It’s dizzying how many Thai restaurants are popping up across Toronto. Instead of following the crowd, Tha Phae Tavern swaps out the pad Thai and curry for handhelds and street food type bites.

There are traditional dishes like the Moo ping ($5 for 2 during happy hour; $9 for 3 normally), bite-sized grilled pork nuggets that are well caramelized with a sweet and savoury sauce. These would be wonderful wrapped in lettuce or ordered with a portion of sticky rice ($6) to create a full meal.

Then there are more Westernized items like the grilled pork with steamed bao bun ($7 during happy hour; $8 normally). It’s a tad salty and I would have preferred the kitchen to leave off the sauce to allow me to add it myself, given a portion is served with the bun. Still, the tender pork slices, pickled vegetables, and soft bao were delicious. Two of these would make a nice lunch.

The Tha Phae fried chicken ($18) was a favourite amongst the table. Marinated with house spices, even by itself there was a savouriness that’s enough. But there’s also dipping sauces for those who want even more flavour. One thing’s for certain, food at Tha Phae is not bland.

After all the heavier dishes I’m glad we ordered the spicy glass noodle salad with seafood ($15) to balance it out. With the ability to choose the spiciness level, the ‘medium’ was more than enough to elicit sting. The vermicelli noodles were tossed in a refreshing soy and lime dressing with a scant couple of shrimp and calamari.

While waiting for the food to arrive, complimentary tom yum peanuts were presented - they should be selling these by the bagful! The nuts are fried with chili and Thai basil, so they become wonderfully fragrant are addictively delicious.

Surprisingly, it was dead on a Wednesday during their happy hour (on from 4-7pm) despite the well priced drink specials. Tha Phae offers a selection of cocktails for $10. The mamuang slush ($10) was sweet, but the shot of vodka (your choice of alcohol) helped balance it out. I thoroughly tasted the mango and liked the addition of coconut sticky rice horchata that thickened the drink. With the touch of cinnamon this could be considered a dessert.

Tha Phae likely hits its peak as a post-dinner or pre-party destination.  With kitschy claw machines and karaoke, it’s fun and much livelier than other Thai restaurants in Toronto.

I feel bad for restaurants waiting for their liquor license. The most profitable menu items can’t be sold, and staff suffer from paltry gratuities from lower bill totals. If available, I generally get a drink. Yet, the regulators were dragging their feet as not a drop was available during the first two months of opening. After I got over the initial disappointment, I left the meals feeling great! Satisfied and nourished in a healthy way. Maybe I don’t need wine in my life.

Limon starts off the meal with a pickle plate that usually contains a combination of cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots. Lightly vinegared and salty, the pickles help wet the appetite.

Almost every table gets a dip and while the typical babaganoush and hummus are available, the eggplant and pepper dip ($9) intrigued me. Starting with a base of roasted eggplant, slivers of quickly smoked pepper and raw celery & onion are mixed in, so the dip is creamy and crunchy. As a babaganoush lover, I thoroughly enjoyed this version! Without tahini the dip is lighter and brighter.

Still their bababanoush ($9) is good with large chunks of eggplant and tons of tahini turning it creamy. It's just a touch sweet for me.

For the carb conscious, the dips arrive without a pita ($1.50), so you won’t be tempted. I wanted one with the eggplant and pepper… it’s your regular run-of-the-mill thick pocketed pita.

It's remarkable how much they can stuff in a pita. You'll need to unhinge your jaw to bite into lamb kefta in a pita ($18), the ground meat kebab juicy and each bite bringing different flavours. The bites with their zesty and slightly spicy amba sauce are my favourite and despite the abundance of onion, they're well soaked so the acidity is removed and a crunchy sweetness remains.

Their sandwiches arrive solo but is enough to satisfy. The price for a side of French fries ($11) is a bit steep but it's a huge portion, enough to share amongst three.

The beef shish kabob ($30) was a tad chewy but at least cooked well and perfectly seasoned and not overly salty. I recommend upgrading to their Greek salad ($4 supplement), a village style version containing large chunks of juicy ripe tomato, crunchy cucumber, briny creamy feta, and onions. Limon augments the salad with roasted red paper and capers adding a savoury smoky element that’s delicious.

If you’re in the mood for beef, order the strip steak ($34) instead. It’s less grizzly and you get a sizeable portion of meat cooked to your liking.

With three pieces of fish arriving in the roasted rainbow trout ($30), this is a shareable main. It's well cooked with crispy skin and tender meat and simply topped with onions and pomegranate seeds. 

Having visited on three occasions, the sole visit the restaurant wasn't full was during a weekday lunch. And when it gets busy the ordering and paying process slows down as Limon creates a bottleneck by flowing both operations into one person, who I assume is the manager. Despite a number of workers, they seem to focus on serving, refilling water, and cleaning up. If you ask one to take an order or pay, the request gets redirected to the manager. What an odd way to slow down table turnover at a restaurant.

Warning: the tightly packed tables create a loud ambient noise at the restaurant. It’s a bit much at first, but as the meal progresses, I tuned it out. When the weather’s nice and they open the front windows, it almost feels like you’re sitting al fresco somewhere a bit more exotic than Midtown Toronto. A beautiful meal indeed.

If you frequent the University of Toronto area, 181 College Street has been home to a host of eateries: Teara Lab and Spicy Mafia being some recent renditions. Once again it has changed, almost merging the two former restaurants into the new LALA Spicy Lab.

