Mengrai Gourmet Thai Review

Tonight we went to Mengrai for dinner which started at 19:30 and ended at 22:00, 2.5hrs duration.  The meal total was ~$100 for two, including tip and taxes.  It’s a Thai food restaurant located at 82 Ontario street, about a 10min walk east from the Queens subway stop.  The walk there, on Queen street wasn’t bad, though many of the shops were closed, paper covered windows seemed to the the trend now a days.  The staff did tell me of available parking at an auto shop besides the restaurant, but that was full.  Unknown to us, there was a large party happening at Mengrai.

Many of the reviews on line were posted circa 2005.  We figured it should be well established.  There were several doors available to us, so we picked the closest one.  There was a thin curtain between the inside and the outside, so a draft blew into the dining area as we walked in.  Not sure how they deal with this problem in the winter time.  The decor was old stone, apparently an old brewery existed in that local prior to its transformation into a restaurant, with lots of buddha images along the wall.  They also had a large gold Buddha in the middle of the dining floor that seemed to dominate the area.

The menu were a couple of pages long, with a little bio on Sasi, the chef, and two pages, one presenting more regular Thai fare, and the other ‘royal’ cuisine.  Two inserts, representing a $35 and $55 fixe prix dinners were also part of the ordering system.  Several dishes had a transcendent sauce covering it, not sure if that was translation problem, but it seemed oddly out of place.  I ordered the $55 fixe prix, non-vegetarian, dinner and M ordered the an appetizer platter and Andaman King Prawn entree.

The thai iced tea was tasty and sweet, reminded us of the black grass jelly so familiar to our childhoods.  Plus it didn’t hurt that we had a grass jelly drink just the other day.

We were seated by the window, which didn’t have much of a view, but the worse part was that an outside light was glaring directly at me.  It was highly uncomfortable so I rearranged their curtains and blocked the offending light.  The accoustics were also bad at our table, and I kept hearing voices coming from the wall, it was rather creepy.

We probably should have taken notice when a waiter comes by and says, ‘The kitchen is trying their best, please be patient.  Did you want chopsticks?”  We replied okay and yes, but they never came. Perhaps he was too busy schmoozing with the regulars.  Thanks for the warning, after we’ve ordered.  In any case, the appetizers were nice, a cubed seared salmon was very tasty with just the right hint of spiciness.  The 18 herbed beef salad was coarsely  chopped and certainly looked rushed, as pieces of cucumber weren’t even cut through.  The coconut soup was rich and creamy, with 2 pieces of shrimp and lots of mushrooms, perhaps too much.  An avocado king prawn was served.  It stood tall on a pedestal of cucumber, positioned with a bamboo skewer, with cherry tomatoes garnishing the sides.  But unfortunately you couldn’t see any of the colours since it was all covered in a green thick sauce.  It looked almost mouldy from my angle, and I hesitated cutting into it.  The flavour was very tasty, but within 2 minutes the prawn was no more.  I even stretched out the dish by cutting the prawn, cucumber, and cherry tomato halves into tinier pieces

So we sat around and wondered if they were sorely understaffed in the kitchen or they mismanaged their capacity planning.  They obviously cater to large groups, and takeout was still going out the front door, but our dishes still had an ~20min wait in between. they were still accepting walk in customers, and seating people.  More customers were arriving at 20:30-21:00.  Perhaps capacity was opening up in the kitchen.

It did move a little bit faster at the end, perhaps with the push of a waitress, but by that time the damage was already done.  We noticed other tables that were filled before we arrived were still there.  My #54 curry chicken arrived as did the Andaman Bay prawns on sticky rice.  The sticky rice was chewy like a large wad of hardened chewing gum, perhaps too long under the heat lamps/broiler.  My curry chicken was boring in comparison with the other dishes.  The desert was a pumpkin pudding, nicely garnished with blueberries and strawberries, but that couldn’t negate the long wait.  An apology was all we got for waiting.

We walked back on Richmond St. and noticed all the new construction going up, perhaps a much needed revitalization.  As for Mengrai, I still think other restaurants, such as Linda’s is more accessible, and tastier.  However, the food is better and decor worse than Bangkok Garden, from another relative perspective.  So if you want to dine at Mengrai, make sure to ask if there’s a big party occurring at the same time.  And oh, ask NOT to sit by the window.