Restaurant Pichai centers its culinary focus on the vibrant and bold traditions of Thai cuisine, prioritizing the integration of intense aromatics and precise heat levels. The kitchen specializes in authentic grill preparations that highlight the natural qualities of fresh seafood and premium fish cuts. Patrons encounter a direct approach to flavor where fermented seasonings and fresh herbs define each prepared dish. This establishment emphasizes a straightforward engagement with regional Thai cooking methods to deliver complex profiles in every bite. The environment remains dedicated to the delivery of these high-impact ingredients through traditional wood-fired grilling techniques. By maintaining strict standards for ingredient sourcing, the menu ensures that the specific textures and pungent profiles essential to this culinary style remain consistently represented in every portion served.
Restaurant Pichai is located at 5985 Rue St-Hubert, Montreal, H2S 2L8. in the neighborhood of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie. (located inside Plaza Saint-Hubert).
Online ordering is not directly available on this page for Restaurant Pichai. You can call (514) 419-1606 and see if the restaurant takes orders by phone.
Does Restaurant Pichai have a menu available?
While a dedicated menu isn't hosted directly on this profile, you can visit their official website to view current offerings.
Restaurant Pichai offers an exceptional and memorable dining experience, characterized by inventive, flavorful, and authentic Thai-inspired cuisine that stands out for its bold, complex, and spicy profiles. Guests frequently praise standout dishes like the raw scallops, grilled pork collar, mushroom salad, and the signature Thai tea tiramisu, noting the high quality and freshness of the ingredients. The atmosphere is vibrant, cozy, and intimate, creating a lively setting perfect for sharing plates with friends. While the popularity of the restaurant necessitates reservations well in advance, many diners appreciate the warm, knowledgeable, and attentive service provided by the staff, who are often highlighted for their ability to guide guests through the curated, rotating menu.
My wife & I were looking for a unique place to have our 45th anniversary dinner & she spotted Pichai when reading through a magazine that listed the 100 best restaurants in Canada. It had an intriguing & tasty-looking menu, wasn't overly far away from our home in southwestern Ontario, & appeared to be one of the few that wouldn't cost us our first-born child just to eat there!
We started off sharing a sup pak vegetable salad from the specials list, featuring broccoli & thinly sliced mushrooms among other things. The combination of textures & flavour were amazing! We've never had anything quite like it.
For mains, we shared two dishes from the regular menu. The first was laab ped, a salad made with ground duck meat & grilled duck hearts. It was served with pieces of cabbage leaves into which you put some of the salad along with some sticky rice, then folded it & ate it. Wow! It was soooo good! Also somewhat spicy, which I liked just fine.
The second was naem moo yang, which featured fermented & grilled slices of pork, roasted peanuts, & lemongrass. This dish also came with pieces of cabbage onto which you could put a chunk of meat & some sticky rice, fold it, & eat it. My wife especially loved this dish, claiming it was one of the best dishes she has ever had. We've eaten in many ethnic restaurants in our lifetime so far, so this is really saying something!
For dessert, we shared a Thai tea tiramisu. A delicious way to end our meal!
Drinks were a mocktail & a glass of wine. Along with a tip, our bill came to just under $150, which we thought was a great price for such a nice dining experience. The restaurant is cozy inside & has a very lively atmosphere! Tables are close together & between the music playing & other voices raised in conversation, it was challenging to talk to each other at times. Not the place for a quiet, intimate dinner! But if you want to try some unique Thai fusion food in a happening place, we would highly recommend this restaurant! Be sure to make a reservation ahead of time. As you can imagine, it's a popular restaurant & is always busy! But so worth the effort!
Truly an amazing dining experience. I haven't had so much flavor in so long. I sat at the bar & the bartender was LOVELY. What he did right was repeat back my order several times as to make sure my order is right. This is a professional move as I had a terrible dining experience at another restaurant previously where the server accused I didn't order one dish & I obviously did.
Service was impeccable, the kind where it's not too much but just right, a delicate dance. I really appreciated one server bringing me the food & asked if I wanted to hear French or English I thought that was really thoughtful & not assuming even though many English speaking people dine there.
On to the food- the scallops are just divine, so many explosions of flavor. The fermented pork belly also so delicious. Smashed cucumbers were just perfect. I would perhaps skip out on the tapioca balls as they seemed a bit lost especially if you're going to order something that has rice or sticky rice, it'll be too much carbs & make you full. As a solo diner it was great to have the option of having half portions. The amount suggested by my server was just right, allowing me to take home leftover curry for dinner the next day. (The curry is always a good choice to take home for the next day!) A special place not to be missed!
Great service, & above average food. The pork belly was a little salty but the rice & cabbage offset it. However the rice does get dry & hard very quick.
The dumplings were amazing & is a must order. Of course the Thai tiramisu is also worthy of a try.
The dishes were loaded with playful spicy & subtle flavours & textures, light & fresh but also satisfying like comfort food. I was so full & happy after the corn salad & eggplant salad (which came with a nice portion of sticky rice to soak up the sauce) off the temporary specials menu. I'll be back to try more dishes soon :)
2026: I came back & had the special Galam Plee Pad Gapi (cabbage with oyster mushrooms) & a half portion of the pork collar which comes with sticky rice. Both were very good. The pork is salty but in a good way when you mix it with the rice & & eat the leaf in between bites. Also, maybe I'm just socially compatible with the staff but I think they give the best service in Montreal, maybe a tie or step up from mikado. They make you feel at home !
