Thai Shan Inn Restaurant

I can’t even with this place. Just don’t do it.

The service was great, but the food was terrible, huge portions but its like 98% noodles or rice and 2% meat, very tight with with the meat 1 breast of chicken must last them a day. same with beef. Actually the spring rolls weren’t bad but the mains were shite.

This used to be the best Thai restaurant in toronto hands down. Today it is merely a shell of its former self.
Cheap quality meats, little to no English speaking workers, unorganized, and penny pinching owners.
I remember the sweet little old woman who would come out to greet us and ask how the food was. Recently I saw her working at su&shi yorkdale. I have fond memories of the unbelievable chicken fried rice with its hints of sweetness.
This restaurant is only a memory now. I won’t be back.

How the mighty have fallen. Once upon a time Thai Shan Inn was one of the best Thai restos in T.O.
Had dinner on a quiet Tuesday night — at 7:30 we were the only diners. The food was lacking any nuance or subtlety.
Shrimp crackers (greasy) with peanut sauce (watery and insipid) was such a let down.- the old Thai Shan Inn’s peanut sauce was worth driving across town for. Mango salad was sickly sweet. Tom ka kai was sickly sweet with only the barest hint of acidity or heat. And so on… everything was just so one note. The last straw was the «Cashew» (chicken with spicy cashews in a black bean sauce) –which was a plate of cheap vegetables in a watery sauce with a couple of straggly bits of chicken and not a single cashew. When we pointed out to the waitress she vanished back into the kitchen and a minute later apologetically put a little saucer of cashews on the table — «they forgot».
This isnt even Toronto standard mediocre Thai food. We won’t go back.

Came here for dinner on a Monday evening. The restaurant was quiet and had only one other dining group there. The food here is flavorful, but it wasn’t great. Several of the dishes felt like they had the same sauce and it was very boring.

Another hole-​in-​the-​wall type of restaurant in the west end of Toronto that’s been around for eons. I’ve only eaten here once and enjoyed the food. Would only really go back if I’m in the area and if I’m specifically craving for some Thai food. I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to go back here (from Scarborough).
Though you may run into some language barriers, the staff are very courteous and friendly. Prices are pretty average when it comes to Thai cuisine.
[Starter]
Mango Salad — Green mangoes with red peppers, green peppers, onions, coriander and (normally) chili flakes (as per their menu description) but ours was sprinkled with sugar. I’m guessing this was to help sweeten the green mangoes a little more. Regardless, it was very refreshing (minus the coriander which I absolutely hate). Set some aside for after your meal as it’s great to cleanse your palette. ⁴⁄₅
Deep Fried Pork Wontons — The texture of the wonton wrapper itself was a little different. Seemed to be on the thinner/​lighter side but it was nicely crisp. The pork filling was very dry which left me continuously drenching the wontons in the sauce. Normally you’d get these wontons with a sweet and sour type of sauce but this time around, it was more like a watered down sweet chili sauce. Was still very nice, though. Because the filling was dry and bland, I wouldn’t really order this again. ³⁄₅.
[Mains]
Pad Thai — Very generous amount considering its price. Though it could have used a little more protein (it comes with chicken and shrimp), it was still very good. A lot of times pad thai is too ketchupy but this was pretty much close to perfect. ⁵⁄₅
Beef with Oyster Sauce — Flavor was very good although the beef was a little tough. The green peppers however were perfectly cooked with that perfect crunch. 3.5÷5
Red Curry — We had chosen chicken however there wasn’t much chicken pieces and was mostly vegetables. Flavor was nice especially the sauce/​soup itself over some steamed rice. Not the best I’ve had but still very good. ⁴⁄₅
[Dessert]
Honey Fried Bananas — A nice light dessert that can be shared between two people. Was perfectly cooked and would go great with just vanilla ice cream. ⁵⁄₅

Came here with a co-​worker to grab lunch to go. I ordered the Chicken green curry and she ordered the pad thai. Big portions at a reasonable price, my only issue with the green curry was the amount of veggies. I probably had about 4 pieces of thin chicken and the rest were just green and red pepper.
Meh.

