Thai Nong Khai

Thai food is so good. We love Tom Kha Kai at Thai Nong Khai. Pad Thai is yummy. The staff is friendly.

Haven’t been here for long time probably 10 years ago. It was fabulous back then. Not so much now. Things have changed a lot. This use to be a sister restaurant of the 10^th avenue thai restaurant but not sure if it is still the same ownership relationship or not.
Things started out promising with the Tom yum soup. It was pretty tasty.
After that, the meal dropped off substantially. Zucchini and shrimp peanut sauce was oddly sweet and there was no «stir fry» carmelization of the onions or shrimp but rather just seemed to be dunked into the sauce.
The candy chicken was really quite disappointing. Way too many little battered pieces of flour and the odd snipet of chicken if you dig around enough in the sauce. Sauce was soupy and had a weak soy flavour.
The coconut rice was just plain rice coconut milk poured on top of rice that wasn’t particularly flavourful with coconut.
So overall rather a disappointing meal for the price paid. Sorry.

My husband and I spent two summers in Thailand (even visiting the actual town of Nong Khai) and upon returning to Calgary were craving authentic Thai cuisine… we were so pleased to find Thai NongKhai. We have dined there many times and have truly enjoyed each of our experiences. We even spent one New Year’s dining there with friends! We love the pre-​set dinner for 4 or 6 because it gives you a great variety of dishes that you may not be inclined to order if you were just getting one main dish but they are well worth trying with friends. My favourite is the Red Curry. There is a lunch buffet but we haven’t been too impressed with it and usually just order off the menu. For dessert you MUST have the coconut ice-​cream! Prices are also very reasonable. Overall, this is an excellent choice if you are looking for authentic Thai food in Calgary.

Don’t let the exterior put you off, once inside this restaurant has great Thai décor. The service was wonderful, attentive and friendly. The food was delicious and authentic, it reminded me of my Thai holiday a few years ago. I will definitely be back.

My friend and I tried this place last night based on the good reviews. First of all, I lived in Hawaii for 5 years, where Thai restaurants are as common as Vietnamese in Calgary. Attentive service? That is funny not to mention the waitress did not even know what Pad Thai was. Like what? So speaking of the Pad Thai… the meat was off. I couldn’t place my finger on it but my friend did… it tasted like liver. In fact the taste of the «liver» managed to excrete into every soggy noodle in the dish. Seriously folks, the worst Pad Thai Ive ever ever had. When we did comment on the rank taste and send it back (we took time to make sure that the meat was really «off», the woman literally told us that it was us and that nothing was wrong with it. Ok, and that’s why you have a totally empty restaurant? Either this business uses an «reputation building business» or friends to write all these positives… or rather my apologies, but these people don’t know how Thai is supposed to taste. If you do, this will not be worth the relatively high prices. I still feel sick to my stomach this morning. Total fail!
An empty restaurant is a very good indicator… and we were the only ones there on a Wed @7pm.

LOVE this pace! I’ve been here about a dozen times, and have never been disappointed. The food is flavourful and they have a wide variety of spicy vs non spicy entrees.
My favourite dish is definitely the pad Thai, and I also love how they get artistic with your food. Tonight we had deep fried shrimp that looked like chickens… so cute! The spring rolls were nice and crispy too.
The staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. Can’t wait to go back!

The outside doesn’t look very appealing, as it is in a little strip mall. The interior is much better, with lots of cultural decorations.
We arrived on a Friday afternoon for some lunch, and the place was basically empty — there was one other table. I think during the 2 hours that we were there, I saw about 5 tables coming in.
Although I found the prices reasonable when I looked at the menu, I immediately thought that it was way overpriced when I saw the food come out. I ordered a lunch special with curry and coconut rice ($ 12 for the lunch special with coconut rice VS $ 11 for regular steamed rice) — it was a little portion (half a bowl maybe?) of coconut rice with a side of curry on a plate. For $ 12, I expected much more.
As for the quality of the food… I ordered the mas sa man curry, which I have had at many other Thai restaurants. I found that the base of the curry was ok but the potatoes in the curry were way too salty. I also thought the coconut rice tasted very plain, you could barely taste the coconut.
Also, we had a bigger party and all of our foods came out separately. It was quite annoying as the people who first received the food was about 10−15min before the last person received their food. Nobody came to ask us if the food was ok while we were eating, but once people started finishing, they kept coming back to take the empty plates (which I don’t mind) but kept asking us if we were done or not. I felt like they were rushing us to eat quickly and leave, even though the place wasn’t busy.
Overall, I don’t think I would come back here. Portions are tiny, prices are expensive, location is ok and service was also ok. I don’t understand how this place has a decent rating on urbanspoon and Unilocal,as I have had much better Thai food elsewhere.

