Thai Cafe

Thai Café is a fantastic little gem of a restaurant tucked away in Burnaby Heights. Warm, cozy service with fantastic food: the chicken satay, tofu delight, fish cakes, curries and lettuce wrap are excellent! Lots of choices for vegans or vegetarians too. I definitely recommend it – Go and enjoy!

First impressions … Uuuhmmm … Are they under construction? There is very little décor. White nearly bare walls. Bright fluorescent lights. Not very cozy. Every time the door opened we got a gust of freezing air. Eventually another customer requested the heat be turned on.
Another thing that stood out was that the wait staff looked the same as the customers. T-​shirt and jeans. Sweat pants and hoodies. We didn’t know who to ask for water refills etc. Not professional looking at all. They were polite and respectful though.
Now for the food. There was no consistency in portion size. Different tables ordered the same dish all got noticeably different amounts of food on the plate. The taste was good. I really enjoyed the lettuce wrap dish.
Despite all of the above, the place was busy.
Will I return? Proooooooobably not. It was expensive for what it was.

Small place and a bit far from my place but since one of my dear friend is craving for a thai food so we all agreed to pay a visit.
Minimal decors but i love them coz im a big fan of elephants… service is average thai crew that speaks thai and english, wash room isnt bad… clean actually but one for both sexes
we had all kinds of curry red yellow and green they comes with rice and spring roll… i tried the thai ice tea and it was good… the curry dishes tasted aesome aswell… we also tried the fried rice and sad to say we finished everything that only means the foods were great
Street parking, no free wifi, small place can only house probably 30 tp 40 heads,
i would say this place is good for family, group and kids, neat place tables were clean… non greasy… glasses are sparkling clean…
Noise level is average and lots of people coming in… accept debit/​credit and cash… affordable food… money is worth…

Good: nice flavour!
Bad: they don’t really put much thought into the décor; can get really hard to understand server’s strong accent (depending on who you get)
Ugly: service can be really lacking when they get busy (on my previous visit, she had forgotten about the rice I’d ordered with the curry, and they still took about 10 min to bring after reminded, I had finished my meal by then and they still charged me for it.)
Won’t hold past experiences against them, nobody is perfect. And I would probably even go back (food was good!), but probably not when the restaurant is busy.

The food is great. I’m looking forward to when they eventually get rid of all the styrofoam. Was delighted to hear they were testing samples of compostable packaging.

Didn’t particularly like it, I had pad Thai Medium spice, there was no detectable spice, the dish was satisfactory. The décor is non existent, however the waitress was quite friendly and prices were fair.
The place has potential, it would be nice to see it get a cosmetic face lift and bit better quality to the food.

INITIAL – The staff are very polite, and the food is really good. I’d recommend getting some take out food – the curries, pad Thai and spring rolls are all delicious!
UPDATE – went back for an order of take-​out shrimp pad Thai (even re-​confirmed shrimp when I came to pick it up), got home, and it was chicken. I went back to exchange it, and there was no apology or anything. She just shoved the bag at me and took mine back. Not impressed.

We’ve been going to Thai Café for a few years now. It’s a cozy little place that, and what it lacks in décor, it more than makes up with delicious Thai food and great service!
Normally, my wife and I go… just the two of us. We usually get the Pad Thai or Pad See-​Ew. The noodles are always cooked with just enough chewiness and the right amount of sauce. Thankfully, their sauces are not overly sweet as some places like to make them. My favourite is the medium hot green curry with chicken. My wife likes the mild yellow curry. We have tried many of the menu items and they are all quite good. Yummy! It’s nice to go with a larger group too because you can order a whole bunch of dishes and share them family style.
I’d say the portions are a good size. Not huge, and that’s OK. (I don’t deduct marks for NOT giving me more than I can eat.) We’ve only been there once to have the lunch specials. I guess it depends on how much you eat for lunch, but we felt they were a decent size. We certainly didn’t leave hungry.
The service is always good. The staff always makes you feel welcome and it genuinely feels like they appreciate you dining there. We made reservations for a table of 6 one Friday evening and when we showed up there was a cute little hand-​made, personalized reservation sign on our table! Is that service or what? Loved it!
Great food? Check! Great service? Check! Great value! Check!
Thai Café is a winner! You won’t be disappointed.

for overall value, simplicity and good food. preferably on a third date because not your traditional Thai décor yet the food’s good, just no big and flashy elephants.
nor staff wearing traditional costumes, OK, I get it that this Burnaby Heights, not DT.
just ask for ‘thai hot’, not the Western style lol.
good service, perfect English.
free parking.

Went for dinner last night and as always… delish. We started with the green papaya salad and asked for medium. It was startlingly really spicy but we enjoyed it thoroughly and sweated. Our next 2 dishes were nowhere near as spicy and were so delish. Red chicken curry, chicken pecan both with coconut rice. We are every last bit and will def be going back! The service was very prompt and friendly.

I went to Thai café because they have 10% student discount every Tuesday. Their Thai Milk tea is awesome. Green curry also tasted so good!!!

They have good fresh food here. Although the portion is smaller than other thai place we have been to. Lovely customer service. We will be back.

