Is Salad King Overrated?

Every tiem I go, I order the Penang curry. For $8, it's delicious bang-for-your-buck value. It's not fine dining, but it's satisfying.

I always order the Bangkok stir fry, chili level 5.

Weak article. Salad King is amazing for it's price and my favorite place for thai in the city. But I'm sure if it was located on Queen West in a little narrow space with an extra $10 on every dish you would have said it was amazing. I smell a hater.

Like I said Lachlan, I've been there many times before and have always been a fan. I just don't think it is was it used to be and has gone down hill.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, Tim. I went to Salad King a couple weeks back while waiting for a film to be processed. I ordered spring rolls and the golden curry tofu.

I often wonder why some restaurants list appetizer/starter items only to bring everything to you at once. Salad King did this. The spring rolls were barely warm, leading me to believe that the two trips to the kitchen were combined for the staff's convenience.

The golden curry was overly sweet and not even my 5 chilies could mask that. The vegetable content was weak, with extra onions (I love onions, however) to make up for other vegetables of substance or colour. Amazingly, I even found a piece of chicken in my broth. Though I'm not a militant vegetarian, I think Salad King should be concerned that it happened.

To top things off, the sticky rice was, well, not the least bit sticky.

When they renovated, I feared things would go downhill. They had so much to lose other than their great food... the short chat with Linda at the cash, the camaraderie in deciphering the numbers called over the PA, in finding yourself a place to sit, in chasing extra glasses of water, in doggie bagging for yourself the leftovers from the Ponderosa-sized servings that would feed you into tomorrow...

Honestly, I miss the pink.

And to Jerrold... it may no longer be fine dining, but when I was a Ryerson student, I always felt well fed if I managed to eat to "The King" once a week.

I think Lachlan is the hater. Queen West? Narrow little space? What?

finally! I discovered this little dirty secret a while ago too, but have been too afraid to come out with it. good on you.

Salad King is overrated.

now don't get me wrong, it's good and cheap. on some days it's even really good. but people make it out to be mecca. it's not. there are very good, (read: much better) thai restaurants around town.

just sayin'

My Ryerson classmates and I have often popped in on a lunch break from a full-day class, eaten lunch and been out in under an hour -- even if it was packed.

A few weeks ago, it was a different story. It only took about five minutes for the three of us to be seated (upstairs, where we had never been before). That was the best part of our experience, though. It took almost 15 minutes for the waiter to show up and just take our drink orders. Then about another 10 for those drinks to appear and for him to take our food orders.

That was already half an hour eaten up. We waited another 20 minutes for the food and realised that we had to be back to class. We asked how long our food would be and if it was ready maybe we could get it to go. They said it would be at least another 10 or 15 minutes! We said we had to leave and paid for our drinks.

The waiter called the manager out and he yelled at us, saying how we can't just come into a restaurant and order food and then leave 20 minutes later. We explained how long we had waited to even place our orders and he yelled at us even more, so we just shrugged and walked out.

I think it'll be a long time before I go back there again. Sure it's cheap, but the service is terrible and clearly they don't want customers that bad if they're willing to yell at the ones who get fed up with terrible service.

I've found that the service at Salad King has gone waaaay downhill. I've been a loyal fan, especially of their seafood rice and thai isalmic noodles (which is not on the menu) but the surly, couldn't-care-less-if-you-never-came-back-here service we got the last few times we were there has definitely soured my love for this place.

About a five minute walk away: Golden Thai, Richmond and Church. Less expensive, pretty digs, incredible food, great service.

I used to love the Salad King (especially back when it WAS a whole dirty little hole in the wall), so I'm sad to hear it was no disappointing.

I haven't been in maybe a year or so, but last time I was there I got the yellow curry and it was the same as always (smaller since the renovation though).

This won't keep me away, but I'll be paying more attention next time I go.

Unfortunately, I feel as though Salad King is comparable to a good indie band. When you discover first discover it, you feel like you discovered something amazing (and back when it was a little sh*t hole with yummy food I felt like I discovered something amazing). But then it gets renovated (or like an indie band, put on the OC) and then EVERYONE knows about it, it starts making money, changes their look and they start it ignore their fans..er customers.

In the end, Salad King is about getting people in and out and making money... if you want a first class meal with first class service, you have to shell out the cash. You don't go to McDonalds expecting a gourmet meal... you pay a couple more dollars for a meal at Salad King than a McChicken Combo.

