Brown Sugar Cafe

Very nice Thai restaurant. Central location on a main street (hard to find parking). Pleasant interiors and atmosphere, authentic and fresh food in generous portions. Great service, reasonable prices. Very good experience 👌

The vibes are so good in here, super clean and the decor is rlly cool! I got the babe ribs and the meat was SO JUICY AND TENDER a bit spicy for me but just right… get with rice and you will def have leftovers. Thai tea was good too and the fresh spring rolls were super yummy. Everyone is very friendly and it was v good

Very good restaurant I frequent when I’m in town and looking for Thai food. Beyond the usual fare, they give some nice surprises, like this beautiful presentation of Brown Sugar Hawaiian Fried Rice (pictured, on left), along with what’s left of the Mango Curry, the taste of which we all loved.

Great Thai curry, I had the vegetarian one with tofu. Flavors on point, good portion for $14. Service was also good, and plenty of tables in their restaurant.

Curry tasted great and the shrimp dish was also amazing. The spring rolls however were a little disappointing. Stuffing could have been more generous.

Good Thai place. Loved the entrance and the interiors. Gives authentic Thai vibe. The hostess was very friendly and kept checking on us periodically. Service was quick and lot of menu on the items to choose from. We ordered Thai ice tea, chicken satay, crab Rangoon, brown sugar mango rice, Salmon Sui sui curry. Food tasted good overall. Salmon in the curry could have been softer. Almond in the mango rice could have been avoided. Although, I think these are not a big concern.

We ordered 12 meals to go after the BU graduation ceremony. The appetizers and the food was unbelievable. Excellent cuisine and service. I recommend the Thai Spring Rolls, Satay Chicken, Tod Mun, Brown Sugar Spareribs (get two of these!), Soft Shell Tempura, and the Scallion Pancakes. Try the Brown Sugar Salad, it is super refreshing. Careful with the green papaya salad! It's spicy. Pretty much all our entrees were delicious. But you have to try the Rama duck. It is very good.

This place is exquisite. From the minute you walk in, the place is draped in elegance. Before you even walk in the door, you are greeted with the beautiful perfume of intelligently selected flowers. The entrance way and the decor are brilliantly chosen and the atmosphere makes you feel welcomed and peaceful. I assumed this was a coffee only place, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the full menu of Thai cuisine as well as uniquely crafted Cafe style drinks. The dishes and drinks on the menu are delicious beyond expectations, so don't be aftaid to order something new as you'll likely be blown away by presentation and flavor. The service was perfection. This is a beautiful spot to dine in, grab a coffee or get take out. I highly recommend it! Thank you for lunch, Brown sugar Café, you're the best and my new favorite! 🌸

Went with a large group and shared multiple dishes - in which my favorites included: 1) Khao Soi, very flavorful soup with the fun textured noodles which you can enjoy with rice as well, 2) Thai Basil Fried Rice was a lot spicier than imagined which was a nice kick. The desserts were also delicious - Mango & Sticky Rice was a classic, with fun treats like Fried Ice Cream.

I've walked by this place a good amount and eventually decided to try it because it looked pretty busy - however, when we walked inside the restaurant I should have had my red flags go up, as most of the restaurant was empty except for all of the tables by the windows. We even witnessed a group of 2 come in wanting to sit at one table but they were told that they couldn't and instead were guided to a two person table by the window area. It seemed very obvious that the goal was to appear busy to people walking by on such a busy street. Even with that red flag, we sat down and decided to order, but when we received the menus, they were enormous. There were so many options and the menu organization felt random, so it was tough to find what we were looking for. We eventually decided to try the satay appetizer and a fried fish that was listed as market value. Satay Chicken ($11.95 on the website, unsure what we actually paid, but I think it was less) - If this dish was in fact almost $12, it is definitely not worth it. It's comprised of 4 slivers of chicken breast on sticks which probably amounts to 1 actual chicken breast cut into 4 pieces. The grill wasn't bad, the meat was juicy, and the satay and fish sauce were decent, but it was a really small amount of for for $11.95 (my note about price is that I THOUGHT it was slightly less, but it was still too expensive for the amount of chicken given). Crispy fried whole fish (Market price - $44) - We were very excited to try this since my partner used to get this at their favorite Thai restaurant back in Chicago, and it honestly wasn't bad. The fish was nice and crispy, and most of the bones had been removed. It was butterflied and fried but not too oily with a sweet and salty sauce and plenty of basil and peppers. The actual amount of fish meat wasn't a whole lot, and though we did end up being full eating it with sides of rice, I don't think I'd order it again for that price. There was a lot of batter without meat and while that tastes great with the sauce, $44 for batter and sauce with some fish meat isn't a great deal. I think I'd have been happy if this was around $26 instead. All in all, the portions for the satay were a bit tiny, and the fish was very expensive for the amount of meat we received, but the taste of the dishes was decent (though probably a little on the sweeter side than I'd have preferred). I probably won't be returning here - 3/5.

