Food Bloggers Lunch: Royal City Thai (New Westminster, BC)

There's a growing email list amongst Vancouver food bloggers, and it is well used. One such use was when Karl of The Friday Lunch suggested a "new" restaurant in New Westminster, Royal City Thai. Kim, Sherman, and myself were glad to accept. Reasons? Royal City Thai, formerly Royal City Cafe, was serving All You Can Eat Thai food on the weekends! Curious bloggers we are, we showed up not knowing what to expect.

My apologies to Kim, Sherman and Karl as we underestimated the amount of time to get from our place to Royal City Thai that afternoon and arrived a little late!


A glance at their AYCE menu is promising. A variety of dishes that we'd order ourselves, all for the price of $12.95!

When the waitress came to take our order, we simply said, "everything". And so it began - we were brought individual portions of hot and sour chicken soup. The coconut broth was flavourful, but the chicken meat was not plentiful. It was a nice opener to the meal. The vegetable salad also arrived shortly, and while being colourful, it was dressed lightly.

A variety of fried appetizers were also brought to the table. The calamari rings were fried crispy yet not overdone, but lacked flavour aside from the sweet and sour dipping sauce.

The same went for the veggie spring rolls. Crispy, but it would have been nice to have more flavour or interesting filling. The chicken wings would be my pick out of the appetizers to order again. It came with a slightly watery sweet chili sauce and were slightly seasoned. That being said, I also thought it would have been nice had these been stuffed with a mixture of prawn and vermicelli (of course on an AYCE menu the boys told me to dream on. Yes I know... ;p).





It became sort of a blur after that. Green curry, red curry, yellow curry - noodles, rice, spicy, not spicy...





Above is the yellow curry pork, beef stirfry, and the veggie fried rice. The pork curry, in my opinion (along with a subsequent chicken curry) was the most flavourful dishes on the menu. While we had ordered a medium spicy, we found all the dishes to be lacking any real heat.





Above is chicken vegetable dish (black bean I'm told), but there was a lack of flavour as well. In the middle is a Green Curry Beef, followed by the Pad See Iw. If you click on the pad see iw photo and take a look, you may be able to see that the flat rice noodles used in the dish are a touch undercooked raw. I'm talking crunchy raw - the noodles could have been soaked a bit longer, or could have been stored properly instead of being left to dry in between cooking steps.




After the initial order of "everything", we decided to order some repeats in the "spicy" option. These were more pleasing and interesting to the palate than the previously ordered dishes. As a bonus, the noodles were cooked though in the Pad See Iw this time! :)

There is something M and I refer to with Asian cooking, especially spicy Asian cuisine (Malay, Singaporean, Indonesian, Thai, Szechuan, etc) - it is that "addictive" factor. Meaning - if we order a number of dishes amongst the two of us, can we stop eating it before we eat what we meant to pack away for lunch the next day? Sadly, the food at Royal City Thai did not have that "addictive" factor. It was decent, but not quite what we would be looking for when a Thai food craving hits



In all, for $12.95, an AYCE Thai meal of this caliber is decent for New Westminster. It is not a "destination" eat, although if you were in the area and hankering for some Thai curry, I might suggest it. The plus was that although our meal was AYCE, each dish was still prepared fresh (we could hear them!). The seating was comfortable and spacious, and there were some beautiful carved panels and dividers throughout the restaurant. Parking is generally metered on Columbia as well as the surrounding side streets.

Thank you to Karl for organizing the lunch - we would not have known that Royal City Thai existed.

Click through to see what Karl, Sherman, and Kim had to say!

Royal City Thai
634 Columbia Street
New Westminster BC
P: 604-522-1289

Tom Yum Thai (The Heights, Burnaby, BC)

Tom Yum Thai has been on my radar for quite some time. They are situated in The Heights area of Burnaby, and we've enjoyed their (street) food on Hats Off Day in years past. I also worked in Burnaby at one point and my co-workers always raved about Tom Yum Thai. Their lunch service was always busy and I'd always heard good things about them.

Up until last week, however, we'd had issues with getting to Tom Yum Thai while they were open! First, we dropped by on a holiday (Canada Day, I believe) and they had taken the day off. Then we dropped by a couple times on Sundays, when they are usually closed (no, we don't learn from our mistakes). When we checked on them a couple weeks ago, they were closed for renovations; another time their chef had taken a trip to back to her homeland Thailand, and understandably, they were closed for a period of time. So when we tried them last weekend and they were open, we were extremely relieved and happy that they were open. Apparently, a couple of their regulars felt the same way - there were two or three other tables when we entered the establishment.


