Our Rating:
1 Buddha: Mediocre food with terrible service
Overpriced for what you get
The Review:
The location is easy to get to on St Laurent and Laurier, and the restaurant decor certainly transports you to a stereotypical Thailand vista with the use of Thai Gods and Goddess statues, and a rather unusual use of fountains in the washrooms! The atmosphere was good, even if you did feel a little like you were in a Thai brothel (not that I've been in one, but all the red, the dull lighting, and the ornate partitions fits with my impressions of Thai brothels). Maybe the brothels aren't quite so fancy.
We went in wanting to catch a quick bite before heading to one of the comedy festival shows.
We expected that the appetisers we ordered with a glass of wine wouldn't take too long to prepare (can you see where this is going already?). There were some impressive dramatics by who we assume to be the head waiter, in just laying plates on the table, but even that was not enough to keep us entertained whilst we waited for half an hour before our drinks were delivered. Half an hour to get 2 glasses of wine. Nice glasses, mind you, but very thirsty by that stage. Then, we pressed the urgency of our timeframe upon our flamboyant waiter to see if we'd actually any food within the hour, he said he'd hurry the process along. Another 20 minutes later, our shared appetizer plate arrived. Not too impressed, because that left us only 10 minutes before it was time to leave.
The restaurant professes to provide savoury and succulent dishes, and in our experience the appetiser plate was reasonably good. It included three different dipping sauces and a nice arrangement of mango salad in the middle. Shame the mangoes were not quite ripe, or maybe that was the texture they were going for? The prawns appeared to be strangled by some fried noodles, which looked pretty good and thank goodness for the dipping sauces, otherwise they would have tasted quite bland. The standard chicken dumpling, satay chicken shaslick & spring rolls were ok, but nothing overly impressive. And certainly not worth waiting the best part of an hour for (especially without wine). How hard is it to chuck a few things in the deep fryer?
On this small sample, the food seems reasonable, but generously overpriced—the appetiser plate turned out to be an unexpected $14 per person. The wine list seems to cater for a large variety of people with most of the wines by the glass costing around $9. So for a handful of spring rolls, satay, and dumplings with a glass of wine for two, the bill was up over $50.
If you're after a quick meal though, this is not the place to go to. And if you're after a cheap meal, this is not the place to go. And if you're after an authentic Thai cuisine experience, well, our small sample didn't really allow for full assessment of that. At least it's a purely Thai restaurant, and not a cross-cultural mix, like the Szechuan–Sushi place down the road.
We most likely will not be going back to this one.
http://www.thaigrill.ca/
5101 blvd. St-Laurent, Montreal
1 Buddha: Mediocre food with terrible service
Overpriced for what you getThe Review:
The location is easy to get to on St Laurent and Laurier, and the restaurant decor certainly transports you to a stereotypical Thailand vista with the use of Thai Gods and Goddess statues, and a rather unusual use of fountains in the washrooms! The atmosphere was good, even if you did feel a little like you were in a Thai brothel (not that I've been in one, but all the red, the dull lighting, and the ornate partitions fits with my impressions of Thai brothels). Maybe the brothels aren't quite so fancy.
We went in wanting to catch a quick bite before heading to one of the comedy festival shows.
We expected that the appetisers we ordered with a glass of wine wouldn't take too long to prepare (can you see where this is going already?). There were some impressive dramatics by who we assume to be the head waiter, in just laying plates on the table, but even that was not enough to keep us entertained whilst we waited for half an hour before our drinks were delivered. Half an hour to get 2 glasses of wine. Nice glasses, mind you, but very thirsty by that stage. Then, we pressed the urgency of our timeframe upon our flamboyant waiter to see if we'd actually any food within the hour, he said he'd hurry the process along. Another 20 minutes later, our shared appetizer plate arrived. Not too impressed, because that left us only 10 minutes before it was time to leave.
The restaurant professes to provide savoury and succulent dishes, and in our experience the appetiser plate was reasonably good. It included three different dipping sauces and a nice arrangement of mango salad in the middle. Shame the mangoes were not quite ripe, or maybe that was the texture they were going for? The prawns appeared to be strangled by some fried noodles, which looked pretty good and thank goodness for the dipping sauces, otherwise they would have tasted quite bland. The standard chicken dumpling, satay chicken shaslick & spring rolls were ok, but nothing overly impressive. And certainly not worth waiting the best part of an hour for (especially without wine). How hard is it to chuck a few things in the deep fryer?
On this small sample, the food seems reasonable, but generously overpriced—the appetiser plate turned out to be an unexpected $14 per person. The wine list seems to cater for a large variety of people with most of the wines by the glass costing around $9. So for a handful of spring rolls, satay, and dumplings with a glass of wine for two, the bill was up over $50.
If you're after a quick meal though, this is not the place to go to. And if you're after a cheap meal, this is not the place to go. And if you're after an authentic Thai cuisine experience, well, our small sample didn't really allow for full assessment of that. At least it's a purely Thai restaurant, and not a cross-cultural mix, like the Szechuan–Sushi place down the road.
We most likely will not be going back to this one.
http://www.thaigrill.ca/
5101 blvd. St-Laurent, Montreal
symbols.
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