Food Review: Ying Thai

After two not so Thai food experiences in the past two weeks, I was going to give Thai food one last try. I went to Ying Thai located on Victoria Street in Abbotsford with Patrick and Dennis. Dennis had suggested it and said that it was not too expensive and quite good. This turned out to be very true and has restored my faith in Thai food.

Ying Thai is very small restaurant with a nice comfortable feel to it. The bright orange walls and colourful murials make for a pleasant happy feel. The atmosphere inside was busy without being overly noisy so that you had to shout to be heard. The service was good. We were brought ice water as we sat down and the waiter was friendly and efficient, reading back our order to make sure it was correct. The food and drinks arrived promptly and without fuss.

The Papaya Seafood Salad (left in picture) was my favourite dish. It was extremely hot and had yummy crisp papaya and carrots mixed with seafood and tangy lime and fish sauce dressing. The Red Curry Duck (middle in picture) was also delicious and a bargain at $13. The serving was much larger than last weeks one at Poppy’s Thai Restaurant and it also had a lot more duck in it as well. The curry was nice and creamy and went extremely well with the Thai Beef Fried Rice (not shown in picture). The rice was cooked nicely so that it had that “wok” flavour I love. The Pad Thai Chicken (right back in picture) was a much better one than that at Tantawon’s Thai Restaurant. It was still a little bit sweet for my liking but at least the noodles were all fully cooked and separate. Finally the Fish Fillet with Special Chilli Sauce was again very hot. The fish in batter was nice but the chilli sauce was a bit too salty. For drinks we all ordered the Thai Milk Tea, which was orange in colour. It tasted a bit like green tea ice cream as Patrick noted. This might sound strange but trust me, it was very nice and helped to cool the mouth from the spicy hot food.

Overall the food and service are of a good standard. The fact that the dishes were so cheap made it extremely good value for money, as usually Thai food is quite expensive.

Overall Rating: 14/20, Food and service good and value for money.
Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20: Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.