I've heard lots of good things about this spot so decided to try it recently. Got tom yum noodle soup and some fried dumplings. Soup was very flavorful, but literally had one piece of shrimp, one scallop, one piece of squid, and maybe two pieces of chicken. Felt skimpy, but maybe I'm being picky. Dumplings weren't my favorite, though the dipping sauce was good. Ambience was fine service was fine, lunch prices were on par for Comm Ave restaurants. In the end it was fine, but maybe I'm just not that into Thai food as I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to come back here.

Great Thai curry, I had the vegetarian one with tofu. Flavors on point, good portion for $14. Service was also good, and plenty of tables in their restaurant.

Everyone needs to come here! The staff was extremely accommodating and ensured that my khao soi would be made with tofu. Loved the khao soi and honestly the portions are bigger than almost every Thai place I've been to in Boston. It's such a cute place, right near BUs campus.

I hadn't been to Brown Sugar in about 20 years!! Actually reading that sentence outloud makes me feel ooooold. Brown Sugar is still amazing. I went in on a cold winter night recently and the restaurant was nice and warm. They had jazz piano playing and the vibe was perfect. The service was amazing. The gaprow chicken is one of the best. I asked if it could be medium spicy and it was perfect. The chicken satay was delicious, tender and flavorful. The thai ravioli are filled with pork and shrimp which isn't my favorite but they were still good.

As name of this restaurant, Food had too much suger on my few orders and did not taste sauce and ingredients itself, so that I got shaky hands and uncomfortable stomach after the meal. I don't even think they use brown rice, tasted like way too much refined suger, cheap candy sort of flavor. 30 years ago this restaurant was amazing once by the way. 10 years ago did not impressed me and this time was below average saggy suger deal.

Despite how not-Thai the name sounds (my friend suggested that "Brown Sugar Cafe" sounds much more like a bubble tea store than a restaurant), I was super impressed with how delicious and authentic my meal here was. My friend and I came around 7:30 on a weekday. The (surprisingly spacious, really high-ceilinged) restaurant was pretty empty at the time, and we were seated really quickly. Service was very prompt, and in fact had to circle back a few times because we hadn't decided what to order yet, mostly because their menu is enormous. (Someone described it as the Thai version of the Cheesecake Factory menu, which is definitely very true.) Also, we realised not all the menus were exactly the same - some had extra pages with specials and what not - so do note that when ordering. We started with the Brown Sugar Spareribs - super delicious! The random cherry on the plating led me to slightly lower my expectations (seems like a typical American (TM) thing to do), but thankfully this was totally misguided. The meat was super tender - each bite just falling off the bone - and it was super well cooked, with a light, smokey flavour that really brought out a lot of the savouriness of the ribs themselves. We also had a pad see ew and the khao grapow. Pad see ew was very tasty and served as a great flavour complement to the khao grapow, by which I mean the minced pork was actually SO incredibly spicy that we were basically alternating bites to not burn off our taste buds. (The server did ask if we wanted mild but I said no, which was the right choice. Very authentic!) Really delicious regardless - the pork was super flavourful and fried in a very yummy sauce. Portion size was also really big - we packed up our leftovers and probably still had enough for 1-ish meal each - and definitely worth the price. Also, we did remark that the comforting/relaxing ambience actually did kind of give off café vibes - although it's unclear whether that's related to the name or if they would look very kindly if we just parked ourselves here like doing work at a café. Regardless, though, I am very keen to come back if not just to try some of the million other things on their huge menu. Looking forward to it already!

