Sala Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Ottawa

I read some good reviews about this place and being such a huge lover of "Authentic" Thai food I wanted to try this place out for myself. So this evening my fiancee and I went. We started with the Tom Kha Goong soup and Satay Chicken Skewers. Both were absolutely delicious.. The Chicken was slightly rubbery but the flavours and peanut sauce made up for it. For our main entrees we decided on Gaeng Garee Gai (light curry chicken with coconut milk and potatoes) And Chicken Pad Thai.. The curry was amazing.. It was actually so good that I would come back to this place for this dish alone.. However the pad thai was not so great.. In Fact it was quite disappointing. This place claims to be an authentic Thai restaurant however their Pad Thai tastes like something I would purchase at a cheap fast food restaurant in a food court. I'm pretty sure the sauce was made from mostly ketchup and molasses.. Which are ingredients you would normally find in an americanized version of Pad Thai but not an authentic version.. Real Pad Thai sauce should have Tamarind, fish sauce, siratcha, lime, palm sugar and vinegar and should be more of a dry sauce on the noodles.. ( I couldn't taste any of these ingredients) And the flavour is supposed to be hot, sweet and sour all rolled into one.. this was just sweet and saucy.. Honestly.. I have been disappointed with most Pad Thai in Ottawa so much that I started making my own. Which by the way is based on an actual Thailand recipe and ACTUALLY tastes authentic. I am still waiting to find a place in this city with real Pad Thai.. Someone please point me in the direction of a place that...

Addendum to original review: The owner provided a response to my review stating to write to them at their email address and they would "make things right." Despite me writing to that email address twice over an extended period, I received no response. As such, I called the restaurant to notify them and was called back by the manager, rather than the owner. The manager offered a discount on a future meal, but I respectfully declined as I'm not interested in returning based on the poor food quality, the lack of action taken when the issue first arose, and difficulty in getting a follow-up from the restaurant owner despite their public posting and offer to assist.

Original review: Expected great food given the 4.5 star overall rating but was very disappointed. We ordered two different types of curry dishes, one with chicken and one with beef. The chicken dish was just okay, not great, but the beef dish was a big letdown as the beef itself was very, very tough and should truly not have been served. Given it was a $24 dish with an average portion size, anyone would expect a much better quality grade of beef to be used. We mentioned the issue with the beef when asked how the food was. An apology was offered but nothing else, which left us feeling like they really didn't care what we thought of the food and our experience. There are many other Thai restaurant choices within just a few kilometers, so I don't plan on returning...

FYI: I AM SO ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THIS RESTAURANT!!!

Back story: I’ve been teleworking for 10 weeks (work politics before the office shut down mid-March). I’ve been trying to save my pennies but decided to try a new Thai restaurant before Foodora totally shut down. Unfortunately, I should have anticipated that Foodora would not be the most reliable of delivery companies.However, Maria at Sala Thai was amazing communicating with me last evening.

After I had been waiting for 60+ minutes for a Foodora pick-up confirmation, I contacted Foodora’s help line. They informed me that my order couldn’t be picked up until 11 when Sala Thai closed at 8. I called Maria back to explain the situation after Foodora refunded my order and she was so wonderful and SHE PERSONALLY DELIVERED my food to outside her normal delivery area where I paid with cash. The food was hot and steaming when it arrived (after 2 hours from initial Foodora order).

The customer service was above and beyond. Most importantly, it was a) the best Thai I’ve had in Ottawa, and b) OMFG IT’S SO GOOD even as leftovers.

I truly can’t wait until the CoVid-19 cases become more because I’m so excited to drive to this restaurantb and eat in their dining room.

You won’t be disappointed.

Edit: Om nom nom nom nom...