Toronto is one of Canada’s top cities for sampling real Thai cuisine. But this wasn’t always the case. Most Thai food on menus in Toronto a decade ago was nothing like what you’d get in Bangkok, Sukothai, Chang Mai, Phuket, Krabi, Ko Samui, or Ko Phi Phi. Local chefs recall the days when pad Thai was served with ketchup rather than tamarind. What a nightmare! Now you can experience some of the best Thai food restaurants in Toronto.
With kaffir lime, coriander, and plenty of fish sauce, the greatest Thai restaurants in Toronto provide us with a plethora of Southeast Asian flavours. From the southern massaman curry to the northern khao soi, regional specialities differ and take inspiration from neighbouring countries. Every dish will offer a wide range of flavours.
The greatest Thai restaurants in Toronto use high-quality products and apply traditional cooking methods. The interiors are designed to transport you back to Thailand, and the service is traditional Thai, warm and welcoming.
Toronto’s cuisine culture is flourishing
Toronto is home to more than 140 languages, and more than half of the city’s 2.8 million citizens were born outside of the country. The variety of ethnic cuisine accessible is one of the many benefits of such diversity. This is most evident in areas such as Koreatown, Greektown, Little Italy, Little India, Little Tibet, and the city’s various Chinatowns.
Toronto’s restaurant scene also employs some of the world’s most innovative and well-respected chefs. All of this results in a plethora of dining options for even the most sophisticated palates. Not only you will find the best Thai food in Toronto but also all other different cuisines too.
Toronto is a foodie’s paradise, with mom-and-pop businesses, one-of-a-kind upmarket dining experiences, an abundance of hipster restaurants with changeable chalkboard menus and artisanal cocktails, and a booming food truck culture.
Restaurants serving Best Thai Food in Toronto
Are you looking for traditional and authentic cuisine? Many Thai restaurants in Toronto provide that experience, and you won’t have to drive far to find one. Chefs in the city have combined flavours from Thailand into fusion and inspired dishes for hungry and eager customers to enjoy.
The best Thai food serving restaurants in Toronto nowadays are the ones that demand reservations on a Tuesday night. Thai Select, a programme that assesses restaurants around the world based on their adherence to traditional Thai culinary practices, has certified more than 20 eateries in the GTA.
Thai cuisine has finally made its way to Toronto, and here’s where you can get the most authentic and delicious versions -:
Here is the list of 10 Best Thai Food Restaurants in Toronto:
Sukhothai on Parliament Street was the first of Chef Nuit’s Toronto Thai restaurants. The tiny hole-in-the-wall café suddenly became the city’s fascination with Thai cuisine. Sukhothai first opened its doors in Toronto in 2008, and it has since expanded to three more locations: Dundas, Wellington, and the Canary District. Nuit and Jeff Regular’s first endeavour was an attempt to reproduce the flavours of Nuit’s homeland, which was so successful that it spawned three other restaurants in Toronto.
Their menu has some of the greatest Thai dishes, from Pad Thai to Tom Yum to a divine rendition of Khao Soi that will make you forget you’re not in Thailand. Tom Kha Gai, a coconut soup that’s beautifully acidic to the point of being sour, and Pad Kee Mao, served al dente with a savoury basil flavour, are two more standouts.
The lemongrass fish is another winner: a generous quantity of gently fried Vietnamese Basa topped with a salsa of lime juice, sliced carrots, peppers, ginger, and lemongrass slivers. It’s tangy, refreshing, and unlike anything, you’d find at a traditional Thai restaurant. It is one of the Best Thai Food Restaurants in Toronto.
Pai is a multi-sensory adventure. A meal here seems like you’ve fled into another world, from the gorgeous décor to the vibrant hum of talk that lingers over the dinner hour. With a concentration on northern Thai cuisine, the flavours will take you away from typical Pad Thai fare in Toronto — consider sweet and sour oxtail curry or Som Tum with salted crab.
You’ll always find a mob outside the basement restaurant in Toronto’s nightlife area waiting to be seated. A lively 80-seat dining area can be found just down the stairs of one of Toronto’s greatest Thai restaurants. Guests have the impression that they are strolling through a Thai food market, peeking into a bustling open kitchen.
Their version of Laab salad packs a punch of herbs that are both aromatic and addictive. It’s also enough to make you sweat (the typical serving is medium spicy; if you’ve had true Isaan in Thailand, go ahead and turn it up a notch). The somewhat smokey Pad Gra Prow with a flawlessly fried egg tastes like it was prepared on the street.
Thai Chicken Wings, which are made with chicken wings, crispy shallots, lemongrass, and crispy chillies in a sweet tamarind sauce, and Tom Yum Kung, which is a savoury, spicy, and sour shrimp soup with lemongrass, long-leaf coriander, shallots, mushrooms, tomatoes, and green onions, served with steamed jasmine rice, are two must-try dishes at Pai. It is one of the places to have the best Thai food in Toronto.
