Review Charntra - Camberwell

Great food good price. Autentic thai taste.If you like thai food you should try at once.

Anyone thinking less than 5 Stars is grumpy. The produce is gorgeous, all the food fresh & aromatic and Charntra is the sweetest hard working soul. Top quality at a more than fair price. XO

Plenty to #likes about this humble, unpretentious Thai joint.

Best Thai restaurant in Melbourne! Delicious food and excellent customer service - highly recommend!!

Great Thai food ... a real neighbourhood gem

Hands down amazing. The owner didn't want us to leave a review as he didn't want extra business, but we had to based on such an amazing experience with our BYO. Thanks to the whole team and Keith for a fantastic night! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stunning and delicious food with friendly service. One of the best Thai curries I've ever had.

The walls give the place a good Asian feeling. Food is served quickly, and are good quality portions too of food. They are good in doing functions, ie. a birthday. They set up the tables well for us and are a fine place to relax. It is also really quiet, because it isn’t as popular. To get more customers, they probably need to do more advertising or something

Entered this home-style Thai restaurant eager to have our dinner! Was met with slow-ish service during the beginning of the night; would love it if the staff amped up their enthusiasm to make guests feel more welcomed. The highlight dishes of the night were definitely the prawns! Cooked to perfection- so fresh tasting and for a great price, too. We ordered the Spring Roll Prawns, Chris's Royal Thai Chili Basil Prawns which were complete standouts! The lemongrass coconut Thai sauce was subtle in its favouring, giving the vegetables and the prawns a lovely hit! The cashews were also a wonderful touch to their speciality dish. The coconut rice, for $3, was also a great addition (despite its basicness, you can go wrong with rice sometimes, but not here).<br/><br/>On a not so positive note, the roti bread was quite greasy and stiff (not fluffy and soft), which was a bit disappointing. Additionally, the Green Curry Chicken tasted too strongly of coconut milk, however, I'm not too sure if that is the result of us asking the curry to be mild and not too spicy. Damian's Yellow Curry Vegetables with Tofu was thoroughly enjoyed by our family, heavy I did find the curry to also be quite creamy (the potatoes were also rock hard!). Apart from that, the vegetable mixture was diverse and the tofu was very flavourful and soft (so delicious!)<br/><br/>The Pad Thai Prawn (Authentic Thai style) serving we found to be too small, especially for $20! Although it was very enjoyable, my sister was definitely not satiated! We ended the night by ordering the Sticki Rice & Durian which was served warm and in the cutest glass! This was another favourite of the night, seeing as we usually don't come for dessert! <br/><br/>Overall, the size of the curries and dishes were really worth the price (minus the Pad Thai serving), and I wouldn't say the flavours from the dishes would make this the best Thai restaurant in town, however, I wouldn't mind to come back and have some of their House Specialties again.

Best Thai restaurant around Camberwell/Hawthorn area.  Food is fantastic, service is brilliant. Yes BYO is free so do bring your own bottle of wine. The seafood dishes are really fresh.

Charntra has the best service over any Thai Place we have visited in Melbourne. The staff are so friendly, very accommodating. The food is fantastic! The portions are a huge size for price, and if you want to take it home when you cannot finish your curry, they give you complimentary extra rice to take home! <br/><br/>TIP: Do bring along your favourite bottle of wine- it's FREE BYO. Don't forget to try the Beef Massaman Curry- it is delectable, the beef practically melts in your mouth!

The best nights to dine in at chantra Thai are Tuesday and Wednesday nights so you can get a big bowl of chilli basil mussels. Enough said!!

Great foodand service. Ben Ben is a honey

Other than how absolutely gorgeous the member of staff was, there is nothing else good I have to say about this place! The service was wonderful and the sweetly selected playlist was upbeat and on trend, until a horribly rude Australian man, presumably an owner, came in. He was so horribly condescending to his staff and talked loudly about how he thought they were incompetent. My friend and I were very close to walking out due to how rude and obnoxious he was, however we'd already ordered and felt like the staff could use the support. The meal was equally as disappointing, watered down and flavourless other than the undercurrent of salt in the curry and butter through both the curry and roti. A restaurant that was recommended by a friend, but that will NOT be recommended to any others from me and my dining partner.

Charntra is fantastic! Lovely friendly staff and quality Thai food - don't become too expensive!

