Review: Siam Thai Cuisine
587 Saint Anne’s Road
(204) 254-7765
I had great hopes for Siam Thai. They came highly recommended by a lot of people.
People who have never been to Thailand, obviously. Or compared the so-called Thai food at Siam Thai to any other non-descript Asian food they’ve eaten.
I went to Siam Thai with my family after my brother Robin’s graduation at the University of Manitoba in the spring. Granted, it’s a pretty restaurant, done up much better than other Chinese restaurants, but the food doesn’t stand up to much criticism.
The tom yam soup was just okay. The pork with Thai basil was appetizing but only because it had that sugar-added taste of western Asian cooking. The cashew chicken, I have no words. It was more like a bad version of gai ding, a Chinese dish of diced vegetables stir-fried with cashews and chicken. This wasn’t even close to the delicious Thai dish. The matsaman was good, but that’s a hard curry to mess up, and the gai lan in oyster sauce and steamed rice were fine.
At the end of the day, Siam Thai is a “Thai” restaurant run by ethnic Chinese who lived in Thailand for a few years. It might be a favourite of many, but I’d rather spend my evening at Bangkok Thai in Osborne.
