Disclosure: cmp.ly/1 – This dinner was on the house. There was no expectation to review or blog about it, I am doing this solely because I want to.
This post will be a double whammy feature, with both myself and Jeff providing the commentary. This is great for you AND me because he may cover things that I may have left out & vice versa. It also means you, the reader, have a hell of a lot more to read. Enjoy!
For ease of reading, Kevin’s thoughts will be in GREEN, and Jeff’s will be in BLUE.
Jeff was my company for the night, and also my notetaker. The first time I’ve ever had to resort to taking notes at a restaurant, mainly because of the sheer amount of food I knew we would be having and also because of the unfamiliar names we would undoubtedly happen upon.
He would have been totally lost without me.
Ben of Chowtimes invited me and some other bloggers for a tasting at TangThai downtown. He had already reviewed their first location on Broadway, and they contacted him for help with their newest endeavour into the competitive downtown core. His suggestion for a blogger dinner was taken into account and here we were on a weekday night.
Thank you to Sonia and Deo for inviting us and Ben for organizing this event. It was a pleasure meeting some of the top food bloggers Vancouver has to offer and the passion that these people have for food is unreal.
In attendance was Sherman (Shermans Food Adventures, you can see him just to the right in the below picture), Jenny & Ricky (Secret Eden), Mijune (Follow Me Foodie), Jeff and I (604 Foodtography), and Ben and Suanne (Chow Times).
Before the meal began, Sonia and Deo (the owners) came out to personally greet us. From outside (1st picture) you can see they have an upstairs portion of the restaurant. Unfortunately, they were still waiting for some furniture to arrive so it wasn’t open for public yet. They did let us upstairs to take a look. From up there, there’s a nice eagle eyes view of the space downstairs, and you can even peek into the kitchen a bit. The space does hold a commanding view of the street below, and I foresee it being extremely busy up there come summertime.
The inside is beautifully decorated with Thai statues, sculptures and other pieces of art.
Menus? Where we’re going, we don’t need menus.
We didn’t need them because Sonia would be our host, chef & server tonight. She had free reign to bring out anything, as she felt strongly about her food and wanted to let it speak for itself.
Sonia also wanted us to try some of her new dishes before they were put on the menu. Nothing wrong with being a guinea pig at times I suppose.
It is however a really pretty menu. The back page showed all the different spices that are commonly used in Thai cuisine. At this time of writing, they now have a liquor license so some Singha beer would be good to go with whatever you order. Not that I would have had one were they available when we went, cause I’m still on that cleanse. Sigh.
How long do you think Kevin can go without alcohol? Think he can last until July?
One of my pet peeves is that exotic cuisines are frequently watered down to suit all tastes. This could be either the spicy level, or even the flavors are watered down. My thoughts are that if you are bringing foreign food to Vancouver, you should bring the real thing. Don’t pussy around and try to appeal to the masses, remain true to the food and the customers will come. I liked that the 5 star rating said “Welcome to Thailand! 
”. Kind of cheeky, but it’s appreciated.
1. Prawn Skirt (prawns, pork, crab meat, and water chestnut) $8.95/4
We started off with something familiar, spring rolls. These were packed to the brim with ingredients though, it was really surprising. Full of meat and more meat, the water chestnuts familiar crunchiness and sweet flavor provided the counterbalance. Real crab meat was used, but it was shredded up so it was hard to tell it was in there.
These were quite tasty. The crab seemed to have been overpowered by the other flavours but a good start to the meal. Crispy without being oily, just like how mom makes them.
2. Satay Chicken & Beef w/ peanut sauce $13.50/8
The others will probably say something like the peanut sauce wasn’t true peanut sauce, but I found it okay. The satays both had a strong curry taste to them though, which is something I’m not too familiar with for satays.
Sonia had mentioned that Thai satay is a little different from the more popular Malaysian satay. One of the differences is the addition of turmeric as you can see, gives off a yellowish colour to the food. I was only able to try the beef satay and it was okay. The peanut sauce looks different than what I’m used to, but I didn’t think anything of it. Perhaps this was the Thai version of the sauce?
3. Tom Kha Kai (spicy chicken coconut milk soup) $3.95
This soup was deceiving. It looks harmless sitting there, all white and innocent, but the hidden spice lingered long after the last sip. Delicious!