Their pad Thai is unmatched. So sweet and zesty. Will say other dishes are not super memorable and it's def pricey but comparison to other Thai places around. Will always go back for the pad Thai though!!

Can't quite agree with the high reviews. I am a fan of Thai food and have tried many. Here, everything was so salty that it's hard to tell other flavors. The have the creamy Tom yum - granted it's rare to to see and they use jumbo shrimps as it should be, but other than that, again, just salty taste. Also have to comment on their Thai style pad Thai, which feels nothing Thai at all. I wonder how their regular pad thai would taste. Servers are not rude/too bad but definitely not helpful when you try to get advice on what's good. I also don't really enjoy the environment, which is dark and has an old feeling.

Good service!! We got the spare ribs, pad thai, and grapow noodles. The spare ribs were the best and I would get again. The pad thai was okay. The sauce was almost soupy and very sweet. The grapow noodles were really good but definitely spicy.

Their "Tom Yum Goong Yai" (spicy soup with extra large shrimps), I must say, is Brow. sugar Cafe truly special dish. It is the creamy type with coconut milk inside. Definitely what distinguishes this dish from other Thai restaurants in the Boston area is the size of the Shrimps. The jumbo size make them truly special. Beside the comments above, the ingredients seem to be all in there--lemon/lime, coconut milk, condiments, etc. Highly recommended you try this dish. It's the best Tom Yum Shrimp Soup I've had in quite a long time. Soft Shell Crab - Poo Pad Pong Garee (see picture below) is quite decent as well.

Came here with a reservation on a Saturday night for a birthday and we had no issues getting seated. The space wasn't too busy so we could've done without calling ahead, but better to be safe than sorry! The staff was relatively efficient and good with service so nothing but positive things from that front. They did get one of our orders wrong however, but it wasn't a huge deal. They had a pretty large menu which made it a little difficult to choose what we wanted, but a majority of our table settled on crispy chicken pad Thai. We got two appetizers and drinks along with our main dishes and everything was pretty solid. The tea hit the spot, the scallion pancakes were deliciously crisp, and the crab rangoons were super yummy. I went with the gaprow noodles for my entree and I enjoyed it a lot. I will say that it's extremely spicy (I got the normal spice level) and I had some difficulties eating it because of that, but the Thai tea helped out a lot. Once I ran out of drink though, I decided to bring the rest home since it was a little bit of a struggle. We came for the birthday disco ball they offer and the experience didn't disappoint. The lights dim, music plays loudly, and they bring out a dessert with candles for $15 if we request it. The experience was great and our friend was happily surprised - awesome end to the meal! Overall, our dinner was a lot of fun. The prices are a little steep for Thai food, but things tasted great and we had a nice time. I'd definitely recommend this place for birthdays for the unique disco ball experience!!

Some of the best spicy pad Thai in the city! Fresh rolls are spot on too! Can't speak to the service cause I always do take out

I was severely disappointed with this Thai spot after hearing so many good reviews. I got the bamboo chicken and stuffed wings as an appetizer. The stuffing was alright - but was drier than I have had at other places and lacked any outstanding flavor. I was also let down by the bamboo chicken. The mushrooms were cold, the chicken was dry, the gravy sauce was bland. Maybe I will have to come back and try some of the more signature noodle dishes, but after my experience I am not sure I will come back.

Always happy with the service and food. Same quality, even after Covid. One of the best Thai spots that I've been to .

This place did not F around, straight gas. lalalallala characters need to be extended

I have been coming here for over 20 years and I am sure there has been many change in staff and management. Today the food tastes different, not bad at all just different than what I am use to and it threw me a bit. You can see from my prior photos the color of the rice has changed. Again the food wasn't bad just doesn't taste the same. I will definitely go back to see if it was a 1 off.

