This is my go-to place for take-out. Bangkok 54 is the best Thai food in the Arlington area. The Panang Chicken is my dish of choice. The menu has a good variety and is priced reasonably. You can eat in the dining room or get take out.

I love their chicken curry with butternut squash. We went with a party of 13 and everyone was satisfied with their choices. You can see that the management of this place is strong and keeps a close eye on the quality of the food. We'll be back.

We went here based on the Washingtonian list of Cheap Eats.

We ordered Green papaya salad for a shared appetizer--wow! Looking at the menu online now, I can see that most appetizers have chili sauce, or chili powder as an ingredient, but none have a little chili spicy icon, like some restaurants provide. This was a five minute burn--unpleasant! Yikes! When we told our waitress that it was too spicy, she seemed mildly amused--we were not! Finally when she came back and noticed that we were soaking our tongues in our water glasses just to delay the spicy burn, she offered, "sorry." This is a service failure on her part and for the restaurant. She could have casually mentioned that this dish was very spicy, and/or told the preparer to go easy on the chili.

After the fire went out, we ordered red curry shrimp with butternut squash (with the spoken understanding that she could make it "not spicy." We also ordered a whole fish--they offer several kinds, each with a different price that our waitress couldn't quote without checking with the manager.

Both dishes were very good--the whole flounder with a sweet & sour sauce on the side was very nice.

So, I guess you get the drift--beware of the five-alarm chili, and, well, beware of what seems to be a service problem.

BTW, I gave this place a 4, because the food is very good, and we will probably go back some time.

Recently moved from Tysons to Arlington and have eaten here multiple times in the last few weeks due to lack of food in the house. The food is incredible, and consistently good. Traditional dishes such as the Drunken Noodle are absolutely perfect, whether you choose the spicy or non-spicy version. Portion sizes are robust.

Their seasonal dishes are great too. Currently, they have a squash (and chicken) red curry dish that is out of this world.

In some cases, I recommend dining in; as an example, the curry dish mentioned above comes with a salad but only when dining in.