To discover authentic Thai cuisine in Toronto, Salad King gives you the refined flavours of Thai food with a friendly ambience.

Established in 1991, Thai SELECT Salad King has been serving Ryerson and the downtown Toronto neighbourhood for the past 20 years. Its friendly and vibrant service has welcomed up to 2,000 customers coming through the restaurant each day.

The philosophy of the restaurant is to offer tasty and affordable Thai food made with quality homemade ingredients. “Our service is fast and friendly,” says Alan Liu, general manager of Salad King and Linda Modern Thai. “Our aim is to make sure all our customers leave Salad King with bellies full and big smiles on their faces.

“We have a lot of stories to tell, but the ones that are most special to us are the ones we have grown up with. We have seen our customers go to the nearby Ryerson University, graduate, start work, get married and are now bringing their children to Salad King. Those are the most special to us.”
Liu reveals that the Thai SELECT mark is essential to guarantee the authenticity of the cuisine. “Because we do not look like a typical ‘hole-in-the-wall’ style Thai restaurant, we get challenged about the authenticity of our cuisine quite regularly,” he says. “Having the Thai SELECT mark certifies our authenticity and proves that we can run a successful Thai restaurant while maintaining good quality food and service.”

 According to Liu, Thai food is attractive as it contains a variety of tastes. “The complex flavours of spicy, sweet, sour, savoury, bitter are all balanced,” he says.

While the restaurant has many Thai dishes, Liu highlights a couple of typical Thai dishes as going down well with the Toronto clientele. “We have a very extensive menu and every customer has their own favourite dish,” he says. “Some of our most popular dishes include pad thai and chicken green curry. We were one of the first restaurants in Toronto to use tamarind and fish sauce in our pad thai and chicken green curry.”

Liu attributes the restaurant’s success to the quality of the service and its focus on customer satisfaction. “We have always insisted on using good quality ingredients, cooking and service, and that has helped us establish our client base,” he says. “But just as important is having good business disciplines that allow you to manage the business.”

Salad King
340 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M5B 1R8, Canada
(+1) 416-593-0333
www.saladking.com

Words by Natthinee Ratanaprasidhi

Ingredient tips:

Gui Chai or Allium Tuberosum Similar in flavour to garlic, Gui Chai is used to season food, especially in pad thai. It comes in both green and yellow varieties.

Thai Select

Salad King is endorsed by the DITP under its Thai Select scheme. The Thai SELECT programme was launched to certify and promote authentic Thai cuisine around the world. It is a seal of approval granted to Thai restaurants – both overseas and local Thai eateries that serve authentic food – and processed Thai food products. The objective is to increase the recognition of quality Thai restaurants and processed Thai food products as well as to encourage Thai restaurateurs and food producers to raise quality while maintaining authenticity. For more details of the scheme visit: http://www.thaiselect.com