Mengrai Thai is disappointing
We had dinner there last night. The atmosphere was very warm and pleasant. The food however was surprisingly bland. We had pad thai, the lamb, striped bass and stir-fried veggies. The only tasty dish was the bass. The veggies were decent, but the same as you would get in a regular Cantonese restaurant. The pad thai and the lamb were disappointing. They didn't have much flavour at all. I don't know how this place got so many kudos. Some like the service but I found them hovering too much.
Sukhothai around the corner is way, way better.
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Mengrai
82 Ontario Street, Toronto, ON M5A 2V3, CA
Sukhothai
274 Parliament St, Toronto, ON M5A, CA
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I have been to Mengrai twice now and will return again. Good service, good food, and a pleasant atmosphere. I like Kao San Road for Thai as well.
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re: Flexitarian
hal2010
Nov 23, 2012 09:07 PM
I've been sorely disappointed by Khao San Road on half my visits there. Service is indifferent and very slow, and the food can range from very good to average. I've had a few lunches there that are no better than the local Thai take-out (where I don't have to put up with the noise and perching on a barstool to eat) For my money Sukhothai is the best value and Mengrai the best overall experience for Thai in Toronto.
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i liked the atmosphere of this restaurant and the service was impeccable. but the food was unremarkable. the pad thai was ok, but not even close to the bursts of flavours from Sukho Thai. i've ben2x now with friends. we've tried the street style pad thai, and 2 of the stirfries (which are nothing more than chinese stirfries if you ask me - nothing special at all), thai iced tea (diluted, could be more creamy. the best one in the city is from Khao san Road), spring rolls (which are small, you get 6 of them i think but they are the size of a female pinky finger). lastly, we had a tapioca dessert which was acceptable but i wouldn't reorder it.
i was disappointed with the food, esp since ppl mention it all the time on this board.›4 Replies-
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re: TeacherFoodie
syoung
Sep 21, 2012 08:30 PM
I went to Mengrai Thai last weekend and it was excellent. I brought a friend and he said it was some of the best food he's had in a long time, period. Mengrai may suffer from inconsistency at times but I don't know why you would bring up a 1.5 year old thread, the only one critical of this restaurant to ask your question about today. Not sure that's fair.
We went to Kao San Road last winter and it was very good too and price reasonable but we had to wait even though we had a reservation and the place was packed and noisy to the point that we had to scream to talk to our friends across the table. And I think they no longer allow reservations so be prepared to wait.
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re: syoung
Yeah - I wasn't wowed by Mengrai's food but it has a nice atmosphere for a date or special occasion, for someone who is not looking for noisy, crowded hit spot atmosphere. It's probably one of the "nicer" Thai restaurants in town, location not great but better than Linda, which is also nice.
KSR's food is great, but I find it overrated for authenticity, everything is sweeter than I remember from Thailand. We do lack some ingredients in TO like those tiny green eggplants that in Thailand add some bitterness to green curry.
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