A very unassuming restaurant in a strip mall near McLeod Trail and Heritage Drive. The décor has been updated and is quite cozy and authentic. Although the dishes are slightly more expensive and a little on the small side (which is why I didn’t rate it a ⁵⁄₅), the quality of food is excellent!
This restaurant features one of my all time favorite dishes, Larb Moo. Rather than being served as a salad as most other Thai restaurants (if you can even find it), Thai Nong Khai serves as an entrée. The flavours are very unique, a mix of lime, toasted rice, chili, lemongrass and ground pork — a Northeastern Thai specialty that’s served room temperature. The curries and pad thai are also excellent.
Rather than driving all the way downtown, I would definitely recommend trying this restaurant out if you’re in the south.

I was quite surprised at my experience at this restaurant after reading the reviews. The restaurant has a nice atmosphere once you get passed the strip-​mall exterior, and the staff are very friendly, but the food itself is really not worth getting too excited about.
I found the food quite average, featuring the standard Thai dishes (which were all adequate and edible) but nothing that sets it apart from other run-​of-​the-​mill Thai restaurants around town. The Tom Yum soup was especially bland — mostly broth with just a few pieces of chicken, tomato and mushroom.
The portions are quite small and the prices, comparatively, are quite expensive. The soup (sorry to come back to the soup) was $ 5 a bowl — for five people, that’s $ 25 just for soup. Many of the dishes are $ 17 each, though none that we ordered were large enough for one person. If you’re sharing, plan to get more than one dish per person.
In the end, this is an average Thai restaurant that doesn’t justify the prices on the menu. If you’re looking for high-​quality Thai food, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

I guess people of Calgary are not big Unilocalers, so I will help and add some reviews!
I was in Calgary for work and I’ve been trying to eat every restaurant in the area (more so downtown area). Unfortunately, downtown was closed off for the better part of my trip due to the flood so I have been trying to eat in southwest calgary. With that said I stumbled upon this Thai restaurant and boy was it a good find.
I ordered the crying tiger, red curry chicken fried rice and thai iced coffee. First off, the thai iced coffee/​tea (forgot which one). Regardless the tea/​coffee base was actually hot/​fresh brewed which was a really good change of pace. Out of all the thai food i’ve had in my 20+ years in Los angeles I haven’t found a Thai restaurant that makes it fresh.
Both the entrees were great tasting, the crying tiger was tender and flavorful and the red curry fried rice actually had a good kick to it. I usually add a bunch of hot sauce/​little peppers when I eat thai food but the rice was spiced just right.
Great service, only 2 people during dinner time and I would say they had a good 10 tables to wait on which means they were busting @$$!!
I gave this place ⁴⁄₅ stars because it’s pricier than what I’m used to, each dish on average was $ 15.

My go to Thai place if I can’t make the trek all the way up to the north to White Elephant. Portions are a little small for the price, but the flavor and quality is great so it balances out.
Appetizers are fantastic, with probably the best fresh spring/​salad rolls in the city; loaded with mint, basil, cilantro, and a whole bunch of colorful shredded vegetables, these are my benchmark and I’ve yet to find a better one. Crispy nibbles are also nice. Stuffed chicken wings are tasty, albeit pricey (probably the labor cost of stuffing all those drummets). The papaya salad is also good, with a great balance of sweet, sour, and hot.
Pad Thai is done well, not too much sauce and with a nice balance of flavors. The Swimming Rama is great, with tender Asian greens instead of the spinach that many other Thai restaurants use. Red, green, Massaman, and panang curries are all great, with varied vegetable selections to match each curry base. We also often order one of the larb, minced meat salads. Funky and herb’ey and hot, hot, hot. I’ll gladly sweat through every bite, because it’s just that delicious. In fact, I’m getting hungry now just thinking about it, and to me, that’s the sign of a good place. It’s just the not-​so-​great portion to price ratio that keeps this place from getting a full 5 stars.
Recommended.

Thought the food and service was great.
Had the chicken stir fry with coconut rice and thought it was fantastic.
My friend had the pad Thai and loved it.
The staff was pleasant and willing to fill our water often!
Would suggest this place anytime!

Good food, nothing as good as Thai Rose Garden. Portions are small and prices are very high for what you get. However it is in the SE and still tasty. I go here every few months. If everything were 30% less or the portions larger I’d be here every week; it’s so close to my house.
I always get #101 Pad Sew. I love this dish! The red curry chicken is not bad ether. Don’t bother with the spring rolls, they were nothing unique.