Always 5 star service and food here. Always! Pineapple fried rice is my favorite. The Crab Rangoon is also delicious. Siamese twins is fire !!!

Delicious food and delightful service, charming and beautiful restaurant interior and ambiance

Amazing food! Best I've ever had! The stuffed wings were very good and tasty. Brown sugar offers a variety of amazing foods that are delicious! Thanks for the experience! Dan

Thai food has been there for me when no one has! So when I have Thai food, it's gotta be good. I understand that there are.many different ways to have a specific dish. Different ways to make it.... But why is the padthai so runny!?!!!. And why does the padthai look so bland?? No color!? It's gotta have like a reddish hue to it. I had to throw in a ton of hot sauce for my palette to feel something because it felt so bland. Chicken was dry. And honestly it didn't even feel like it was pan fried. It tasted like they boiled the noodles. Took sauce and threw it on a plate. No pan frying them together. It didn't feel like they blended with each other the way it should. I was sad. Thai fried rice was ok. Tomyum soup was actually pretty good. It doesn't make me want to come back. Sorry.

What a fantastic spot! Food was absolutely divine! Was in area for a show, and there are quite a few places to choose for dinner but man did we get it right! Fresh summer rolls were lovingly made and delicious... the wraps were stuffed with fresh ingredients and steamed shrimp. I ordered the Lady in Green which was essentially cabbage wrapped salmon in some precious curry like I've never tasted, complimented with a family of flash steamed veggies and a side of rice. I'll be dreaming about this for a while lemmetellyou!

The waitress had zero patience. Our food came out as they were preparing it, so half the table was done eating by the time the last person got their food. And of course, the orders were missed up. I personally didn't get half my order. We were the only table getting treated this way. I want add were the only group of black people. Can't say if this was the reason or the restaurant just sucks. Would definitely would not recommend.

We went on a Saturday for lunch. I got Drunken Noodles with tofu. It was the good and I liked the flavor. I got spicy and it was manageable. The only thing is that the vegetables and tofu were very big, I had to take a fork and knife just to make create more manageable pieces so I can eat it

Not sure how this place has 4 stars, but the food lives up to its name, sugar seems to be added to every dish. Pad Thai was so sweet, it was like eating cotton candy. Fried rice, the curry, the soups, they were way too sweet and didn't seem like they were freshly made. The angel wings were also dry as the desert. Definitely old. There seems to other places for Thai food and I would skip this one.

Had the Choo Chee Fisherman and a Thai iced tea. Both were delicious. I asked for extra hot and spicy, and I still found it pretty mild. It still gets 5 stars though, and next I'll just have to ask for extra extra extra hot and spicy

This is a cute tucked away Thai place. Authentic recipes and good ingredients all around. I had the Tom kha gai soup as an appetizer and a green curry with chicken that i split with my friend - the perfect amount of food. This place is very affordable and the service is great - highly recommend on a chilly Boston day!

Hands down my favorite Thai in Boston! I went to Northeastern for undergrad and I regularly biked all the way from where I lived on campus just to eat here- it's THAT good. The curries are all so bright and fresh! Just thinking about all that lemongrass & Thai basil makes me smile :)

I got the drunken noodle, and the vegetables and meat were cooked perfectly but the sauce was so spicy it was absolutely inedible. I don't know if this was an accident or something and maybe someone knocked too many pepper flakes or seeds in, but after one bite I couldn't eat anything else. I can handle spice, (or else I wouldn't have ordered drunken noodles) and I normally like things really spicy- but this was terrible. A true night ruiner.

The food wasn't good. I found a little green worm in my food and my coworkers food was raw.

Unfortunately I ordered out from here and got a major stomach bug, I got the Thai iced tea, pik pow,the salad,pad Thai and another dish I can't recall.

We have searched all over NY, CT, and NJ for a Thai restaurant that comes close to Brown Sugar, but nowhere come close. This has been our favorite Thai restaurant for over 20 years. We stop by whenever we are in Boston. Every meal we have ever had here has been amazing. We absolutely love the pad Thai, lady in green, scallion, pancakes, and golden triangles. Brown Sugar never disappoints. The atmosphere is calm and relaxing and the smell is intoxicating. The service is always great. They even stayed open late so we could get lunch while traveling from New York through Boston to Maine.

