April 2010: Suko Thai Restaurant & Patio

At the table: Bibi, Nad B, Nad R, CJ, Shara (blog author)

Bibi brought us together at Suko Thai this month. (Winston Churchill & Laird in Mississauga, just south of Hwy 403). 

On a Sunday evening, the restaurant wasn't busy. The decor delivered an authentic feel with rich reds, golds, statuettes, art, curio cabinets with cultural trinkets. The highlight was the beautiful fountain toward the back of the restaurant and a large gold mural by the bar area.

The service was friendly, but our server lacked a bit of menu knowledge and we had to ask for a lot of "standard" stuff (napkins, water, utensils...). Nad R challenged her with her carefully crafted virgin caesar order. Always hit or miss. In this case, a complete miss. The magic formula: half ice, no spice, extra worcestershire. What she got was a glass of Clamato juice with tabasco, lots of ice and no worcesteshire. Sigh.

I had a bottle of Singha Lager, a Thai beer. 5.0% alcohol, very light, appetizing. I was pleased, but I've had this beer before at the Toronto Festival of Beer (a beer lovers utopia!). I was impressed with the Singha branded stein to pour into (it's the small things that count!).

To start, we shared a bunch of appetizers: chicken dumplings (fried not steamed), papaya salad, mango salad (both made with unripened fruit, tart not sweet with a great crunch!), fried calamari (thick cut and perfect!) and shrimp rangoon - fried dumplings stuffed with whole shrimp, cream cheese and green onion - very yum! The food was great  - a good balance of fresh and fried - and we were full before we could order an entree! So we went straight to dessert (except for the veggie red curry than Nad B ordered in lieu of dessert).

Dessert #1 - deep fried coconut ice cream (like Mexican fried ice cream). I was expecting, or rather hoping, that the dish would be served hot on the outside, cold on the inside. I've had it this way only once before, years ago, at  Mexicali Rosas in London, ON and it was sooo good! At Suko Thai, the dish was probably pre-made and served right out of the freezer. So I didn't get the fried ice cream experience I was hoping for this time, but the ice cream itself, with real coconut, was delish!

Dessert #2 - deep fried bananas! These came lightly battered, hot and coated in a sweet syrup and were oh so rich and oh so good, especially if you ate it with the coconut ice cream and chased it with a sip of coffee. Yum!

I like that the menu had the chef's recommendations if you were "new" to Thai food. Wish I was hungry enough to have tried an entree (Nad B - tell us how the red curry was!). My choice before we binged on appies was a toss up between Oyster Sauce Beef & Broccoli or Pineapple Rice.

Overall, a good experience. I'll have to go back and try an entree. The only other Thai cuisine I've had is at Springrolls -  one of our faves and 2 locations in Mississauga!

Have you had great Thai food somewhere? Tell us about it!