Thai Chef Eatery — Restaurant in Burnaby

Thai Chef Casual Cuisine is one of the few Thai restaurants along the North Road corridor between Burnaby and Coquitlam. That probably partly explains why this place was so busy when I visited for lunch on a weekday.

The other reason is probably the value of their lunch specials. I have a fondness for green curry so I stuck with an order of Green Curry Chicken ($10 for the lunch special) which comes with rice, green salad, and a spring roll. The spring roll was fried up with a nice crispness to the wrapper and had a hot, tightly wrapped filling inside.

The curry was actually pretty good with a nice creaminess from the coconut milk and a moderate heat from the green curry paste that gradually builds over time. In addition to the chicken, the curry had slices of eggplant, yellow and red peppers, and basil. This stuff goes perfect with a bowl of rice to sop it up with.

Like the crisp spring roll, the seating here is fairly tightly packed and service seemed rushed (but that’s to be expected with how busy they were). I returned a couple of weeks later and found that it wasn’t as busy (but service was just as curt). This time, I picked the Red Curry Beef ($10 lunch special). Since it wasn’t as busy, the food came out rather quick and it was both pleasing and filling. The red curry was creamy but not overly spicy and there was a plentiful amount of bamboo shoots that accompanied the strips of beef, bell peppers, and basil.

On a subsequent visit, I tried their Pad Thai with Chicken. Again, another solid offering… the noodles have a nice, subtle tang and were pleasantly toothsome. The dish was a good portion size for lunch and came with bean sprouts, firm tofu, egg, and green onions.

If you’re looking for something a bit different than your usual curry item, you might try their Spicy Basil Beef ($11). Like all of their other lunch specials, this comes out really quick. There’s a nice amount of heat from the chili peppers in this dish.

I’m not usually a big fan of yellow curry… guess I’m too used to the typical Chinese yellow curry which tends to be on the flavourless side. I figured I might as well try it here since it was on the lunch menu. The Yellow Curry Chicken ($11) here had a pleasantly moderate level of spiciness in the curry sauce. It’s a fairly simple take on yellow curry with just onions, large chunks of potatoes, and topped with fried shallots. As with their other curry dishes, you’ll find yourself sopping up all of that curry sauce with your rice.

After a number of visits here, the thing to know about this place is that there’s not many surprises… each visit was pretty much exactly like the previous visit – very utilitarian (which can put some people off if they’re looking for more service). Overall, the food’s pretty good...

I absolutely cannot comprehend how this restaurant has such a high rating. I decided to give this place one last try after my last two experiences here but I guess it's three strikes and out.

From the dirty glasses to the sizzling temperature inside, the overpriced menu to miniscule portions - this place could have been so much better but it's clear that they are clearly in it to take the moolah. The waitress/manager with the coloured hair is absolutely rude and doesn't even acknowledge or look at you/what's being said. It seems she's always in a hurry and we get the feeling that customers are in her way. They have stuffed twice the amount of tables in just about 15*15feet (not sure if this is even legal).

As it is, Lougheed/North Road does not have much places to eat, and it's clear that these guys are this way because it's the only Thai place surrounded by tons of Korean and Japanese places. Just one Chinese and one Middle Eastern place for competition.

Either these guys should move into a bigger place, hire more staff, and do something about the insane heat. They want to make maximum profit with a minimum investment. Which sucks for any service industry, much less a restaurant business.

Give this one a miss, there are so many other and MUCH better Thai places in...

I’ve ordered from Thai Chef before and been happy and tonight I was mostly happy but slightly disappointed. I do tend to order the same thing so I can’t speak to how good every item on the menu is. I ordered through skip the dishes tonight- I ordered the yellow chicken curry and paid extra for additional veggies. $4.50 is a lot extra but it was worth it. I also ordered a side of coconut rice and 2 spring rolls. I asked for my curry to be mild spice which was perfect- it still had a tiny bit of kick to it. However, aside from the spice the flavours were quite bland. The coconut rice isn’t very coconut-y so I’ll order regular rice next time (it’s cheaper). I ordered a small size of rice and it was quite a lot- I easily had enough food for 2 meals. Spring rolls were also good and still crispy by the time I got my order, but a little bit more sauce would...