Good Thai near Richmond St. East?

[wolfdiablo]

Looking for a Thai place (or open to other exotic offerings) in this vicinity - planning to eat around 9 on Thursday - atmosphere matters. Suggestions?

[thenurse]

Golden Thai at 105 Church St, at Adelaide.

[TorontoJo]

I second that rec. Golden Thai is at the corner of Church and Richmond. Probably the nicest atmosphere of Thai restaurants in the city.

There's a new Thai restaurant just a block south of Golden Thai. It was a Young Thailand, but it's now a new place called Ivory Thailand (I think). Can't vouch for it.

[vorpal]

It is called Ivory Thailand. I haven't been myself, but the small number of reviews listed online seemed favourable.

There's also a new Thai restaurant called Mengrai Thai which is right at Ontario and Richmond. I wanted to save mentioning this place this until I could post my full review from my two visits, but I'll just chime in quickly and say that this is by such a huge margin the very best Thai food that I've had in Toronto (and most of you know I'm a huge Thai snob), and on par or better than the best Thai restaurants I've had the pleasure of eating at in other cities as well. Not every dish was a winner (there were a couple that were not so well done), but for those that were good (most of them), they were fantastic. I cannot recommend Mengrai highly enough.

The neighbourhood around the restaurant is quite sketchy, but the restaurant itself has a wonderful atmosphere with great service.

[Skylane]

Not that it'll help the original poster any more, but I have tried the Ivory Thailand about half a dozen times now (mostly lunch, but twice for dinner) and they do have some fantastic items on the menu. I'm not generally a huge buffet fan (although it's fast and gives you a chance to try different things) but did an admirable job of keeping it fresh and seem to vary it on a day-to-day basis.

Anyway, my favourites to date are their chicken pad thai, red curry and garlic beef. The quality of their ingredients is noticeably better than most other Thai restaurants in the city.

The atmosphere and decor is very good too -- they've obviously worked very hard to bring in authentic Thai sculptures and other art pieces. Chairs are very comfortable, lighting is perfect and you can actually have a nice conversation without shouting or straining to hear your friends. Service is friendly and efficient.

I must say, any of you folks living and working around Richmond and Church are incredibly spoiled!!!!

[hungryabbey]

I third Golden Thai, I was actually just there on sunday night. Three of us started with the vegetarian spring rolls ,which were light, crispy and stuffed with flavourful veggies, very good. We also had an order of chicken satays which were served with a nice chunky peanut sauce (nice and thick,, not too runny like some places serve it). For mains, one had the chicken pad thai which I tried and it was very nice, just the right amount of spice and a generous mound of crushed peanuts. Another had the spicy basil noodles with chicken which I also tried and found it wasn't that spicy, so if you like spicy, dont be fooled by the title, you should ask them to kick it up a bit. I ordered the lamb curry and a side order of noodles to put it on top of and mmm all I can say is it was some the of best curry Ive ever had. It was a thick curry spiced with cinnamon and cardamon so it wasn't too spicy but had a lot of flavour. Service was excellent, our server was very knowledgable and the room is beautiful. I also loved how large the tables were (perfect for sharing ) because I absolutely hate feeling crammed into a table. But for 2 apps, 3 mains , a side of noodles, and 3 beers the bill was 70$!! So I will definetly be back to try some more dishes (the menu is very very extensive).

[vorpal]

Really? I'll have to try this place again, because the two times I went, about half the dishes were borderline good - possible winners, and the other half were complete awful disappointments. It was better than most Thai food in TO, but just barely, and being next to Young Thailand for so long, I wasn't sure how they survived. (Perhaps because YT notoriously lets quality slide every so often and perhaps GT is consistent?) At least the atmosphere is excellent for a Thai place, and I suppose that it's survived long enough that that must be some testament to their quality.

[hungryabbey]

perhaps it depends on the dish, they do have so many different dishes on the menu, but yes, the atmosphere is really probably what makes the place as so many thai restaurants Ive been to in the city have rally stuffy terrible atmospheres

[TorontoJo]

Hey vorpal, if you do go back, try the garlic shrimp and let me know what you think of it. It's not like any garlic shrimp I've ever had at any other Thai restaurant. As far as I can tell, they stir fry the shrimp, then they *very* liberally pile a mixture of chopped garlic and black pepper on each shrimp. There's no "sauce" per se like in other garlic shrimp dishes I've had. It's wickedly garlicky and wickedly addictive for me. I love stirring the garlic mixture into my steamed rice.

As for whether or not you will like GT on your second try -- I wouldn't get your hopes up too much, given your standards for Thai food. But as you say, the atmosphere is great, and it's got a loyal following (including mine!).

[Googs]

I have to completely agree with Vorpal on Golden Thai. I find it better than most Thai places in this city. That makes it just passable. I think of it more as an everday place, not somewhere I'd target for a special Thai night despite the pretty room. For that I also echo Vorpal that Mengrai Gourmet is not only a funky room that's perfect for a date or a party, but also of knock your socks off quality. Depth, complexity, and subtlety in nearly all dishes. You really need pause with every mouthful to enjoy it fully.

[wolfdiablo]

How are the prices at Mengrai?

[vorpal]

Perhaps a couple bucks more per entree than your usual Thai restaurant ($10-$13 for entrees). There are some "chef's special" entrees that are more costly ($15-$18), but I've found that the regular menu is actually better.