Numchok Wilai

Décor is typical for a Thai restaurant around here– outdated with carpet flooring. But the food is amazing and that’s what keeps me coming back. Thai food is so easily made vegan, and easier when the waitress knows what it means (she did!)! I veganized the salad rolls with peanut sauce, sweet and sour soup (all soups can be made vegan), glass noodles dish, and red tofu curry with both jasmine and coconut rice. Everything was amazing but the curry itself was exceptional. So unbelievably creamy, and stayed warm thanks to it being heated over a candle. It was my second time here and I’ll be back again!

Friendly, helpful wait-​staff. Décor is like the Thai version of your favourite old-​school Chinese food place. …and the food. Just the best. Everything is extremely flavorful, and well made. Don’t forget to order it spicy, but be advised «1 star» is spicy enough for more people! The green onion cakes are top-​notch, and the massaman and green curry can’t be beat (in Edmonton at least!)

Really good vegetarian choices and great Thai food. The service is always quick and friendly and the restaurant is nice and clean. I think some of the best Thai in Edmonton and the prices are great

The best Thai in Edmonton! Delicious food at very reasonable prices! It deserves all of the awards, accolades, and Unilocal stars it has received!

Amazing Thai restaurant — probably the best we’ve had so far. Nice thing about this particular place is that they don’t make every single dish on the menu sweet, like most Thai restaurants. Loved the coconut rice — if you’re not sure whether to get regular rice or coconut rice, don’t think too much; go for the latter :)
Numchok is probably the place we miss most in Edmonton. When we find time next, we’re planning to visit the city just to give ourselves an excuse to go here again!
If this place is too far off for you, find the time to go. If you’ve already eaten your meal somewhere and happened to see this review, exercise vigorously, then go here and eat again.

Numchok Wilai is one of my favourite Thai places in the city. I’ve been there at least half a dozen times by now, both for lunch and dinner, and have always had an excellent meal. You know it’s going to be good when half the people you invite aren’t even aware of it’s location. Never judge a restaurant by it’s exterior. Or in my books, the shabbier looking, the better. I think part of it’s charm is that not many people know how amazing it really is.
Numchok has a killer lunch deal ($ 12.95) which includes your choice of a dish, two veggie spring rolls, a small bowl of lemongrass soup and rice. There are 21 items to choose from (nine are vegetarian, couple curries, pad thai, etc.). There was a recent hike in price of $ 1.00 but what can you do? ‘errbody needs to make a living. The staff are always friendly and service is both fast and efficient. On our most recent trip, we ordered and received our food in less than 10 minutes. Ridiculous.
*** Very important (hence the asterisks) — if you want spicy, make sure you ask for it (three options: 2 (spicy), 3 (hot) and 4 (very hot)). First time, we forgot to tell them so while all the food was very flavourful, it lacked in the heat department. We could probably just blame this on Bbop with his pale, white skin and the staff taking pity on him and having no faith in his eating abilities.
Second time around, we ditched him and made sure to get the 4 star experience. The staff didn’t believe we could handle the heat because they checked with us twice to make sure we wanted very hot. If you like spicy, do it. It’s actually not that hot — you can still taste all the flavours but you’ll get lingering bit of heat with each bite. Still nowhere near as hot as what I’ve had in Thailand.
— Veggie spring rolls and lemongrass soup — a nice little appetizer to start our meal off. The lemongrass soup is delicious — you can really taste the lemongrass flavour, just don’t eat the lemongrass piece that they usually leave in it.
— Thai hot basil beef (#8) — stir fried beef with garlic, chili, mushroom, carrot, green pepper, red pepper and basil leaves. The beef was tender and moist, soaking up all the juiciness from the sauce.
— Stir fried eggplant (#20) — stir fried eggplant with garlic, carrot, red pepper, basil leaves and vegetarian sauce. Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables so I decided to try out Numchok’s take on it for the first time. Really tasty and the eggplant along with all the other vegetables were cooked perfectly.
— Coconut rice ($ 1.00 extra) — nice presentation. The coconut rice was light, fluffy and fragrant. You’ll eat this up easy.
On a previous lunch, we had the pad thai tofu (#18) and green curry chicken (#3) which is easily one of their best dishes. The pad thai is well balanced and not overly sweet, which I am not a fan of when that happens. The green curry is a staple and seriously, you can never go wrong with ordering it. Overall, Numchok Wilai continues to deliver and is one of my favourite spots in the city to grab Thai food. If you haven’t been yet, goooooooooooooo.