Tell them it's your birthday and you will have an unforgettable experience... I haven't been to brown sugar in a minute but it is SO GOOD.

From the name, I had no idea what to expect. The result was an excellent Thai food experience. The place is located on Commonwealth Ave, very close to Star Market and many other eateries. There seems to be something new there every time I look. It's also right down the street from a host of other restaurants, including Hot Pot, Dumplings, Korean, Chinese, etc. There are so many choices in the area. I'd say Brown Sugar Cafe is a must! The GF took had recommended it, and we decided to go one night. She ordered a crazy flaming dish that they lit up at the table. I'm sure it was mainly for show, but was pretty cool to see. Obviously all eyes were on this who procedure. It was quite cool. PROS: Excellent food. Great interior. I really loved the Country Pad Thai. It was spicy and delicious. We finished the meal with fried ice cream, at my GF's request. It was so tasty. CONS: Parking because of where it's located. OVERALL: loved the Thai food here. We will return.

I was looking for a new Thai place to try out for delivery and came up with Brown Sugar Cafe on my Door Dash options. I ordered the brown sugar spareribs and the scallion pancakes. The scallion pancakes were great and perfectly fresh. The spareribs were amazing, very flavorful and well cooked with the meat falling of the bones. I wish the spareribs came with more but then again I ordered everything from the appetizers menu as I was not looking for a very heavy meal. The meal arrived quickly so I would recommend them if looking for a good delivery option.

Beautiful decor nice presentation of dishes but I think the new hole in the wall Thai joints that are becoming the norm one up these more traditional stalwarts in the Boston Thai restaurant scene. The dishes seem a little tamed but still good still nothing made me catch whiplash like wow this is crazy good so maybe they need to update there recipes to make them more Thai so to speak like these new hile in the wall spots. The American palate is more accepting of these trends towards "authentic" ethnic dining. Still a very nice dinner was had. Excellent service and spotless location bathrooms and all.

I love Thai food and Brown Sugar Cafe is a must go to spot! I usually get their Pad Thai and it's so tasty. They have a huge menu to choose from. There's street parking in the front, which can be tricky to find but there's a street in the back behind Star Market where sometimes you can snag a spot and it's like a 5 minute walk to the restaurant.

I've always wanted to eat here and finally made it before seeing Airbourne at The Paradise Rock Club. Brown Sugar Cafe did not disappoint! Fast, friendly service in a clean, classic Thai setting. Most importantly great, authentic, spicy Thai cuisine. Loved it! Great way to start off a night of rock and roll !

Not what it used to be. Menu changed, obviously so did the chefs. Nice atmosphere has not.

Came in for lunch one afternoon on impulse. It was really good, I had the drunken noodles. The service was extremely attentive and the food was excellent. I noticed they were running a promotion for free spring roles if you get two entrees, which is pretty awesome. I don't know if it's just for lunch, but I think that's a pretty sweet deal to run right now to get people in the door. I always have a good experience here! Glad to be back in the restaurants!

Sooooo good. We came here on a weekend afternoon. We were seated immediately and quickly had our order taken. The menu is huge, and there were like 2 pages of specials! For appetizers, we ordered the spring rolls. They are open faced spring rolls, which was interesting, and they were super yummy. There were 6 spring rolls included, which I thought was a good amount for the price! For our entrees, we got the panang with chicken and the pad thai with chicken. We asked if we could get additional spices, and they gave us four jars with pickled peppers, jalapaneos, and other spices in addition to the ones already on the table. I highly recommend asking for this because they are all great additions to the already tasty dishes! The food came out relatively fast, and the portions were huge! I wish rice wasn't extra, which was the main downside for me, especially because its a small portion, but because the dishes were so good I don't mind still giving this place 5 stars.