I used to frequent this restaurant when I lived in the area. I decided to visit this restaurant for lunch with my mom. We ordered two lunch specials. Yellow curry with chicken and tom yum noodle with chicken.
Both entrees arrived shortly after we placed our order. My mom ate her curry but complained that the potato pieces tasted stale and ended up not eating any of the potato. She stated she felt the potato was cooked in advance the day before or earlier and was reheated with the chicken and curry sauce. The sauce was amazing. However, she was left with 4 small pieces of chicken and sauce for her rice. My mom has some very good tastebuds. She can tell what type of meat she is eating just by looking at it, etc. She has been a cook all her life.
My noodle soup was okay. Not amazing but alright. I think I have been spoiled at other Thai restaurants. Okay amount of toppings and noodles. The spring roll only had one filling that looked likes cabbage/​bean spouts.
The lunch special prices is a bit higher than other places for lunch. Service was great. Staff was fast at getting us seated and bringing water over.

Just walking by my old neighborhood and found this amazing Thai restaurant. Because this is our first time at this resto, we had to have the Pad Thai and we were not disappointed. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the sauce was just the right amount of tamarind and fish sauce. I got the medium heat and it was just perfect for my taste buds. The Thai iced tea was also very refreshing and good complement to the Pad Thai. It was beautiful to look at as well. Definitely will come back and bring family and friends.

I lived in Thailand for 12 years and this is as close to eating in Thailand as it gets in Vancouver and Burnaby. I order in Thai and get amazingly spicy dishes. Ask for Laab Moo. (Pet Maak Maak if you want it crazy spicy). Somtam with sticky rice is awesome too.

I used to like Thai café very much, fast service and nice staff. But I think they changed their owner in the last year? Not sure. And now need to wait wayyyy too long. Sitting here for 25 mins and still no food, which they mixed up my order… And I only have an hour break before go back to work … Disappointed

Tried the Pad Thai here as part of a street festival. Actually not bad at all! Nice mix of herbs — they actually got it right.
Will be back to try their sit down food in the future.

Bad Pad Thai and Spring Roll
Ordered the Pad Thai lunch special with soup and spring roll for $ 9.95
A proper Pad Thai is cooked in a hot burning wok, with part of the noodles scorched in high heat to add charred flavor, tossed in with a few ingredients, to add additional flavors, then rounding out with tamarind sauce.
Most restaurants in Vancouver serve Pad Thai in a reddish ketchupy sweet and sour sauce which would be blasphemy in Thailand, then you have the minority of Thai restaurants that serves this dish justice by using tamarind sauce.
Well the Pad Thai at Thai Café uses neither the reddish sweet and sour sauce nor Tamarind sauce. They tried to fake me with dark soy sauce to brown the color of noodles as well as using a sauce that’s predominantly made of sugar in place of Tamarind, as a cheap alternative. The noodles were also overcooked, when it is suppose to be al dente. I ordered spicy hot as described in the menu and ended up with North American spicy, which isn’t spicy at all.
The Spring roll was small, lacked filling, and was under seasoned. I don’t like the sweet clear dipping sauce accompanied with it.
I haven’t tried any of their other dishes yet and this was my first visit, at this rate, i don’t think I will be going back anytime soon.
The ambience is casual, restaurant seemed clean, and the staff was nice. These were the only upsides.
Overall. disappointed…

Very good Thai restaurant in this neighbourhood. I used to come here for a lunch menu only, but it’s become my dinner destination now as well. The best Pad Thai I’ve ever tried in the metro Vancouver area. Their Green Curry is also very tasty. Do not miss an opportunity to try out their Thai Iced Tea.

Carolyn does not like to eat in restaurants. Does not. Does not. No no no. But I put on my big-​girl pants this time and sat down with a plate and utensils like a proper human being and ate inside, mostly (who am I kidding, ENTIRELY) due to being unsuccessful in quashing my man-friend’s unbelievable stubbornness.
I’ve been to some very humble eateries in the past, so when it comes to holes-​in-​the-​wall, this place doesn’t REALLY fit the bill for me. It’s small; don’t expect to jam a million people in. Good for a pair or small group. From my single experience, the restaurant appears to be clean, tidy, and maintained.
To start, we ordered spring rolls and deep fried wontons. Definitely your diet-​breaker, but tasty enough to make you not care. The wontons could’ve stood to have had more filling, but what was there was passable in quantity and on par in terms of taste.
I do not enjoy doing my own ordering (this is what man-​friend is for), especially when the menu is not in my native tongue, essentially. Thankfully, if an ordering buddy is what you lack, all menu items are numbered for the less liguistically savvy. My choice was the #24 (Kang ped phed yang, for you know-​it-​alls!), red coconut milk curry with roasted duck, peppers, pineapple, grapes, cherry tomatoes and basil, and it was simply excellent. Red curry, I believe, is the milder of the curries, so it wasn’t incredibly spicy right off the bat. The duck was tender, and the sweetness of the fruits in this savoury dish gave it an incredible amount of flavour.
My dining counterpart ordered the chicken kang dang, which is a similar idea. To be honest, I’m not really sure how good it was. I was too preoccupied with my own satisfaction with my dish to ask.
Deep-​fried banana with vanilla icecream ties this great dining experience together like a ribbon on a pretty present addressed to my tummy, and Carolyn is a happy, happy camper.
Good experience. Highly recommend.