Every time I try out a new place, I always make sure to order the signature dish of the culture they are representing. So when we went to try out Thai Nong Khai, we ordered Red Chicken Curry and Pad Thai. I find the servings to be small for the price. One of the things I like about a curry dish is how the flavor just hits and awakens every single taste bud. This particular curry however did not deliver. We were surprised when the pad thai came cos the noodles looked different from all the pad thai we’ve tried before. It has good flavor as a noodle dish but it doesn’t taste like pad thai. Service is pretty good and our server is very friendly but I don’t think that is enough for me to come back given that there are other Thai places with better food.

This place is expensive, but you get real Thai food here. The people here are Thai and you can order in Thai or English if you like. The Chef and Cook’s are real Thai’s. IF your looking for real thai food, this is the place.

Parking: ⁵⁄₅
Dining Area: ⁴⁄₅
Cleanliness: ⁵⁄₅
Food Quality: ⁵⁄₅
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Value: ³⁄₅
After finding this place on Unilocal,we decided to give it a try. We weren’t sure what to expect given the previous reviews but we found that the food quality was quite good although the portions are small. The kitchen was pretty fast and the owner was also the server so the service was great. He was friendly and we had a nice meal. If there was any down side to the experience, it was the price to portion ratio. There were only 2 of us and dinner came to over $ 50 with no alcohol which is pretty steep for an asian restaurant. By comparison, we go for vietnamese just up the street for about half that price. We’ll be back, but not that often.

This restaurant isn’t really fancy inside, it’s basically one open room with a bar at the end. The bar kind of resembles a hut complete with shingles. There are around 120 or so seats and my family and I arrived around 5:30 on a Wednesday for dinner.
It wasn’t very busy when we first got here, third table seated. I think by the time we left 11 or so tables were filled.
Now for dinner, we started with the spring rolls (a little on the small side). If your use to Vietnamese spring rolls you’ll be disappointed. Even the dish the fish sauce comes in is the size of a thimble.
Not knowing how big the portion sizes would be, we also ordered a fried rice dish, and Ka re moo. (coconut curry dish with pork). Once again the portion sizes were on the small side.
I thought from reading other reviews, that I may have found my new Thai restaurant without having to travel all the way downtown.
It looks like I’ll still be making the trek to the King and I. (Mel the owner is very personable).
In summation, did I say this place had small portions. Yeah it does. Let me break it down for you. Appy 4 small spring rolls (1 order), coconut rice (Bland) for 4, Ka re moo, and an order of fried rice. Oh yeah and one diet Pepsi $ 55.00. Plus tip. IMHO Thai Express in the malls is just as good although the menu isn’t as extensive.
I do have to say the service although slow is friendly and polite enough.
Anyone who says this is the best Thai restaurant in Calgary, hasnt been to the King and I for dinner. I challenge you to eat there then write your review.

I’m going to make this short and sweet. There is no better Thai restaurant in the city. Period. The curry’s are extremely tasty, the menu offers plenty of variety, and the staff are always friendly. The only reason this doesn’t get a 5 star is because it’s a little on the expensive. Otherwise if you’re craving Thai, this is THE restaurant to go. If I could afford to I would eat there every day of the week.
¹¹⁄₃₀

Dear, Thai Nong Khai,
I love your food! No other Thai place compares now: P My boyfriend and i usually come together and each time we have great service and dishes :)
My favorite is the ‘Larb Kai’ yummm! I also brought my mom once and we both loved the stuffed chicken wing appetizers. My boyfriend and I have now moved to Vancouver and haven’t found anything close to the quality of your restaurant :(However whenever we are back in town we come see you. (we were just there 2 weeks ago) Anyways Thanks for all the great Thai food and see you soon :)

Thai Nong Khai might be reason enough to move to the suburbs. If it isn’t enough, know that there’s excellent Mexican in this same strip mall. It is a strip mall of excellence and magic, in my opinion.
Anyway, Thai Nong Khai is worth the trek out to 75^th Ave SE. Their dishes are fresh and expertly prepared. You can get most dishes with any kind of meat you like and they have an extensive vegetarian selection.
The décor is strip-​mall + Thai (cute) and the service is prompt. They have an almost-​life-​sized Santa that they roll out at Christmas time, he sings songs when you walk by.
It’s a cool place to bring kids and also a great place for a date. Seriously, the food makes this place right for any occasion. I cannot say enough about it.
Go, try it and then remember me when you’re buying Christmas presents. You’re welcome.