Salad King Thai Restaurant Review

Last night, we dined at Salad King, currently celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary in Toronto at its 340 Yonge Street location.

We started with Beef Satay, grilled beef on a skewer with peanut dipping sauce, which was perfectly cooked, with just enough chew to require a knife and fork. Usually, chicken and beef skewers are painfully overcooked, so this was a pleasant surprise. Followed by the soup, Tom Yum Goon, which had shrimp, mushrooms and coriander in a chicken and shrimp based spicy broth with veggies and lime juice. A nice combination of hot and sour. With four generous plump shrimps, it was quite satisfying.

Tom Yum Goon

Beef Satay

Chop Suey with bean sprouts, onions, carrots, bell peppers, baby corn, mushrooms, broccoli celery and lettuce in a light soy sauce was good, and slightly watery to mix with rice. The Evil Jungle Prince was a spicy corollary to the Chop Suey with eggplant, peas, baby corn, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers, onions, and lemon grass in a chili sauce.

Mains consisted of the Seafood Combination with shrimp, squid, lettuce, broccoli, and carrots in a coconut milk chili sauce. It was quite tasty with a nice hit of spice. Not to be outdone, the Lime Leaf Beef featured sliced beef, lime leaves, snap peas, bell peppers and carrots in a spicy chili sauce. While both of these dishes were delicious and a little spicy, nothing could have prepared us for the full frontal capsicum assault of the 20 Chili Thai Islamic Noodles with Shrimp, off the Secret Menu. Must-try.

Thai Islamic Noodles

clockwise: Chop Suey, Seafood Combination, Lime Leaf Beef, Evil Jungle Prince

Our server advised us to save this dish until the end of the meal lest our taste buds be seared beyond recognition. And he was right.
We barely finished half the portion before waving the white flag in the form of ordering both desserts, Marble Slab Ice Cream (Coconut and Strawberry Banana) and Mango Sticky Rice. Both of these dishes are nice cappers to a spicy Thai meal, but after attempting to scale the 20 Chili mountain, combining these two desserts was our only recourse to balm our battered mouths. All in all, it was an excellent meal washed down by Singha beer from Thailand and red and white wine.

Marble Slab Ice Cream

Mango Sticky Rice

The landmark restaurant is celebrating 25 years of excellence serving authentic Thai food in Toronto. Since 1991, the restaurant has almost tripled in capacity, serving on average 1200 customers a day.

In 2012 the Thai government recognized Salad King with its prestigious Thai Select award for their authentic Thai cuisine. They are expected to receive the award again in September 2016.

Salad King Trivia:

Chicken Phud Thai in 1991 $6.60
Chicken Phud Thai in 2016 $9.75

Average dish price: $10.30

Average number of chilis added by customers to spice up dishes: 1.65
(We beat that by 18.35)

Most popular dish: Phud Thai
(over 3 400 sold in June 2016)

Peak number customers served in a day: 1900
Peak number customers served in 1 hour: 250

This restaurant uses over 1500 litres of coconut milk each month.

In addition, the restaurant will be running 25 Days of Giveaways, an online and in-store daily contest that customers can enter for a chance to win one of 25 incredible meal prizes for a year, that’s 52 meals over 52 weeks (valued at about $750). Additionally, on September 22 at Salad King‘s 25th anniversary party, one lucky contestant will also be given the grand prize: Salad King for Life, that’s one meal a week for life. Though priceless, this grand prize can be valued at $18, 750 if Salad King continues to serve us authentic Thai food for another 25 years.