Champa Garden - Thai, San Francisco

613 Faxon Ave, San Francisco CA 94112
(415) 349-4186
Parking: street parking
Hours: 11am-3pm, 5-9pm

Last Visited: May 31, 2014

Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 3-4 stars
Service: 3-4 stars
Price: $$

Champa Garden is fairly new to the West Portal area.  The Tams brought us to this popular lunch spot. Champa has a nice bar and modern atmosphere.  Service is friendly and presentation of the dishes is clean. Even for weekend lunch, the place was packed.

- Champa Sampler - This is a great way to try three of their appetizers.  Lao sausages are made with pork, lemongrass, herbs, and peppers.  This is served sliced and I found it to be a little on the fatty side - the fat could be blended in more finely.  The peppers make it mildly spicy, and the ends are a little dry. The fried rice ball salad is unique.  Crispy fried rice is mixed with preserved pork, sliced green onions, and lime juice. This is served with fresh green leaf lettuce, mint, and cilantro.  It's a Thai version of a lettuce wrap. It's a bit on the crumbly side, and hard to keep in the wrap.  Eat it quickly so you can enjoy the crunch of the crispy rice. The last item that comes with the sampler is two fried wrapped spring rolls that are filled with noodles and a little mushroom.  It's like a fried Vietnamese spring roll, but I found it to be a little bland since there wasn't much in it.  At least it was fried well.  Okay as a whole.  The wraps are fun, but I would prefer to order the fried chicken wings. $11.95

- Pumpkin curry with pork - The pumpkin curry is a good standard.  Creamy from the coconut milk and sweet from the curry, this blend is delicious.  Of all of the meats we selected, the pork was cooked right and not overdone.  This is a great dish to try and presented in a petal shaped bowl. $8.95

- Pad Mah Kuer - Spicy eggplant is pan fried with That basil, garlic, bell pepper with choice of meat - we selected beef.  The dish wasn't particularly spicy, but it tasted as it should.  The eggplant was delicious, but the bad thing was the meat, although plentiful, was overcooked and chewy.  Get this one without meat.  $8.95

- Pad Thai with chicken - Pad Thai noodles are pan fried with dry shrimp, eggs, tofu, and green onions.  This is topped with raw bean sprouts and crushed peanuts.  Another standard, this pad thai tasted as expected, but the temperature could have been hotter.  Leaving the temperature on the cooler side allowed the noodles to stay al dente, but I prefer it to be steaming hot instead of close to room temperature.  Once again, you have your choice of meat.  The tofu was a little dense and chewy.  The chicken breast slices were overdone also and hard to eat. On the plus side, the bean sprouts had been cleaned with the roots removed for better presentation. $8.95

- Rice-  Fairly standard - it had a little of the browned edge from the cooking pot; it would have been better without that.  $1.50

Champa Garden has very good prices, but most of the meat in our dishes was overcooked.  The servers were friendly and accommodating. One of my dining companions did find something in one of the dishes - we're not sure if it was part of an herb or something else - pretty hard to decipher, but aside from that, the food had good flavor overall.  If you're in the area, and looking for a good value, Champa is worth a stop, but you might consider going vegetarian.