Isaan Der

A new Thai place opened up in the Junction that looked pretty interesting, so I was excited to finally give it a try.

Restaurant: Isaan Der
Location: The Junction
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 14 months

We originally showed up with the stroller, but upon assessing the space, I decided to put the stroller back in the car while my husband and son got a table. The hostess seated us in the back of the restaurant, which was nice because there was a little side table that I could put my diaper bag on.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
In case you didn't get it from my opening, this restaurant is not stroller friendly, which is shocking considering its location in the Junction. There is a step at the entrance, and there is no room to park a stroller, let alone bring it to a table. They did manage to provide a high chair, though.

The washroom is located downstairs and does not have a change table or counter space, but there is a toilet seat lid.

It's not ideal, but better than changing a diaper on the floor. Then again, if you have an older baby, you could also change a diaper while your baby is standing.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The servers were nice to us and greeted my son as they walked by, commenting about how impressive it was that he eats Thai food. They also didn't seem to mind when my son decided he wanted to practice walking around after he finished eating. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
They were out of papaya salad but substituted it with a mango salad, so we started with that and the golden bags.

The golden bags are deep fried pastries with water chestnuts, carrots, and mushrooms, served with chilli sauce. The mango salad was pretty much a traditional mango salad, so it was good but not extraordinary. The golden bags, on the other hand, were different and delicious. Next we ordered the pad Thai.

The pad Thai is made with rice noodles, chicken, bean sprouts, tofu, oyster sauce, chives, and lime. My son loves eating this, and I'd say it was quite good too, although similar to the mango salad, there wasn't anything about it that was especially memorable. We also got the guaytiaw gang. 

This was very good and I highly recommend it. It's rice noodles in curry sauce, bean sprouts, tofu, beef, and boiled egg. The curry sauce acted as a soup and was so hearty. My one caution is that I read a review that described this as the Isaan Der version of Khao soi, and I find that description inaccurate, as there isn't really anything that provides a crunch. If you don't go in with that mindset, though, the dish is really tasty. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½

The food is good, and it's not just your typical Thai restaurant. The accessibility isn't ideal, though, especially if you have a younger baby and you are a first time parent. The service is decent, though, so if you have an older baby, this place is probably worth checking out. 

Kub Khao Thai Eatery

We were visiting my mom and sister in Scarborough and decided to go out for lunch. I'm trying to have my son eat whatever I eat instead of bringing food with him, so I was looking for a decent place with baby friendly food (aka not sushi), and my husband suggested we go for Thai.

Restaurant: Kub Khao Thai Eatery
Location: Scarborough
Meal: Lunch
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 13 months

Heads up: the location is weird. The restaurant is in this small strip mall and there is a gas station right in front of it. The parking lot is small too, although I suppose it's sufficient for the size of the plaza. I probably would have missed it except there were a couple girls standing in front of the restaurant taking selfies (in the middle of an open parking spot, I might add - grrr).

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
Since the place is quite small, they actually only have one high chair. I think I might have hijacked it by accident, because upon arrival, we said we needed a table for four adults and a baby, and they seated us after they seated a larger party with two children (not babies, I should add, but one was a toddler). A server started walking in our direction with the high chair and I immediately stepped forward and said thank you, and directed her to where I wanted it. She paused and clarified that I needed the high chair, and my mom and I both insisted that we did, so she placed it at our table before proceeding to apologize to the other table. In my defence, the adult chairs at my table were stools, whereas the larger party had a long bench seat. Anyway.

The moral of the story is that there is only one high chair. The good news is that they also have plastic plates and cutlery for kids, which my son found very exciting. As expected, the washroom does not have a change table.

There also isn't really any counter space, but the toilets do have lids if you need to change a diaper so that's useful.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Service was fine - as I mentioned earlier, there was obviously some confusion regarding the high chair, but once they gave it to me, the server immediately got a cloth and cleaner to clean the chair for me as well (I usually use my wipes to clean high chairs before my son sits down, and when she saw I was about to do this she intervened). She also was nice enough to provide the plastic silverware (is it still called silverware if it's plastic?) for my son, and she answered questions that we had about the menu. Overall the server was pretty hands off, so she doesn't really come back to check how we are doing once the food arrives, but that's fine by me.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I love that this restaurant has lunch specials because I like having smaller portions at lunchtime. I ordered the street lunch of grilled pork with sticky rice.

The pork was on skewers and the sticky rice was served in a little basket on the side. The pork had a nice sweetness to it without being overpowering, and the sticky rice was a great complement. My husband ordered a quick lunch, which was served with mango salad.

The mangoes were nice and refreshing and particularly great for my son, who is obsessed with all fruit. I don't know how I feel about the wonton crisps - they add a nice crunch but aren't particularly  special. For his actual lunch, my husband had the pad Thai with chicken.

It was a decent pad Thai that made for a satisfying lunch, made with eggs, tofu, bean sprouts, chives, tamarind sauce, and peanuts. My baby was a bigger fan of the chicken and tofu from here than he was of the grilled pork, but as a mom I was just happy that he was eating. Since we didn't know what my baby would eat, we also ordered a starter of chicken toast for the table. 

It comes with sweet chilli sauce, and let me tell you, this was delicious but totally not what I would order for a baby. The toast is deep fried with chicken on it, which is awesome for me but I would rather not feed my baby deep fried food if I don't have to. As a dish, I fully recommend it - just don't be fooled by the name!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½

This is actually a really good find for Thai food in Scarborough! It's not exactly designed to be baby friendly but the food is great so if you go at off-peak times, you might be okay bringing a baby here. 