Oh gosh, I adore this little place, especially for lunch. Their lunch menu is a steal of a deal with every option being about $ 13 and which includes lemongrass soup, spring rolls, one entrée and rice. My go-​to option here is the green curry with bamboo shoots (I’ve tried both beef and chicken) but all of the options are great! Additionally they have quite extensive vegetarian options on the menu which is great!
You can tell that it is a family owned restaurant by the care that it put into setting the tables and otherwise working at all sorts of tasks. A child was helping with some of these tasks and she seemed to be doing a rather good job while we were there during my last visit.
I don’t go here nearly often enough. I really ought to visit more frequently.

My boyfriend and I love this place. The food is excellent quality, and served fast. The price is perfect. It’s one of the only places in town where two big eaters can eat for under 30 $ and leave satisfied. If you’re looking for great Thai food in the city, give them a try. You won’t be disappointed!

Finally I got to go to this little place, I was looking forward to it.
I will say first and foremost the staff are incredibely awesome :)
The food was tasty and I loved the lunch specials! However I thought it would be spicy and it was not at all. I had to order some hot sauce (red sauce, sriracha), as it was not even a tad bit spicy.
I will say, it was quick and tasty and a cozy atmosphere… I shall be back :)

This must be one of the best Thai restaurants in the city! The value is unsurpassed. The curries are to ‘write home about’

Best Thai curry ever! They have these wonderful little creations called stuffed chicken wings that are little magical treats! I would eat here every day if I could. Someone please bring me some!

My cousin and I found this place underwhelming at best. We ordered some deep fried porky wonton appetizers, a pad thai and a pad sieu. The sauce that came with the wonton appy was too watery to adhere to the dumplings– I think a thicker sauce would have worked better. The pad thai and pad sieu was severely under flavoured– I think the pad thai needs something that makes it taste more distinctly tamarind and the pad sieu was quite dry and not very saucy. I found it peculiar that the restaurant was so packed… I liked Syphay and Boualouang much better even though they are in sketchier Chinatown. I highly recommend making the trip for more flavourful food.

This is my #1 lunch spot!
The soup, the spring rolls, the main dish (I usually get the red curry with chicken and coconut rice), the service, the atmosphere, the cleanliness = all awesome.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who loves Thai food.

Me and the gf had a craving for some Thai food on Monday night. Started to look up places we found that almost every single tire restaurant was closed on Monday.
Not this one. And boy were we happy with what we found. This place is just on 124 street here and is really small only about 40 Seats. It looks like it’s run by a nice tie family and they did a great job with service and food quality.
We were with the pad Thai and it was amazing. Also have the beef curry with the bamboo shoots. This dish was the perfect amount of spicy for me. Next we have the pork fried rice which is also very good. I would say overall the meal was a really nice thai experience.
I have not been to Thailand but my girlfriend has it she said it was also very authentic. Will definitely be back here for another dinner as everything was great and the prices were pretty good too.