Extremely disappointing service. Made a delivery order and on top of the really rude manager on the telephone taking our order, the delivery man was rude too because he was angry we didn't give him a bigger tip. He also wore no gloves or mask during the exchange, which should be mandatory at this time. The food was cold when it was delivered even though we're right down the street from the restaurant. The biggest insult I can't get over is the LARGE Tom Yum soup we ordered. It came in a large container and half full... I've never seen a restaurant casually try to pass this off. When I called in and spoke to the manager again he refused to change the cost of the soup. He said he didn't know how to change the price on the machine (even being a manager) and the best he could do is bring more broth in half an hour. We already were hesitant to order because of COVID-19 concerns as well as how uncomfortable the delivery driver made us we declined so we paid more for less. I love Thai food so we wanted to try something new but after this experience and the restaurant taking no attempts to correct the problem properly I would NOT recommend this place to anyone. The food was not worth the hassle. Very bland!

Firstly, the soft shell crab in the pad Thai was amazing. However, the pad Thai itself was literally soaked in sauce to the point where I could not continue to finish eating after a bit of it. If you held it up with a fork, sauce would drip, and it was too salty/much flavoring. The duck dishes were alright, but there were too much vegetable instead of duck in my opinion.

This is hands down my favorite Thai restaurant in Boston. I used to come here 10+ years ago when I attend BU. Came back this weekend for the first time in a while and the food is just as amazing as I remembered! The restaurant is extremely spacious. The menu has a ton of traditional and specialty Thai dishes to choose from. My favorite dish is pretty basic - Pad Thai. This time I got the Soft Crab Pad Thai - it was amazing! Be sure to pair your dishes with Thai Ice tea, another fav. The portion sizes are very generous so unless you're super hungry you'll probably have some left over for lunch the next day!

Siamese Twins was the most talked about dish in this place. It could be little dry if you are more of sauce person. Try the young coconut juice which comes with the coconut meat. Go for the golden triangles, chicken puffs and the amazing stuffed chicken wings

Came here on a Friday night at 7PM and was told that it was a 2-hour wait. Seeing that there were only two-parties ahead of us, we're unsure of why we were given a 2-hour wait estimate. They don't take down phone numbers, so we stuck around the area. Within 30 minutes, we were seated. No stress, but the individual taking down names might need a refresher on how to come up with estimate wait times. For a party of 3, we ordered the Tom Yum Goong, yellow curry with tofu, Moo Grob Pad Ped -$15.95 (Crispy pork rind with Thai spices and herbs), and Yum Plar Dook Fu -$17.95 (Thai style crispy and puffy catfish meat on romaine lettuce, served with shredded mango, red onions, and lemongrass in spicy lime dressing). Service: Not great. Throughout the meal, I felt rushed as the wait staff kept coming to our table to clear one plate here and there. It was close to 8 by the time we were finishing up dinner and there was no longer a wait. I'm not sure why there seems to be a need to clear out our plates one by one. Food: Every place makes the tom yum goong differently. This place is definitely on the sweeter end and the soup was filled with different mushrooms and one shrimp. The yellow curry with tofu was delicious and paired perfectly with rice. (BTW: all entrees do not come with rice, so you'll have to order it on the side). The Moo Grob Pad Pad flavor was on point, definitely on the spicy end! The pork rind pieces were a bit touch in the beginning. Let it soak in the sauce longer and it'll tender up. I would not recommend ordering the Yum Plar Dook Fu. First of all, I was expecting to taste catfish in the crispy and puffy catfish meat as stated on the menu. However, when the dish arrived, it just felt like crispy panko on top of the salad. Sure, the dressing to the salad was tasteful. But where's the fish that we paid $17.95 for?! The food here is good. I would definitely come back and try their other dishes. (And secretly hope that wait times are closer to accurate estimates).

I come here quite often. Today I ordered my regular and tipped within my budget; the server (old asian lady) told me I should pay at least 15% and shouldn't go out if I don't have enough money. I'm very disappointed, and will never come back again. This is rude and unacceptable.

One of my favorite place to have nice Thai food! They have an amazing plate if you enjoy very spicy crispy chicken and it's to die!! Never been disappointed even after 10-15 visit!

Best fried ice cream I ever had! I ordered pick up and it was packed neatly in a cup and kept cold and perfect. Will definitely come back to try their other food as well!