Pattaya

Typical Thai ....

Location: New Westminster

Food:

We started off with the long-awaited Prawn & Crab Rolls.  These were mentioned as one of the 101 Things to Taste (Before You Die) in the relatively recent issue of Vancouver Magazine.  These babies weren't your typical spring rolls filled with prawn and crab...but also cream cheese. They were a delight and unarguably, the best item of the night.  We also ordered the Som Tum (papaya salad) as a starter (good) as well as the Tom Kai Gai (hot & sour soup with chicken).  The soup was average at best.

Entrees of the night included: The Gang Ped (red curry chicken) and the Pad Cashew Nuts -which was essentially, Cashew Chicken.  In accordance with how the Tom Kai Gai tasted, they were once again, average at best.

Drinks included a Mai Tai, Pina Colada and a pitcher of Sangria. Decent.

Service:

Ok -not the greatest. Had to remind the server for our drinks and she was absent at times when needed.  Only one server was working that night.

Value:

On par with the prices you would see at other Thai restaurants. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Ambience:

Small, cozy restaurant with Thai melodies playing in the background.

Overall: 6.8/10

Yay: Go for the Prawn & Crab (and cream cheese!) Spring Rolls.

Nay: Service is slow - only one server for the whole restaurant on a Saturday night.  Average Thai fare - nothing special.


Posted by: J

Tamarind Hill Malaysian Cuisine

Location: New Westminster

Food:

First up were tender little morsels of Chicken & Lamb Satays, accompanied with a very lovely (and nutty) peanut sauce. The sauce was excellent, the satays were very good (because if the sauce is good, it just makes everything 10x better). Next up was the Green Papaya Mango Salad. It was pretty solid (almost on par with the one from Sawasdee but with mangos, therefore, you get more of a zing!) The third appy was the Malaysian Calamari. Now at first when i tried it without that Malaysian calamari sauce, i thought it was nothing special, then I later dipped a piece into it (the sauce) and oh my god, was it ever phenomenal! So phenomenal that it was hands down, my favourite dish of the night! (That's how much of an impact great sauce can make!) Our last appy was an order of Roti Canai which was very good too. It was very filling and the doughy texture tasted really good in my mouth. J also loved the Roti very much.

We decided to order one entree to share, as well, (as there were just too many appies we refused to not order, lol) so we ended up picking the Malaysian Style Chicken Curry. It had a Malaysian-style taste to it (not as much coconut milk compared to how the Thai make it) but with a little more spice. It was a solid dish esp. with crunchy beans and potatoes! Although it wasn't that spicey, it was very flavourful.

Drinks included the Dead Frog Beer, which was brewed in Langley. It was very smooth, good & cheap! We had each also ordered the Malaysian Tropical Paradise, a drink which barely had any alcohol in it, well... at least I couldn't taste it :)

*I also wanted Jumbo Scallops in Curry Sauce but they were sold out :(

Service:
Excellent - fast and nice

Value:
$8 - $15 range per dish, ended up paying ~$60 for the above

Ambience:
Crowded, very "happening", dim lights, very nice atmosphere, with Malaysian music playing in the background. Make sure you call ahead to make reservations as the space between tables are quite cramped (my biggest pet peeve) where you're practically touching people you don't know and you can hear their conversations so clearly (you don't want that). We know this is because they originally thought we did not make reservations (and almost gave us those crowded seats)but luckily they found our reservation and placed us in the more spacious corner seats.

Overall: 8/10

The crowdedness/non-spacious environment & not having jumbo scallops lowers the rating for me a bit, but still gets a solid 8/10



Posted by: Scoe