Khunnai Chang Thai Cuisine

I do not care about the authenticity or use the word when it comes to food because who cares? If the food is good, it is good. There are even a few "authentic" restaurants that are not even good! However, Khunnai Chang is an authentic Thai restaurant. Honestly, that is the only word to describe the restaurant. From the interior and staff to the food, the restaurant is 100% authentic.

Khunnai Chang is another one of my great finds, where an online blurry photo of their chicken wings made me know the restaurant would serve good food. When we walked in, there was a rich aroma of spices and the restaurant is actually a bit dim… so not sure why my photos look brighter than it was.

The restaurant is not very big but there is a decent amount of tables and the seating arrangements are not cramped. The interior looks very simple, not cluttered and there are tapestries from Thailand. I also like the unique looking handcrafted wooden chairs. Not sure how I feel about the faux flowers on every table and the counter though, but meh.

Curry King Cafe 咖哩皇餐廳

After finishing up with some groceries at T&T and needing dinner ASAP in the area, we settled on Curry King. Curry King seems to be one of those places where many people drive by and think the restaurant is probably "meh", or at least for me it was. The restaurant is located on Kingsway Street in Burnaby and is in the same strip along with Bubble World, Waves as well as Hot Luck.

When we walked in, the interior surprised me. The restaurant is bigger as well as cleaner than I thought, and does not look run down. In addition, there was a nice fried rice aroma and the restaurant has AC. Another thing that surprised me was the waitress. She looked miserable, pointed towards which seat we should take, and tossed the menus.

Curry King has a large menu which includes a variety of congee, soup, laksa, ramen, udon, build your own noodles, curry, and the typical HK style cafe selections such as baked dishes and hot plates.

Maekhong Thai Restaurant & Grill

Formerly known as Little Thailand, is now Maekhong Thai which is still under the same ownership. The Thai cuisine restaurant is located in Port Moody and we found out later on, at a small residential building. Furthermore, the outside looks really creepy. At first, we were confused why there was a trailer here and when we walked up, there were police officers speaking to a resident about a domestic dispute. Turns out, the restaurant is located at a residential building. In addition, we thought it was nice how the restaurant offers patio seating. However, the patio may be for the whole apartment building and not the restaurant.

Walking in, the owner's daughter was friendly as well as welcoming, and let us choose any seat. Every table has purple coloured linen with gold and navy accents, along with a plate and utensils folded in a napkin, placed on a bamboo sheet.

Maekhong Thai gives off a traditional Thailand home feeling. The interior has a few Thailand symbols such as a brass figure of Asian elephants hanging on the wall along with a portrait of a goddess, and a buddha statute head. However, asides from a few Thailand symbols, the restaurant looks old and well, not going to lie, it was quite stuffy.

U & I Thai

I have been meaning to try U & I Thai for almost half a year but never had the chance, despite passing by the restaurant many times. In addition, according to my parents the restaurant can be a hit or miss and when the dishes taste good, they are not bad! So, finally visiting on a weeknight, the restaurant was empty and a server asked if we had reservations.

However, by the time we left, the tables were filling up quickly as seen in the photo. Considering the not so large restaurant, I would recommend reservations. As for the interior, it does not look cluttered and is clean as well as simple, with one chandelier and a buddha statute at the back of the restaurant.

Tropika at Cambie 星馬印

Tropika is a Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian cuisine chain restaurant, with two other locations at Robson and Lansdowne. Whether it be called cheap, boring or typical, I can easily say that I enjoy sticking to safe restaurants. Safe as in those that are consistently reliable and offers if not all, then a few dishes that I enjoy. And Tropika is one of them. To me, the "must orders" at Tropika are roti, satays, lobster tung yam kung and malaccan curry crab, emphasis on the last two. Having visited both the Robson and Lansdowne location, the last one for me to try is the one on Cambie.

I actually planned to come here a few months ago and walking in on a weekday at 5:00pm, we were rejected since most of the tables were reserved for 6:30pm! Oh well, not really a problem since we went to Banana Leaf after (which was not a good experience). So, debating whether we needed to make reservations on another weekday, we took the chance, walked in, and fortunately the restaurant was not busy. Tropika at Cambie has a clean as well as simple interior and does not look too cluttered. The seating arrangements are not tight, there is a good amount of tables to accommodate larger parties and in our case, the restaurant has a relaxing atmosphere with plenty of staff. Although plenty may not mean attentive… 

After settling down and asking for the prices regarding the seafood, we were a bit shocked. The lobster was priced at $26.95/lb and every one weighed at 3lb; I could not justify spending $75.00 on tung yam kung! As for the crab, it was priced at $58.89 for 2 1/2lb which comes to $23.55/lb, and again, I could not justify spending that much on crab. Is an extra $10.00 a big difference? In a way, not really because these two dishes are the only reason why I come here. But, the only reason why I was hesitant is because both dishes at the Lansdowne location was average at best, and I did not want to complain about wasting money. If I was at the Robson location, I would order them in a heartbeat!