Linda Modern Thai

I found myself in the Don Mills area one day and decided that I don't eat enough Thai food (that's not entirely accurate - I tend to get takeout), so my mom met me at Shops on Don Mills.

Restaurant: Linda Modern Thai
Location: Don Mills
Meal: Lunch
Day: Thursday
Son's Age: 6 months

Linda Modern Thai is an upscale restaurant brought to you by the people behind Salad King, aka the place that made me realize that I like Thai food. Obviously, I went in with high expectations.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Right off the bat, this restaurant has an automatic door, which, to be fair, is probably meant for wheelchairs rather than strollers, but worked well for me nonetheless. The host seated us at a table for four and removed a chair so that I could park my stroller.

Side note in case you're wondering - my son can only sit unassisted for a little at a time and thus cannot sit in a wooden high chair yet, so I keep him in the car seat whenever I eat out in case I need to fold the stroller up. You probably don't actually care. I just feel the need to say it because my son does in fact now sit in the proper stroller seat. But anyway, back to the topic. Washroom!

This is pretty much the best scenario. Single washroom with more than adequate space for a stroller, plus a proper change table. Perfect!

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The service was good - I had an embarrassing moment where I figured what I wanted to order and loudly said "okay someone serve me now!", and immediately the server was at our table. I wasn't actually being demanding; I was just joking around with my mom, but man are they prompt. The server also commented on how cute my son was, which I always appreciate.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The restaurant has a weekday lunch menu, which I like since dinner portions tend to be too large for midday. I ordered the panang curry with crispy beef.

I admit that I didn't know what I was expecting when I ordered this. I suppose I thought the beef would be entirely crispy somehow, although now that I say that I don't see how that makes sense. Anyway, the beef has a crispy fried skin around it, and is then sliced to reveal tender beef on the inside. It is also sitting in the curry rather than mixed in. I found overall it was quite good, although the beef was slightly on the dry side. The curry had great flavour, and there was just enough for the rice to soak up without a lot of excess sauce.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The food is nice and the place is very baby-friendly, so overall I recommend bringing your baby here.

Khao San Road

I'm a little surprised with myself that it took me so long to take my son to a Thai restaurant. I love Thai food so much that I went to Thailand for my honeymoon. Because of the food. Anyway, I finally managed to get some post-baby Thai food!

Restaurant: Khao San Road
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 22 weeks

So I'm a little confused as to what was going on with this restaurant, to be honest. Khao San Road was located on Adelaide, but that location has closed. They have a sister restaurant called Nana in Trinity Bellwoods, and apparently Khao San Road is now operating out of there. You would never know from looking, though, because all the signage says Nana and there is no indication that it's anything else. There's also only the one menu so it's not like you can choose to order off a Khao San Road menu versus a Nana menu. Long story short: I'm not completely clear which restaurant I am reviewing.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️
I had to get my stroller over a step to enter the restaurant, and was surprised to discover that all seating was on stools, which meant that I would not be able to place the car seat on a chair. Luckily, I brought my son in a stroller, so the server gave me a table at the front so I wouldn't obstruct anyone.

The washrooms were in the back, and given the setup of the restaurant, there was no way I was getting my stroller there. Instead I brought my son into the washroom with me in his car seat.

The washroom lacks a changing table or any clear counter space to change my son. The upside is that it is large enough to bring a car seat in and place on the floor, so I didn't have to worry about abandoning my baby at the table - not that I would do that, of course. The washroom is also surprisingly on the same floor, not in the basement, so that makes it a bit easier to get to when I'm lugging around a heavy car seat.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Service level was different at the beginning of my visit versus later. While the host offered me the table by the front, I sat for a while without a menu or water. As a breastfeeding mom, I am pretty much perpetually thirsty, so water is kind of important. I waited for a while until the server came out and started taking people's orders. When she got to me, she asked me if I was ready to order, and I said I would like a menu and a glass of water. She quickly got me a menu and then continued on while I waited for water. A few minutes later she asked if I was ready to order, and immediately I said yes, and I would like to start with a glass of water. I placed my order, then watched as she took the next table's orders, then punched them in. I could see the water cups and pitchers and I was so tempted to serve myself at that point. Once I finally got my water, she was significantly more attentive, and my water glass was never empty afterward. My food also came quickly, but I never felt rushed. She also stopped by to interact with my son pretty regularly, which he loved. When I left, another server held the door open for me. To sum up, I started with abysmal service but once this was corrected, service was exceptional.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The restaurant has a lunch special which is a curry of the day. I always appreciate smaller portions for lunch, and the special for Tuesday was the red curry, so I chose to go with this.

I was a little worried because usually you can choose your level of spice, so I asked for Thai spicy. I was told that since it was a special, modifying the spice level was not an option. I was instead offered chilli sauce on the side. It turns out that the curry still has quite a kick! I still added the chilli sauce but I was pleasantly surprised, as the assumption is usually that the general public prefers the food to be quite mild. The curry itself was rich and flavourful, and the portion size was perfect for lunch. I would say it's as good as red curry you would find in Thailand. As a side note for breastfeeding mothers, though, I must tell you that my son typically does not react to changes in my diet, which honestly made me think that the whole concept of breast milk tasting like what I ate to be a lie. After I ate this and breastfed, though, I noticed that my baby had extremely bad gas that lasted all night so neither of us got a good night's sleep. Maybe it's the extra chilli sauce that did it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The food is fantastic, but it's not particularly easy to bring your baby here. If you are really craving delicious Thai food, though, it might be worth the effort.