Brown Sugar Cafe (Boston, MA)

Brown Sugar Cafe (and its sister-restaurant in Cambridge, the Similans) is quite possibly the best Thai restaurant in the greater-Boston area, and it has all of the awards posted in its entranceway to prove it.

Brown Sugar Cafe is located on the west side of the Boston University campus, and is very easily accessible on the B-line (MBTA green line) - Babcock Street station. It appears to be very small in size, but the restaurant is actually quite deep and service is quick, ensuring that you won't have more than a 15-20 minute wait.

The menu is so long that it resembles a book. You might think that if a restaurant has a menu this long, that none of the food would be good. However, every item that we have ordered from the menu at Brown Sugar Cafe has been phenomenal. Not only does the food taste great, but the food presentation is also quite nice - with some dishes being served in pineapple shells or with flower garnishes.

The Brown Sugar Cafe Pad Thai has yet to be beat by any other restaurant in any other city. This is one of our favorite dishes, and it is difficult to venture from it, even though we know we should try something different. However, we have also tried:

• Brown Sugar Fresh Rolls - a good starter - comes with shrimp, but can also be made vegetarian
• Seafood Volcano  - a mixture of different seafoods and vegetables (comes with a burning flame!)
• Bird of Paradise - another mixture of different seafoods and vegetables (comes in a cute aluminum foil bird)
• Siamese Twins - sweet and spicy chicken, shrimp, and vegetables (comes in a pineapple shell)
• Soft Shell Crab Pad Thai - for when we want the Pad Thai, but would also like something different than the typical chicken and shrimp variety

Service at Brown Sugar Cafe is quite good - on most occasions, the servers will repeat your order right back to you, which is very helpful to ensure that you will receive the correct food. Also, there is always someone walking around with a water pitcher, so your glass never runs empty. Not once have we had an issue with finding our server when we needed him/her, which is something that we can't say about many other restaurants.

We have not tried too many of the different drinks available at Brown Sugar Cafe. We don't know if they have a full liquor license (as they don't advertise mixed drinks on their menu), so it might just be beer and wine. However, they do make an excellent limeade and shirley temple.

The desserts at Brown Sugar Cafe are excellent. We have tried a couple of them: the fried ice cream is quite good, complete with a dollop of honey and sesame seeds on top. We have also tried the Brown Sugar Banana Dumpling, which is a warm banana dessert served inside a banana leaf. However, our favorite is the Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice. Unfortunately, the mango dessert is "only available seasonally" - which is something that we don't understand. We can purchase mangoes in the supermarket all year round, so why is this dessert seasonal? hmmm

A couple more comments:

• As mentioned previously, there is a sister-restaurant called The Similans, in Cambridge - near the Cambridgeside Galleria. The menu choices and food quality there are essentially the same. Unlike Brown Sugar Cafe, The Similans has a full liquor license (we have ordered some mixed drinks there).
• We would highly recommend going to Brown Sugar Cafe for someone's birthday. The way in which birthdays are celebrated at this restaurant cannot be compared to any other restaurant....you must go there yourself to understand this. (HAPPY BIRRRTHDAY TO YOU!)

Overall Rating (Brown Sugar Cafe): 10 out of 10
Positive: Hands down, the best Thai food that we have ever had.
Negative: Keep the Mango with Sweet Sticky Rice on the menu year-round!