syphay restaurant

ahh... the best thai food i've ever had? or was it laos? i don't know. it just tasted good.. being the cynical ol' me - yeah it was greasy / salty and the service could've been better.

but.

sometimes other things such as quality, taste, flavor, and variety overtake all the negative things and turn me into this biased monster praising this place.

you know, i barely knew what was on the menu because it was all raw text but i got the fried rice, the pad maow, the pad thai, green curry, deep fried curry chicken, and some spicy seafood curry dish. everything tasted outstanding. there was a really deep, concentrated, asian flavor to all of the dishes. in fact it was so pungent you can almost only appreciate it if you are from these countries.

the portions were small but the grease/salt fills you up. if you have health problems please stay away, you won't appreciate any of this. everyone else though, come give yourself a treat!

comparing to other malaysian/thai-type restaurants, tropika can kiss my ***, viphalay wasgoodbut not syphay house good, thai restaurant in causeway bay hk didn't taste that impressive, and boun thai... yeah i'm not even gonna go there - both figuratively and literally.

this place is small and looks like a dump from the outside and the inside with water dripping into buckets and so forth, but none of the customers seemed to care, and neither did i. so if you are a person that wants atmosphere, stay far, far away.

the wait can be long and treacherous so do make a reservation for the weekends. people seem to know about this place and want to keep it a secret from everyone... not no more!

the og location for syphay and still upholdsgoodquality for many years. lunch special is always the best deals and the pad thai is a must order. location is a little light on parking and inside is a bit cozy, but it shouldn't stop you from eating here. 

sal says: just eat it (4.5/5)

reallygoodfood but i've noticed prices have gone up quite a bit over the years.goodselection of asian imported beers. lunch waitress was not very friendly.

this place is hands down the best thai restaurant in edmonton. i have not been to the downtown location yet but i have heard it's nice. the south side location is not the greatest i'll admit, it looks like a house and it's rather small inside but put all that aside, the food here is absolutely fantastic.

i barely remember the thai names for most of the dishes so i'll basically call it as it is. my girlfriend got their thai iced coffee, very delicious and refreshing. reminds me of vietnamese iced coffee, but a little sweeter in agoodway. then we got their crispy curry chicken to snack on. it was piping hot, and supremely crispy on the outside. and the chicken inside was chewy but tender and had this amazing subtle curried flavour to it. for everything else we got their yellow curry with chicken accompanied with coconut rice. the curry was delicious beyond belief, full of flavour and paired with the coconut rice, it was simply heaven on a spoon. next was some pad thai, a true thai classic. simple yet full of flavour and the perfect combination of chewy textures. and lastly, my all time favorites dish is their crispy garlic shrimp. minus the peppers and onions which are also delicious, i only cared about the shrimp. perfectly crunchy, yet soft with a nice blast of garlic flavour but it's not overpowering at all. overall this is my favourite place for thai food. everything here is just divine, portions are nice and after stuffing my face. i had plenty leftover to bring home.

best thai food i've had in a while. the place seems a bit sketched but it's very cozy inside. thank goodness we've arrived a few min before 6 cuz the place got full pretty quick (which is surprising considering this is a labour day monday). the server was able to handle the whole dining room herself, which is quite impressive. we tried the thai beers. i loved the chang and my fiance liked the singha. we had tom yum paa (could be a little bit spicer), phanang curry with coconut rice (smelled and tasted amazing!) and the pad thai. everything was so filling and flavourful that i was not able fully indulge on the pad thai that everyone has been raving about. and we didn't have room for dessert. (i guess that'sgoodconsidering the place is a bit more expensive than other thai restaurants. but its totally worth it!) next time, i am definitely bringing more people so we can try more of the menu.

cool hole in the wall type restaurant with decent food. tried the syphay platter (deep fried shrimp three ways appetizer) and their pad thai with chicken. the appetizer wasgoodwith the exception of the shrimp used for the garlic shrimp rolls which my wife found all still had their "sand vein" intact - a bit unappetizing. the pad thai was decent and hadgoodheat, not the best or the worst i've ever had. if it was a touch less tart and more sweet/savory it would have hit the mark. also i realized after eating half of the dish that they forgot to put crushed peanuts on it. will be back but would probably get a different appetizer (maybe the salad rolls) and try a curry.

love this place!. if you haven't tried their panang curry, it is a must! i seriously dream about it sometimes. so tasty. it's sweet and spicy and a verygoodsize portion to share with two people.

got off the wrong foot?!. you tell me after i share my first experience.

