Champa Thai Cafe Opens in Downtown Raleigh Thursday
After a couple of months of staring at a sign that said “Coming Soon” every day at lunch, the wait will be over tomorrow. A new sign (above) popped up in the Champa Thai Cafe window this week, along with some crispy new graphics.
Don’t get me wrong, China Market was busy daily and lots of folks enjoyed the cheap lunch deals they had, but Champa seems to have stepped it up a bit. The interior has been painted, renovated, and as mentioned, new graphics adorned the storefront. Although the window states a website address for the new cafe, no such website seems to exist. I assume it will pop up soon after the new location opens. Currently there is a Champa Cafe in Briercreek, which has a reputation of being pretty good. Nonetheless, it’s great to have more variety of restaurants in downtown. Let’s hope they are open for dinner as well, which was one of China Market’s downfalls.
With Sono’s problems and the overpriced, yet average, Wild Ginger just a couple of blocks away, the Thai market still has room for competition. Champa could add this much needed culinary competition. Let’s hope Martin Street Pizza and Deli finally opens this summer….the graphics were taken off this past week, the interior is slowly being renovated and I was told it would open in a month. This corner could be back in the food business quick.
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Jenna
04/16 08:12 PM
Yum! I can’t wait. (No more going to Brier Creek for Tom Ka!)
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David
04/17 12:27 AM
Jenna try LaVie on Capital. While still out of the way, its the best pad thai, and thom yum soup in the city.
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emily
04/17 03:42 AM
mmm… sawasadee on capitol will blow your mind. please go!!!
they’re so fantastic.
there is a reason they get voted best thai in the city by citysearch. -
David
04/17 02:22 PM
sigh.. this is totally the wrong thread for this discussion, but since i started it: LaVie is unquestionably better than Sawasadee. I have been to both many times back-to-back. LaVie is fresher, wider variety of vegetables, and more subtleties in the way dishes are flavored and served. Sawasadee is more sloppy and its prices are no better. Just drive the extra half mile on Capital and try the hidden gem.
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Jenna
04/17 02:29 PM
Thanks for the tips! I’ll have to try both places now.
But for convenience, I’ll probably pick Champa’s new location most often. Now that they’ve officially opened, does anyone know what their hours will be?
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Jedidiah
04/17 02:59 PM
aka….opens in 20 seconds.
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RaleighRob
04/17 06:03 PM
Well since others are mentioning good Thai, i’ll add Thai House on Wake Forest Road.
But I am definitely looking forward to trying this new downtown Champa!
Thai food downtown…it’s about “thaime”! 
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BH
04/22 05:07 PM
Just tried Champa downtown for lunch. All in all, rather disappointing. Everything (I mean everything) is served in or on plastic. Plastic utensils too. The menu is very limited in my opinion. I shared the summer rolls as a starter (which I thought were good, especially with the hot chili sauce they provided) and had the Pad Thai Chicken (only choice of meat). I’ve had a lot better Pad Thai. It was essentially all noodles. There was a little bit of egg, plenty of sprouts, the crushed peanuts came in a side plastic dish, and I had 2 (counted ‘em) small pieces of chicken in the whole dish. There was no tofu, no cilantro, etc. Patty, our waitress, was very nice and welcomed the comments. She said she would pass them along to her uncle. She also indicated that they will always have to use the plastic because they’re not setup (nor will they be) for more sophisticated dishwashing. Patty asked that we do give it another try soon, and I will in hopes that it gets better.
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stacey
05/02 06:01 PM
The food at Champa Thai Cafe was great. Decent value, too. However, the service is very slow. My coworkers and I went today. We work 3 blocks from the restaurant and it took us an hour and 10 minutes from the time we walked in the door. For dinner, that’s okay, but for lunchtime in downtown Raleigh, it’s a bit long. The food came out pretty fast; it was just that waiting to place our orders, and then waiting for the checks, then waiting for the checks to be split, waiting for our credit cards, etc. really made us go over our hour lunch. We were finished eating by 12:20 but it was 12:45 before we walked out the door. I’d say if they can improve on the service and be mindful that most people have only an hour for lunch, this place will survive because the food really is good.
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stacey
05/02 06:05 PM
Made a mistake in my prior post, at 1:20 we were finished eating but didn’t leave until 1:45. I would say definitely eat at Champa if you have over an hour for lunch, or if you can get takeout. I tried calling for takeout a few times today but no one answered the phone, so that’s why we decided to walk down and eat in. It could be that the new place just has to work out a few kinks and these things will improve. I would definitely eat there again, but would choose a day in which I really did not need to be back in an hour.
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Scott
01/20 04:40 AM
I have read all comments here and from what I know.
1) Champa in Downtown is posted on sale now.
2) La vie out of business.
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