While beef noodles may seem overdone, what makes LALA’s spicy tenderloin beef noodles ($17.99) special is the golden egg. Imagine a funnel cake made from scrambled egg that sits in broth absorbing flavours while still retaining the fluffy eggy texture. I thoroughly enjoyed it with the juicy tomato broth as it captures the classic Chinese flavours of tomato & egg and tomato & beef so well. I’d order this again.

Most customers go for the maocai, a shallow hot pot containing a mix of vegetables and proteins stewed together in a sauce that’s usually mala based. At LALA Spicy Lab, you customize the dish by choosing the:

• Base: mala soup, dry mixed, or a spicy sesame peanut paste mix.
• Staple dish / carb: rice or noodles (choice of egg, handcrafted thick, Wuhan style alkaline, sweet potato, or rice).
• Spiciness level: from extra mild to extra super spicy

Already the medium dry mix sliced beef brisket maocai ($19.99) had my mouth stinging. Luckily, when our server came around to ask how we were and I expressed I should have gone with mild, she brought a bowl of broth so I could dilute and wash off some of the chilis. Finally, I could actually enjoy the ingredients used in the dish.

The beef brisket was sliced too thinly for my taste, resembling what you find in pho becoming lost in maocai. I’d recommend going with the tenderloin beef option ($21.99) instead as they’re thicker slices.

Aside from the beef, the maocai also contained a selection of 15 other ingredients. It’s a treasure hunt digging through the dish to find things like Spam, thumb-sized sweet sausages, fish balls, quail eggs, tofu, or a variety of vegetables (bean sprouts, winter melon, baby corn, etc.). A dozen more ingredients are available for a supplement like fried dough sticks ($3.99), shawarma chicken ($8.99), or the delicious golden fried egg ($3.99).

With both dishes, I opted for the handcrafted thick noodles. In the dry mix it was chewy and pulled the chili flakes into its cervices for maximum heat. Meanwhile, in the tomato broth, the noodles had a silkier texture. Either way, noodles work!

If things get too spicy, their ice cream parfait ($4.99 with a meal or $6.99 solo) is a great way to calm the scorching heat. At first glance, I was sure the brown sugar parfait would be my favourite as it’s essentially a bubble tea made into ice cream: black tea ice cream, tapioca, black tea jelly, and grass jelly layered in the cup with brown sugar coffee syrup and a few chocolate shavings on top. And LALA doesn’t skimp on the boba, so this is a meal.

Yet, it was the citrus garden parfait that had me digging through to get to every layer. The base of green tea ice cream is fairly light so the lemon honey syrup shines through. And while the slice of orange seemed weird in the parfait, it surprisingly works with the black tea jelly not unlike having a lemon tea. You must make it to the end as the green tea loaf cake at the bottom is what steals the show, soaking up the flavours from above including the coconutty shaved ice directly on top.

I love when a restaurant causes me to rethink my biases. Whether it’s citrus tea over bubble tea or my ability to handle spice, it’s all about allowing yourself to try new things.

In a world of influencers and celebrity chefs, not everything is as perfect as it seems. In The Perfect Bite murder mystery dinner ($175 per person), you’re introduced to a group of chefs called The Salty Six and the dinner you’re attending is tribute dinner to Noah who died 13 years prior. He passed in a tragic accident, much too early… but was it an accident?

I’m a big nerd and love murder mysteries; combine it with a dinner and even better! From my first experience with Mysteriously Yours in university, I was hooked on a meal where I could immerse myself into a cast of actors and use my sleuthing skills to figure out who is a murderer. The food is never great, but for this occasion, I’m not there for the food.

The Perfect Bite consists of a four-course meal with palette cleanser and a basket of warm focaccia to start. It’s great to have something to nibble on as we work through the first clue. Especially since we’re attending the 8:30pm seating, I’m hungry and need some brain food to get the wheels turning.

It’s followed by a caprese salad where the cheese is whipped into a savoury mousse studded with deskinned grape tomatoes and garnished with pickled red onion and basil. It’s an interesting take on a caprese, although I would have liked actual mozzarella pieces as well.

What makes the dinner interesting is you need to pay attention to the dishes. For most, there’s something included in it that helps you with the puzzle.

The truffled mushroom cigar looks impressive; a thin crispy crepe filled with a mushroom mousse garnished with black sesame ash to really give it the full effect. It’s too sweet for my taste but I get why it’s needed in the context of the game.

Diners have a choice of mains: beef, chicken, or falafels. We all opted for the braised beef, a decent portion served with silky garlic mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans in a rich jus. Before the main, I was still hungry but given its sizeable portion it left me satisfied. The beef was nice and tender and quite good for a murder mystery.

Before the dessert we’re given a palette cleanser. How it comes and what it is, I’ll keep secret and not spoil the game.

We end with another mousse, this one a cheesecake topped with graham crumbs and a berry compote. It’s good, but by this time I’m a bit tired of mousses, just give me something to chew on already! Who knows, maybe they thought their demographic would seniors with no teeth.

Having been to several murder mystery dinners, I’d say this was the most enjoyable. The Perfect Bite is more than a show, they include puzzles with each course, which give you clues towards a larger puzzle. Ultimately, it creates a more entertaining and interactive experience and makes for great teamwork to get to the next course. Rest assured, they’re not difficult puzzles and if you’re stuck, “Frank” the bar manager comes around to steer you in the right direction.

Without giving too much away, I also liked that there’s a twist, and it culminates in the final puzzle where you can really sleuth by getting out of your seat and using other devices.

If this sounds like fun, The Perfect Bite is still in Toronto until August 8, 2025, and also showing in Vancouver and London, UK. Here’s your excuse to get a group together (ideally four people) to eat and play with your food.