Bangkok Garden.

thai... last weekend was my friend Pris' birthday and she invited a bunch of people out and we all went to a Thai restaurant downtown called Bangkok Garden. From outside, it looks pretty small, but once you walk into the dining area its very spacious and nicely decorated with lots of wood everywhere (really cool lights that look like wooden birdcages too!). Looking through the menu there were lots of different dishes including curries, noodles and grilled items as well (there were dips with many of their items as well, lol). We decided to order a bunch of appetizers to share first including a Satay ($7.95 + tax/tip), which were assorted thin marinated pieces of meat (pork, chicken and beef) on a stick with a vinegary type of dip and a peanut dipping sauce on the side. The satay was alright and I definitely prefer the dipping sauce. For appetizers, we also got the Thai Calamari ($7.95 + tax/tip) and Steamed Mussels ($7.95 + tax/tip). The calamari was pretty simple, as they were literally just normal deep fried calamari rings with some chili dip on the side (normal calamari rings taste awesome though!). The steamed mussels didn't really stand out to me, although it came with 10 of them and some spicy sauce on the side. For $7.95, it's an ok deal as you can compare it to mussels at Richtree where it costs $6.89 + tax/tip for 1/2 a pound (about 10-12 mussels).
I decided to be safe and go for a curry (which I knew would like for sure), I got the Emerald Curry of Chicken (green curry with chicken, $19.95 + tax/tip). A bunch of us also got the Tamarind Beef Curry (a tangier curry with beef and potatoes, $19.95 + tax/tip) and Vegetable Curry (vegetables and tofu in red curry, $16.95 + tax/tip). They also brought our whole table two huge bowls of rice to share and there were unlimited refills for the rice. The curries were all pretty normal, nothing special about them, especially for the nearly $20 price tag. My green curry chicken was rated at 4/5 peppers on the menu, although it was only moderately spicy, so if you like real spicy make sure you ask them to make your curry extra spicy. Pris had previously been here and suggested the Grilled Cornish Hen and Lemon Grass ($19.95 + tax/tip), which my friend Chris got. This dish was sick, it was a deboned and marinated cornish hen grilled really nicely. They were perfectly grilled and very tender pieces of the cornish hen. It also came with an orange dipping sauce, but the cornish hen itself was good enough. Also ordered were the Pattaya Grill (grilled marinated chicken breast with chili sauce on the side, $18.95) and the Ginger Duck (stir fried pieces of duck with ginger, garlic, onion, peppers, $21.95). The ginger duck came with a surprisingly generous amount of duck and went really well with rice as well.
Bangkok Garden is a decent Thai restaurant located downtown at Elm and Yonge. The food is alright and the place itself is very nice inside. It is a good place to go if you are looking to go out for to a nice Thai restaurant with a nice setting downtown. The place seemed pretty busy on a saturday night, so making a reservation wouldn't be a bad idea. Bangkok Garden is easily accessible from the Dundas TTC subway station. Although, I would suggest trying out Xaphire on Eglinton, which is pretty much half the price and equally as good or better food (check out the Xaphire Review).

Bangkok Garden
18 Elm Street, Toronto
M5G 1G7
416-977-6748