Sabai Sabai is Yorkville’s greatest Thai restaurant that serves some delicious Thai food in Toronto. It’s a short walk from Yonge and Bloor serves traditional Thai meals as well as authentic Laotian delicacies. Seng Luong and Jason Jiang, Laotians who grew up in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, dreamed of opening a successful Thai restaurant in Toronto.
Sabai Sabai, a charming small lounge along Bloor Street, is warmly lighted and adorned with coloured lanterns and a lighted wall of bottles behind the bar. The cafe is often bustling with guests interested in a cuisine that’s a little different, with dishes like beef salad (Nam Tok Neua), which has deliciously soft slices of Angus beef, and drunken noodles, which are a basil-heavy reference to Pad Thai. With meals like Lao-style chicken wings, Laab lettuce wraps, and pork belly sausage flavoured with fragrant lemongrass and galangal, the menu also gives a taste of Lao fusion.
Sabai Sabai is one of the few restaurants in Toronto that serves authentic Laotian cuisine. All of your favourite Thai dishes are available here, but we recommend focusing on the restaurant’s distinctive Laotian options, which are rare to come across elsewhere in the city.
Its name may be associated with travellers drinking from buckets in Bangkok, yet it is one of Toronto’s most popular Thai eateries. Khao San Road, which recently reopened in a new location on Charlotte Street, is still serving the classics that made it renowned when it initially debuted in 2011. The dining area features soaring ceilings and a double-decker wall of imported Thai tiles.
Because of the fresh mint and Thai basil, the chicken sausage cold rolls are light and pleasant. Other popular dishes include Pad See Ew, Khao Soi, and Pad Gra Prow, but the midday throng flock for the daily curries, such as the incredibly thick Massaman curry, which is filled with crunchy baby potatoes, crunchy shallots, and delicate bits of chicken or beef. It is also regarded as one of the top Thai restaurants in Toronto serving some different delicacies of Thai food in Toronto.
Even if it’s tucked away in a strip mall, you know it’ll be a place that offers wonderful, real Thai food when the chef hails from a family that’s been providing meals to the Thai royal family for four generations. A cook like this may be seen at Nimman Thai Cuisine in Mimico. Pad Thai Hor Kai, a peanut-heavy, spice-free pad Thai coated in egg, is the restaurant’s most famous dish.
Now, with Nimman, the chef skillfully blends a delectable and complicated meal with her passion and soul, which she treats emotionally. The Chef is convinced that the food she serves reflects the authentic Thai cuisine she is surrounded by. All ingredients are obtained both domestically and directly from Thailand, and the Chef selects each component with care, ensuring that only the finest and freshest reach your dish.
Lightly battered huge prawns drowned in exquisite Choo Chee curry, a lighter, sweeter variation on red curry or a large amount of Khao Soi served with the typical fixings of red onion, pickled greens, and lime are two more dishes worth trying. It is also the Best Thai Food Restaurants in Toronto.
The decor (white walls and a mounted TV displaying Thai programming) paired with a soundtrack of Top 40 song songs makes this popular east end establishment feel just like a mom-and-pop eatery in any Thai village. Sala’s hallmark dishes include Pad Thai, pineapple fried rice, and a range of curries, but it’s their distinctive dishes that set the restaurant apart.
Sala translates to “a refuge” in Thai. It is a classic example of Thai hospitality. It might refer to a cool bus stop in the middle of the road, a tent in the middle of a beautiful rice field, or a majestic pavilion, or anything that offers rest and leisure. Sala Modern Thai Kitchen’s menu features Thai staples from throughout the country. Chef Mo seeks to present diners to contemporary trends in Thai food, with a specific emphasis on creative fusion alternatives.
With flavourful noodles folded in a beautiful egg crepe, Bangkok Pad Thai is inspired by the city’s eponymous street snack. A tray of sour papaya salad, grilled chicken, and sticky rice is known as Tum Buk Hung. The highlight, though, is the dessert. Sala serves Banana Rotee, a popular night market food in Thailand. While other eateries provide mango sticky rice or fried bananas, Sala serves Banana Rotee. And their version is very authentic; the hot, crispy rotee is sprinkled with chocolate and Nutella for a sweet finish.
Isaan Der, located above Toronto’s Dundas Street West, is the greatest Thai restaurant in The Junction. The Thai restaurant in Toronto first opened its doors in March of 2017. It’s called after Chef Ko’s home province of Isaan in Thailand’s northeast.
Isaan Der has the remedy for a hangover. There are a few foods on the menu that are unique to the area, including one soup that Chef Ko suggests for breakfast. Guayjup Isaan is a salty noodle soup with a clear broth with an abundance of noodles, pork sausage, boiled egg, shallots, and chilli.