Our friends turned us on to Tai Shan in the last few months and we’ve really enjoyed the food there. We live in the area so we generally pick up and eat at home
I have two small issues that seem to keep popping up: they can’t gauge timing very well and you MUST check you order before you leave the restaurant. Several times they tell us it will be ready in 30 minutes and we end up waiting for an extra 15; twice they have forgotten something from our order and we wait for them to send someone to deliver it (20 minutes later)
The food is really quite good though, always fresh and flavourful… the garlic chicken is our house favourite

This is one of my favourite places for thai food in the city (other than Khao San Road downtown). My family and I have consistently eaten at or picked up take-​out from Thai Shann Inn every other week for over 10 years at this location and their previous one. The dishes are HUGE and SO FLAVOURFUL. The chicken satay (super garlicy, amazing peanut sauce) pad thai and mango salad (sour and just the right amount of fish sauce) are out of this world. Yes, both are fairly saucy, but my family enjoys strong, delicious flavours and sauce. Always a lot of meat unless you order something like chicken fried rice, which of course is going to be 75%+ rice.
Their fried banana dessert is amazing and they also give free oranges slices and fortune cookies (yes, these cookies don’t really make sense, but I’m not complaining!) at the end of the meal. They also give you free shrimp chips and peanut sauce at the start of the meal. The prices are very affordable on top of everything, all for fresh delicious thai food.
Try this place out. Seriously. You won’t regret it.

So I’m writing this review from an Irish pub munching on Thai chili wings drowning my sorrows on Irish beer. You will soon know why.
I remember vividly the first time my girlfriend and I had the green mango salad at the old location. It was the best Thai food we had ever had. We became regulars until our move to suburbia.
Fast forward 20+ years later and it was with great expectations that my now wife and I sauntered into the new location. We were promptly seated and a waitress took our order but it was obvious she was struggling with the English language. Nonetheless, fairly quickly we received our green mango salad and it more or less lived up to expectations. The Pad Thai followed about 15 mins later and it was very flavourful though the noodles themselves were limpid and the consistency of neglected, wilted lettuce.
And then the nightmare started. We ordered: chicken satay, Tom Ka Kai soup, and a green curry chicken with steamed rice, pretty standard fare for a Thai place. It was not like we ordered shrimp flash frozen this morning from the beaches of Phuket, in a foam made from coconut milk collected by monks from a blessed fair trade palm tree in Bangkok.
We waited, and waited. And waited. Multiple times the staff came over to ask if we were ok. We said we need food. They said it was being cooked. 45 mins into the wait we began to banter with the couple next to us. I was on the lookout for cameras and Chef Ramsay. They almost left but got their food all at once. I offered to buy some but I knew they were starving, so I backed off.
There was a lot of hand-​wringing on the part of the staff. On the odd occasion the kitchen bell rang and staff ran to get food, my mouth began watering but inevitably my hopes were crushed. It was only bearable by watching the staff dance from table to table asking if people had ordered whatever dish they were carrying.
One hour into the wait, we decided to call the dinner. It was dead. We noted the time and asked for the bill. Kaput. A gonner. My wife stepped out to call the kids and when she was about to come back in our waitress offered to seat her at a new table. When I asked why this had gone so terribly wrong, I was told only one person cooks in the kitchen.
Saturday night. Full restaurant. Cheap owners. Kitchen nightmare. What a catastrophe! Never again. The horror. The horror. Not even sure if Chef Ramsey could save this one.

I was first introduced to Thai food about twenty years ago at the former location for the Thai Shan Inn. I rediscovered it after they moved to their new location on Dufferin. The ambiance is nice and quaint and without any excessive frills. The focus is on the quality of the food and the family-​run business does not disappoint.
The Pad Thai is saucy in its savoury and sweet tamarind based sauce. The mango salad balances out the tartness of slightly out of season mangoes, with the sweetness of bell peppers and red onions, which have been dressed in what I assume is a rice vinegar based dressing with sugar. The chicken satay with the obligatory house made peanut sauce is devilishly good. The broth in the Tom Yum Kai is a piping hot bowl of sour and spicy heaven on earth.
I’ve tried other dishes and so far the only one that I’d recommend people avoid is the plate of spring rolls. They have a nice filling of glass noodles but they’re so greasy, they’re inedible.
This is one of the only restaurants that I’m willing to drive into from the suburbs. Make sure you bring a group with you as the portions are absolutely huge!

Do walk RUN!!! RUN away very very fast!!! Run, run around the corner and down the street to where they were formerly located and eat there (another Thai place which is also Halal). Thai Shan Inn is out of touch. The portions were large, but large portions of bad food is not a good thing. It was so dark at 1 in the afternoon you could not read the plastic covered menus, when walking to the bathroom (near kitchen) was told (Bathroom downstairs) when it was right there. Soup was good, spring roll tasteless and greasy, mango chicken salad was literally chickenless, and basil beef noodle had four pieces of beef maximum. When we said we used to go to old location we were told that we should have told them, like that should make a difference for some reason? Honestly, this place can not close down soon enough as no one deserves so bad a dinning experience.

