Thai House

Thai House
4 Locations
1116 Robson Street – Location visited
Vancouver, BC

One of the “nice” things of this type of blogging is that you get to meet new people and break the bread with them. Recently, I have noticed another food blogger – Victoria of Victoria’s Food Secrets – who, coincidentally, was blogging about restaurants in the Downtown area, where I work. I thought, hey, why not! So, I sent her an email and, after going back a forth a couple of times, we decided on Tropika on Robson. Unfortunately, due to somewhat unexpected circumstances, we couldn’t get ahold of a table in Tropika and switched to plan B, which ended up being a restaurant a couple of doors away: Thai House.

On our way to the restaurant, we were playing a bit of phone tag but, because she has a picture of herself in her page, it was easier for me to recognize her. As for me, once again, I won’t post a picture of myself. Sorry, everybody! If you read some of Victoria’s posts on Downtown restaurants, you will notice she brings people along (which contrast my solo dining style). In this case, along with Victoria, were “T” and “D”. The more the merrier (and more food on the table!).

The restaurant was crowded but, fortunately, since it wasn’t a noon sharp lunch, some tables started to open and our wait was a short one. Once seated, we started to browse the menu and the usual question popped: Drinks? At first, I wasn’t sure what to order for drinks – ice water or tea would have been fine. However, Victoria and T ordered Thai Iced Tea so I thought, hey, why not? And ordered one myself.

Of course, I jumped myself without thinking too much. I mean, what if it was something similar to a Long Island Iced Tea??? Sure, it might have been “interesting” to go back to work after drinking something for lunch, after all this visit was during the gap between Christmas and New Year so we could have been happier than usual! But, no, instead, it was a mix of tea (red tea?) with milk and sweetened with sugar (or condensed milk in-lieu of both). However, when served, there was a small transparent “gap” at between the orange-y liquid and the bottom. See that green straw at the bottom of the glass? Victoria and I thought they might be using a form of syrup instead. But, past that technicality, how was the drink? I must say I did not really like it. To start off, it was too sweet for my liking and I couldn’t taste that much tea. It felt more on the lines of sips after sip of a flavoured tea-like drink.

As per D‘s suggestion, we ordered an appetizer – Goong Noon Hae, deep fried tiger prawns wrapped with noodles, served with tangy plum sauce. While there wasn’t nothing extremely wrong with the dish, I am not sure it is worth it. Sure, prawns are not cheap but, past that, I couldn’t find anything “great” about it. The wrapped noodles felt more like a gimmick (think something similar done with shoestring potatoes) and, in this case, the crispiness was a bit too much for the prawn’s texture.

We ordered to share and this was my suggestion, Kaeng Dang Moo – Pork with bell peppers in red curry paste with coconut milk. Curry with coconut taste? Check. Bamboo shoots and other vegetables as filler? Check. Pork? Check… Wait… OK, there was pork but I felt it was mostly on the top to “show” there was pork, as once you started to dig in, there was mostly vegetables – as mentioned previously, bamboo shoots. It was a shame because the pork had some wok-hei characteristic but the rest did not complemented the dish. It wasn’t bad; it could have been better.

This was Victoria’s suggestion. Originally, she was asking for a dish called larb (sp?) but there was a bit of communication issues so this dish was ordered instead: Yum Rommitir Ta-Lay – Prawns and squid seasoned with lime juice, nam pla and Thai chili. This might be an overstatement given Victoria’s heritage but she knows her Thai dishes: Out of all the dishes ordered, I liked this one the most. The prawns and squid were tender (though, it didn’t have a marinated taste, which makes me believe it could have been steam/boiled and assembled rather than marinated) and the sauce gave a bit of contrasting citrus-y taste. However, I couldn’t taste much of the pungent taste of the fish sauce. If I had to make a comparison, this could be similar to a seafood ceviche.

This was T‘s suggestion, Kale Vegetable or Spinach – stir-fried kale vegetable or spinach with shrimp paste. In this case, the leafy green happened to be spinach. One word can fully describe this dish: salty. Now, I expect it to be somewhat salty given the use of shrimp paste. However, not to the point of it being border inedible. I admit I had my share but how they could wreck it to this point I don’t understand. Feel free to call it acquired taste if you want…

Finally, D‘s suggestion (which I partially take credit/blame, as I was hogging the menu for a while): Pad Thai Pe Ses (New Edition) – Stir fried egg noodles with ground peanuts, chili paste, tomato sauce and bean sprouts with your choice of chicken, beef or pork (in this case, chicken was chosen). Notice this one includes “New Edition”, the “Old Edition” is listed as Pad Thai – Traditional – Stir fried rice noodles with shrimps, ground peanuts, chili paste, egg, tomato sauce and bean sprout. OK, let me see, so the difference is the type of noodles, the egg and the option for meats… Well, new interpretations is fine; however, what is the deal with the tomato sauce??? And where is the tamarind? The end result was almost a wacky version of a spag bol (though, of course, it was chicken rather than beef). And, when it was touched only halfway, it sort of shows the success of the dish.

Although it seems I am harsh with T and D’s selection, reality is those are dishes I would have ordered myself when ordering to share. The way some of us usually do in these cases are a dish of meat, a dish of carbs, a dish of vegetables and so on. My critique here is the execution, it was poorly done. It was a good thing T, D and Victoria were there at the table because it was them who made the meal (specially thanks to T, who gave me some perspective of what readers think on some topics). As for the restaurant, I am not a Thai food expert but I know when something is not “right”…

Tagged under: Downtown • Thai • Vancouver