Read about the inspiration for our East of the Lake series HERE.

Champa Garden is a charming little restaurant tucked in a working class Ivy Hill neighborhood at the corner of 8th Ave and E. 22nd Street. The restaurant’s take on Laotian, Thai, and Vietnamese cuisine is delicious and cheap – the perfect combination for a night out with friends or take-out with your boo. I’ve been coming here for a few years and this past year, have enjoyed their extensive menu on a nearly weekly basis.

The sampler platter (pictured above) is a must. You use lettuce leaves as wraps that you then fill with noodles, Lao sausages, fried spring rolls, and friend rice ball salad, before topping it with a sauce, and garnish. The mix of flavors and textures is incredible, and at $9.95 for a healthy portion, you can’t go wrong. I usually order this as a starter, but it can satisfy two moderately hungry people by itself.

If that doesn’t fill you up, the menu is chalk full of delicious options including: Pineapple or mango fried rice, Larp Salad, Kaow Soy, Pad Kea Moa, and even a whole grilled lemon grass chicken that isn’t on the menu. My mother always told me not to trust restaurants that serve too many dishes, because they tend not to make any one thing really well, but Champa’s extensive menu has never disappointed.

If you want to eat at the restaurant, get in the door early because it gets packed. Evidently awesome and affordable food served in a quaint unpretentious setting is quite a draw. Otherwise, call in, order out, and eat up! You won’t regret it.

2102 8th Ave (at E. 21st st)
Oakland, CA 94606
Neighborhood: East Oakland

This is an extremely rare shot of an empty Champa.

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