystal chandeliers, making it a bit dark but I was there on a sunny day for lunch so it was plenty bright.

The daily (Monday-Friday) lunch specials are amazing.  For $7.99, you get a soup, salad, entrée and appetizer.  To start, the Thai vegetable soup was amazing, a little spicy but good to the last drop. 

The salad was a plain garden salad, but the house dressing that accompanied it was delicious. I couldn’t decide if it was a raspberry or beet vinaigrette.

For your appetizer, you get to choose between crab in a cup, pot stickers, fried tofu or Thai egg roll.  I ordered the pot stickers. They came with the main meal and were pretty good although  I’m not sure what they were stuffed with.

I ordered beef Pad Thai. It was good but did not have much flavor to it at all. You can make your dish hot and spicy upon request, and I should have.  It was a bit too bland for my taste buds.

Because I ordered beef, there was an extra $1 charge to my $7.99 special.  I also ordered a diet Coke, which cost me nearly $3 for a relatively small glass making my total bill $15 with tax and tip.  I should have stuck with just water.

I give them kudos for their entrée presentations.  Each plate looked beautiful.  You can tell they really take time in plating and presenting the patron with a lovely display of their cuisine.

Although we did not partake in dessert, they have many lovely options such as fried banana, Thai custard and banana fried wonton served with ice cream and a special tropical sauce.

The service, however, was not very good. I was with a group of five women and our entrees came out at different times.  I think a total of five minutes went by until all entrees were out.

There were only about six or eight other people in the restaurant, so it wasn’t overly crowded for them to blame the bad service on.  I certainly will remember the poor service when I pick a Thai place to eat.

Being in downtown Naperville, parking can be tricky but there are several options: the parking garage off of Chicago Avenue; the parking lot at the corner of Chicago and Washington; and if you turn into what looks like an alley next to Bangkok Village, there's a back parking lot.

Overall, the food was good and for the lunch special and price, you get a lot of food. Beyond that the prices are reasonable with most entrees around under $15. They have a decent wine selection and various mixed drink options.

Because the restaurant is so small, I'd recommend reservations, especially for dinner and definitely if you have a large group.

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