Restaurant Pichai

Mike

5.0

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!

David

5.0

Very good food. Like the concept & the service was superb. Prices are very high. The fermented pork belly was very salty.
Grilled shrimp were amazing. The Tiramisu was a layered cake which was amazing but had no connection with a Tiramisu.
Overall a very nice & enjoyable meal.

Priscilla

4.0

Nice atmosphere & I love those fusion Thai dishes & the tiramisu !

Julia

4.0

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.

Pat

5.0

One the best restaurants & hospitality experiences I've had this decade.

Did the chef's tasting menu. Utterly stunning meal, from pacing to techs to total satisfaction. Having lived in Hang Dong, CM, this grabbed the soul with gusto.

BIG shoutout to the homie Frank for the care & curation of our experience from start to finish, sparing no time or energy tending to our every remark & question. You're a gem, guy.

Standouts: Everything
But particularly: Fermented Pork Belly, Oxtail Curry, & Thai Tea Tiramisu.

Adam

5.0

Dined at Pichai on the last night of our weekend trip to Montreal - it was the highlight of our trip.

The Atmosphere: warm, full our colors, life, & small hidden details wherever you look. Great music & vibe overall.

The Service: we didn't have a reservation & were able to get a seat at the bar for 2. Our primary server (a brunette man wearing a shirt saying'piano') was welcoming, knowledgeable, & gave us great recommendations. He guided us through the menu & continued to make sure everything was perfect throughout our meal. There was ~6 other front of house staff in the restaurant at the time, everyone of which interacted with us at some point in our meal, from water service, refreshing out cutlery & plates, & small quality checks throughout the service made for an amazing dining experience. Big applause to the service staff for their attention to detail.

The Food: no notes whatsoever. We ordered 5 dishes, plus dessert to share amongst 2 people & that was the perfect amount of food. Each dish was perfectly created with a variety of elements that all complemented each other perfectly. We had the scallop crudo, tapioca dumplings, soft boiled egg, pork belly, red curry, & Thai tiramisu.

Thank you to everyone at Pichai, I will be telling everyone I know about this restaurant.

Mar

5.0

10/10 every single time. Favourite restaurant in Montreal & best Thai in the country! so. much. flavour.

Dishes are to share! You won't find your typical pad Thai, pad see eew or green curry on the menu. If you want to try a bunch of things I recommend doing the chef's choice which includes appetizers, mains & dessert. They send out a variety of items from their regular menu & specials, & can also accommodate dietary restrictions. It's plenty of food - you can expect to be walking out with leftovers & a veryyyyy happy tummy. Favourites are the mushroom salad (omg), chickpea tofu, panang curry, massaman curry & Thai tea tiramisu.

Alex

5.0

We had the chef menu. I have some dietary restrictions & they were so kind to tailor all the dishes to my needs. Everything was delicious & the portions were bountiful. The staff were also amazing. I will say, the food is generally spicy but more flavorful than hot. The Thai tea tiramisu was a great finish to our meal.

Natasha

4.0

Everything about this restaurant was exceptional, from the food to the vibes to the service. We had:
- Beef tartare (seasoned perfectly & served with sticky rice & endives to make little wraps)
- Papaya salad (so fresh & exactly what you would expect)
- Tom Yum soup, which was one of the specials (high quality, imported seafood all cooked to tender perfection in a savoury broth that warmed us to the core)
- Tiramisu (the Thai tea flavour really shone through & it was delicious, but a tad on the sweet side. Loved the addition of coconut chips on top which added texture).
My only minor issue was the quantity of cilantro on everything, though I know this is a personal preference. The soup was also served in a vessel that was very cool (central flame to keep it warm), but felt a bit impractical for serving the soup since the ladle barely fit inside it.
There was a lovely selection of natural wines to complement the meal.
Overall, really nice ambiance & great flavours, you can tell a lot of love goes into these dishes. Would definitely return!

Violetyes

5.0

amazing. LOVE the scallops, fermented pork belly, grilled pork collar & thai tea tiramisu. all super flavourful super delicious.

one thing to note we got served the sticky rice with the pork belly so we thought it came with that dish & ate it all just w that but later realized it was just a sticky rice for the table :p shoulda kept some for the other dishes