Whoops typo. *When you first discover it

salad king is overrated, the service is incompetent and downright rude on many occasions with the attitude to boot. This city can do so much better. Please set a higher standard for yourself Toronto. This sense of entitlement should not be tolerated!

Ah, the attitude at Salad King is still nothing compared to the attitude at Fresh!

Sad to say that it has gone downhill. I used to put this place on a pedestal. But yes after the reno it was slowly deteriorating. My visits became far from frequent and sorry to say I'd rather go down the street to Spring Rolls. A restaurant looses its touch when the food isn't consistent. Nothing is more disappointing than hyping a friend up to the place to have the place serve you shit on a plate. I remember back before the reno the dishes were amazing everytime you went. I hope someone at Salad King reads this article and starts cracking the whip. Bring back the good food!!!!!

PROPS to you for coming out and saying this to all the legion of loyal blind Salad King Fans. SPRING ROLLS is wayyyyy better for Thai/Pan Asian Cuisine. My fav though has got to be the one on Major Mackenzie and Bayview in Richmond Hill - Restoran Malaysia. TONS of food super cheap.. and it tastes amazing.

Last winter I took a friend from out of town there, telling him how great the food is. Well, the food sucked and I ate my words (couldn't resist that pun - sorry).

The mention of Spring Rolls makes me shudder. It's the McDonald's of Thai food.

My favourite Thai restaurant is Just Thai on Church St. just south of Wellesley.

Yeah Spring Rolls is the Mc'ds of Thai Food and there are definitely alot more Thai restaurants to choose from. But back to the topic of Salad King, it has pretty much pushed me away towards places like Spring Rolls and Green Mango. Which is sad because Salad King was the KING of it all. I hated on Spring Rolls for the longest time, but when SK flopped I was forced to try different places.

I say we start a petition to bring back the Real Salad King!!

I was seriously underwhelmed by my first and last visit today. I had the Ton Yum soup as well; flavorful but generally unsatisfying. The Pad Thai dish featured reheated (or at least chewy) shrimp. The dish itself was rather dry and uneventful. So for this meal of meh with the tip for the waiter who probably didn't string two words together in one sentence came to $15.00, in which I could have fed myself and a friend for the same amount at any other of my favorite lunch spots. This place serves no better than what you find in most food courts. Don't waste your time here people, there's got to be better Thai somewhere in Toronto.

Salad King HAS gone downhill. Every time I go there I hope that the last experience was just a bad day. Unfortunately, it is now consistently poor food. It used to be good before the reno and now it sucks. I am sad. I miss the Thai Fried Rice.

Salad King has gone way downhill since the reno. It seems more like the Ryerson cafeteria than the fun little restaurant it used to be. The last time I was there with my wife, I ordered a few dishes including the green mango salad. They brought a shameful dish of sweet yellow mango on tomatoes which looked like hell. I asked the server to take it back and exchange it for something else, but he **refused**. Our discussion got increasingly heated until he threw us out of the restaurant!!! No problem.

I went there September 2007 and the service was lousy, the manager was rude.

After placing my order, a waitress came by with a small soup. Having had complimentary soups at other restaurants i proceeded to drink my soup.

The manager comes out and berates me for a $1.50 soup. I explain that he has a staff and service problem and that i have received free soups from other restaurants and i will not pay.

He did not budge, finally i tell that i was will to purchase a helluva lot more than a 1.50 soup and he agrees to wave the price.

I order my food and he gets mad that i order the hottest number for pad thai.

I insist on my order. The food was a 6/10 but i will definitely not go back.

"he gets mad that i order the hottest number for pad thai."

Should read "he gets mad that i ordered the hottest number for pad thai"

I don't get it, I don't get it, I don't get it.

Having heard over and over again how lovely salad king is, I tried it. The first time, my partners green curry did not arrive for 45 minutes after which we had to leave and take it as takeout with us. I ordered one of my usual favourites elsewhere, a pataya salad, which was tasteless and boring at salad king.

The second time I went for a golden tofu curry, and again was disappointed with the overload of sauce and small portion size (well, there was lots of rice and very little of the topping).

The food is crappy, and the noise levels are ridiculous. Why is this so well loved? There are surely better places to get cheap thai food in Toronto.

Terrible place to have your meals here. Poor service. The foods is far from being authentic. The place has a cafeteria feel. I also don't get it why it is busy and popular.