Thai Elephant is a run-of-the-mill, westernized South-East Asian eatery across from Terroni on Queen. It offers all of the usual dishes you'd expect from your local Spring Rolls outlet, and they deliver!

The darkly-painted dining room is in dire need of a facelift, but the service is warm, helpful and representative of traditional Thai hospitality.

Their paper fold-out menu is a resounding flashback to Thai dishes first introduced to Toronto over a decade ago. Coconut shrimp is butterflied, coated in shredded sweet coconut and deep fried. Although appealing to the eye, it's bland and could use more spices or a twist of lime juice for balance, instead of the overly-sweet honey dipping sauce that comes with it.

Mango salad ($8) with thick strips of sweet red onions, slivers of bell pepper, peanuts and toasted cashews comes doused in an acidic vinaigrette. The sharpness of the vinaigrette is a nice light appetizer for the carb-centric meal to follow.

Curry Pad Thai ($10) is a generous portion of flat rice noodles, tofu and chicken thickly coated in a powdery curry sauce. The noodles are lacking flavour and could be easily enlivened with a dash of sweet chili or blend of savoury Thai spices.

Similarly, Green Curry Chicken ($9) with mixed veggies and strips of chicken breast comes in a sauce that seems straight out of a packet and directly served onto our plate. The accompanying bowl of steamed rice, however, is better than most, as it comes with a yin yang mix of both white jasmine and purple wild rice.

Many may turn their noses up at pseudo-Asian cuisine, but I can always appreciate the merits of a good General Tsao's chicken or sweet and sour pork. So, while I may not ascribe to Thai Elephant's claim to "Authentic Thai Cuisine," it may work for those accustomed to Westernized Asian franchises and prefer their Thai cuisine on the milder side.