Bangkok Thai Garden Restaurants

Hmm, I think I got lucky because I actually didn’t hate this place as much as the other people reviewing it.
So this was the VERY FIRST Thai restaurant I’ve ever eaten at! I remember very vividly walking around downtown in first year being really lost. It’s also the only Thai restaurant I’ve seen that serves Thai iced tea (please if I’m wrong let me know where else I can get it). I ordered pad Thai since the owner recommended it. I remember getting it home and just being blown away by how delicious it was, I never tried anything like it before.
A few days later me and a friend went for red curry, I remember it being ok, but not exceptional and it certainly didn’t stand out… The saddest part is that the only point of reference I had to judge this red curry was a President’s Choice frozen one. It was ok, tasted like red curry but definitely lacked something that you get in amazing Thai curry (Imperial Palace).
A little while ago on a Sunday afternoon when my precious Thai express was closed I came here for a chicken pad si ew. I have to say it was not great. It was pretty bland except they used a ton of basil in it, of all the Thai places I’ve been to I’ve never seen a place that used basil in their pad si ew. I didn’t like it, Thai basil is an overpowering taste to begin with, however it’s great in certain dishes but certainly not pad si ew. I don’t think this place would be my first choice as there are so many other great Thai restaurants to choose from but they make a great pad Thai.

Wow, I usually have at least something nice to say about a restaurant. This was the worst Thai I have ever experienced. It’s almost a joke.

I think I tried every Thai restaurant within a 2 mile radius of my hotel when I stay in Ottawa and I decided to give this place a try even though it is usually empty and as you can see there are not many reviews and the few reviews aren’t stellar, so here’s my 2 cents… I hate giving a restaurant a poor review unless I’ve really tried numerous items on their menu or the service was just horrible. When I went there, the tables were half occupied or half empty depending on what type of person you are and the service was actually not bad. I wasn’t very hungry, so all I ordered was the summer rolls and a small bowl of Tum Yum soup. I ordered both chicken and shrimp summer rolls and I will say they were the largest rolls I’ve had so far in Ottawa. I will also say that I have a lot of «Summer Roll» experience in Ottawa. The problem I had with these rolls were they were mostly «filler». They were large but there wasn’t much in there but lettuce. The typical summer roll has cilantro, Thai basil and usually fresh mint leaves as well as the chicken or shrimp or what ever else they may offer up. I’ve seen pork, beef, salmon just to name a few. What gives these rolls that special, Thai, complex flavor is the fresh herbs. You eliminate that stuff and you’ve got a bland salad roll. The dipping sauce was your typical peanut sauce and was very good but that’s hard to screw up. The Tum Yum soup was excellent. You can order their dishes in five heat indexes. Five peppers being the hottest. I requested three for my soup and they came through. I like spicy and it was just right. Other than that, the menu was standard Thai, nothing special. I probably won’t be going back only because there are so many better Thai/​Vietnamese places in that area.

The restaurant does not look like it gets a lot of business because having walked by it several times it has been consistently empty. The rice paper wraps with shrimp are very good here but on the expensive side. The other item I ordered with rice and eggplant was okay but also expensive. The eggplant was fried and oily and had lost some of it’s flavor. I asked if I may open my own bottle of beer since I had just bought some and the waiter seemed very upset about it at first and said ‘no’ but then said I could but there was a $ 20 fee per bottle. Wow.