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Is Friendly Thai the New Starbucks?

Posted by Tim / November 13, 2007

9 Comments

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While rumors persist about a Starbucks setting up shop near F'Coffee in Riverside, we can confirm that a familiar chain restaurant is close to opening its doors down the street in neighbouring Leslieville.

Located at 1218 Queen Street (416.461.8424) next to Tomi Kro, The Friendly Thai may be just the latest signal that Leslieville's time has finally arrived. Outside of, say, Spring Rolls, The Friendly Thai is arguably Toronto's most successful Asian restaurant chain. But unlike Spring Rolls, The Friendly Thai tends to surface in neighbourhoods (such as Roncesvalles or The Junction) before or about the time they start to turn.

And unlike the multinational coffee chain that everyone loves to hate, The Friendly Thai is, well, so darn friendly. Who wants to complain about affordable and tasty phad thai anyway?

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Jonathan / November 14, 2007 at 09:22 am
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All the Friendly Thai restaurants have very sketchy records per DineSafe.
The Queen Street location was ordered shut down earlier this year with the notation "Operator fail to prevent gross unsanitary conditions". That must have been pretty bad!
What bothers me most are the repeated violations for the same things. The Junction location has been cited three times in the past two years for "Operator fail to properly wash surfaces in rooms". To me, that implies thaey don't care about this problem.

Now to compare a similar operation, the Ginger chain of restaurants seems to have significantly better records. Even the Yonge and Gerard location, which looks kind of gritty on the outside, has passed every inspection.

It just goes to show it's what and who is on the inside that counts!
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Elle Driver / November 14, 2007 at 02:32 pm
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Friendly? Tasty phad thai? Are we talking about the same chain? Our office used to (inexplicably) order from the Queen West location ALL the time. The phad thai was mediocre most of the time, constantly got our orders wrong, and would unapologetically deliver the food 2 hours late. Oh, and the last time we tried to order deliverly, they abruptly told us over the phone that their deliver guy "was away that day" and hung-up. Seriously.

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Elle Driver / November 14, 2007 at 03:17 pm
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Wanted to add that I just scanned the DineSafe site Jonathan mentioned. I'm thoroughly nauseated, now:

http://app.city.toronto.on.ca/food2/index.jsp
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babs / November 14, 2007 at 06:48 pm
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I Agree with Elle. I stopped going to or ordering takeout from the Friendly Thai after I once waited 2+ hours for a delivery order from the Queen West location on a regular Sunday or Monday evening. They were NOT friendly about it. I refused to pay for it, and since their food sucks, I've never gone back and never will.

Urban Thai on College and in the Beach is good. And Springs Rolls kicks ass when it comes to getting tasty food delivered quick. Will never eat at Friendly Thai again.
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babs / November 14, 2007 at 06:50 pm
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I Agree with Elle. I stopped going to or ordering takeout from the Friendly Thai after I once waited 2+ hours for a delivery order from the Queen West location on a regular Sunday or Monday evening. They were NOT friendly about it. I refused to pay for it, and since their food sucks, I've never gone back and never will.

Urban Thai on College and in the Beach is good. Springs Rolls kicks ass when it comes to getting tasty food delivered quick. Ginger is great!! Cheap, quick and tasty.
Why put up with crap when there's better options? Will never eat at Friendly Thai again.
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Hugh / January 11, 2008 at 12:46 pm
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The food may be one issue. Service is another. Despite these reviews, I thought I'd try the new Queen Street East location. At 11:45 a.m I was seated, my order was taken and I was served a drink. I settled down contentedly with a book to wait for my mea only to be told at 11:55 that at someone else had reserved the table I was sitting at for 12:30 and would I therefore please move to another table. Just to be clear, there was ONE other customer in the restaurant at the time and, as I was dinning alone, the odds were good I'd be done by 12:30. Anyway ... maybe I was in a less than forgiving mood ... but I was not impressed. In fact, I got up and left.

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jonathan / January 23, 2008 at 10:26 am
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i dont think Queenfriendly thai is part of "The Friendly Thai " chain .may be some people copied that name because it's a popular and familiar trademark.
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Allie / January 23, 2008 at 10:30 pm
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I would just like to say that the service here is HORRIBLE! We ordered for pick-up and realized we got the wrong order once we were at home. I called and they proceeded to call me a liar and pretty much called me an idiot. They also forgot to put me on hold while they talked about me so I heard all the wonderful things they said about me. Anyways, we ended up taking the food back, arguing, eventually getting a refund and needless to say, will never be returning.
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ioana / March 16, 2008 at 04:28 pm
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Oh my gd this is awful! They were 1/2 hr late with delivery and doubled all my orders!! (and charged me for it) I had to throw away most of it because it was uneatable.
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