Thai Lemongrass Restaurant — Restaurant in Saanich

We came on a Thursday at around 4:00 pm. I had read multiple reviews where they said the service was slow etc. So I had prepared myself in advance for this and to my surprise it was not slow at all. But that's probably because the restaurant was empty at 4 and there was no one here but us. The food came out really fast and the servers were really attentive. They gave out new plates for appetizers, mains and desserts. They weren't over bearing but when asking for the bill and to order it might be a bit difficult depending on where you are sitting in the restaurant but that's just my take. On to the food!

Por pia -$10 - 4 spring rolls with a sweet and sour sauce. Very crispy. Lots of cabbage inside. Not overly salty

Prawn Pad Thai - $15.50 - big portion. I liked the proportion of fresh bean sprouts and peanuts to noodles. There were around 7-8 big shrimps which was very generous for the price. The noodles were nicely cooked. A lot of places that have pad Thai always overcook their noodles and they break easily but here they are still intact long noodles. They are bouncy and have a good chew to then. Not overly sweet or salty. Nicely seasoned and not too oily.

Vegetable green curry - $14.95 - lots of veggies - green peppers, bamboo shoots, carrots etc. The curry itself was really flavourful. Hint of lemongrass. Went so well with just plain rice. I could eat lots of rice with this dish (maybe 3 bowls haha)

Drunken chicken noodles - $14.50 - big portion. Very strong basil flavour overall which I really liked. The noodles were again nicely cooked. Good amount of chicken. Would definitely order it again.

Deep fried banana with ice cream - $5.50 - not too sweet. The batter was nice and thin and crispy. Good way to end the night.

Overall I would recommend this place for Thai food. The interior feels very homey and the service is pretty good. The portions are good enough to feed a couple people and the flavours are pretty good. The prices are also reasonable for the amount of food you get.

TIP: order their...

The only reason I'm giving this place two stars is that the food was so satisfying once it finally reached our table. The good: we had Pad Thai which tasted fresh and well balanced, the yellow and red curries were flavorful and rich, and the squid was crisp and nicely presented if a little bland. The bad and the comic relief: The four of us were seated at a booth designed for two. If anyone in our party had been even slightly wider, the results could have been embarrassing. The wine list is terrible and the markup is exorbitant. The house wine (at 35 dollars a bottle which retails for under 10 in liquor stores) was so undrinkable that we ordered soda water and oranges to transform it into sangria. Our waiter was so overloaded with customers that he was drenched in sweat. We watched other staff members practically bumping into each other in a confused frenzy to try and respond to customers' requests while others seemed frozen in confusion. We literally had 4 different staff members serve us something and our meal took approximately an hour and a half to get to our table. At one point we were served by an older gentleman who seemed so out of place that I briefly thought he may have been another customer trying to help out. When a room divider fell onto a customer we practically expected John Cleese to come bursting out of the kitchen doors. At no time did someone come and ask how our meal was. I'm hoping this was just an off and overbooked night for this establishment. To end on a positive note though, the food was so good that I will be going there again.... to order from the take out...

This restaurant was pretty busy that normally gives an indication of a reputable place. I do not really rely on this, but I will mention it as people are generally accustomed to such habits. I had a small-size coconut shrimp and mushrooms soup (#15). My husband had a meal with noodles, eggs, shrimps, radish, and soy beens (#33). He was fine with his meal and the size was decent, though, the meal was simple and somewhat oilier than it should have been. My soup came in a very small size (for $9.95 I could have had a better quality udon soup at any Japanese restaurant). The mushrooms looked slightly dirty in the soup and were completely raw, probably just thrown inside and served right away without cooking. The restaurant was busy and we waited for a while and that might have been the reason for a hasty preparation of the soup. The worst part was the broth which had either too much of one of the ingredients or something was spoilt in there. I only ate a bit of it and left more than half of it as the taste was horrible. I have had cocnut-based soups before and did not feel the same as I did with this one. No one asked me if something was wrong. Soon after we left, I started having really bad stomach symptoms and within an hour had horrible diarrhea in a toilet. My stomach still does not feel well. Just a warning to those that like soups to watch out in this place that uses coconut as the base, and...