Yellow Chicken Curry - Amazing!!!. Have been coming here for years and I love the yellow chicken curry with roti bread.<br/>Quality is always consistent in regards to this dish! Love it :)

Awful. Thai beef salad was salted beef on dry salad. Almost inedible. Only ate it as I was taken out for dinner so wanted to be polite. I called the manager after to inform and his initial response was to thank me multiple times saying he likes to hear this but no apology was given. When I continued to complain he got angry and told me I don't know what a Thai salad tastes like. He was so obnoxious that I put the phone down. Do yourself a favour, find an alternative. Slow service, very average food, zero ambiance, smug owner. Yuck combination.

Our favourite Thai indulgence!. Chantra has become our new favourite local, always guaranteed to satisfy and a great spot to take friends or visitors to Melbourne. I love the Prawn Cakes to start, the lightest crumbing and you can tell each has been made by hand with quality ingredients, my dinner date always gets the Money Bags and their Roti bread with an order of Chantra's satay sauce on the side is perfect and so Moorish! I always try and look at new dishes but can never resist the Delux Seafood with tofu - it is seriously the most amazing silken tofu & a meal in itself, also go for the Pad Thai Prawn wrapped in a thin omelette with a generous serving of huge prawns...... I'd like to have desert sometime but we're always too overindulged at that point, so you must take away some of the Sesame Peanuts that are for sale on the counter...made by Chantra the Chef - soooo delishious! Incredibly they do not charge corkage for byo wines & also have a fairly good & well priced wine list. The front of house manager is a true gem, with authentic Thai coming from the kitchen & an authentic Aussie character out the front, we always feel welcomed and remembered, entertained and looked after!

Great "O" Birthday. My wife was celebrating her special "O" birthday and we could not have asked for a better location. With a mixed group of kids through to adults we were welcomed into Charntra and immediately made to feel at home. Menu suggestions were excellent, meal sizes were ample and everyone had a great time in a relaxed environment. Other patrons joined in to wish "happy birthday" and cheer on the birthday girl. Overall an excellent night, great value and a fun time. Strongly recommended.

Nice food in easy going surrounds

New owners?. Good food in a welcoming environment.<br/><br/>Has there been a change in ownership at Charntra? Seems the food portions, while still good quality and taste, have become decidedly smaller and the prices have jumped up dramatically to the point where it is no longer a suburban favourite but better value to eat at lower level Hawthorn places. We hope the new owner gets the place back on track soon.

The food is straight off the top shelf in regards to flavor, spice and taste. The meal I had was brilliant with the sauce applying an integral part to the dish. The only downside to the meal was the price which was a bit high for the amount of food that was received. Would strongly recommend to all with the Red Curry Duck a clear stand out.

Drunk, obnoxious host with pretty average food. <br/>The host spent most the evening hanging around our table, acting obnoxious, swilling wine and generally being loud and annoying. <br/>Dry duck rolls and overcooked beef partly redeemed by a tasty prawn curry. <br/>Overpriced for average food. I'll not be back.

Bad customer service. We tried this neighbourhood restaurant and were sorely disappointed. Being a saturday night is always a good time to check if a place is upto it. We waited 30 minutes then had to ask to have our order taken then another 20 for entree to arrive. Meanwhile two other parties arrived after us and were served their mains before any of our mains arrived. After waiting 40 minutes the last straw was to be told that "your mains are coming after that group over there". The said groups arrived 40minutes after us but were eating well before we were.<br/>The said owner arrogantly intimated 'well thats just how we organise our selves and said "that he wasn't short of customers".

So Good. Love the Yellow Chicken Curry - my fave<br/>and the service is friendly and absolutely love the <br/>host! Friendly and funny!

My charntra experience. Been here a few times and have found the food delicious!<br/>Unfortunately the gentleman who appears to be trying to run front of house is annoying and not funny.

Perfect. We're talking suburban Thai in Camberwell here, It's just perfect for what the area needs and well away from the exorbitant food and wine / NO BYO prices on Highfield Road. It's quality food in a simple environment.

Great flavours in the dishes. Generous servings and an owner/manager who is engaging and will honestly give advice about how much to order rather than oversell. Oh, and it's close to home. Plenty of reasons to keep going back!

Service is great!!. I'm a regular. Consistently great food. They are flexible with their meals and always happy to see the friendly, chatty and never mundane host!

