Simply Thai: Where the Bloor West Villagers Are

Simply Thai Cuisine
2253 Bloor Street West
416-769-8866
Dinner for two with all taxes, tip, and drinks: $50

In the eight years I’ve lived in Bloor West Village, dozens of restaurants have come and gone (anyone remember Lemon Meringue, Mad Apples, The Apricot Tree?). Simply Thai Cuisine has significantly less seniority than mainstays like 37-year-old Bloor Jane Restaurant, but they’ve managed to thrive by keeping the locals in freshly prepared, attractively presented Thai food.

We arrived early on a Friday night and by the time our appetizers were finished, not one table in the 40-seat restaurant was free and a significant number of people were crowded in the vestibule, waiting for takeout.

We started with the veggie fresh rolls ($4.95), yummy cylinders that fulfil the delightful paradox of being healthy and delicious at the same time. The rolls are full of crunchy carrots, buttery lettuce, bean sprouts, egg, and tofu with two sauces for dipping: a thick, savoury oyster one and a light, vinegary mix. I've had many such rolls at both Vietnamese and Thai places, but these are at top of my list - I'd come just for them.

We also split an order of the tofu and veggie clear soup ($5.95) – a fragrant, clean broth with a generous amount of soft tofu, glass noodles, and prettily-cut vegetables. Like the fresh rolls, the soup was a gentle, but flavourful beginning that whetted our appetites for more.

With our vegetarian guilt out of the way, we focused on meat for our entrées. The tamarind beef curry ($10.95) was our favourite with thick chunks of soft, stewed beef and potatoes enveloped in a sweet and savoury tamarind curry sauce. After all the beef and potatoes were consumed, we took turns pouring the remaining sauce over our side dishes of rice to get every last drop.

The pad se ew ($9.95) rice noodle dish came with tender crisp pieces of both Chinese and standard issue broccoli along with red peppers and lean chicken breast. The combination of flavours was well-balanced and the delicate noodles weren’t overcooked, but it was a bit too salty and tasted somewhat metallic from the wok.

Visually, the BBQ pork ($9.95) was very different from what we expected. The pork is actually sautéed instead of barbecued and is blanketed with minced, browned garlic. It was even more salty than the pad se ew, which was somewhat remedied by the accompanying crunchy Thai coleslaw, but not quite enough. It’s a shame because underneath all the garlic and salt, the pork was lovely and tender.

At the base of everything at Simply Thai are pristine, fresh ingredients that are masked by heavy spicing and salt in some dishes, but really shine through in others. Service is sweet, prompt, and attentive even when the restaurant is at capacity. If the number of Bloor West Villagers dining at Simply Thai is any indication, it’s on its way to becoming a mainstay in its own right.

Kaori Furue is a Toronto-based blogger who still remembers the first time she ate a fresh roll - it was like falling in love. Her adventures big and small (mostly small, and mostly about food) can be found at: I can’t believe I’m back in Toronto.