Thai Valley Grill — Restaurant in Edmonton

If you open a restaurant, you should cook with care. None of the dishes here are authentic and they taste far from what they should. Adding more lemongrass, fish sauce and coconut milk can greatly improve the flavor. To be honest, authenticity isn’t always necessary, and it’s important to adapt to local tastes when opening a restaurant, but cooking must be done with care and respect for the food. There are many good fusion restaurants that have adapted well, such as Dorinku and Hanjan. The key is to cook with heart. Using cheap ingredients and rough cooking methods won’t do. Every time I see locals enjoying these so-called Asian dishes, I think they should really travel to Asia to taste the real thing.

In response to your reply, I have updated my review and given your service one star.

I am quite shocked by your insinuation that we did not follow your seating policy. When we arrived, we informed your waiter that we were a party of five. Despite the restaurant being quite empty with many available tables for four, we were still asked to wait for 20 minutes, which we did patiently. Later, the owner told us that we could sit at a table for four. When we asked the waiter to add an additional chair for our group, I don't know why he responded with impatience and an unwilling attitude. Your claim that we seated ourselves without being attended to is completely false and misleading. I think the person writing this response is the same waiter who served us, as there was only one staff member in the dining area at the time. Your attitude and response are very disappointing and make me uncomfortable. You need to be honest about what actually happened because this response is so disconnected from the fact that it’s laughable.

Your attitude in the reply feels dismissive and implies that we are at fault for the negative review, which is far from the truth. Our dissatisfaction stems from the quality of the food, not the service alone. The dishes we had were not worth the price of $35 per person. The pineapple fried rice had only two pieces of pineapple and was not served in a hollowed-out pineapple as a container; the Tom Yum soup was unusually dark; and the curry lacked the essential flavors of lemongrass and coconut. Furthermore, the Pad Thai was overly wet and lacked the authenticity that even a quick-service restaurant like Thai Express offers.

Instead of deflecting the criticism and trying to paint us in a negative light, I suggest you take the time to reflect on why a customer might leave with a bad impression. The quality of your food and the training of your staff need serious attention. Focusing on defensive replies to customer reviews will not help you in building a successful, long-term business. I hope you consider this constructive feedback seriously. Thank you...

We have been regular there because it’s walking distance from my place and it’s easier to go with kids as the library is just next to it. Staff had been fine with me though we had some language barriers leading to some confusion in understanding the order, but I always ignored it. Food hadn’t been great but okay enough. Today, I went there with my kids and some more family members for lunch. My mom got a chunk of tomato with label still stuck to it in her soup. (I forgot to click a pic) owner said may be the new cook was in a hurry and didn’t know there was labels on tomatoes in Canada, he said she was a new immigrant from Thailand (what about training the staff?) Almost everyone ordered their dishes with shrimp and my 6 year old complained that he won’t eat (his favourite food) shrimp because they tasted crunchy (6 year old doesn’t know how to describe it exactly) in his mouth. I though he is making excuses to not eat. I tasted shrimp and it was really gritty in my mouth. Then my mom tasted her dish and it was gritty too. I told the owner about the situation and he won’t believe me. I asked him if they were deveined and he was confused. He said he gets them from Costco and they are frozen shrimps and are supposed to be ready to cook. anyway, I told him that may be the lot he got this time was faulty and wasn’t deveined. He got visibly upset and told me that next time I should go to a different Thai restaurant. I told him to taste it himself. He got upset. A lady staff from the kitchen replaced shrimps with chicken. I found one partially rotten snap pea pod and took a photo of that but was too upset to report it. We ate and left but it was overall really upsetting to know that while we were just reporting the issues we found in the food, were taken otherwise...

On May 31st, I had the pleasure of dining at Thai Valley Grill, a cozy Thai restaurant located at 4211 106 St NW in Edmonton. From the moment I arrived, the staff were warm and welcoming. They quickly showed me to my table and brought water and menus within minutes.

A few minutes later, my guests arrived, and the staff made sure they were comfortably seated. After giving us time to look over the menu, they checked in to see if we were ready to order drinks. We weren’t quite ready, and they encouraged us to relax and take our time—creating a calm and friendly atmosphere that made us feel right at home.

About 30 minutes later, after chatting and catching up, we placed our order: satay skewers (2 chicken, 2 beef), Galangal Cashew Chicken (extra spicy), Pad Kee Maow, and coconut rice.

Everything arrived within 25 minutes and was absolutely delicious—full of rich, authentic flavour.

Beyond the food and service, we appreciated the warm, family-friendly environment. The owner's toddler son was happily playing nearby, which added a personal and joyful touch to the experience—and brought a big smile to my face.

We’ll...