Lousy service.... May have nice authentic food however it means nothing when it doesn't have good customer service. Been there on several occasions and each time I try and overlook the owners 'in your face discussions' whilst trying to have a quiet meal with your family. My last visit had my take away sitting on a stool for 10-15min because they were too lazy to notify me that it was ready while i was waiting at the front. Mind you that was after he had promised a table to a group and then reneged as he 'had forgotten' other bookings and made them sit outside.There are many other places to choose from and will.

Best Thai in melbourne. I know this because my brother's girlfriend is Thai and an awesome cook, and she rates it highly.<br/><br/>The Pad Thai special is amazing, as is the Massaman and the Mok Hor.<br/><br/>Service is friendly, and attentive and prices are reasonable. And its BYO!

At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking this understated little place might pass for another suburban interpretation of Thai cuisine, however do not be fooled by its modest decor. This really is Thai cuisine at its best. The Hor Mok Seafood was sublime, Infact everything we ordered was tantalizingly delicious!! The food was fresh & very reasonably priced. Will we be back! Absolutely!

We keep going back!. This is seriously the best thai in the area. Generous portions, incredible quality. Service exceptional and the front of house host is another reason we love it ... don't change a thing!

High quality food - even if a little short on authenticity. This is a nice little place that's not overly expensive. The ingredients are a highlight, and even if a little short of authentic, every dish tried so far has been tasty. I can highly recommend the Hor Mok Seafood. Plenty of fresh prawns in red curry coconut milk with fresh herbs. Also try the Massaman Beef, cooked in coconut milk with potato & veggies.<br/><br/>The service is friendly, but Keith can be a little too familiar at times.You probably need to mention if you're in a hurry as there seems to be only Charntra in the kitchen.

Good food, lacking service. Another Monday night out to try some beautiful foods and this week comes to Charntra (Thai). This restaurant has been in Epicure recently, that's why we choose to try this place. Lets get started!<br/><br/>We start our meal with "Mixed entree" which is the combination of 5 or 6 different types of their entree menu. I particularly like chicken tenderloin satay with smooth creamy peanut sauce. Followed by their entree special, which is prawn skewers with tamarind sauce. Nothing spectacular for this dish to me but taste is quite nice and tangy. For the mains, we try Pad Thai chicken, which is a little bit bland. Hor Mok seafood is really good, which is really flavorsome on the other hand. We also have yellow chicken curry, which is a little bit let down because it is just a little too sweet. For dessert, we have banana fritter. It's quite good to finish the meal with it. <br/>The service, well they only have one waiting staff on the floor tonight; as a result, the service is lacking and not attentive. If they could get another staff on the floor, I reckon their service would be much much better than this. Nevertheless, the waitress is really friendly though. <br/><br/>To conclude, Charntra the overall is good to try if you're local or just live nearby. <br/><br/>Note; they do not provide any free glasses of water to customers. The only option to you is to purchase it if you need some ..

Fantastic.. lovely Thai food... had been wanting to try this restaurant for ages and it lives up to all the great reviews. Charntra's Delux seafood was seriously deluxe!

Waz. Had a really great meal here(Monday night) the food was excellent very tasty authentic and not expensive.Will definitely go again.

Food court Thai. At the request from some well traveled friends from interstate who wanted some nice Thai food in comfortable surrounds, I came across this restaurant from my research. Since it is located in Camberwell, one of the more well-established '"middle-ring" suburbs of Melbourne, I thought we could not go wrong. How wrong was I?<br/>The food was ordinary, tasted much like the type of Thai food you get from food courts in suburban shopping centres served on china plates with steel cutlery rather than plastic. We ordered around five dishes which took about half an hour to arrive. There were approximately four to five other tables at the time. To top it off, we were greeted by an obnoxious host or restaurant manager of some sort who walked around sipping a glass of wine and insulted us like school children who could not think for ourselves. This has to be the worse dining experience I have had in Melbourne and I really feel for his staff having to work to him. In closing, if you are after authentic Thai food with decent service, keep looking, this is probably not the place for you, what a shame.

