California Thai

Markville Shopping Centre 5000 Highway 7 East (Unit 68) Markham ON, L3R 4M9 Website: http://www.californiathai.caNotes: Pretty looking but bad tasting. Sweet Mango Stir-Fry with Shrimp $10.95, Pad Thai with Chicken $9.95

Price: $ Ambiance: Casual Food: 1/5 Service: 3/5 Tummy Points: 1/5

Thai food started its craze along side the Asian fusion popularity in Toronto around the late 90s and now there is a restaurant claiming to be Asian fusion. Unfortunately Thai seemed to have settled to become associated with greasy, ketchup flavored noodle dishes claimed to be pad thai. It’s like California rolls at Japanese restaurants. I’ve never seen California rolls on any menu while I was in Japan, yet it’s part of the standard North American Japanese restaurant menu.

Sadly, California Thai takes Thai into something even worst than what I mentioned. They use some of the American style Cantonese fast food preparation style and brought it into the Thai realm.

The sweet mango stir fry with Tiger Shrimp I ordered was a mess of sweet and sour sauce and undercooked vegetables. The shrimps are what you get from those frozen shrimp platters from the grocery store. I’ve had tiger shrimps and they didn’t look like what I got. It had less than 5 thin strips of unripe mango. The red pepper flakes didn’t make it spicy, it’s just there to make the dish look pretty.

Pad Thai was flavorless unless you can call oil a flavor. There were only a handful pieces of peanut sized chicken pieces. The best part was the crushed peanuts.

Service was polite and attentive. The seating and interior was nice looking. Food plating was pretty too. But I wouldn’t come back to this restaurant just for its pretty looks. I highly recommend avoiding this restaurant.