Bangkok Garden Review

Bangkok Garden Front

I am always looking for the ideal downtown restaurant — one that is classy but not too pricey, beautifully designed but still large enough to accommodate a lot of people, with delicious ethnic food that still appeals to a wide variety of individuals. Our latest tip includes all these features.

Bangkok Garden restaurant is an inconspicuous restaurant that opens up into a two-story, beautifully designed interior, with plentiful seating and delicious, authentic Thai cuisine.

My trip for the lunch buffet started off eventfully: my companion and I walked right by the venue twice before we found it! Once inside, we climbed up the steps to wait in line to be seated. We had the option to either eat from the menu or choose the buffet (we chose the latter) and proceeded to our meals.

Bangkok Garden Entrance

Once inside Bangkok Garden, you can’t help but notice the amazing décor. With gorgeous hanging lanterns and a wood interior, Bangkok Garden emits a cozy ambience. The miniature pond inside the restaurant with live fish is a wonderful touch, and the little bridge between the buffet and seating and winding stair case to the second floor encourage the customers to interact with the environment. Part of the ceiling is made of glass, which allows for a lot of natural light, and the restaurant is large, which allows it to accommodate a lot of people as well as large groups, while still maintaining its quiet, intimate atmosphere.

Lunch Buffet

The buffet was plentiful: there was a soup station, where you could choose your own ingredients and have a Thai soup prepared especially for you; followed by a line-up of salads, rice, curries, and noodles. Lastly, at the end of the buffet table, was a dessert tray and fresh fruit.

For a starter, I would recommend the crunchy mango salad – slightly under-ripe mango cooked and tossed into a salad. The veggie spring roll was delicious as well, but very filling. The noodles were a definite hit, with a sweet, sticky Pad Thai particularly worthy of second helpings, and I recommend adventurous customers to try the ginger chicken curry on rice and the red chili curry on rice. The batter-fried banana was a very interesting choice to complement the meal.

Noodles, Pad Thai and Spring Rolls

While I was disappointed with the desserts (most of which were made with a hard, chewy jelly), the fresh fruit was both plentiful and delicious, which is commendable since fresh fruit was not in season during my visit to Bangkok Garden.

Menu prices range from $7.00 for appetizers to $45.00 for entrees, with most of the entrees around $20 plus tax. The restaurant also offers a special buffet lunch deal for a pretty reasonable $14.95.

Bangkok Garden Interior

I highly recommend Bangkok Garden for an intimate dinner date or corporate dinner with a client. Large groups should be careful to note that the restaurant operates on a quieter, classy feel – but the seating is plentiful and so is the menu, which is perfect to accommodate a variety of palettes in a large group. The website allows customers to make a reservation online through OpenTable, and I would advise you to do so in advance, as the restaurant fills up quickly and those with reservations have priority. Also, the buffet tends to be very popular, so get there early; my companion and I found that, once we went back for a second helping, a lot of the items were almost finished, and we had to scrounge for remnants before a new container of piping-hot, flavourful food came out. But that happens when somebody serves a wonderful meal!

Bangkok Garden Information
Address: 18 Elm Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1G7
Phone Number: 416-977-6748
Bangkok Garden official website
Hours:
Lunch: Monday to Friday 11:30 A.M. -2:30 P.M.
Dinner: Monday to Saturday 5PM – 10:00 P.M.
Detailed menu information can be found on the website.