Good food but better Thai places in Edmonton
Recently went here on a Monday. Having moved here summer of 2012 from Vancouver, I am puzzled by the fact that 90% of the restaurants on 124^th street were closed on a Monday. Having spent most of my adult life living in the West End of Vancouver, I was accustomed to numerous businesses being open very late with some open 24 hours a day so restaurants closing one day a week seems to be a strange trait found in this city.
So after finding out that most of the restaurants on 124^th street were closed on a Monday, we ended up here as it was one of the few places open. We had a party of three, which always works out poorly for things like appetizers which seem to be served in even numbers.
For example. We ordered two orders of the stuffed chicken wings as they came in pairs. The Chicken Satay came in 4 so it was a battle of the diners to see who got the second portion lol. Same with the spring rolls. All three of these appies were adequate. Not bad, not great. Just good. Not that that is a bad thing, just nothing stood out as exceptional
For our entrees we went with the Massaman beef curry, Lemon Grass stir fry, Pad Thai and some coconut rice. I’ve never had a Massaman curry I didn’t like, and this maintained that winning streak. For the Lemon Grass, we went with more beef as we each picked an entrée and the guy who picked this one is a hard core beef eater. This dish was disappointing and was the only one of the ones we ordered that I didn’t like. Pad Thai was OK. I’ve had better, and I’ve had worse, strangely from a street food vendor in Northern Thailand so this Edmonton restaurant beat out a true «local» dish.
All in all, a good meal. Not great. And not bad either. Some dishes were very good, some not so much so overall, a middle of the road rating for a middle of the road meal. You will find worse Thai food in Edmonton, but you will also find better.

If you’ve never had really good Thai food, you will probably think Numchuk Wilai is awesome. That used to be me – totally oblivious to the fact that this is actually NOT amazing Thai food. Call me a Thai snob, but Numchuk is just okay.
The prices are only slightly cheaper than most other Thai restaurants, so that doesn’t make it an advantage. Their lunch specials are cheap though (and you get a lot of food), so I totally recommend that.
My favourite dish is what I like to call «bamboo shoot green curry,» since the majority of it is made up of bamboo shoots. Don’t get me wrong, I love bamboo shoots, but I don’t want the majority of my dish to be made up of bamboo shoots. Can I get a few extra vegetables please?
The pad thai is all right. They have two flavours: original and tamarind. I would recommend getting the tamarind. The original tastes like ketchup or tomato soup. Some people like this though, and maybe you would too.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I challenge you to try really good Thai food. Seriously, go to Viphalay and then try going back to Numchuk. You may never look at Thai food the same way again.

This is my fave spot for Thai in Edmonton. Don’t let the old school décor deter you. It’s completely outdated, but the green Thai curry over coconut rice completely makes up for it. Totally reasonable prices too. Last year, if you visited them at Taste of Edmonton, this was not their finest work. Try the pad Thai again at the restaurant. So much better! You’ll forgive them for the sad ToE attempt.
As for busy or dead, it’s a crapshoot. I’ve seen both. Maybe worth a reso???
Parking on 124^th street in front. If that’s full, take a right (east) at the Popeyes and then another right into the alley. There is parking out back.