It’s comparable to ramen and ideal for breakfast, late-night meals, or the aforementioned late-night drinks, according to Ko. Other Isaan alternatives include the more typical Laab salad and Som Tum, but for something truly unique, order the Guaytiaw Gang, a cardamom-based alternative to Khao Soi.
Isaan Der, on Dundas Street West, has 42 seats in a dining area filled with Chef Ko’s Thai treasures. Scarves embellished with Isaan jewels hang from the ceiling. Patoong, Thai women’s Isaan silk garments, and traditional Thai fishing gear adorn the walls.
The upscale Queen Street West neighbourhood near Trinity Bellwoods Park is home to the Nana Thai restaurant in Toronto. Nana, a top-rated Thai restaurant in Toronto, first opened its doors in October 2014. The proprietor of Khao San Road has established his second Thai restaurant, Nana. Nana serves modern Thai cuisine in an urban, Thai-style atmosphere.
Nana, Khao San Road’s younger, edgier sibling restaurant, challenges everything you thought you knew about Thai cuisine. The emphasis is on real street cuisine, not just on the menu but throughout the establishment. Diners perch on little plastic chairs, which are ubiquitous at Asian street stalls, while condiments like chilli flakes and spicy sauce encourage you to add even more heat.
Classics like curries and Pad See Ew remain, but those looking to broaden their gastronomic horizons should try the Kuay Teaw Rua Neua or boat noodles. It’s deep and rich, with cinnamon and star anise flavours, and owing to the inclusion of cow blood, it’s also suitable for the non-squeamish. Inside, you’ll discover road-like flooring, as well as tables and seats that are similar to those seen in Bangkok’s street-style cafés.
In 2008, Mengrai Thai opened its doors in Toronto’s King East neighbourhood. It’s housed in a historic structure that used to be a brewery in the 1920s and 1930s. The inside of the Thai restaurant in Toronto is decorated with Thai arts and crafts. Smiley golden Buddha sculptures, upside down multi-coloured umbrellas dangling from the ceiling, and typical Thai triangular cushions that fold out on soft bench seats can be seen throughout the restaurant’s three dining rooms.
Chef Sasi Meechai, who grew up in the little town of Wiang Pa Pao in Chiang Rai, is in charge of the kitchen. At Mengrai Thai restaurant in Toronto, Chef Sasi creates classic northern Thai meals. A-listers such as Drew Barrymore, Jessica Alba, and Mick Jagger have dined at Chef Sasi’s restaurant.
Royal Thai Pineapple Fried Rice, served in fresh pineapple, is the greatest Thai dish at Toronto’s Mengrai Thai. Its major components are soy sauce, garlic, peas, carrots, roasted scallions, and cashews. Chilli bean shrimp paste, tiger shrimp, chicken, tofu, egg, garlic, tamarind, green onion, bean sprouts, and crushed peanuts make up Sasi’s Pad Thai Noodle. Panang Curry, a mild and flavorful curry with kaffir lime, garlic, galangal, and lemongrass, and Divine Morning Glory, lightly fried Thai spinach with a mouth-melting sweet chilli tamarind palm sugar drizzle, are among the other delicacies. It is one of the best Thai food Restaurants in Toronto Near Ontario Street.
The iconic Toronto Thai restaurant, located on Elm Street, has interesting decor. Tropical flora, teak furniture, swinging birdcage lights, Buddha sculptures, and a mystical river can all be found inside the dining area. Bangkok Garden, which is housed in a historic building in Dundas Square, has been serving Thai food in Toronto for over 36 years. The Thai Consulate granted Bangkok Garden the Thai Select Premium distinction, highlighting the restaurant’s authenticity and excellent service.
Bangkok Garden is also Toronto’s first Thai restaurant with a beautiful spa. If you’re searching for a way to get away from the city on a staycation, try the lunch buffet at Bangkok Garden, which includes Mango Salad, Grilled Seafood Satay, Roasted Cashew Chicken “Gai Phad Met Mamuang,” Panang Nua, and Phad Si Ew, followed by a Thai-inspired massage at Elmwood Spa next door.
While having a romantic night at Bangkok Garden provides an excellent ambience, locals rave about the restaurant’s weekday lunch buffet. The award-winning All-You-Can-Eat lunch buffet at Bangkok Garden is available Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for $17.95 per person.
Toasted Cashew Chicken, also known as Gai Phad Met Mamuang in Thai, is an authentic Thai cuisine dish in Toronto made with onions, bell peppers, toasted cashews, and Thai spices. Phad Si Ew is a dish made out of a variety of wide rice noodles, green veggies, and an egg. Beef, chicken, or tofu are all options. Finally, Panang Nua, stir-fried beef curry with red curry paste, coconut cream, and fresh green beans, is a fantastic combo.
This content was originally published here.