Tag Archives: Pai Northern Thai Kitchen

Pai Northern Thai’s taking it to Midtown Flavourtown!!!

Now, Pai Northern Thai Kitchen is already known as one of the best Thai restaurants in Toronto. I’ve had green curry beef here that was too legit to quit, and ordered some takeout where they probably got the spice level wrong. So when I heard they opened a second location in Midtown, just a coconut’s throw from Yonge & Eglinton, you KNOW I had to check it out, bro!!!!

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The Uptown menu looks to be about the same as the OG location, so I figured I’d order a couple things I haven’t tried before, starting with these kung tawt garlic shrimp. These super-crispy bad boys go down smooth with a little spicy-sour tamarind sauce on the side. Man, if these shrimp were endless, Red Lobster would be outta business, bro!!!!

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But now it’s time for a different type of beef curry — we be jammin’ this oxtail down me piehole, mon! Meat is super-tender, sauce adds a nice little kick, but you gotta watch out for all them little bones, bro…

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Now, they don’t have as much craft beer here as their downtown joint (from what I remember), but man, whenever I see Blood Brothers on a beer list, I pretty much have to order it. This is the latest installment in their Autopop series, a session sour with cherries. Not gonna lie, I thought I was ordering the Autopop Cherry Cola sour, which I’ve had a couple times before, but this light ‘n tangy fruit punch does go pretty good with Thai food, though.

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But now we’re kicking it up a couple notches with a Black Hand Stout. This rich, dark beer is sorta like Guinness on steroids, coming in strong at 7%…which means instead of slamming six beers, I might only have five.

TORONTO’S TOP TAKEOUT: The spiciest “mild” dish I’ve ever eaten…

So, Skip the Dishes is doing this Eggs Anytime deal where they take 5 bucks off egg-based dishes at a buncha different local restaurants. Unlike Guy Fieri, I actually like eggs — just about as much as saving money — so I figured I’d check out a few of these places before this offer expires.

Up first, we’ve got PAI Northern Thai Kitchen, a place where I once had some of the best beef curry in my life. For Eggs Anytime, you can get five bucks off their signature pad thai, or this Thai-style stir fry, pad gra prow:

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OK, now let’s break it down. You’ve got rice and your choice of protein — pork, chicken, beef, shrimp or tofu — stir-fried in basil with a fried egg on top. It probably goes without saying, but I went with the beef. This dish also ranges in spice from no spice all the way to Thai spicy (which is obviously hotter than Farang, aka white-guy, spicy). Well, I didn’t wanna be a total wimp and ask for no spice, so I went with mild. And man, if that’s mild, I don’t even wanna know what Thai spicy tastes like!

I mean, I’m not the type who puts raisins in potato salad to cool off the spice of the mayo, but to me, this has gotta be at least a medium in my books. I’m pretty sure I’ve had some hot wings that were less spicy than this. But while I’m probably gonna be feeling the burn for a while, the combo of rice, beef and egg was not a bad lunch for $12.50. I gotta say, though, if they were doing 2-for-1 on Uber, I could easily finish both of these and still have room for dessert, bro…

You put the beef in the coconut and curry it up!!!

Probably the best thing in Tim Hortons history was when they had chicken stew in a bread bowl. Dude, you could put a flip-flop in a bread bowl, and it would still taste good! So when I found out that Pai Northern Thai Kitchen, this funky joint in the heart of downtown Toronto, was offering a tropical twist on green curry, inside of a coconut, you KNOW I had to come check it out! I’ll get to that in a sec, though. First, let me scarf down some sausage…

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These funky lumps of Flavourtown come with great big chunks of pork belly stuffed right inside! Dude, this is body by great big chunks of pork belly!!! Plus, they’re serving ’em up with cucumbers, lime leaves, Thai relish and some sticky rice — it’s an app that eats like a meal!!!

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But now it’s time for the main event. This was some of the best beef curry I’ve ever tasted — it’s got a pretty good kick, but it won’t bite yer face off. And the meat is what makes it, son! It’s fork-tender, fall-aparty, braised in that green curry… The only thing that’s bad about this dish is you can’t eat the bowl!!!

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Of course, because this website isn’t called Curries, Coriander and Chai Tea, we’re washing this all down with an ice-cold brewski! Armed ‘n Citra, this dry hopped pale ale from Rainhard Brewing, goes great with curry — it even says so on the back of the can. And at 40 IBU, it’s not too hoppy, so it evens out the spicy quite nicely. After a few of these, you KNOW I’m armed and dangerous, bro!!!

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