We were greeted and seated promptly by the owner himself, and decided shortly that we would be trying three dishes: lunch special with chicken pad thai, lunch special penang beef curry, and a regular order of the chicken fried rice with basil leaf. Originally I had wanted the fried rice with pork (love basil and pork) but was swayed somewhat by M and the owner as chicken basil fried rice was more popular.


The lunch specials / combos are served with a small green salad and two spring rolls. When our meals came, I was pretty impressed with the portion size. At this price point (under $9 / dish) for this portion, the value was measuring up with Lhy Thai in Edmonds. But how did it taste?

The pad thai, we agreed, was how we liked it. Slightly spicy (we asked for medium), slightly sweet, slightly tangy, the tamarind-based sauce coated the wide rice noodles, chicken, tofu and sprouts nicely. We could have used with a little less sauce, but the surplus actually made it a little addictive. M smirked as he inhaled his noodles - when it came time to trade (so we could taste each others' dishes it became one of those hostage situations; one hand on each dish before the opposing diner let go. lol!). We prefer tamarind-based pad thai over tomato-based ones and would order this again.

The Penang Beef Curry was presented attractively in a blue and white porcelain dish that set off the colours nicely. There were beef slices, bell peppers, and julienned bamboo shoots in the curry and the rice was prepared properly. While the beef curry was very good, it didn't blow my mind. I'm thinking that it we're getting a little spoiled and although this dish was tasty beyond other cuisines, it was common for other Thai restaurants. We would, however, order this in again.


The green salad served with the lunch specials was plain iceburg lettuce and slices of tomato - refreshing but standard. The spring rolls were prepared hot and wrapped with care. They were uniform in size and shape, accompanied by a sweet chili sauce. As they were smaller in size, the proportion of filling to wrapper was almost equal. I would have liked a little more filling and a little less wrapper - perhaps halving the spring roll wrappers before wrapping would produce more favourable results?


Lastly came the chicken basil fried rice. At this point we were both pretty full and only managed to eat a couple spoonfuls of the rice. While the pad thai and Penang beef curry had could have been spicier, the chicken fried rice was done well. You could taste the chilis and the rice was very fragrant. As we had planned, however, we packed most of the last dish (along with the last drops of curry) to go for lunch the next day. I'd strongly recommend doing this as I was a little underwhelmed with the fried rice the first day. The second day, however, the fish sauce, chilis and other spices had penetrated the other ingredients and it tasted much better. Next time, however, I'd order this dish with pork as I'd initially intended to.


The dining space at Tom Yum Thai is a little narrow. I imagine, at full capacity, that it would be quite cosy and you'd be eavesdropping on or talking to your neighbours. That seems to be a theme at Thai restaurants (or the fact that North American bodies don't fit in Asian furniture?!)

I'm glad that we finally got to dine in at Tom Yum Thai! There were some salads and soups that I'd also want to try next time, as well as their other curries. Have already added their phone number to my phone directory so that I can place a quick take out order (or to double check if they're open :D).

Tom Yum Thai
4010 Hastings St
Burnaby BC
P: 604-677-1489

Food Bloggers Dinner: NFA (Vancouver, BC)

Myself, along with sidekick M had the opportunity recently to take in a sumptuous six-course dinner at an underground restaurant, NFA. On this such occasion, Chef Steve extended a discount off of the usual $50/pp bill.

Headed by Chef Steve, the two man NFA (which stands for No Fixed Address) show serves up Global cuisine from Steves' modern dining room. We arrived around seven o' clock for a seven-thirty service and brought our own wine, as did other attending food bloggers from La Petite Foodie, VanFoodies, The Best Damn Food Blog There Is, Victoria's Food Secrets, Food and Tell, [eating club] vancouver, Gourmet Fury, and Sherman's Food Adventures.

Once we were buzzed into the building and given slightly cryptic directions (multiple elevators), we found our way to Steves' humble abode - hardwood floors, a long, dark, masculine dining table set for twelve lit with tealights, woven placemats, and contrasting white flowers (mums? zinnias?) in white square vases.

The apartment walls were adorned with art from local artists, presumably for sale. On one wall was a chalkboard dictating the feast ahead of us:

Dinner was served a little later than expected but the wait was worth it. We started with a thai beef salad perched atop a corn fritter cake and highlighted with a squeeze of lime juice (not pictured). As we dived in anxiously, I heard Victoria quietly say, "You know guys, this is the way its supposed to taste." Knowing that she is picky about her Thai food (Thai roots), I was pretty pleased to be tasting hits of cilantro, lime, fish sauce, lemongrass, and beef. The finishing garnishes of fried shallots also added to the dish, and the raw / green papaya was a nice staple to this solid course.


