Sweet Basil, Anna's and Nokham's

Ottawa Thai Restaurants

I was asked recently what I thought of the Ottawa Thai restaurants scene and which was the best and the one I would go to…

I will put a little more meat around this piece, but initially the baseline will be:

Sweet Basil and Anna. Run by the same guy… forget his name… a multi syllable monstrosity like Visakhapatnam… (which is an Indian sea port by the way…) original owners of Siam Bistro and Siam Kitchen…. (I wouldn’t eat at these nowadays… as they are run by non-thai cooks…..maybe even chinese….) Tastes at Anna and SB, and I have never been to Thailand… for Ottawa and Canadian standards, probably the best, but way expensive than necessary. ‘It is food fit for a Thai king’. Think he had some royal connections or aspirations….. and also some involvement on the monopoly/restrictions of food and recipe exports from Thailand….. (think Anne DesB did a piece on them/this about 15 years ago…..)

Nokham’s and it now has a sister restaurant run by his daughter. ‘Noble Thai’ or snobby Thai… trying hard to be king, pretty traditional based on Anna and SB.… but way expensive again.

On the cheap side now… Bangkok Thai on Dalhousie. Peasant foods run by peasant Thais... very good value for just about pretty close to the taste of Anna and SB. I take all my friends there if I am buying.

And chinese thai... Royal Thai, also on Dal… owned by the same chinese guy as Palais Imperial and Mandarin Ogilvy. Another one of those chinese guys seeing the margins in Thai food….. Not too expensive, but I have heard the food is not very good… I have been and think it’s ok for what it is… chinese thai… not the Anna/SB standards. Cheap thai is better.

And the Anna and SB standards are unfortunately the only ones I know. I have had thai food in Toronto which was pitiful compared to Anna’s as well as on the east coast. Of course these are walk in’s with no prior knowledge or info… the worst way to visit a restaurant, but I thought I would be safe in Toronto! Wrong...

And of course this does not include those near Thais or Thai bistros that have relatively good food… like 4 cuisines, hot peppers etc… Like everyone has a pad thai, which is chow mien, essentially. I think the Loblaw’s one is pretty good….

The only others that I would say aren’t great are the green papaya’s, coriander’s, etc that I have tried, but not as memorable as you guessed it… Anna’s and SB. And prices are close to Nokham and Anna…so….

Reports from friends who have visited Thailand are that the place is as bad as they make it sound… cheap sex… and odd sex and child sex….; and it is really cheap for meals…. And street food is actually quite tasty… but… Guess you have to be a king to get food in Thailand….

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