IPOH Asian House

Driving down Hastings Street, BF noticed a new restaurant, IPOH Asian House. When he asked to try it out, I said no, thinking it would be a Hong Kong style cafe joint. However after taking a look at the menu outside, we went in because the restaurant serves Malaysian Cuisine and I am always looking for more Malay restaurants to be my regulars. 

IPOH Asian House is newly renovated, has spacious seating arrangements and the layout is setup with two sides, one for parties of more than five and the other, for less than four. The interior sticks to a lime green and neutral scheme with brown tables as well as taupe chairs. After self seating at a comfortable dining space due to the acknowledgement from a waitress, then having a look at the well presented Malaysian cuisine menu with a few unique items and a sheet of Chinese dishes, plus our friendly waiter, I was actually quite excited and could not wait to order. I had high hopes for the restaurant, possibly because of the alluring menu.

Tropika at Lansdowne 星馬印

POST ON TROPIKA AT CAMBIE [HERE]

POST ON TROPIKA AT ROBSON [HERE]

REVISIT POST ON TROPIKA AT ROBSON [HERE]

The original Tropika restaurant in Richmond was previously located at Aberdeen Center and closed in the beginning of the year to relocate to Lansdowne (unfortunately with the same owners). Tropika in Richmond has never been a first choice and is not even on my list of restaurants to visit. Every prior visit to Tropika at Aberdeen was never positive (below average food and unfriendly staff, including the managers), however, due to my impatience and that Little Sheep Mongolian had a thirty minute wait, I decided to try the new location. 

One of the good things about trying a new restaurant is that the staff is usually friendly, so no problems there. Walking in, the restaurant had a strong aroma of shrimp paste, odd. Ususally every Tropika restaurant including the previous Aberdeen location smells like nothing, but the restaurant had a really heavy smell of shrimp paste. The interior of the restaurant looks more casual as well as laid back compared to the Robson location and Tropika correctly maximizes their seating arrangements and has plenty of booth seating. 

PORK, LAMB AND CHICKEN SATAYS WITH PEANUT SAUCE, MALACCAN CURRY CRAB, HAINANESE CHICKEN, LOBSTER TUNG YAM KUNG, ROTI CANAI, PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE WITH HAM AND CHICKEN, AND SAYUR KARI.

Thai Chef Casual Thai Cuisine

Thai Chef is one of the newer as well as only Thai cuisine restaurant other than Thai Garden (which is not very good) in Burquitlam. The restaurant is located in the same plaza along with Japolo, North Garden and Okoman Sushi. The only positive thing about this plaza is that parking is never an issue because of the average or below average tasting restaurants, so there is no need to circle or wait for parking, there's plenty.

The interior of the restaurant has vibrant lime green colored walls and sticks to a color scheme of grey, black, white and lime green. There are black and white photos of flowers throughout the restaurant which is not really Thai related but hey, why not?

CHICKEN SATAYS, PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE, SPICY EGGPLANT AND BASIL, RED CHICKEN CURRY, AND PRAWN TOM YUM SOUP.

Thai House : Richmond location

This is one of the worst restaurants ever asides from Bao Bei and Sandbar (totally different cuisines, I know). My boyfriend told me since I love Tropika, he remembers Thai House as a pretty good restaurant and has always wanted me to try it since I say no all the time. Well... I was right all these times for never wanting to try this restaurant. The servers are pretty rude and disrespectful as if you owed them something, but they were only like that to us? I was confused because there were 3 other tables at the restaurant, and they pretty much ordered combos. Did we order too much for 2? Usually if a table orders a bit more than average, or a decent amount of food, you pretty much get okay to good service. Well, it seems like it does not matter what you order because the restaurant is only western friendly, that is why the other tables had service. Anyways, I was not mad because of just the service, but the food is pretty much not edible.

THE TOM YUNG GOONG, THAI SATAYS, PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE, DUCK CURRY AND BUTTERFLY PRAWNS.

To start, the TOM YUNG GOONG, SPICY AND SOUR SOUP WITH PRAWNS, MUSHROOMS, LEMON GRASS AND THAI SPICES ($12.50). The soup has a lot of mushrooms and a couple of prawns, with a slight lemon grass taste. The soup is not spicy or sour and is not salty.