Next up was a trio of scallops:

• seared scallop with miso dressing, apple and leek atop a square of rye bread and garnished with bacon
• scallop ceviche
• scallop with caper raisin emulsion and caramelized cauliflower

I thought the ceviche would be my favourite, but it disappointed in that the finishing dressing overpowered the sweetness of the scallop. A couple nearby diners agreed that the flavour and texture of the scallop was masked by the strong balsamic (?) based vinaigrette. Perhaps a lighter hand (or lightening up) of the dressing would have helped. I expected the scallop with caper raisin emulsion and caramelized cauliflower to be another favourite, but the outcome was lukewarm. If you follow my twitter or hints in this blog, you'll know that I *love* cauliflower. But I guess the way that it was described (caramelized) led way to an expectation that it would be crispy or slightly sweet. It was not - it was slightly soft. Perhaps I did not get the understanding behind Chef Steves' dish, or perhaps we were all too polite in waiting for each diner to get their plates before (taking photos!) and eating. The favourite was, however, the seared scallop with miso dressing, with apple, leek and bacon. The different constituents of this appetizer - salty, sweet, umami, and the different textures were a pleasant combination. Favourited by both M and myself. :)


The next dish was something everyone was looking forward to. Slow cooked fennel pork belly served atop a ribbon of pipped mashed potato, with a side of braised belgian endive with serrano ham and balsamic dressing. This is somewhat of a house specialty of NFA - we later read about raves from previous patrons. While the slow cooking method did not lend itself to a crisp, crackling skin that is characteristic of Chinese or Filipino roast pork, my portion had exuberantly tender, rich, and moist meat. The pork was just done perfectly and had lots of flavour. I daresay that it trumped the Berkshire pork belly that I'd had last year at The Pear Tree! The braised fennel was a nice garnish to echo the flavours in the pork belly, but the braised endive (or was it also fennel?) with serrano ham and dressing was a bit rich to accompany the pork belly.

I suppose for this reason, Chef Steve had a palate cleanser of a grapefruit sorbet, candied ginger and campari (not pictured). It was refreshing. Not what one would usually expect, as it had strong bitter grapefruit notes, but it was fully representative of biting into a grapefruit - without chewing.

After this came the sake marinated sablefish with preserved vegetable sauce (mui choy).


The sablefish was served on a lightly steamed section of baby bok choy and a root vegetable croquette. Chef Steve cautioned that the fish had been marinated too long and thus a softer texture resulted. While the fish was perhaps overmarinated, the fish was also not of the right cut and / or due freshness. The texture was soft and slightly mushy, and there was no sake flavour present. The potential for this dish would have been great; the ingredients just didn't make it happen. On a side note, a cloudy sake, Amazake or even the Kasu paste (lees) from the sake making process would have been fantastic ingredients to this dish. I'd like to taste Chef Steves' sablefish again so that I could see how he intended it to be.

After all this food, we were quite stuffed! However, there was still the sixth course, dessert.

For our last course that evening, we were presented with dark chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis and toasted hazelnuts.

In retrospect, I think the portion (by volume) of mousse was about the same size as the pork belly or the sablefish. After five courses (four, if you don`t count the grapefruit palate cleanser) it was way too much and way too rich. I think a lot of fellow diners agreed that we could have done with a smaller portion of mousse. I would have also liked if the raspberry coulis was strained of seeds and perhaps thinned to a thinner consistency.

Overall, we enjoyed our dinner at NFA. For $50, you are getting a one-of-a-kind intimate dining experience and you get to see your Chef doing his craft. My complaints, if that, were that the combination of dishes was a little heavy; even the salad, which usually is regarded as a "light" course, was made heavier with a corn cake. Chef Steve and his sous chef were very hospitable and friendly. We are glad to have been told about NFA by Jonathan and thankful to be part of the group of bloggers to have attended this dinner. I'd love to try NFA again.

Click through to see other bloggers experience that night:

• Sherman
• Jonathan
• Victoria 

NFA: No Fixed Address

Address announced in the days leading up to your reservation
Vancouver BC
Contact: nfa.reservations@gmail.com

Chada Thai Fine Cuisine (Coquitlam, BC)

Thai food again. What can I say though - when we get a hankering for any type of food, we tend to indulge until we get a little bit of food coma. In the case of Thai food, any time is good for Thai food!

