{"id":351591,"date":"2026-07-24T21:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351591\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T21:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T21:34:09","slug":"chalawaan-thai-delish-just-opened-inside-a-gas-station-on-tampas-n-armenia-avenue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/351591\/","title":{"rendered":"Chalawaan Thai Delish just opened inside a gas station on Tampa\u2019s N Armenia Avenue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Chef Sirikullaya \u2018Layla\u2019 Martinez at Chalawaan Thai Delish in Tampa, Florida on July 16, 2026. Credit: Ray Roa<\/p>\n

In Tampa, the stretch of N Armenia Avenue between Interstate-275 and Waters Avenue is known for international cuisine, be it Filipino (Lucky Tigre), South American (La Pequena Colombia, L.P.C.X, Antojito\u2019s) or even Italian (Cacciatore & Sons).<\/p>\n

Add Thai to the flavor profile, too.<\/p>\n

Chef Sirikullaya \u201cLayla\u201d Martinez opened Chalawaan Thai Delish<\/a> inside the Citgo gas station on 5018 N Armenia Ave. three months ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Named after Chalawan, a folkloric crocodilian king revered in Martinez\u2019s home provinces of Phichit, the restaurant boasts a menu broken up into four sections\u2014appetizers, noodles & fried rice, stir-fries & curry, and desserts\u2014with close to three dozen items to choose from. Prices range between $6 (egg rolls, pot stickers) to $18 (fried catfish in green curry sauce); Thai teas and coffees are $5.<\/p>\n

This massaman curry and Thai tea was around $20 before tip (got it \u201cThai hot,\u201d and while the heat almost killed me, it did not mask the deeply aromatic, nutty and creamy flavor of the sauce).<\/p>\n

\"AMassaman curry and Thai tea at Chalawaan Thai Delish in Tampa, Florida on July 16, 2026. Credit: Ray Roa<\/p>\n

Martinez told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay she\u2019s been in the U.S. for about five years and previously worked in other Thai restaurants including Lemongrass on Kennedy Boulevard. She does her shopping pretty much every day at Sanwa Farmer\u2019s Market just a 10-minute drive away.<\/p>\n

Tampa\u2019s Chalawaan Thai Delish<\/a> is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-9 p.m.<\/p>\n

This article appears in July 23 \u2013 29, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chef Sirikullaya \u2018Layla\u2019 Martinez at Chalawaan Thai Delish in Tampa, Florida on July 16, 2026. Credit: Ray Roa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,130436,137,136],"class_list":["post-351591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-restaurant-opening","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}