The second dish is the THAI SATAY WITH PEANUT SAUCE, MARINATED IN A MIXTURE OF THAI SPICES AND COCONUT MILK. We chose the RAISED FREE RANGE CHICKEN AND BEEF ($11.00). The peanut is creamy and tasty despite having no chunks of peanut like other restaurants. For the chicken, it tastes like they have gone bad, as in being marinated for too long and it should have been thrown out. The "cook the food to death to kill the bacteria" method cannot be used to save these chicken satays. For the beef, there is no taste, is bland, chewy and tough.

The third dish is the BUTTERFLY PRAWNS, DEEP FRIED PRAWNS SERVED WITH PLUM SAUCE ($7.00). Where to begin.. the presentation looks like this is at an all you can eat restaurant, these are not cut like butterfly prawns. Do they know what a butterfly prawn is? With the horrible satays and now this? The prawns are hard, chewy and tastes like they were deep fried for a second time. I definitely do not recommend this dish at all. If this was $4.00, fine, I can accept the price and take my loss, but for $7.00? I expected actual butterfly prawns!

The fourth dish is the KHAO PAD SAPPAROD, FRIED RICE WITH FRESH PINEAPPLE, PEANUTS AND RAISINS TOPPED WITH PORK FLOSS AND EGG SERVED IN A FRESH PINEAPPLE SHELL ($14.00). Where is the pork floss? The rice is very damp and tastes like fried rice mixed with ketchup. The pineapples are cut larger than most restaurants which I am not used to (personal preference, it was just harder to eat) and the rice tastes very sour. Any thai restaurant should be famous for their pineapple fried rice, come on.. but I think this restaurant has better rice options. I do not mind the sour rice since the pineapple was sour, but the rice is just too damp. I do like the plate the dish is served in though.

The last dish is the KAENG PHED BHED YANG, BONELESS ROASTED LONG ISLAND DUCK IN RED CURRY PASTE WITH COCONUT MILK, SERVED IN A FRESH WHOLE YOUNG COCONUT ($16.00). I think it is a neat idea that the curry is served in a coconut, but the duck is quite rubbery, chewy and tough. The curry taste is average, nothing special and there are better ones.

Overall I do not recommend this restaurant, but I have to be fair and say it could only be the Richmond location. The servers here are horrible even the manager himself who was serving us (usually managers are nice or fake it). I am totally okay with no service, but I hate seeing the face of someone who looks like you owe them something. Every dish was horrible except the soup which was acceptable, but for the rest of their dishes to be not edible or hard to eat? Only the rice was hard to eat, but the rest of the dishes I want to say are not edible. In their defence, I guess we ordered the wrong things? The good news is, the restaurant is western friendly and they will provide fine dining service.

Food: 0.5/5
Service: 0/5

 

Tropika at Robson 星馬印 (2nd visit)

FIRST POST ON TROPIKA AT ROBSON [HERE] AND POST ON TROPIKA AT LANSDOWNE [HERE]

Since my last visit at Tropika was amazing... amazing, I had to bring my sister here. I came here last week but chose to post my first experience before the second, just for comparison purposes. Tropika is located on Robson and serves Malaysian and Thai cuisine.

ROTI CANAI, SATAYS, LOBSTER TUNG YAM KUNG, THAI STYLE GREEN CURRY CHICKEN, THAI STYLE RED CURRY CHICKEN, PAN FRIED EGGPLANT, PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE, SAMBAL MUSSELS, LYCHEE WITH ICE CREAM, BUBUR CHA CHA AND CENDOL (NO CRAB, VEGETABLE CURRY OR PORK RIBS THIS TIME).

Tropika at Robson 星馬印

REVIST POST ON TROPIKA ON ROBSON [HERE] AND POST ON TROPIKA AT LANSDOWNE [HERE]

This is my first time coming to Tropika's Robson location and the service was amazing, the food was amazing, and everything was perfect. We came a month ago on a Thursday evening around 8:45-9:00pm? I think the restaurant was closing at 10:00pm and I felt bad because every waiter was very attentive. We were seated by the window and the tables there are smaller. After when we ordered, the waiter asked if we wanted to move to a bigger table. Me being girly of course, wanted to sit by the window and the waiter actually moved a bigger table towards us. The restaurant was pretty much dead and super romantic without intentionally, it was as if BF booked the whole restaurant for our dinner LOL.

Tropika is located on the second floor and the interior looks pretty nice, I like everything - the tables, chairs and jade coloured plates (Aberdeen location looks mehhh..).

LOBSTER TUNG YAM KUNG, ROTI CANAI, PINEAPPLE FRIED RICE, BARBECUE PORK RIBS, SATAYS, MALACCAN CURRY CRAB AND SAYUR KARI.