Apparently they have recently reopened …
First of all this is NOT a Thai restaurant. It is a lousy Chinese restaurant. I ordered 3 dishes and all 3 were buried in a soupy brown sauce even the rice. The people who are Chinese were nice but they need to remove the Thai name and learn to cook! I lived in Thailand for 10 years …

Would definitely come here again for the spring rolls and red curry. Tried the green as well and is probably the way to go when you like spice. The red had so much flavor, I wish I could have ate more of it… But that’s what a doggy bag is for. You won’t regret eating here — service was outstanding!!! Everything about this visit was outstanding.
Two other people I was with ate the Pad Thai, Mango Salad and Satay Chicken which they really enjoyed.
Not sure what went wrong for the 2 star rating someone gave it… Pricing was also very good for the amount of food we got.

Working in this area, there’s not too much to choose from except fast food. So I decided on a break from Tim Hortons, subway and McDonalds. This was during lunch time and I was the only one there.
Egg roll = more oil then flavor. But was hot and freshly made.
Pad Thai = meh. I’ve had better. Good size portion, tastes like it was made when ordered but the sauce is barely there.
Satay = yes it’s made fresh. Peanut sauce is good. But so not worth the wait
Service = the only saving grace.

As a previous reviewer said, it’s «a diamond in the rough.» Ignore the «gentleman’s club» and adult vido shop next door and walk in for a Thai feast.
We had fantastic coconut soup (nicely spicy), good pad thai, lovely basil eggplant (lots of basil flavour). The cashew stir fry, on the other hand, was mediocre – boring and too saucy.
The room was a little dark, but our server, Lynn, was warm and hospitable.
The prices are reasonable and the servings are generous, so you may have to roll happily home.
(Note that although the food tasted authentically Thai enough to my taste, the entire restaurant staff is actually Chinese)

Saw a review in a newspaper that described this place as a «hidden jewel» of Toronto. Well, all that it was in the end turned out to be just hidden, but not a jewel for sure.
Almost feeling bad to give one star, since the service was really polite and attentive (even a little bit too attentive at moments, not allowing too much privacy), however the food was just not good, and that’s what matters in the first place.
To start with: Peanut sauce (was supposed to be Chicken Satay with peanut sauce, however chicken arrived after the main dishes; didn’t mind this too much since we were alerted at the time of ordering, another plus for the service). Very good sauce served with cucumber and red peppers. Started off well and then went downhill. Everything else that came after was disappointing. Pad Thai (as one other review stated, a very regrettable Pad Thai indeed, soggy and extremely sweet, almost like they put a plum sauce in it??) Fried rice with pineapple, chicken and shrimp: very oily. Chicken satay: extremely extremely oily.
Portions are big and prices very reasonable, but it’s not worth taking a trip to visit this place… unless perhaps you are in the neighborhood and want a quick bite with good service… all in all big disappointment.

Came here last night for a regrettable Pad Thai dinner.
I never thought I was super picky with Pad Thai until I came here. The noodles were overcooked and soggy. The sauce was very runny. I typically like my Pad Thai to have a thick pink sauce.
So, I will not be returning to this place.

I love finding diamonds in the rough, and that is exactly what Thai Shann Inn Restaurant is. Recently moved locations, the restaurant is still serving up great thai food, and great service in a nice (new) intimate atmosphere.
From the moment I walked in, to the moment I left the service was impeccable. Great old school style of service, where you feel like you’re at a doting relatives house. The food was great, and the price extremely reasonable.
Our server came by multiple times to remind us to let her know if we needed anything — such a nice change from trying to chase down your server!
My friend and I shut the place down, and they let us stick around while they cleaned up the rest of the place — even replacing our tea and bringing extra fortune cookies while we talked the night away!
A must visit.

The wife and I have been frequenting this restaurant for at least 14 years. The address displayed on Unilocal is the old location.
I order the usual (chicken satay, pud thai, mango salad and rolls) and am never dissapointed. In fact, I’m usually praising God for inventing taste buds.
The service is way better at the new location and the restaurant can no longer be characterized as a hole in the wall. In fact, compared to the old place it is positively posh. The best Thai in town!
The current address is 2404 Dufferin St, half a block north of Eglinton Ave. West.