Pai

I think it’s extremely difficult to find good Thai food that doesn’t make your pad thai using ketchup.  So many restaurants use ketchup now, that I think a lot of people now actually believe that pad thai is supposed to be made with ketchup.  I’ve been disappointed so many times ordering pad thai that I just don’t do it anymore.  I just don’t feel like being disappointed again. 

One of my favorite Thai places is Khao San Road.  And now with the ownership split (occurred a long while ago, I just haven’t been in the area in a while to try), there is now Pai.  Pai’s menu is very similar to Khao San Road.  The very first thing I decided to order is the Thai iced tea.  Soooooo good!  Strong brewed black tea, sweetened and lightened by the addition of condensed milk.  Makes me want one now.  Love it.  Friend got Chang beer, a Thai beer.  He said it was just ok.  Hubby ordered sake.  Tasted a bit like banana....

Thai Iced Tea, Chang Beer, Sake

Food wise, we ordered the Sai Ua Platter, Khao Soi, Pad Gra Prow, and Khao Pla Tawt.  With the orders, you will be asked what spice level you want.  Sai Ua Platter, the English name would be Northern Thai Sausage.  There were Grilled pork belly sausages that had lemongrass, and garlic flavours, served with sticky rice, a relish and some cabbage on the side.  We weren’t sure how we were supposed to eat this, so I decided to eat it like a taco.  Grabbed a piece of cabbage, a bit of rice, topped it with sausage and the relish.  So good!  I’m usually not a fan of pork, let alone sausage, but this was so good.  Each bite was like a flavour explosion in your mouth.  Could definitely taste the lemon grass in the sausage, and it wasn’t overly porky tasting, or fatty.  I hate eating Chinese sausages because of the fat chunks.

Sai Ua Platter

Pad Gra Prow, stir fried ground chicken with basil and oyster sauce served over rice topped with a fried egg.  I love any dish that is topped with a fried egg.  Runny egg yolk over rice, I do that at home whenever I have no food in the fridge.  Top it with a bit of soy sauce, almost perfect dinner.  But this dish has even more.  The ground chicken, infused with the basil flavour makes this dish my favorite of the night.  I need to find out how to make it, because it doesn’t seem that complicated…..

Khao Pla Tawt, crispy basa filets served with a fresh chili sauce and a tangy tamarind sauce.  I said this is an Asian version of fish and chips, where the chips is a bowl of rice.  I took a small piece of fish to try.  It didn’t have much flavour on its own.  But I was told that basa is like that.  Between the two sauces, I preferred the tamarind sauce with the fish.  Not sure I would order it on my own, but my friend said that this was his favourite.

Khao Soi, the hubby chose this dish.  He forgot that he had this before.  It’s fresh egg noodles in a golden curry topped with (we chose) braised beef.  I really liked the noodles, cooked perfectly so they were still slightly chewy.  And of course the crispy noodles on top were delicious.  The braised beef was very tender, but still held up, it wasn’t falling apart.  The curry, the hubby loved it, the poured it on top of everything.  I think if he could, he would have drank it.  I liked the curry, just not as much.  I found there was a slight sweetness to it that I found a bit strange.

Pad Gra Prow, Khao Pla Tawt, Khao Soi

I’m not sure how accurate they were  with the spice levels.  One dish that we ordered with the same spice level was significantly spicier than the other.  Not sure if its that one of them they forgot to add the spiciness, and the other was spiced correctly, or one dish was correct, but the other was too heavy handed.  Either way, my new favorite Thai food place!

Pai

18 Duncan St.,

Toronto, ON

M58 3G8

Phone:  (416) 901-4724

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11:30a - 10:00p

             Friday - Saturday 11:30a - 10:30p

             Sunday 5:00p - 10:00p

http://www.paitoronto.com