We were near Coquitlam Town Center one weekend and happened upon Chada Thai. The restaurant is in the same shopping plaza as Save on Foods, A&W and Taco Time. The last time we were in the area, the Chada Thai was not open yet, so when we saw the number of people walking briskly into the restaurant, we thought we'd try them out.

It is a small restaurant, and at lunch it always seems quite busy. To make things simple, there is a limited lunch menu where everything is $10, and includes a small salad, soup, and crispy wraps. All lunch items come with rice as well, save for the pad thai.



Service was very attentive and hospitable, and the soup was offered at the beginning of the meal. I settled on the green chicken curry, while M ordered a pad thai.



Chada Thai does not "dumb down" their flavours! We both ordered the meals with "medium" spiciness, and the waitress cautioned that their dishes were a little spicier than other restaurants. We still chose medium spicy. When the food came, it was still palatable and delicious, but next time we'd order a less spicy entree. The pad thai was very flavourful - less tamarind than Lhy Thai, and a generous garnish of sprouts and roasted peanuts. M finished his entire dish!



I *love* green chicken curry. While my entree seemed small, it was actually very rich and had lots of vegetables and chicken in it. I was a little embarassed to ask for a doggy bag, but I *really* wanted to use every drop of the sauce!

We thought the meal was great, and would certainly come back for lunch! I did have a glance at the larger dinner menu online, but since we rarely venture into Coquitlam for dinner, we may not get to try their appetizers and other dishes.

Chada Thai Fine Cuisine

107-2991 Lougheed Highway [map]

Coquitlam BC

P: (604) 464-5300

Lhy Thai (Edmonds, Burnaby, BC)

Finally - some free time! Work has slowed down a bit, and I've just been working on being less tense. We've been doing a lot of biking just to enjoy the last bits of this Indian / El Nino summer.

I *had* to post on Lhy Thai - I first heard about it when E suggested it for a summertime meet up when H was in town a couple months. E sounded *SO* excited about Lhy Thai, but at last minute, I couldn't find any info about it so, we had gone to Balkan House, which is just up the street from Lhy Thai.

The next buzz I heard about Lhy Thai was from Sherman's post. It was on my wishlist on Urbanspoon shortly there after and on Friday, I *finally* had a chance to drop by for dinner. While waiting for a table, I noticed that Lhy Thai had posted up a thank you to Sherman for his review - now that's PR!



We ordered our standard Phat Thai with chicken, and were pleasantly surprised - one thing about Phat / Pad Thai is that every restaurant does it differently. Some have freshly ground peanuts on top. Some have more tamarind pulp in the sauce. Some have different toppings and extras like tofu, different veggies, and the addition of fresh cilantro or other herbs as a garnish. But I can always say that Phat Thai evokes this response - it is all good. :)

Lhy Thais' version was more tamarind / Thai ketchup based. All the dishes arrived promptly, and when we went to pay our bill, it was no wonder - there were about five to six people in the back, all working dilegently.



We wanted to try something different, and ordered a Moo Ga-Tiam. The magic here was created with garlic, ground pepper, green onion and fresh cilantro. The key ingredient was the fresh cilantro. This dish went nicely with steamed rice.



Next up was a Penang Neua - beef in red curry. While we *always* favour green curry chicken, we believe we have a new favourite. Slightly sweet, slightly spicy, a little curry goes a long way! Between the pork dish and the penang beef, we ordered two large rices just to enjoy all the sauce in the dishes. In fact, after we packed up our leftovers, I almost thought that M was going to lick the dish of the remaining sauce! haha!

Lhy Thai has been in their location for more than 15 years - I can't believe that I only heard about it this year!

There were many take out orders, as well has lots of regulars that came and went while we enjoyed our meal. And although the seating arrangements were "tight" as Sherman put it, there were a number of reservations - and people didn't mind waiting either!

I am *so* glad to have found another Thai restaurant with extremely reasonable prices, as well as proximity to where we live now. Love it, love it, love it. We'll be back for sure.


Lhy Thai

7357 Edmonds Street [map]

Burnaby BC

P: (604) 526-8085

Thai Cafe Restaurant (Hastings, Burnaby, BC)

We're always on the hunt for a great Thai restaurant!

In the week of *hot* weather in Vancouver, we just didn't feel like cooking - initially we'd gone to Thai Cafe just to grab a quick snack, but wound up having our whole meal there!



We started off with stuffed chicken wings. We *love* the ones at Salathai on Cambie, but unfortunately, the pair at Thai Cafe were no comparison. They'd stuffed them with chicken meat and vermicelli, and the similarities in density essentially cancelled out the work of deboning and stuffing the wings! We would have preferred a lighter, more flavourful stuffing, as well as a crispier coating. They *were* less expensive than Salathai though!