Only if you have no other choice. Food: Taste and presentation are good. But definitely not authentic Thai cuisine. Something like the old Sweet and Sour Pork and Fried Rice in the 80s' for Chinese food.<br/><br/>Service: No one greeted me when I arrived. I had to present myself to the reception. 2 of my friends didnt turn up. When a man who works there (he could be the manager of some sort) realized, he definitely let us know how he felt about it even though I told him I only found out there and then. He explained about the special of the day and told us the size of the dishes are in large portion but in fact they are just normal size.<br/><br/>Environment: Neat. Keep bumming the lady behind me on another table (if you know what i mean). Need to speak up a notch when chatting with my friends as it gets quite noisy in the restaurant.<br/><br/>Toilet: Clean.

Ham Bok Seafood Coconut Curry Served in a Whole Coconut. Should be 'Hor Mok' not ham bok<br/><br/><br/>-----31 Jul, 2014-----<br/><br/>About aimhigh's 'Disappointing' experience.. Just to enlighten you, Charntra has not had a change of ownership since opening in January 2010.<br/>The first, and only, price rise was 18 months ago. <br/>Portions are still the same size, and more importantly, it is still the same chef, Charntra herself.<br/>The 'gentleman' who was front of house was very polarising with his manner of 'service' towards customers. Some loved him, most didn't. He is not there anymore.<br/><br/>Why am I saying this?<br/><br/>I am a loyal, regular local who has got to know Charntra and the food she loves to make, and feels that aimhigh's review was rather ill-informed.<br/><br/><br/>-----24 Mar, 2012-----<br/><br/>Correction. Reviewer 'The Good Food Lover' recently wrote that Charntra customers are charged for water.<br/><br/>This is not the case.<br/><br/>Bottled water is provided free of charge.<br/>They also don't charge corkage.<br/><br/>Another good reason to keep coming back!<br/><br/><br/>-----20 Nov, 2011-----<br/><br/>Prices unchanged. Like reviewer Mike, I have been going to Charntra since it opened, and the prices haven't changed at all. Take away prices are lower than dine in, and the lunch time menu offers a smaller serve at a cheaper price. A new summer menu has just been added as well.<br/>Tuesday and Wednesday nights are 'Mussel Nights' and Friday/Saturday nights will be offering whole Barramundi.<br/>As the host explains, dishes are served mild to suit the local clientèle, but Charntra is happy to ramp up the chilli factor if that is what you want.

The understated, casual racism of the extroverted host may appeal to the well- to-do elderly clientel of middle camberwell, however, the food is bland, overly sweet and far from resembling traditional Thai food. Service was good but I doesn't make up for the typically average suburban Melbourne Thai.

Terrific Thai in Middle Camberwell. Great cheap Thai food that is open from 5pm for dinner. All the food is good but the Massaman Beef is actually some of the best in Melbourne. The heat is dialled down for the locals but the food is quality and fresh. Managed by a slightly overbearing and ebulent scoutmaster type front of house manager. Yet food makes it all worthwhile.

Lovely food. We had the prawn tom yum soup - not too spicy. One shared between two. A tofu and veg stir fry, lamb Penang curry (very very tender), rice and roti. Very filling and tasty. Only criticism was that the meals could all have been a little hotter (as in temperature; not spice). All in all very good. We'll be back :)

The food was good and very good value. Apart from a big slip up on nuts when clearly asked to have no peanuts. We have no complaints Keith quickly corrected the not so small mistake and gave us an extra entre dish, which was re right thing to do. We will go back. Again value for money was very good and dish size was good. Well done guys, just watch the peanuts

Nice clean Thai food. Not as authentic as I would have liked, pad Thai was a little bland, but everything else was bursting with flavour. A lovely experience and friendly staff.

Reasonable Value and Good Food. Although the food is quite good, the prices are certainly towards the top end of what one would expect to pay to dine out in the area.<br/><br/>I could be wrong here, but between the time when they first opened last year to now I am sure they have hiked their prices quite a bit.<br/><br/>Service is first rate, albeit the top honcho waiter can be a bit over-bearing, serving size quite good, and the Banana Fritter desert is to "die for"<br/><br/>I would give the place 3.5/5

Authentic Thai Food. Visiting Melbourne from Sydney, friends brought us to this Thai restaurant. Simply the best and the most authentic Thai food i have had in Australia, Snacks like fish cake are very tasty and main courses like Lamb, duck and yellow curry chicken are very delish. Friendly staff with a good sense of humor.

Yummy! Great curries and rice dishes. Fantastic flavours, good cuts of meat with little or no fat and some of the best curry puffs I've tasted. Friendly staff with a good sense of humour. We'll definitely be back.