i am kind of a foody and love love love my thai food. i thought i try this place with my sisters for a quick soup - tom yum. we got there close to 8:30 pm. the server/hostess/bus girl greeted us with "we're closing in half hour" and walked away, tended to other patrons. we asked if we could sit in the closest large table as there were 5 of us which she didn't seem impressed that we were planning to stay.

after a few minutes, we decided to just stick to ordering soup so it's not complicated for them to make and not order other item on the menu as much as i would love to. she came with no smile on her face and advised us there they are out of mushroom but will substitute with other veggies. we said we weregoodwith that. after taking our order, we asked for a pot of green tea when she asked us for drinks. she returned with glasses of water for us. we waited for our pot of tea but it never showed up. we figured they run out of tea leaves as well. our soup showed up and no veggies to be found sunk in the bottom of the bowl nor floating on top. i asked her nicely about what the substituted veggies. she said they were out unapologetically. i could not figure out how the kitchen is out of veggies but able to serve another table with a dish with veggies in it. i guess that table got all the veggies and none left for us. i asked my sisters if they wanted noodles to go with their tom yum. they are declined but i did not opt out as i just came from the gym and need food. so i asked for noodles which my sister reminded me that there is a charge for it on the menu. i said i didn't care. i thought that she may just give it to me as perhaps substitute to the veggies. when she brought the noodles, she almost tossed the dish and the noodles almost slid out. my sisters and i just looked at each other and shrug. after enjoying our soup, we decided to get going as we wanted to be considerate with our server and the rest of the kitchen staff. we just figured that perhaps she's having personal issues that's bringing her attitude down and affecting her service. by the time i got up and pay at the cash register, i noticed that the same two table were still sitting in the corner since we arrived. lucky people with veggies in their dishes! hope they got tea to enjoy with their meals as well.

anyway, when i paid for my bill, i noticed that she still charged us for the noodles. i asked her why the charge since we never got veggies in any of our soup when the soup is supposed to come with veggies (mushroom specifically). she said that she has to charge everyone. i didn't argue about it because (a) i don't want to sound like a moron and she's doing a great job doing it herself already. two was too many in one night at the same place, (b) it's a restaurant policy that she is abiding but i'm sure she could've bent for great customer service, (c) i can't argue with someone who is already having issues the minute we walked in to the venue.

i paid the bill and told her how i felt and what i observed the entire night. she gave me that look - like she's mad, maybe very unimpressed with me or 'get the hell outta here' look. whatever look she gave me, i told her that i still gave her 10% tip for bringing our food warm to us in spite of everything and that i hope she learned her lesson from this experience.

never again!. we wanted to try a different thai restaurant other than our beloved boualouang boualouang and we thought this place would be agoodchoice. we tried the salad rolls, deep fried pineapple shrimp, and garlic shrimp....ohhhh!
the salad rolls were 98% noodle with a 1/4 of a shrimp inside. the deep fried garlic shrimp were extremely tiny and looked as if they had been cooked twice in dirty oil. the pineapple shrimp wraps were also miniscule and deep fried in the same disgusting oil, and some had nothing inside???not even pineapple, and when they had a shrimp, it was the size of my thumbnail! never again will i blow 60+ dollars in this place! i have no problem paying forgoodfood and decent portions, but this was a joke! i mean i understand they want to make a profit, but this was ridiculous! the only saving grace was the thai iced tea! i will return to boualouang boualouang for my thai because they are almost always exceptional in every regard, although it's hard to get a seat on because it's so busy! jeez!

pad thai that tastes like pad thai!. spring rolls: crispy and not at all greasy, not a whole lot of flavour, but served hot and with some bottled sauce...not terrific, but not bad

cashew chicken: overload on the chicken side and under loaded on the vegetable side, tasty dish that just needs a better portion balance between vegetables and chicken.

sticky rice: served hot and sticky...well done

pad thai: this isgoodpad thai; the noodles were cooked properly and it was a nice balance between sweet and spicy, i would only say it needed a few more spouts in it...great fresh cilantro andgoodserving size.

service: was not bad but not overly quick, but friendly.

crave-worthy food. this place is busy forgoodreason. it might not be pretty on the outside but it is clean and the food is spectacular. every time i drive by i get a craving for their green curry dish. i would recommend to anyone looking for some authentic thai.

good food - slow service. this place hasgoodreviews so we went in expecting it to be great. we initially had a wait, which was surprised considering that people had left. to make a long story short, multiple people had called in sick so there was less staff than their should be. this was redeemed entirely by receiving a discount for our extensive wait. essentially the way it should be, i was not angry but they definitely made me want to come back.

