October 29, 2012

Khao San Road

Ranked #2 in the "Moderately Priced" Toronto's Most Popular on Urbanspoon, I knew I had to check it out since I was also craving for good Pad Thai. Please keep in mind, I have low tolerance for spiciness, so what might taste spicy to me may not taste the same for you. After reading a couple blog post on fellow bloggers, I took a note what I wanted to order. I was also warned about the lineup the placed had. They even had a section about no reservations on their website. Thankfully, we arrived around 5:30pm just right before the dinner rush. The restaurant felt like a rustic, chilled hangout spot and nothing like a traditional Thai restaurant. Great for young people to grab food and a drink. They have a fully licensed bar.

To start off, we ordered Thai iced tea as many bloggers as suggested. The ice tea was EXTREMELY sweet. It was like HK style milk tea but creamier and SWEETER. After taking a couple sips, we all added water to the drink to dilute the sweetness. It did not taste watered down and still tasted good but still sweet. Basically, we kept mixing the drink with water throughout the night. I do like this drink but it's WAY to sweet.

Cha Nom Yen (Thai Iced Tea) 4.50
Next up, garlic chicken as an appetizer. This was a nicely seasoned crispy fried chicken strips. The chicken itself was not spicy but the dipping sauce was. So spicy, my tasted buds became numb. The chicken was so good I kept eating it without the dipping sauce. The sauce was a basic, sweet, sour and spicy sauce.

Garlic Chicken 9

This turned out to be my favorite dish of night. We ordered this in mild due to my spicy intolerance. I loved this curry because of the creaminess and slight sweetness of the curry. It was not spicy at all. The potato in the curry was AWESOME. I love potatoes!
Gaeng Graree Chicken (Yellow Curry) 13
The dish I came here for turned out to be too spicy for me. I ordered it in mild but it tasted normal spicy to me. I did like the dish minus the spiciness. I liked how the noodles was not too soft, just right and I can taste the tamarind and not the usual ketchup-y stuff. I wish I could have more but I couldn't due to the spiciness =(
Pad Thai (Street Style) Chicken 14
Lastly, this was my least favorite dish. It tasted like something I can make at home, nothing really special. It kind of reminded me of the Taiwanese minced pork on rice but pork is in bigger pieces.
Pad Gra Prao Pork 13
Overall, I do like Khao San Road but I do find what they offer a little pricey. I would return again.

Final Verdict: Slightly Above Par

Khao San Road on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

  1. I absolutely agree with your assessment of the Thai Iced Tea .. it was like drink sugar milk! :( I couldn't really enjoy it at all.

    Give the Khao Soi (w/ beef shank) the next time you're at KSR -- it's this egg noodle swimming in curry sauce. it actually needs an extra bowl of rice, but it's so very tasty.

    So KSR and SukhoThai are "sibling" restaurants, with SukhoThai's owners being the KSR's owners parents. I'd say they're equally good, but I found KSR to be sweeter in flavour, and SukhoThai to be more savoury (and spicy). Both places do a great Pad Thai (absolutely looooved the texture and chewiness), but I couldn't handle the sweetness of KSR's.

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    1. I think it's something you can develop, i.e. ability to handle spice. Growing up, I couldn't handle any spice at all -- I used to think ginger was spicy! But oh dear, if a garlic-chili sauce turns your tastebuds numbs, there's a lot of work to be done here .. maybe you just need to have cold beer handle to cool your tongue afterwards. even if it doesn't work, you'll be too buzzed to feel the burn. :D

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