Location: 18 Duncan Street, Toronto (near University and Adelaide)
Website: http://www.paitoronto.com/
Cuisine: Thai
Meal: dinner
My thoughts:
This is the owners of Khao San Road's newest venture, and ever since I'd heard about it, I've been very eager to check it out. The place had only been open for about a month and had already garnered a lot of fanfare among foodies alike.
Located on a sub-underground unit with inconspicuous signage, we almost overlooked this. But that obviously didn't stop the crowds of people that were already here from coming, as at around 6pm, it was already packed.
The ambiance was strange. If you can imagine 2 parts grungy with 1 part tropical/beachy and 1 part minimalistic/Japanese, then you'll have Pai. What I was referring to with the Japanese thing is this one section with a single large communal table where people sit on the floor. Kind of odd.
Anyway, onto the food. Our party of 5 ordered a few things to share.
We heard that the Chef Nuit Pad Thai ($14) is really good. While my friends enjoyed this, I didn't think there was anything really special about it.
We also got the Gaeng Kiaw Wan ($16), which is a green curry with bamboo shoots, kaffir lime leaves, basil leaves, green peppers and coconut milk. A side of rice is included. The best part is it's served in a young coconut! Really worth trying. The coconut meat was delicious with the curry.
Everyone's favourite tonight was easily the Pad Gra Prow ($14), which consisted of stir-fried ground chicken, beef or pork (we got beef) with basil and oyster sauce served on steamed jasmine rice and topped with a Thai-style fried egg. Sounds like a simple dish that even anyone can make at home, right? That's what we thought too, until we had a taste. Yowza! Don't be fooled. Definitely some really amazing Thai flavours in there, and definitely worth ordering.
All in all, this was a good meal, and while there were some really standout dishes, I like as a whole Khao San Road better. Food is one reason, but I'm also not a fan of dark, grungy places in part because they don't lend well to food photo ops (as you can see from the quality of the photos). Still, I would come back.
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