Next up was the Pad Thai. This was a favourite! The Pad Thai was not tomato based like other places - instead they had a tamarind and Thai "ketchup" base which was light, more flavourful, and pleasing to the stomach. I "reserved" some for my lunch the next day. :)



M also ordered a fried rice with basil leaves (Khao Pad Kee Mao). This was *also* our favourite! lol - the spices in the rice were accentuated by the fresh basil. I also reserved some of the rice for my lunch the next day.

I didn't recognize the restaurant when I went in, but I'd dined there previously with a group of health inspectors when I was training (they have some great lunch specials!). The funny / embarassing thing was that half way through my meal with the health inspectors, a freakin' fruit fly did a suicide launch into my meal! You could see that it instantly divided the table of officials - some thought I should get the dish remade, others just shrugged and sat back to see what I (the newbie trainee) would do. Since I'd already consumed more than half the meal, I just isolated the part of the dish that the fly decided to engrave himself, and ate the rest of the plate. No harm, no foul.

As for Thai Cafe itself, I'd very glad to have "rediscovered" it again! It's close to home and I can see myself ordering takeout for a busy weekday meal. I want to try some of their other dishes, including a fried rice with cashews, raisins, peppers, and other vegetables, or their deep fried prawns or rice noodle dishes.

Thai Cafe

4160 Hastings Street [map]

Burnaby BC

Phone: 604-299-4525

Review: Rose Thai (Ambleside, West Vancouver, BC)

It's been over a year since we last went to Rose Thai in the Ambleside community of West Vancouver. Why am I so sure?

Last year, there was a fire at the apartment where M lived on 19th in North Vancouver. He was kept from his apartment and his belongings for about a week, then told to evacuate his belongings as the apartment management and owners wanted to do a restoration and renovation before opening it up again for rentals this year.

We spent a couple life-sucking days trying to clean, dispose of, salvage and pack any items that were not water-damaged - it was an extremely hot time of year and the fact that the air cleaners and dehumidifiers warmed up the air made it unbearable at times.

After one such afternoon, we peeled off our dust masks and went for a drive around the North Shore. Driving along Marine Drive in West Vancouver, we came upon Rose Thai. We'd seen the owners painting and making minor renovations to the space a before (it used to be a Greek restaurant with a nice-sized patio) and had inquired then what kind of restaurant they'd be running.

Now, over a year later, we returned again, after a day of shopping and tinkering about in West Vancouver. Time kind of flies as you get older, huh?



It was a visit that was a long time coming. We settled on three choices: Pad Thai with seafood, Green Curry Chicken, and Beef with vegetables. The Pad Thai came first, with a generous garnishing of freshly roasted peanuts and a wedge of lime. When we were brought the dish, though, one of my dining companions exclaimed, "Is that for one of us?" It was such a small portion!

The Pad Thai at Rose Thai was pretty saucy. To their credit however, there were lots of white shrimp, egg, and bay scallops in the dish. This brought the following thought to our minds: how much do rice noodles cost?! Could they not throw in an extra brick of noodles? They certainly had enough sauce for it. Apart from the lack of noodles / extra sauce issue, the pad thai was flavourful and mildly spicy. The shrimp were nicely done and the sauce highlighted the sweet flavour of the shrimp.



The green curry chicken was a hands down favourite. It came with chunks of bell peppers, eggplant, onions, and green peas. We ordered two bowls of rice with it and had the following conversation between us (M Me MM):

Are we going to order more rice?

That depends. Are we going to pack up the rest of this?

There's so little though.

But it's so good!

Oh nevermind! I'm going to finish this all! [Proceeds to rapidly drink the remaining curry like soup]

[Makes mental note to blog about this]



The beef with vegetables came last. It was nothing too special, with a mildly spicy glaze coating onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, snow peas and slices of beef. It went well with rice and supplied some daily nutrients!

It should be noted that restaurants in West Vancouver do not, generally, offer great value. The same notion is carried out at Rose Thai: where Thai restaurants in the GVRD do not generally offer huge portions for the money, Rose Thai seemingly takes the two generalizations to the extreme - smaller portions than average, and smaller portions than other Thai restaurants! They don't even offer the "discount lunch specials" on weekends! That being said though, it does offer great flavours and is one of the only Thai restaurants in West Vancouver.

Rose Thai

1425 Marine Drive [map]

West Vancouver BC

Phone: 604-925-0070