Came here based on the reviews. Sorry to say I was disappointed.
Spring roll was soggy inside, lacked flavor and the included sauce didn’t help.
Lemongrass soup was good — albeit only contains mushroom.
Thai iced tea was too sweet.
Red curry chicken was sweet rather than hot. Something didn’t taste right with that (it’s curry).
Pad Thai was soggy and didn’t taste like regular Pad Thai.
Lastly the mango with black sticky rice. Sticky rice was too sweet — they had incorporated the condensed milk into it so there’s no way to adjust the sweetness. Then the mango itself was sour — not ripe enough.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a Thai restaurant, the last being my visit to Boualouang over a year ago. So when Jessica mentioned that we should go eat Thai at Numchok Wilai on 124 St, I was pretty excited for our dinner date! I blame Joe for his «peanut allergy» and my fear that even a little could kill him, even though in reality it’s just a sensitivity. I’m just making excuses really… I don’t know why I haven’t been to a Thai restaurant in so long.
I didn’t dwell too much on interior this time, it was more about the company and the massive amounts of food I was about to eat. But the restaurant was pretty filled when we ate on a Thursday night. By the time we ended dinner, the restaurant had completely cleared which left me with (attached) photo.
My boss mentioned that he loved Whyte Ave’s King & I spring rolls and wondered how Numchok Wilai compared. I had never been to either, so I couldn’t really do so but I convinced Jessica to try it with me. I use the word «convinced» because I think it’s rare that Asians (which the both of us are) do not order spring rolls when we go out to eat. I was raised to order things on the menu that my mother could not make better in her kitchen. Fair enough rationale, no? We ordered the pork spring rolls though just for funsies. I liked them! They were mostly filled with vegetables but hints of pork were there. Fried correctly to develop a crispy exterior without being greasy or soggy over a short time period. Wrapped loosely so that the density of the rolls were just right. Were they better than my mom’s? Heck no. Did I tell my boss that? Yes, of course. But an excellent dish to order if that’s what you’re in the mood for and the sweet dipping sauce was a refreshing take on the traditional Vietnamese fish sauce in my household.
The benefit of dining with Jessica is that her eyes are a billion times larger than her stomach. As a second appetizer, we ordered the Som Tum Mango, a Thai style spicy mango salad with shrimp. Funny that I’m afraid of Joe dying, but not so much Jessica… who actually has a true allergy to peanuts. She’s a pharmacist, she can deal! The dish did call for ground peanut, which I can only assume they replaced with cashew nuts like the mango salad, a different item on the menu. What we actually got seemed to better describe that dish, so I’m not even sure if we actually received the Som Tum Mango. The salad had a nice heat to it, cooled nicely with mint leaves and the sweetness of the mango. Shrimps were cooked perfectly making the dish a stellar choice.
Much like how every cuisine has a signature dish, the pad thai clearly comes to mind the Thai food. The rice noodles at Numchok Wilai are thinner width wise than Boualouang, which I liked preferred to the wider variety. We chose the house tamarind sauce rather than a tomato sauce, a more traditional route. Not even sure how a tomato based sauce came into play. The sauce was not overly sweet and not overly thick which I find can sometimes ruin a pad thai really quickly. Combined with egg, shrimp, chicken, beansprouts, and green onions, I loved it!
The green curry chicken came out with its own tea candle heat source, a cute presentation. Creamy, spicy (!), and loaded with bamboo shoots which covered tender chicken pieces underneath. We had ordered it moderately spicy, can’t even imagine how the highest spice would fare. It’s nice that they let you choose that option for all spicy dishes! Loved the mixture of coconut curry and thai basil!
Lastly, dessert! Four dishes later and we were still holding on. We decided to try a dish called «Kow Neaw Sung Kaya», a coconut black sticky rice topped with a Thai style baked custard. The custard is more of a bread pudding texture, sweet and slightly sticky. The black sticky rice was also sweetened but surprisingly the overall dish wasn’t overwhelming. Perfect way to end the meal!
The meal left both of us satisfied and full! For a fraction of what a fancier meal would cost us but for the same amount of happiness. Wiiiiiin. Absolutely loved our meal at Numchok Wilai and would definitely come back. There’s parking in the back of the restaurant, as well as street parking if you can find it! It made Avenue Edmonton’s Best Restaurant 2014 as honorable mention in «Best Thai». I’d have to go to Bua Thai again to compare, as it’s been over a year and a half since I’ve been there. With restaurants like these in town, my standard «sushi or…» can now be «sushi, Thai, or…» Where’s the best Thai restaurant you’ve been to?

Love this place. Some people might disagree but it’s one of the best restaurants that I’ve been to in Edmonton. The food is exceptional and the staff provides friendly and attentive service. The décor is far from contemporary or modern but I always enjoy it when I’m there because it has a more authentic charming feel to it with many art pieces.
I have tried many of the dishes here and they’ve all been good. Most recently I came with three others and we shared the tom kar and tom yum soups, mango salad, pad thai and pa-​nang beef curry. All delicious. Top it off with some coconut rice and a thai iced tea and the meal is complete. The staff came around at least three or four times to refill our water. From previous experience here, the one thing I’m not fond of are the spring rolls so I tend to stay away from that.
I used to live literally a block and a half away from Numchok Wilai. Unfortunately not anymore. This review serves as a reminder for me to go back more often. Anyone looking for some thai food or looking to change up their dining experience, I would recommend this place in a heartbeat as I have to many friends and coworkers.