Showing posts with label moo ping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moo ping. Show all posts

Tha Phae Tavern (Toronto)

Posted on Saturday, August 30, 2025 by

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.

In a nutshell... 
  • Must order: fried chicken, moo ping
  • Just skip: nothing

Overall mark - 7 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 221 Richmond Street West


 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:

CLOSED: Kub Khao Thai Eatery (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, January 08, 2017 by

Don’t let their location at an independent gas station scare you, the Thai food at Kub Khao is legit. The store front dining room may look dingy, but the seating area at the back is colourful and cheerful, the tapestry reminiscent of the lovely woven textiles across Thailand. Accordingly, if décor is important, ask to be sat in the back.

Sadly, their moo ping ($6.95) wasn’t the slightly spicy version I found at Destination Thailand, but still decent. The grilled pork skewer are glazed in a sweet tangy tamarind sauce with more on the side. They’re hot and tender, served quickly so they’re almost as fresh as a street vendor handing you one fresh from the grill.


The chicken pad kee mao ($11.95) uses wide flat rice noodles stir fried with egg and vegetables. It may look like your run-of-the-mill noodles, but watch out for the whole green peppercorns hidden throughout, which adds an earthy heat to the dish (albeit more subdued that the strong black peppercorn).


With the shrimp paste coating the rice kernels, the smoked chili fried rice ($10.95) was delicious – something I’d definitely order again. This works well as a vegetarian dish incorporating tofu puffs that add a soft crunchiness against the tender rice. Even though there was a chili on the menu, the rice wasn’t spicy, rather having a nice savoury essence.


As you scoop the beef green curry ($11.95), get to the bottom of the bowl as the chopped banana peppers settles there. For the first serving, I found it was just creamy and sweet from the coconut milk – still good but far too commercial tasting. I even had to ask for hot sauce just to give it heat. However, the second serving, after reaching the chili sediments at the bottom, we felt the tinge of spice, which really makes the curry. Although the dish already comes with steamed rice you should opt for an extra order ($2), why waste any of the lovely sauce, the best part of the curry.


Perhaps it was due to the holiday season, but there were only two people working at the front of the house during our week night visit. Even though service was slow (due to the sheer size of the restaurant that needs to be managed by two workers), I must commend how quickly they were operating.

The mom and pop operation means stir fried dishes come out slowly, so I’d suggest getting some appetizers if you’re hungry as they arrive quicker. Moreover, the noodle and rice dishes aren’t overly large so a couple of starters amongst a table of four isn’t a lot. Just be patient. Eating at Kub Khao may not be speedy, but what you’ll get is much better than the ketchup-laced pad thai of the suburbs any day.  

Overall mark - 7 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 3561 Sheppard Avenue East
 

 Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this:



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