TL;DR – Tha Phae Tavern now has brunch and it’s pretty good. Would recommend.
Found out last night that the Tha Phae Tavern on Richmond and Duncan across from the Chum FM building started doing brunch. Figured I’d give it a go since I live in the area.
Ordered the Thai pan eggs and sausage and the Thai Boat Noodles, pairing it with a Singha pineapple mint Radler and the Chaati no.9 for drinks. Was comped some Thai crullers for dessert.
The drinks came first starting with the Singha Pineapple mint radler which I found quite refreshing. The ratio of pineapple juice to beer masked the beer entirely making this very easy drinking. The Chaati no. 9 came in one of those cute cat shaped drink glasses you’d find at the Cocktail Emporium. More of a dessert drink since it had a yogurt and coconut milk base. A bit on the sweeter and creamier side. Likely a super dangerous drink if you’re a girl that prefers fruity desserty drinks.
The Thai Pan Eggs came with some nice crispy bacon, savory sausage, minced chicken some cherry tomatoes and some Thai crullers. Came with two sauces. Ketchup and a Tom Yum sauce. Very similar to Kiin on Adelaide when they offered brunch and it makes sense because this place is also by the same owners at PAI.
The Eggs came perfectly cooked sunny side up with the yolk somewhere between runny and jammy. Having it with both the ketchup and the Tom Yum sauces worked really well. Bacon was thick cut and crispy. Sausage was nice and savory without feeling greasy. Loved it with the Tom Yum dipping sauce. The minced chicken was really nice and worked well with the eggs. The cherry tomatoes were cherry tomatoes but it worked really well with the sausage. The crullers were pretty good but I wished they were “breadier” to soak up the egg yolks more.
Only thing I wished they had was some Maggi sauce but once the boat noodles came out, it also came with some sauces which included some spicy fish sauce. Adding that to the eggs and sausage took it to 11 for me, although I’d still like some Maggi on this.
The boat noodles were quite nice. Wasn’t too sure what to expect since it mentioned the broth was made with beef bones and beef blood but it didn’t have any strong flavours that jumped out. The broth was rich with a depth of flavour and the noodles were expertly done. I was expecting weird but it was a genuinely pleasant experience. Adding the hot sauce and the fish sauce gave it a little bit of heat and another dimension of flavour.
Would have preferred plain rice noodles over the rice/tapioca noodles that they used which I think is what PAI also uses for their beef noodles now. The starchiness of the noodles are a hit and a miss for me as I think plain rice noodles would take in the broth better but otherwise a pretty solid bowl of noodles.
I ended up putting a little too much of the hot sauce into the broth but thankfully taking a sip of the Chaati No. 9 helped balance things.
The Thai crullers that were served as dessert were basically more of the same crullers I had with my Thai pan eggs and sausage. Only difference was it served with three sauces. An ube sauce, a pandan sauce and a thai tea sauce. The crullers definitely made more sense as a dessert than my attempt to use it in place of bread for the eggs.
The pandan sauce was simply amazing and was the best of the three. Rich pandan flavour with a soft serve ice cream like texture. The Ube sauce was good but would have loved it to have a stronger ube flavour or even a hint of vanilla. The Thai tea sauce was the one I was most interested in but was really mild in flavour.
Really wished the Thai tea flavours would come out more. It was the thickest of the three sauces and didn’t coat the crullers very well. Would have preferred sweetened condensed milk with some of the Thai tea flavouring or maybe even just the Thai tea slush they serve.
Overall great experience. The service was great and the food was great. I love that there’s a Thai brunch option in the area again and definitely plan on coming back for brunch to try their Thai chicken and waffles as well as their rice porridge. Would totally recommended.
by buddroyce