Express Thai Cuisine

Was relatively late at night (after 8pm) on a Wednesday for dinner and we wanted something relatively close by and good but not fast food. We looked on Unilocal and saw this place had high ratings, was close, and was cheap so we went to check it out
The food was darn good and I fully intend on coming back here. Do not let the way the little strip mall looks deter you. We thought it looked sort of grimy from the outside but the establishment was clean and nice as you could want. It was a tad on the warm side and they didn’t have a proper air conditioner just a fan so you may wanna watch out when coming here on humid days and dress lightly.

While searching this area, I found this local Thai resto run by a real Thai couple with some good reviews.
I’ve been to Thailand twice so was excited to try their pad thai and the mango sticky rice. So happy to find an uptown location closer to me that reminds me of Thailand street food.
Definitely my go to place when I have Thai cravings without having to hit the downtown locations like Khao San Road or Pai.
They have some tables to eat in but I ordered takeout. The mango sticky rice portion is large enough for 2 – 3 people to share at the end of the meal. They definitely did not skimp on the dinner portion sizes with the ingredients.
Wish I found them years ago… but it’s just a small resto in a strip plaza with minimal parking just north of Eglinton.
Can’t wait to try some other dishes and they have reasonably priced lunch specials too!

I ordered chicken pad Thai and chicken curry for takeout. The service was quick and their price points are great. The food was also of good quality and I can’t complain about the taste. I am by no means a Thai food expert though but I had a good experience and will revisit this place at lunch time.

Express Thai is the kind of place I’d think twice about reviewing, because it’s really really good and I don’t want them to get so busy they forget my order.
It’s a phenomenon I would like to introduce as «The Unilocal paradox» or ”The Unilocaladox”*. If I write a glowing review, and my few friends try the place, and tell others, and so forth, the restaurant will get busier and busier, requiring more staff, greater expansion plans, less attention to detail and ultimately the drift towards middling quality that ultimately dooms many successful businesses.
So let’s say I’m on the crest of #thaideliciousness with Express Thai.
The restaurant itself is no great shakes, in the tradition of great, inexpensive food everywhere. It’s located in a half-​empty strip mall that formerly housed an adult novelty store and a tuck shop whose sign misspelled «TABACO» and «CIGARETS». I guess they sucked at math, too. They’re just up the road from a gigantic Revival Church, so I conclude that Thai food goes better with a prayerful morning than smokes or porn.
Mind you, this food would go well with anything.
Full disclosure: we usually order it in. Over $ 20, no delivery charge and enough food to stuff us silly. It arrives fresh and hot and quick. Seriously awesome, given that we live in war (or LRT) torn mid-​town.
I could write a full review about their spring rolls. Tightly wound in Thai style, packed with veggies and nicely-​spiced ground chicken, they are inhaled almost as soon as they cross the threshold. The cold, shrimpy version stuff an improbable amount of salad greens, shaved veg, mint and rice noodles along with a few crustaceans into a slightly-​more unwieldy package. A hot shrimp version sees straight-​edge seafood that’s just cooked to popping inside it’s own crispy wrapper. An order of shrimp chips (chosen based on memories of Lichee Garden downtown) arrives with funky, salty, spicey peanut sauce. There’s more than enough for dipping. I’d pretty much eat it with a spoon.
Green curry chicken contains a decent amount of white meat; a little tough, but bathed in luxuriously spicy sauce, alongside half the produce section. Do you like curry? Do you like eggplant? There’s a lot of eggplant in this curry; cooked to silky tenderness. It’s actually better than the chicken.
Pad Thai is often a hate crime, abused with lashes of ketchup. Express Thai’s version instead uses tamarind for a proper, balanced kick and a suitably dry texture. Plenty of goodies inside, and I don’t feel like I ate a Thai Slurpee after («Thai Slurpee»…let that one marinate for a while…).
Curry noodles with chicken and shrimp surprise; similarly dry, they fuse Express’ Pad Thai with curry spices, rather than drowning the noodles in sauce. It’s different, in a good way, much like «Chicken with Egg Noodles»; a dark-​stained umami bomb with think noodles and the usual suspect veg. Good, but no pach on the Pad Thai.
A few months into this romance and I’ve only begun to scratch the surface of their menu. My biggest complaint is that dishes are poorly described, beyond a short list of ingredients. I’d like to know if a dish is saucy (like me!) or dry, or if it errs on the sweet or savoury side… but then I’m up for an adventure if you are.
All told, this is one ET I would phone… from home… to please bring me dinner.
*Of course this presumes that I am what Malcolm Gladwell would call «an influencer». in «The Tipping Point_​Like the cool kids who first donned Airwalk shoes when I went to high school. Of course, we know what happened to those kids… and Airwalks, for that matter, which now languish at Payless Shoe Stores across the Province. But then, if I can cite Malcolm Gladwell in a restaurant review, surely that makes me cooler than Joanne Kates.

Delicious, fresh and cheap! Took my parents here for their first Thai meal and they LOVED it. The service was super warm and friendly and the place was nice and clean. Highly recommend.

First time ordering from this place (take out) and the food was good (Pad Thai, Peanut Chicken Curry, Mango Salad, Spring Rolls, Chicken Satay Skewers, Rice), with the exception of the satay skewers (they forgot the satay sauce and the chicken was too tough).
Portions were reasonable compared to similar places. Staff were friendly and I plan to go back.

I’m quite happy with the Pad Thai I had here. I came at about 5:30pm on a Thursday and the only person working was the server/​cook. She was very nice and got on my meal right away (I could hear eggs being beaten, items being fried, woks being scraped.) The Pad Thai itself was tasty, but not as dry as I’d prefer. The shrimp was cooked PERFECTLY. It had a bite to it.
I’m definitely coming back as they had a section marked «Street food» with bowls of chicken/​beef/​veggie noodle soup, which I’ve been trying to find since my trip to Norther Thailand years and years ago. Oh and parking is a mess. It’s super tight.
Cash only! Oh and they deliver, free over $ 20. So that’s going to happen.

A-​OK indeed. Been here three times. Relatively small portions for the «lunch special» but good food indeed. Typical Thai, to me, the curry tastes like the basil which tastes like whatever else you order if you’re a caker like me and stick to common orders. But the servers are really, really, friendly.
P. S. I know how complex a real Pad Thai should be and although I’ve never ordered it for myself, I tasted my friend’s. It is really good.

You don’t come here for the atmosphere or service, you come here for one thing and one thing only… dundundun: Authentic Pad Thai.
It’s a family owned business, and yes, they are Thai! It’s so delicious that I haven’t eaten pad thai at any other eating establishment since I found them around 4 – 5 years ago. I know that any other pad thai would pale in comparison and only make me regret a fatal decision at the dinner hour. (You know how that feels!!!)
It’s salty, sour and sweet at the same time. We always order for lunch, and it always comes in the same way. A tangled mess of soft rice noodles, pale red in colour, a teaspoon scoop of crushed peanuts in the corner, two small fried tofu cubes cut in half, 2 perfectly cooked shrimp, and a scattering of thinly sliced chicken breast (white only thank you very much). For under $ 7.00 for lunch it’s an awesome deal. Think I’ll order some tomorrow.