Baan Thai's second Victoria location opened in an Oak Bay strip mall several years ago. Like its downtown counterpart, it enjoys a well-deserved reputation for consistently good food.
If your exposure to Thai food has been limited to spring rolls and red, yellow or green curries, Baan Thai is a good place to break that habit.
Start with Thailand's second most famous dish after pad thai, tom yum goong. This soup is well made here, with large prawns (or chicken if you prefer tom yum krai), mushrooms and bold citrus flavours, courtesy of the lime leaves and lemongrass used to enhance the chicken broth base. Add an order of chicken satay, served with icy cucumber salad and house-made peanut sauce for a light bite for two or a substantial solo meal.
For something special try an order of gra tong taung. These little petal-shaped cups of crisp batter are filled with gently spiced chicken, fresh herbs and sweet caramelized onions and served with plum sauce. Though the portion of eight makes it easy to share, at a mere $7 I say order your own. After the first one, you will wish you had.
These appetizers aside, it must be said that the spring rolls at Baan Thai are better than those at most Thai restaurants in town. Packed with vegetables and delicate woon sen or glass noodles made from mung beans instead of rice or flour, they are invariably hot, crisp and fresh on the palate. On a recent visit with my cousin Dermot, we began with these and our shared order lasted the usual two minutes once they hit the table.
We also enjoyed gai pad khing, fragrant chicken sautéed with black mushrooms, ginger, celery, onion and technicolour peppers, and pra ram long song, sliced beef with fresh vegetables topped with peanut sauce and chili paste oil. We also had the house pad thai, with white prawns, salted radish, firm tofu, green onions, bean sprouts and fried egg, garnished with ground roasted peanuts.
It was a good meal and though we ordered carefully, everything was slightly too hot for my cousin, a good reminder that you can order dishes mild and customize your heat level with an assortment of condiments known as the spice wheel.
Other favourite dishes here include gai yang, slowly roasted chicken bathed in herbs and spices, and moo gratiem or crispy pork seasoned with garlic and black pepper. If you're not in the mood for noodles, kow pad supparod gai, jasmine-scented rice flash fried with chicken, egg, mixed vegetables, pineapple and a hint of curry powder and Golden Mountain sauce (a popular soy based Thai condiment), will serve you well and indeed makes a fine meal for one on its own.
Baan Thai has plenty to offer vegetarians, and lunch is available here on weekdays, with a selection of à la carte items and good combination meals for under $10.
So why only three stars? Though the food is consistently good, the service varies from good to utterly offensive. Takeout food never seems to be ready on time -- if you have eaten here, the perpetual line of frustrated faces crowding the reception area is a common sight.
Though the name means "Thai house," it's only like being at home if someone in your house is a very competent cook but other people like to slam things on tables and are prone to bite your head off if you ask them a question.
The manager can be abrupt, but once you realize that she is just not chatty when she is busy, it's not so bad. The problem is, this assumes that you go back to find out. I have seen the looks on people's faces when they are seated with the words "you sit here." The tables are so close that whether you like it or not, you can hear the conversation at neighbouring tables so I know the service can be an issue for customers. When Dermot and I visited, our waitress without a doubt was the rudest person I have ever met in that job.
This section of town isn't overwhelmed with restaurants, and this is one I will continue to visit, but only outside of peak hours when they can handle their own success.
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RATINGS
Rating 1 Below bad
Rating 2 Below average
Rating 3 Average
Rating 4 Above average
Rating 5 Excellent
