Maya Bay Thai — Restaurant in Toronto

For the second week in a row, the fate of my weekend family chowdown rests in the hands of the kids again! This time, my daughter is taking the lead. Since, beside her, none of us live downtown nor have we heard of this proposed ‘Thai‘ venue of hers. Our outing this evening became shrouded with a certain amount of mysticism and involved a leap of faith on our part. Keeping our fingers crossed and placing our trust in her taste and enthusiastic endorsement of the place, we braved the traffic jam of the 404, drove from way up north and met up with her downtown.There, we skittishly followed her into the unknown! The place in question is a Thai restaurant by the name of ‘Maya Bay‘ on Carlton street, Cabbagetown. Smallish and casual, the decor of this hip restaurant can be described as ‘ industrial rustic ‘.

Our party of 5 ordered the following:

Salted Duck Egg Yolk Fries Tom Yum Fried Chicken Wings Pad Thai Maya ( perfectly al-dente rice noodle, egg, tofu, bean sprouts, chives, Tamarind sauce, ground peanuts, Crispy Pork Belly ) Mii Clook ( Dried egg noodles, peanut, onion, Mussels and Shrimp ) Karee Soft Shell Crab rested on top of a pool of vegetable medley,Turmeric Curry, Egg and Onion served with rice Dessert: Mango Cheesecake with mango syrup and diced green mangoes

OMG! One bite into the first piping hot dish delivered to our table and I immediately realized we are eating in a special place. Subsequent dishes easily confirmed my initial deduction. This is no ordinary run-of-the mill Thai outfit! Every aspect of the food was skillfully conceived and prepared and the taste profile elevated to level a few notches above the norm. To call some of the above captioned, deeply complex, intense and packed full of flavor dishes as ‘out-of-this-world‘ good is somewhat an understatement. A few stand-out, mind blowing creations like the lip-smacking, hot and ultra-crispy salted egg-yolk fries ( so $^&**#@ing addictive!! ), the soaked with thick, yummy Tamarind sauce, Crispy Pork Belly Pad Thai ( the best Pad Thai rendition I have tasted here in town! ) and the Karee Soft Shell Crab on top of that pool of most delicious and appealing Turmeric Curry were all so insanely tasty, calling them ‘out-of-this SOLAR SYSTEM‘ good, IMO, is way more appropriate! Wow! What a stunning and totally unexpected experience. Their super-delectable food must rank as one of GTA’s biggest pleasant culinary surprises this...

Interesting menu but not well executed. Perhaps my expectation was too high or maybe because it was delivery (although the food was prepared quickly and delivered quickly). I feel that majority of the things I ordered were not prepared to order. Salted egg fries was soggy and not nearly enough salted egg flavour and the lime just made it even soggier and it was unnecessary. I actually had salted egg fries at a restaurant in Bangkok and that was delicious and literally COVERED in salted egg. This was not even comparable. Lime chilies softshell crab - the flavor was very good (flavour profile reminded me of Thailand - bright, intense, sour, salty, spicy). But unfortunately, softshell crab was soggy. This was likely because the salad was saucy (wetness and fried stuff don't go together). Recommendation is to separate the fried things from wet things, and allow steam to escape from hot fried things. Tom Yum fried chicken wings - not much tom yum flavour, it was mainly lime with a bit of spice. It was underwhelming. Veggie spring rolls - (it was a freebie but reviewing it anyway) these were pipping hot (which led me to believe that everything else was not made to order) but tasteless. There was barely anything inside. And since it was tasteless, I'd expect some kind of dipping sauce but there was none. The flavour of this cuisine should literally punch you in the face. This restaurant did not meet that expectation (with the exception of the salad that went with the softshell crab).

Overall, I'm giving this place a C-. I might go check out their street side snacks in the summer (I drove past it and it reminded me of Thailand), but other than that I will not order from this place again. I'd pick Silom Bistro over this place. Definitely not worth the...

Met a friend here for a late-ish lunch one Sunday. Ordered the soft shell crab fried rice which was delicious. The rice itself would be slightly bland without the addictive spicy sauce though, so don't be afraid to ask for more. Service was friendly, food came out quickly (but the restaurant was pretty empty when we were there).

Came again in a group of 4 (we made a reservation) on a weeknight and the place was packed. Ordered the medium size leng zaap (pork bone soup), tom yum noodles with crispy pork, soft shell crab fried rice, tom yum pad thai with shrimp (Iron Chef menu), and salted egg fries to share. Loved the leng zaap - pork was cooked perfectly and broth was flavourful with the right balance of sourness and heat - just watch out for the Thai chilis! Really enjoyed the tom yum pad thai as well, and appreciated how large the shrimp were. The crispy pork in the tom yum noodles were good but some less fatty pieces were quite hard/dry. Less impressed by the salted egg fries - although they were tasty and unique, I probably wouldn't get it again. We also ordered some cocktails - I enjoyed my sparkling lychee. Finished with the mango sticky rice which was decent.

Service was significantly slower this time as they only had two staff working. There was a long wait for the salted egg fries even though we flagged that we still hadn't received them. We were about to cancel it from the order when they finally arrived after we had finished all of our other mains.

Tasty food that's more interesting than your typical Thai fare in Toronto, but it's not a cheap meal. Portion sizes are hearty though so it's a good spot to treat yourself! Ordering family style is definitely the way to go.

10% discount if you...