Food Review: Khao San Road

In the past year my friends, acquaintances, and old co-workers have mentioned how Khao San Road is THE THAI restaurant to eat it.

And so after a year, I finally made it out with my friends to go try it out.

It's funny because it's not a very easy restaurant to find, but if you were to tell people, "you'll know where it is when you see there's a big line-up". When we got there at 6:00pm on a Saturday, we had a wait time of 45 minutes. *Aiyah!!!! Soooo long! But still... we waited because 2/3 of my party hadn't tried it yet.

This is what the store front looks like:

No visible sign... wait..... wait.... I think I found it.....

There IT is (photo above). 

Note: It's the white paper sign in the middle. 

Ok, enough of the obvious, let's dip right into the food, the prices, the service and the atmosphere.

The bar area and in the foreground of the photo (above), this is the start of the line.

They have 2 long cafeteria style tables that seats snugly and on bar stools in the front of house. A nice thing about this space is that underneath the tables have complimentary hooks  for you to hang your belongings -and they don't really get in the way of your feet. *thumbs up*

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The 2-page menu:

I thought they had a okay menu list. It was kind of small, but I guess (from what others have said) that all the packed people know when something is good, so whatever is on the menu, must be good as well.

Cup of Tom Yum Soup ($3.00). Warning: Very spicy, even for the people who enjoy and can tolerate spice. The cup is also very small (photo below).

Tom Yum Soup is probably one of my favorite soups (when it's not too spicy). The soup that night was very tasty and the ingredients tasted fresh as well. If it wasn't overly spicy, I think I could have enjoyed a lot more of it.

This is the craziest drink I've ever tasted. It felt like a million different ingredients in my mouth.  This was the Sa Koo Ma Prao drink. It's a sweet coconut milk, flavoured with pandon, and strips of tender young coconut. ($4.00). 

At first glance, you think it's a mango puree juce. But no! it's not! After my first sip, I tasted black tea, milky, sweet and a hint of mango and a lot of creaminess. It definitely felt similar to that of bubble tea, but insanely creamy. I liked the newest of it, but I'm not sure if it's something I would order again. Maybe it's too different for my taste buds.

For my main dish, I ordered the Khao Soi braised beef with wedge of lime ($15.00).

Before I came here, I did a little research on Yelp and other websites. One of the most repetitive dishes ordered was this one. And from the photos, they looked really good. However, when I ordered the Khao Soi, I thought it would have more orange and oil sauce and not this pure yellow-y sauce. The sauce was very creamy and light with minimal spiciness as I ordered mild. The sauce and noodle ratio was a bit off. There was a lot more sauce, which caused me to get a doggy bag for mostly 'sauce'. The braised beef was very soft and tender and well seasoned.

And of course, this wouldn't be a complete review without trying their Pad Thai (photo below).

I tried one Pad Thai with medium heat and another with mild. I absolutely can handle mild heat. And the Pad Thai was delicious. However, for the price ($14 & $16), it's a little pricey in comparison to others I've tried around downtown area like Salad King ($8-10, Dundas/Yonge) or Real Thailand ($8.95, Spadina/Bloor).

Overall....

From what I heard and my experience

Wait time for seating ....... 45 minutes

Wait time for food ......... 50 minutes (around 40 - 60 mins)

Price .......... 1.4/5 (over-priced compared to most thai restaurants)

Atmosphere .......... 4/5

Cleanliness .......... 3.5/5

Taste ................ 3.4/5

Total: 3.3/5

Yes, I was hyped up from other peoples' opinions and that did make my review a little bias. However, judging on my experience/price/atmosphere/wait times, it isn't something I'd like to do again.