I don't usually re-review restaurants every two years but I find that I have done so with Lao Thai. There's a good reason, though, and it isn't just because I like it. My first review was four years ago, when it was little more than a spartan, wee hole-in-the-wall on Selkirk Avenue, mainly a takeout place with a mere 12 seats for in-house eating. The Laotian/Thai specialities were delicious, but too few at the time for a full column or a star rating. Two years later, the number of seats had been expanded to 20, albeit in the same cramped space, and the number of choices had increased also, with a performance that rated four and a half stars. And now its move to the other end of the city means yet another review.
It was a favourite with many of my colleagues at the Free Press, and not just because it was a five-minute drive from the paper. However, those who wend their way to Lao Thai's new quarters on St. Anne's Road will find it worth the drive, with a trade-off of more than double the original number of seats, in more spacious quarters at that. It's still a fairly simple place, but much cosier than the original, with two slightly raised, more intimate areas, a scarlet and gilt shrine in the rear and a few prints on the walls reflecting the background of the family that owns the place -- part Laotian, part Thai.
More to the point, the food is still four-and-a-half-stars delicious.
Also more to the point, prices have risen only minimally over the years, and with most dishes -- appetizers, meal-sized soups and main courses -- ranging from $5.50 to $10, it's hard to rack up much of a bill.
Given the generally excellent performance, I have to assume the missing dried shrimp in our papaya salad was an oversight. Neither did this normally searing salad pack much of a wallop -- because (my Asian maven tells me) the shreds of papaya hadn't been pounded to bring out the flavour of the chilis and other seasonings. But every other dish that was supposed to pack heat did pack enough to satisfy most fire-eaters. The lap gai, for instance, a zesty salad of chopped beef (which I prefer to the chicken gai) -- mixed with ground rice, bean sprouts, onions and cilantro and moistened with lime juice -- was nicely nippy with chilies.
The knockout thome yam soup, which is aromatic with tamarind, lemongrass and lime juice, is also invariably very spicy. It was the hottest of all the dishes I tried here, so ablaze with chilies I had to alternate each spoonful with a mouthful of rice, but so good I had to finish every drop. We had ours with shrimp, but chicken or beef are other options.
Alternate soups, for meeker palates, include the gingery, garlic-spiked souk gai, based on a rich chicken broth and thick with freshly cooked pieces of chicken, or the Thai take on plumply packed chicken wontons in a broth with a deeper flavour than the usual Chinese wonton broth. There are also frequent daily specials, one of them being a delicate chicken soup fleshed out with minced chicken and tiny quail eggs.
There are some fine appetizers as well, among them, skewers of tender, tasty Laotian chicken that are seasoned with lemongrass, and bite back with more than the usual amount of chili, and the Seen-Han jerk-style pork, also aromatic with lemongrass, and very, very chewy. Both come with a fruity, lightly chili-spiked dip. Another favourite, the shrimp thai fry, is listed under appetizers, but the 10 crisply fried shrimp -- not huge but juicy and flavourful, and partnered with rice and sliced cucumbers -- could easily be considered as an entree.
The curries come as hot as you want them, but know that when they say hot here, they mean hot. I was told that the green Gang Keo is the hottest, so I opted instead for the red Pat Heit of chicken with straw mushrooms, green beans, red peppers and broccoli in a seductive sauce smoothed by coconut milk -- more my speed, and still tongue-tingling but not nearly as fierce, apparently, as the green.
Chicken with fried rice sounds like the most banal of westernized Chinese takeout, but it isn't. What you get are chunks of boneless fried chicken, crunchy on the surface, moist and flavourful within, on a bed of vegetable-studded fried rice with loads of flavour.
Pad Thai is a universally popular dish -- I have yet to find the perfect one (maybe there isn't a perfect one), but I do like Lao Thai's version more than most, made with skinny rice vermicelli (which seemed to gum up less than the more usual flat noodles) mixed with slices of chicken, bean sprouts, onions and cilantro leaves, and topped by crushed peanuts.
It's always worth asking if there is a special on the day of your visit. One day it was a gorgeous peanut-topped noodle salad in a light, slightly sweet dressing. Another day, there were simply deep-fried but absolutely wonderful chicken wings. And yet another day there were pork ribs, which, to my regret, I missed.
Service is as warm and friendly as ever.
marion.warhaft@freepress.mb.ca
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