I came back a week later to have the Tom Som Pla soup (rockfish from Gaspesie, pineapple, tamarind). It was really wholesome but the red chilies are super spicy & they don't serve it with rice so this one I'd recommend ordering a rice to go with it. I think they should just include one tbh but I was lucky enough to be sitting next to someone who let me have some of her's ;)
A few weeks later I returned & treated myself to a mushroom night : 1/2 portion of Hed Nem Tok (grilled Montreal mushroom salad) that came with sticky rice, khanom jeeb tod (fried dumplings with stuffed pork, shrimp, Woodear mushrooms, Jimmy nardello sriracha), & 1/2 portion of the gaeng panang jaay (red curry, maitake mushrooms, celeriac, seasonal greens) that came with jasmine rice. Everything was exquisite & the service amazing as usual 🫠
Came back & had the nam Tok gai tod (lemongrass herb fried chicken that comes with dill & coriander & sticky rice). It was nice. There's a strong spicy salty kick. Similar flavour profile as their other dishes but not one of my favorites honestly. I sat on the terrace for a moment in the sun & it was chill.
Returned to have the pad normai farang & asked to get more of the rest instead of egg. The asparagus was sooo high quality & perfectly cooked. Nice fermented bean & garlic chive flavours
Always a pleasure talking to the staff, especially the manager Paras. She's such a sweetie!!! 🥺
Good service , place is nice but sorry to say too salty , my crabe des neige special dish especially, the papaye salad was a bit tasteless & the mango chausson well ....somehow I m sure mango jam at costco taste better nearly 200$ meal including another 2 starters & 3 drinks including tax only one person eating .....I d be tempted to go down to one star for food but as far as I m concerned this is nowhere near Thai food ...the only descent one was the pork sticky rice & cabbage leaves . I don't really understand the food critics in canada as this is now twice I follow their opinions & honesty vin min L.... left me the same bitter impression of money badly spent. But I can understand that if you haven't been to Asia you might think that salty soy sauce is the vinaigrette of Asian food.i would normally not make a bad review but when you have been named in the news by critics should live up to your expectations....it really leaves me wondering on how restaurants critics get to base their critics on ....
I would rather say that this's a hit n miss restaurant. First of all, get the raw scallops please ppl ! It is so good ! Well balanced limey flavor with the right texture of the cold fresh scallops , very tasty! However it went downhill form the very fabulous scallops, because of the'way too salty seasonal menu item -- fried chicken'. It comes with a nice bowl of sticky rice & bitter greens ( which are pretty nice) , but the fried chicken itself was super salty & relatively dry , it almost feels like it was forgotten by the chef & left in the super salty fish sauce for more than 3 days ! Even with the sticky rice & bitter greens, it was way too salty! Sadly, when we mentioned this to the waiter at the end, we didn't get any answers from the kitchen. The curry dishes are fine, it just the fact that they don't have any green curry dish at the moment let me down a bit since me personally finds the most attractive curry is hand down green ! Hunger steak is pretty good in curry sauce, the mushroom curry is a bit too sweet for my taste, but it all fine. Just the fried chicken, avoid it at all cost ! By the way, the atmosphere was nice though, chill & filled with fish sauce scent 😀
Great food 2 out of 3 plates were excellent, great vibe, ok service
Terrible Cocktails one was sad the other was just not drinkable.
Sticky rice was hard & cold felt like it was from the day before.
I have to say this experience was far below my expectations.
I came here with a friend after seeing it promoted on social media as one of Canada's top restaurant menus. We arrived with high expectations, but unfortunately, the food did not live up to the hype.
First of all, every dish was overly salty. The seasoning was so heavy that we couldn't taste the flavors of the meat. All the meats tasted very similar because the seasoning overpowered everything. Even the tom yum soup was excessively salty.
The portion sizes were relatively small as the staff suggested. However, despite the small portions, I couldn't even finish my meal because it was simply too salty to continue eating, I had to drink so many water after every bite.
The sticky rice that came with the dish was cold & hard, as if it had been sitting out for a long time.
Service was average. The staff did briefly introduce the dishes when serving them, which I appreciated. However, no napkins were provided throughout the meal, & we only received them after asking at the very end. They didn't check on us during the meal time, the water ran out & then I stopped eating (I really can't eat more without my water because they are way too salty 😭😭😭). The chef should definitely try what they are cooking.
Overall, this experience was not pleasant & it will be my last time here.
We started off with the scallops which were a solid 8.5/10 but everything fell apart shortly after.
The tartare & the pork jowl were okay (maybe a 6/10 but the rice that it came with felt like cement rather than sticky rice)… the food was also way too salty
The duck dish & the noodle dish however were both irredeemably disgusting. Incredibly oily, bland & the meat feeling like the texture of pet food.
We were expecting a lot more from this restaurant based on the reviews we saw online.
Thai food is usually fragrant, spicy & delicious & honestly this joint should be shut down by the Thai embassy. (False advertisement)
