Thai Yala Restaurant

I have been going to this place for a few years– I like it. I like that it’s family owned. We have gotten to know the family and though at first they were shy they are really friendly now. The décor is nice, the food is good and they generally serve the food pretty quickly. Prices are average. I will continue to go back!

We ordered take away for lunch and it was very average. Firstly, they did not accept Mastercard and did not advise when we ordered. The food was really quite bland and my Pad Thai did not look or taste at all like Pad Thai… There are better Thai places in the area (Thai House on Esplanade is MUCH nicer). I would not eat here again.

— it’s like stepping into Thailand when you walk into this place. Sights and smells
— Will be very difficult order as the English is broken to say the least
— chicken Pad Thai is excellent
— perhaps best to take out

I felt like I had to apologize to the owner upon entering the place since we seemed to be bothering her by our patronage. After we got settled she curtly took our order without cracking a smile. The papaya salad was terrible at best and my green curry had what seemed to be on sale at the local market. I make better Thai food at home and I make crappy Thai food… There are several superior Thai places on Lonsdale, don’t bother this lady with your business.

I use to like going there when it first opened. But the food is no longer up to par. Worse even is the child labour. To make young kids work like that for year is appauling. Out of principal I will never eat there… child labour is un acceptable.

I can’t give it a because I don’t eat a ton of Thai Food. However, this is by far the best I have had and have been there 3 times in the past 1.5 weeks.

The atmosphere of my first visit to Thai Yala could not be any less enchanting if the chef came barging out of the kitchen in a stained old sweat suit to curtly inform me that the green and red curry are the same thing so could you hurry up and order already?
Oh wait,
That actually happened… Most unusual chef’s recommendation I’ve ever had.
It was the newspaper review in the window that brought me in the first time. The article declared the food «Not bad, but bland»
Which I found so damned amusing I just had to find out how it really was.
And to prevent myself from experiencing the mentioned blandness ordered a ⁴⁄₅ spice red curry. «Are you sure?» My server (The owner’s thirteen-​ish year old daughter?) asked. «Oh yeah, it’s ok, I like spicy food.» She came back ten minutes later to warn me again, giving me one last chance to back out.
I refused to back down.
My lunch special was not going to suffer from blandness!
So when my meal arrived at my table, I tasted it and chuckled at how clever I was, because it was pretty much perfect, if a little watery. Then as I scooped some veggies from the bottom of the bowl and my spoon surfaced a heaping pile of crushed red chillis, I realized that I am a real dumbass.
I could picture in my mind the look on the owner/chef/wife/mother’s face as she cackled to herself saying «YOU WANT SPICY? I’LL GIVE YOU SPICY!»
If I didn’t eat that whole dish, that woman would have won… So I rolled up my sleeves, and dug in, alternating between bites of curry and a grease-​dripping eggroll. I’ll be damned if that curry wasn’t delicious, but by the end I had eaten all my garnish (supposedly a salad) and downed four glasses of water to cool my flaming tongue and I could no longer see through my own tears.
And you know what?
I keep going back.
The deep friend wontons are mush inside, full of something like sweet potato and served with a very mild sweet sauce. The papaya salad was mediocre and reminded me of a really bland coleslaw. The green curry is a little sweet, and both green and red curries are watery.
If the wife is cooking, the spice isn’t messing around.
If the husband is cooking, the food is much milder.
Pay attention to who is in the kitchen!
The prices are comparable to any other Thai restaurant in the area, some dishes are better elsewhere, some other menus classier, and some other servers aren’t doing their math homework in between taking orders.
So how did this restaurant earn four stars when every other Thai Restaurant I’ve reviewed in North Vancouver earned less?
The spicy beef salad is pretty tasty, and well seasoned. The Swimming Rama is superior to everywhere else, using crushed raw peanuts instead of a jar of skippy peanut butter to make their peanut sauce. The décor is regularly being upgraded as it becomes financially possible because the owners care about their business. But mostly, the family that owns and runs the place are genuinely nice, and nicely genuine people who have stories to tell and food to share, and that kind of business is one that I can stand behind.
Also they sold me some sweet little hand carved chopsticks their grandmother sent them from Thailand — they have little forks and spoons carved into the handle! That’s just adorable.

Dissatisfied. Didn’t taste like Thai food that I know.

Absolutely love this place. High quality food at amazing price. Only downside is the atmosphere and some people mind that you are served by the owner’s teenage children.