Pii Nong Thai — Restaurant in Toronto

I first dined at Pii Nong in summer 2024 and recently returned in September 2025, hoping to find that the issues from my first visit had been addressed. Unfortunately, my second experience showed that while there were a few high points, several core dishes and the overall dining environment still require significant attention.

The Food: A Mixed Bag Over Two Visits Across two visits, our orders ranged from appetizers to classic Thai main courses. The consistency and quality varied significantly.

Initial Visit (2024) Highlights & Lowlights: • Thai Curry Puffs (7/10): The flavour profile was acceptable, but the overall execution was lacking. The filling was noticeably dry, and the puffs would greatly benefit from a more moist and juicy interior.

• Basil Chicken (5/10): This dish was the most disappointing. While the sauce itself seemed well-prepared, the chicken slices were chewy and dry. It tasted as if the chicken was cooked separately and then simply tossed with the basil sauce, preventing it from absorbing the aromatic flavours.

• Pad Thai with Chicken (7/10): A common observation on this staple was the need for a stronger, more authentic base. My friend felt it lacked sufficient tamarind sauce and would have been much better with a more generous addition of sprouts for texture.

Second Visit (2025) Highlights & Lowlights:

• Spring Rolls (6/10): The size of the rolls was appropriate, but the flavour was completely generic and uninspired. They lacked the vibrant, fresh taste one expects from a good Thai appetizer.

• Green Curry Chicken (8/10): This was the clear winner. The flavours were well-balanced, and the chicken was tender, indicating a proper cooking process where the meat absorbed the curry's essence.

• Pad Thai (6/10): Disappointingly, this dish showed little to no improvement after a year. The noodles were too oily, and while the tamarind was present, the dish lacked the necessary "umph" or intensity that defines a great Pad Thai.

Service and Atmosphere: Major Concerns While the staff provided generally good service, it could certainly be more attentive.

The most significant negative impact on the dining experience was the atmosphere. Throughout our meal, we were plagued by an excessive number of drain flies in the dining area. We had to constantly wave them away, which was a major distraction and took away entirely from any enjoyment of the meal. This is a serious hygiene and maintenance issue that needs immediate resolution.

Pii Nong shows potential, particularly with dishes like its Green Curry, but struggles with consistency and execution of classics like Pad Thai and Basil Chicken. For a restaurant to thrive, its signature dishes must be excellent. More concerning is the maintenance issue that detracts significantly from the dining experience.

I genuinely hope the ownership takes this constructive criticism to heart. With improvements to the foundational recipes and an urgent cleanup of the fly issue, Pii Nong could be a much more recommendable...

Never coming back

Went for food with 2 friends last night. We sat on the patio outside. We ordered food and explicitly asked to have our food brought all at the same time. Nevertheless our server brought one person's food 10 minutes before the other two. He was practically finished by the time we got our meals.

My meal (the beef with broccoli) was so bland and bad that I wanted to send it back. Here's where the problems start. After bringing our food our server never came back. We were sitting on the patio for an hour and a half. Eventually we gave up and started to stand up and get ready to leave at which point a different server came out to give us our bills.

I complained to her about my meal being inedible and how the other server completely abandoned us. She was very apologetic and legitimately wanted to help. I asked her to take my meal off the bill which is customary. She went inside to ask the manager and then came out and said no. I was very upset at this point. She offered me a free beer which at this point I was tired so I accepted. She went back in to get the beer then came back out. No beer. Manager said no again. She said the manager offered me a 2% discount on my meal.

This is when I got extremely upset. My meal was $30 a 2% discount is only 60 cents. I felt completely insulted. I told her forget and paid my bill and told her to tell the manager I was never coming back.

The behaviour of the manager is what completely sealed the deal. I have never dealt with someone so rude and unprofessional. He or she never came out to speak with me or apologize and instead made the nice waitress take the brunt of the incident.

A bad meal is not that big of a deal. It happens sometimes in food service. If the incident had been resolved properly I would have come back again. But the way I was treated by the manager was absolutely unacceptable. I have never been so insulted anywhere as a customer.

I do not recommend anyone eat here under any...

Loved the food here! The dishes here are sooo flavourful. We came on two separate occasions and ordered a lot of food. Most of the items we ordered were big hits, although there were a few misses. I usually judge Thai restaurants by their pad thai, but even though the pad thai here was not the best I’ve had, there were plenty of other dishes that really blew me away. Also note this place is pricier than other Thai places in Toronto. Lamb rack - a hit. Loved the different dips it came with and it also comes with some salad and squash grabong(kinda like sweet potato fries but much thinner and crispier). Soft shell crab - a hit. Crispy and came with a delicious curry dip, as well as some crispy roti. Tom yum soup/Tom yum seafood hot pot - a hit. Their tom yum soup is the creamy kind, it’s got the kick and the creamy texture, soooo good. Panang chicken - a miss for me. The taste and texture was underwhelming and portion was quite small. Just tasted like fried chicken chunks. Curry pad thai - also a miss for me, but probably because I’m very picky about pad thai. Bangkok pad thai - this was decent but still my favourite pad thai has got to be the pad thai from Pai. Thai chicken wings - a hit. Crispy and comes with a refreshing dip. Nam tok - a miss. The mint taste was too overbearing for me. Green coconut curry - decent. It’s on the sweet side but still tasty. Khao soi - a hit. The beef was super tender and the soup was flavourful. Mango sticky rice - a hit. With different flavors of sticky rice. Very unique twist to the classic mango sticky rice. Durian sticky rice - piece of durian was smaller than expected but was...