Siam Thai Kitchen
Overview
This little tasty nugget is in the heart of the west end Edmonton business area @ 15883 116 Ave Edmonton. I went for lunch with my colleague Randy Peterson the other day, we arrived at 1 pm the lunch crowd was just finishing up, we grabbed a table and our waitress brought us our menus. Edmonton during the mid-2000s had some great mom-and-pop restaurants that have slowly died away. One of them was called Thai Orchid, it was the best in Edmonton and always one of my favorite places to eat. Once Thai Orchid shut down, I found another hidden gem close to our work called Thai Basil, this place was almost as good as Thai Orchid, unfortunately, it closed during COVID-19. I have been to Siam Thai Kitchen a couple of times before and it was always good, Randy doesn’t get to eat Thai food that much so we were both happy to go out for lunch last week.
Review
This place has some great lunch specials, my go-to is always basil beef, the Firey Thai Basil and hot peppers give this dish full body flavor. We complimented it off with Cashew Chicken, Ginger Chicken (as they were out of pork), and Pad Thai all on the lunch special menu. We ordered a couple of Thai iced coffees; they came immediately. We decided to split the dishes, and any leftovers would go home with Randy.
First up was the Basil Beef, they do it a little differently here, they use ground beef which is traditional in some parts of Thailand. Lots of Beef, Onions, Peppers, Bamboo Shoots, and the right mixture of Thia Holy Basil and Hot Peppers gave this dish some bite but wasn’t too spicy. This dish came with 2 Pork Spring Rolls and Jasmine Rice. This dish is done right, the same way I remember in Thailand when I was there in 2011. They also added fresh pea pods sliced very thin, the crunch of the vegetables and savory sauce made this dish a solid 9/10.
Next up was the Cashew Chicken, large chunks of both chicken breast and thighs, fresh vegetables glazed with a nice tamarind sauce, and lots of cashews throughout the dish. This dish was a solid 7.5 out of 10. This dish was also served with spring rolls and jasmine rice.
The Ginger Chicken was the next dish to hit the table, the flavor was good, but I thought more ginger and garlic should have been added to the dish. I think next time I would order a curry instead of this dish or have more people join the group. This dish was a good 7 out of 10, I find when this dish is cooked with pork it has way more and better flavor.
Every Thai Restaurant needs good Pad Thai, this national dish of Thailand needs to be done right, Siam Thai Kitchen does a very good Pad Thai. Shrimp, Chicken, Tofu, Spring Onions, all stir-fried with thick Thai Style Rice Noodles and tossed in a tamarind paste sauce. The noodles were not overcooked, they were perfect, with lots of beansprouts, and peanuts, this dish was the second-best dish of the day. It scored 8.2 out of 10
The Pork Spring Rolls were very good not greasy, lots of pork and were cooked properly. Spring Rolls gets 7.5 out of 10.
Final thoughts
This is a hidden gem that seems to always have the lunch crowd. Siam Kitchen gets 8 bites out of 10. If you like Thai Food, please give this mom-and-pop place a try.
If anyone in the Edmonton Area has tried this place, please let me know what you thought about it.