This was good. REALLY good. Pieces of chicken and peppers compliment the broth nicely. This was deceivingly spicy. HOWEVER, I vaguely remember Sonia telling Ben that this was made to be more spicy than usual. I wrote it down somewhere but Kevin has the notes. If you’re afraid of this being too spicy, double check with the server. This is too good of a dish to pass up on because it might be too spicy.
After the appetizers and soups were taken away, we were given some rice to accompany the main dishes that would be coming out shortly.
4. Pla Rad Prik (fried tilapia with spicy, sweet and sour sauce) $15.95
Please note that the giant cockatiel garnish is not usually served with this dish, obviously Sonia was looking to impress us. While it was a nice touch, it wasn’t necessary. I would never want to lead a reader astray into thinking that they could order the same dish and receive it exactly like they saw on this blog.
I believe we all agreed that the fish was a tad overfried. If that was the purpose, then yes, it was fine. It not, then that took away from this. I only had a little of this and from what I remember, it was okay. Nothing impressive, nothing bad.
Most of my friends know that aside from a few exceptions, I do NOT eat fish. Well, basically it’s just Asian styled fish that I refuse to eat (sashimi excluded). I’m not exactly sure how my displeasure for fish started though. That being said, I did try some of this. Because of my lack of experience with fish, I can’t really comment too much on it. It seemed a bit overdone but we were told it’s supposed to be prepared like that. The sauce was really good though, excellent on top of some rice.
5. Stuffed Squid w/ Green Curry
Oh what a delight this was. This was something new the kitchen had made and we were the first ones to try it out. Talk about faith in themselves!
At first glance, I thought the green quarters (just left of the bottom center) were tomatillos, or even heirloom tomatoes. Turns out they were figs! I’ve never had figs in a cooked dish before so that was nice. They were a pretty neutral flavour. See the little pea like thing scattered around?? At first we thought they were peas, but then what kind of steroid peas are these? I avoided eating one till someone did, and they commented that it was very bitter. We found out that they were in fact, baby figs. Figs & baby figs, I like the creative use of non conventional ingredients like this.
The green curry was delicious. Didn’t find it too spicy but like the sauce with the fish, great with some rice. In fact, after the squid was all gone, some people had taken this dish just to get some of the curry.
Not entirely sure what was stuffed inside the squid, but I can guess that there was pork & some vegetables. This was a hit for me, and I hope they put this onto the regular menu, if they haven’t already done so.
The curry wasn’t the only good part of the dish for me. I’ve never had a stuff squid before but this was very good. I have no idea what was inside though.
6. Nua Pad Thakhai (beef with lemongrass and vegetables) $13.95
Again, deceiving! Doesn’t look too spicy but for me, at least, this was the spiciest of everything we had. It was good though, really had a nice kick of spice that didn’t overpower the other flavours, the lemongrass especially.
With Asian cuisine, some dishes must be served with rice. This is one of them. Rice is great with spicy or saucy dishes. A lot of the others had actually stopped eating this dish to preserve their tastebuds for other dishes. Oh well, more for me!
7. Fried Eggplant and Basa Fish $??
This was the second dish that they were testing out. Deep fried eggplant slices with deep fried basa fish chunks. Not sure what the sauce is on top, but it was a curry of some sort. The mildest dish we had, I would like this to be added to the regular menu as well. The slices of eggplant could be thicker, as it wasn’t clearly evident from tasting it that it was indeed, eggplant.
This was a good dish. I enjoyed the breaded eggplant although I agree that the slices could have been bigger. Again I had some of the fish but I’m not going to comment on that.
I think it was around this time when we noticed that the restaurant was FULL! Imagine that, on a Wednesday night and they had a full house.
8. Herb Chicken BBQ w/ Thai Sauce (1/2 order) $??
Choosing not to comment on this because I don’t remember anything about it.
This was not on the menu. The chicken was a bit dry. Nothing really special in my mind. It is a good match with the sauce though. It would come to $16.95 I think.
9. Pad Thai Krung Tep (rice noodle dish w/ a tamarind-based sauce) $12.95
Traditional pad thai is supposed to be brown in color since it’s made with a tamarind sauce. The pad thai that you may be more familiar with is most likely reddish, and that’s a result of the westernization and bastardization! Not to put down this, but I think it was just a matter of timing. If this had come out earlier or even first to open our appetites, it would have been a lot better than at the end because the flavors were completely lost on us as our tastebuds were overwhelmed at this point.
