Bangkok Thai - Enjoyable Thai

Finding the time to meet with friends and family gets more and more difficult as you get older, with new and increasing responsibilities, commitments and expectations piled on you from any and all angles. Thus I always treasure those opportunities when I find time to meet with old and new friends alike. This was the chance I had when a few fellow residents were hankering for some good Thai food at Bangkok Thai.

I had previously blogged about Bangkok Thai previously, but a nine month wait-time (or gestation) warrants a revisit. The restaurant during that time continues to promise to deliver realized top quality Thai food and is easily on the first recommendations by Winnipegers when inquiring about good Thai restaurants in town. The location itself is prime, the corner of Osborne and River Avenue, in the second floor of an business building. A few large signs handsomely adorn the exterior while some further, albeit confusing, signs take you into the building and up to the restaurant. Despite the effort, the eatery itself is beautiful with large wooden tables and a combination of booth and chair seating, all adorned with classic Thai artwork and paintings. We arrived just after a large group had placed their orders and while I admire the waitresses for trying to keep the entire large dining room happy, there were long looks as the service and food turnaround time lacked under the burden of this massive table.

Nevertheless, this is about the food! And the menu at Bangkok Thai is unchanged from previously. Featuring a large list of classic Thai cuisine, ranging from the ever delicious Crab Rangoon appetizers, to Tom Yum Soup, to the ever popular curries (in your range of different colours and spice levels), stir fries, and the national dish, Pad Thai. There is something here to delight all diners and represents enough options and variety to give anyone looking for a good smattering of Thai cuisine.

This Papaya salad was a delicious combination of fresh green papaya, carrot, tomato, green beans and peanuts all tossed in a fish sauce based vinaigrette. I was impressed by the balance of flavours here with the crunch and freshness of the papaya counterplayed by the sweetness and saltiness of the fish sauce, nuttiness from the peanuts, and spice in the vinaigrette. A light and tasty first dish that whets your appetite for the upcoming meal.

Massaman Curry takes your choice of meat (beef here) with vegetables and envelops it in a spicy and creamy panang curry. This was marvelous! Creamy, sweet, salty and spicy all interplay in your mouth with each bite of the robust curry while the soft and tender vegetables give a needed starchy sweetness, all accentuated by the tender slices of beef. Marvelous and utterly delicious.

Something was off with their Pad Thai today as the usually tasty noodle dish had an overwhelmingly salty soy sauce based flavour as opposed to the usual savoury tomato based tamarind sauce. Disappointing considering the noodles were otherwise well cooked and the slices of chicken tender and well seasoned. Extra crunchiness is given by the accompanied bean sprouts. Overall though it is the flavour that make this dish and I could not get over the disappointingly lackluster sauce.

Pad Lemon Grass is a stir fry dish that combines fresh vegetables with your choice of protein and stir fried with bitter and lemony lemongrass in a soy based sauce. I found this dish extremely ordinary with fresh but lackluster vegetables, tender but non-flavourful meat and a sauce that was too high on soy and less on the lemony flavour from lemongrass. While overall tasty, there was nothing specific here that screamed of innovation nor uniqueness.

Bangkok Thai is a enjoyable Thai experience with a location that nobody can beat and has good enough food to warrant a visit for anyone in the area. In reality, there area host of much better and tastier Thai restaurants in town that offer a better and more authentic dining experience that I would recommend over Bangkok Thai ... ones you won't need to wait two hours for your food at either.