food was 'good' but not great. we had the curry chicken appetizer, which was probably the highlight in my opinion. too expensive ($9) but very good. we then had the pad-ped tapaow and pad piew wan gai. the only major disappointment was that the food was seriously lacking on sauce. i was not going to complain as obviously the night was tough enough for the servers.

will be visiting again when i am in edmonton as they have shown me they are paying attention and do care to make their customers happy.

good food &goodservice. don't park south of the building. you'll get a ticket.

gem. hole in the wall place. you may not notice it if you aren't looking for it. inside you feel like you are in someone's home, and then again, maybe you are? great selection. had penang, and seafood curry. perfectly cooked seafood. great portion sizes. coconut rice is verygoodtoo!

3/5 for syphay house. whenever you drive down calgary trail it's pretty hard not to notice this shack of a restaurant out of the corner of your eye. located in pleasantview, this place really doesn't look like much. appearances aside, i kept hearing verygoodthings about this restaurant, and since i'm not one to judge a book by it's cover... i visited on a friday night.

parking is a bit of a challenge. they only have a few stalls behind the restaurant (and none were available) and apparently if you park in any of the neighbouring lots, you'll get towed. eventually we found something on a nearby side street. yes, the place looks a bit like a run-down shack, but that sort of thing is pretty endearing to me. upon entering we were asked if we had a reservation, which we did not. the wait would be 30-45 minutes, which was fine with us. our mistake for not making a reservation - i really had no idea that the place would be so packed and popular. there were people waiting at the door to get in the entire time. the restaurant is very small, and despite the shortcomings of the exterior, the inside was very warm and cute. there were lots of ornate decorations and i loved the deep purple paint on the walls.

the friendly server eventually brought us to our table (the wait wasn't so bad) and we ended up in a really nice sunny spot by the window. there are about eight tables in the room and every single one was occupied with happy diners.
when it comes to thai food, i have my "program" pretty down at this point. however, i enjoyed perusing their menu and reading about the interesting seafood dishes that they have available. i promptly began my meal with a thai iced tea. thai iced tea is made up of strongly-brewed tea and condensed milk and served over ice. this one was just asgoodas any that i've ever had. i can't help but wonder why it's so orange, but it always tastes refreshingly great. such a treat!

next we decided to order an appetizer. they have something called the syphay platter (4 meat spring rolls, 5 pineapple shrimp wraps, and 8 garlic shrimp rolls - $11.95) which seemed to provide a few different things to try. this was probably my favourite part of the entire meal. each of the brown little packets were bursting with delicious flavours. the spring rolls were meaty. the pineapple shrimp wraps were really something new and different - i loved how creamy the insides were and how they bursted with sweet, fresh pineapple. the shrimp rolls were cute and tiny little morsels of flavour. every item dove into the dipping sauce, and i enjoyed them all.

next up was the main event, in which we stuck pretty closely to our usual favourites; gang keauy (green curry, coconut milk, green and red peppers, snow peas, broccoli, basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves - $16.95), pad thai (stir fry rice noodles in a chili sauce, egg, bean sprouts, carrots, chives, topped with peanuts and cilantro - $15.95) and of course coconut rice ($3.50). all of the food arrived fairly quickly. each dish gave you the option of choosing either chicken, beef, or tofu to go with it, so we chose the tofu for the green curry and we paid a little bit extra to have chicken and shrimp in the pad thai.
first the green curry. i loved how bright and fresh all of the vegetables were, and i also really liked that the tofu had been fried before tossing it into the dish as opposed to the globby white cubes that sometimes turn up. there isn't much better than green curry over coconut rice... but i found the curry itself to be a little bit off. it must be this restaurant's style, but the curry was more like a gravy, which i wasn't used to. at first i noted the benefits: that it would adhere to the rice much better instead of running straight through. but in the end, i just wasn't thrilled with this dish.

the pad thai was a bit of an improvement. it was pretty standard fare, noodles and nuts and a distinct tamarind sauce. not much to complain about. i enjoyed shoveling the bites into my mouth and went back for seconds of this dish.
the coconut rice was excellent and full of coconut flavour!

the food was alright, but nothing that blew my mind, and i certainly know of better thai places in town. the worst part was that the food really did not sit very well in my stomach and i didn't feel so great for the rest of the night. my co-diner didn't feel this way at all, so i really have no explanation for why this happened. i wanted to love you the way that the rest of edmonton seems to, syphay house... but it just wasn't there for me.