At first, it was confusing why this pad tasted so differently than the ones available throughout the city. Then we realized that what Vancouverites are accustomed to isn’t actually traditional pad thai.
This dish came at the end and I agree, it would have been better earlier. The texture was good but the flavour was lacking.
See the first entry under noodles, the description says “contemporary Pad Thai sauce“. Compared to “traditional“. You know what’s up…
10. Cashew Chicken (cashew nuts, crispy chillies & vegetables) $12.95
When this came, we all quietly thought to ourselves “gwai lo dish“. Well all of us except Mijune.. heh. There were quite a bit of them around us too! It’s funny how Chinese people will think “This is our dish, they took it from us!” but really, it’s not ours. We just happen to have used the same ingredient, they just prepare it differently.
An Asian dish with a westernized spin. I didn’t mind this dish but it wasn’t something I had to have. If you’re the type of person to order this type of dish normally, you might enjoy it.
11. Thai Tea Pudding w/ sponge cake & whipping cream $5.95
I love Thai Tea and I know for a fact that Jeff does too. As such, I was a bit apprehensive about it being in a pudding form.
I didn’t have to worry that much though, as this was awesome! The sponge cake was a little chewy, perhaps it had been left out for a while? Not a big deal though, gobbled this up like no tomorrow. This was also not on the regular menu, but it should be!!
If you’re in Southern California and a fan of Vietnamese food, I highly recommend getting some REAL Vietnamese food. There is so much competition down there that quality is a must to succeed. The reason why I mention this is because down there, thai tea is a common sight in Vietnamese restaurants . It’s rich and creamy, similar to milk tea. Unfortunately, it’s rare to find thai tea in Vancouver prepared like that.
This pudding is the closest thing I’ve ever had in Vancouver that reminds me of the real thing (in pudding form no less). Delicious! It goes well with or without the whipped cream and while the sponge cake didn’t add to the dish, it didn’t take away from it either. I could eat a tub of this. A bathtub. (Okay, maybe I’m getting carried away now but I really love thai tea).
12. Tapioca pudding w/ jack fruit & coconut meat $??
This was a total blah. First off it came to us just a bit above room temperature, which was strange for a tapioca dessert. It would usually be served either hot or cold. The other thing about it was that…it was salty. Not just a pinch of salt salty, but salty like the ocean (okay, exaggeration).
I asked Sonia if it was supposed to be salty and she said yes, she likes it a bit salty and she was the one who added the salt. She did admit that she hadn’t tasted it before bringing it out, so perhaps that’s the reason why it was so salty. A disappointment our last dish had to be this one that left a sour salty taste in our mouths.
This dish was…different. Like Kevin had said, Sonia made this based on her preferences. While I understand the concept of adding salt to bring out the sweetness, this would a bit too much for many. While some may like this, perhaps it would have been better if the dish was served cold or hot but the lukewarm temperature did not help.
I was thoroughly impressed by Sonia and her food, majority of them were thumbs up from me. I observed the rest of the restaurant, and the servers seemed calm and attentive, which is always great for us, the customers. Here’s hoping that things will only improve from here on. Some things can still be tweaked, and you can bet that they will be after reading like 5 different “reviews”. The portions are generous and so don’t be too alarmed by the price point ($12~/entrees) as you should really be sharing them.
Hopefully they will have more help available in the summer months when that area (Denman at Robson) gets very busy. A full restaurant on a weeknight in January? I can only imagine how busy this place will be later on. Good service (not just our table) with authentic dishes makes this place one of the better choices in Vancouver if you’re ever in the mood for Thai.
Thank you Sonia & Deo for allowing us to try your food, and also to Ben for giving us the opportunity to partake in this dinner! Food is a labor of love, and there was plenty of it here.
Click to read
Chow Times
Follow Me Foodie
My Secret Eden
Sherman’s Food Adventures
Disclosure: cmp.ly/1 – This dinner was on the house. There was no expectation to review or blog about it, I am doing this solely because I want to.
© JPhung for 604 Foodtography, 2010. |
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