Twinkle Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Burnaby

Recently, a new take-out restaurant opened on Kingsway called Twinkle Thai (in the former location of First Choice Chinese). This new Thai restaurant is the brain child of the former owners of Sticky Rice Thai & Asian Cuisine in Surrey. While Sticky Rice Thai was a full-scale sit-down restaurant, the owners decided to scale things back and just focus on take-out now.

That being said, there is a small bar-like area by the entrance with 6 side-by-side seats to accommodate individuals that just want to eat their food on-site. On my first visit, I ordered their Green Curry Chicken with Rice lunch special ($13.95). The curry was quite good (they make their own sauces) and had crunchy red and green peppers, large chunks of tender eggplant and chicken, as well as basil. There’s just a hint of medium spice level here that’s not overwhelming.

On my next visit, I tried their Pad Thai ($11.95) with chicken, tofu, carrots, sprouts, egg, and onions with a mild sauce. The rice noodles that they use here are of the thinner variety but are nice and toothsome.

At the end of November, I ordered their Red Curry Chicken lunch special ($14.95) which comes with a hot and spicy sauce, big cut pieces of tender chicken, bamboo shoots, basil, and peppers.

Unfortunately, they decided to stop serving lunch and just focus on take-out...

I struggled to rate this place a 2 or a 3. Food was super mediocre but service was lifting it up. If you know pad thai well then you know this isn't authentic. It's the dish I order at any thai place as a judge to the rest of the food.

For 14.95 with no chicken or prawns with lots of noodles and bean sprouts ,that's not real pad thai. I order the supreme which came with beef that is that usual but had chicken and prawns for 16.95 for a big portion. This came with loads of noodles and bean sprouts. The flavour was not authentic. Also, has carrots in the dish... not usual and not necessary.

I also ordered the Tom kai gai, which was amazing. Perfect balance of galangal , lemongrass, coconut milk and curry. This I will order again. Loads of chicken and tastes amazing. There was cabbage added which isn't usual for the dish but the flavours were on point or the rest of it.

If you are looking for authentic, then this wouldnt be the place. If you are looking for a spot in the area for thai food as Lhy thai isn't open all the time then this place could slightly cure that.

As a half Malaysian, thai food is deer to my heart and there are far more better...

Update. 2 years ago the food was completely different from what I receieved tonight. Ordered the Pad Thai & it was beyond tasteless.... It was an embarrassment to Pad Thai & Thai people. I don't think there was any sauce of any kind. The cashew nut vegetables came with burnt cashews which tainted the entire dish and the whole thing tastes burnt. I'm so disappointed and wonder what happened to this place. I think this will be my last order.

Wow! Ordered off skip, been a crazy Christmas season and couldn't wait to chill and have some Thai food. Never ordered from here before but it was 1 of 3 open with the best reviews, I can see why! Panang curry was unreal, so much lemongrass flavor and perfect spice level! Pad Thai supreme was just that SUPREME! And Thai ice tea were on point! My new fav Thai place! Thanks for the best after...