Restaurants
Is Salad King Overrated?
I've always been a fan of Salad King. I've lost count how many friends rate it as their favourite Thai restaurant in Toronto; and it's always packed every time I eat there. But on a recent visit I was less than overwhelmed with the food, and chatting amicably with the diners beside me at our long, steel communal table, I discovered they didn't feel their meal was anything to rave about either.
The dinner started out ok. We each ordered the Ton Yum soup ($2.95 - photo above) which I suppose is their version of the more traditional Tom Yum. This soup is hard to mess up and their's tasted fine. Not the best I've had - by far - but certainly passable. It's hard to mess up a soup with such simple ingredients although I'd personally prefer if they swapped the button mushrooms for enoki.
Next, the mango salad ($4.75 - photo above). We should have ordered this for dessert. Instead of what we were expecting - sliced green mangoes, tomato, lettuce, cucumber with fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, peanut dressing (this is what it reads on the menu) - we were served sweet sliced, ripe yellow mango. Normally tasty on its own or in a fruit salad, ripe yellow mango just doesn't go as well with fish sauce. Very disappointing.
For our main, we decided to share something called the Evil Jungle Prince ($6.25 - photo above). Now, I know what you're thinking. We deserve what we get when we order something with a name like Evil Jungle Prince. But I'm a big fan of stir-fried eggplant and the menu's description of eggplant, baby corn, peas, carrots, onions, chilli sauce, lemon grass, bamboo shoots and steamed rice seemed promising enough.
Unfortunately, as soon as the order arrived we knew we probably chose the wrong dish. As pictured above, the Evil Jungle Prince was swimming in a pool of liquid, and the veggies had shrunk so much that the dish looked simply sad and puny. Even the eggplant couldn't save it. Only a few scant pieces. The flavour, texture, substance - it was all MIA.
With the soup, yellow mango, Evil Jungle Prince and a bowl of white rice behind us we still weren't quite full, so we ordered a couple of shrimp skewers off the menu of the day. Now perhaps at this point I was just looking for something to complain about - and, granted, each skewer was only a few bucks - but still, in the annals of shrimp skewers these wouldn 't get any marks for size or flavour. Definitely give them a miss.
And with that, we decided our meal was over. But as I mentioned before, we did have a nice conversation with the couple beside us. They thought their meal was a bit hit and miss, but we both agreed (and based on my satisfying meals at Salad King before) that the best strategy is to avoid the rice dishes and go for the noodle ones. If I ever go back that's what I'll be sure to do.
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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 <i>sticky rice</i> 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.
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'
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 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.
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.
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.
I say we start a petition to bring back the Real Salad King!!
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.
Should read "he gets mad that i ordered the hottest number for pad thai"
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.
My review sounded pretty much the same as this...it was a very disappointing meal.
Try Mengrai instead.
As for the food, I had the Thai Fried Rice which had lots of shrimp and was kind of tasty, dense but tasty. My family had noodles and loved them, both bean and rice noodles as I recall. I'd go back anytime, no problem. I think if you treat the waiters/waitresses with respect, you'll get better service. I've found them to be polite, helpful and patient.
I live don the street from the location and started frequenting it after they renovated. It used to be good in the beginning but now sad to say, has gone down hill.
Oh, I really hate the loud cafeteria noise that is constant.
Well, on 2 occasions now:
Ocassion 1
We got there at 5pm(2 of us), we placed our order, always the same, 2 Bangkok Stir Fry's.
At 5:20, I called the waiter over and asked what happened to the food, his attitude, nothing I can do, but I can get the manager. So I asked what could the manager do? No one cam back so I proceeded to walk to the cash where the skinny tall manager wors, probably related to Linda.
His attitude, I am sorry but we are shortstaffed in the kitchen, we will get your food. The food finally arrived at 5:40pm.
Ocassion2:
3 of us arrived and the same skinny manager proceeded to show us to the cafeteria seating, I of course cannot set at those darned tables as most of t has a divider between and my leg is bad. There was a table next to the cash for 3 so i asked if we could sit there and the manager just pointed and walked away without saying anything at all.
Boy oh Boy, service and food quality is ceucial for the existence of any restaurant. I hope they clean up their act.
Still a mean chicken penang. It's the only thing i order from salad king and it's not disappointed.
PLEASE DON'T GO THERE ~ our city has lots of great spots (just nothing around Young and Dundas [aka] Tacky Times Square)
Check out our full review Salad King below. We like it...a lot.
http://restosinto.tumblr.com/post/10600554999/saladking
Cheers,
Restos in TO
I have one complaint, once I ordered a medium hot meal and they made it much spicier so I could barely eat, when the guy asked if all was ok and I told him, he just shrugged. We left no tip and didn't come back for few weeks but we're going again every week now and apart for occasional oscillation in spicyness, we both love it! Food is warm and there in 10 minutes or less, our glasses get refilled with water as soon as they're half full and the prices are great so I'll just be ordering mild in the future, true, last time the girl gave my husband my mild dish and his medium to me but that's a minor objection :)
He started getting offensive and telling us that the bill doesnt include the bill, then he had the nerves to follow my pregnant wife and I down the stairs to hassle us about not leaving a tip after providing us with horrible service. If you want a tip then stop counting tips and get off your lazy ass and actually do some work.
Terrible service, wouldnt recommend this place at all.