Queen Mother Cafe

After I read the reviews, I was confident enough to order dinner take out. I was really looking forward to taste my order. But, somehow it really didn't turned out what I expected from the reviews I read. A major disappointment I said. Since it was a take out, by the time I started my dinner, everything were "COLD": 1) Calamari for $15.95 before tax, the portion size was reasonable & the sauce & the calamari tastes were mediocre. Luckily the Calamari was still crunchy even it's cold. 2) Ping Gai for $21 before tax, because the food was cold, therefore the Ping Gai was greasy & the skin is soft. I don't eat greasy chicken skin at all. The cooked chicken was tasteless even after dipped it in the sauce. I only ate 4 piece of the Ping Gai. 3) The Nam Jeun for $8.95, the size of 3 fried spring rolls were kind of small. The wrapping of the 3 fried spring rolls were also turn soft. I only ate 1 of the Nam Jeun. 4) the salmon for $24.95 before tax, the whole order was also kind of small with a reasonable size of piece salmon, a few pan fry thin potatoes with skin on under the salmon. It came with a hand full of mixed greens salad in another container, but the salad had some bad discoloring Leafs which I picked out & thrown away. The salmon actually was the best tasting from all my orders. 5) I asked for a piece of dessert "Mother Chocolate Slice cake" $8.00, but I got a piece of round disc chocolate thing instead, I don't know what it is. I got a piece of wrong chocolate dessert. I paid $94 including tips for the whole order. All in all, it's a major disappointment. I'm not going to comment if the order was over-priced or the quality & quantity of my order,. I leave it to anyone to decide after reading my review. The nice lady who took my order was friendly & courtesy. Therefore I gave 2 stars, 1 star was for the nice lady. The other 1 star was for the salmon.

Came here to have lunch when they starting opening up their patio, they apparently specialized in Thai and Laotian cuisine (which I believe are very localized versions of them). I ordered the hand cut fries and chicken phad thai. As I come from Asia where Thai food is way more authentic (no offence to the versions here, it's just that our version is way way closer to authentic Thai version) so it is pretty obvious when it tastes different. For one, the phad thai was kind of tomato-ey which I believe makes it less difficult to eat here. The original version had fish sauce, tonnes of fish sauce which has a very pungent smell (to the extent of rotten seafood sometimes) but this is what makes the taste authentic. The portions were really generous and as I was hungry, I guess it made up for the lack of authenticity but don't get me wrong, the taste is still pretty good (just not authentic). The fries are pretty nicely fried, so no qualms about them. We didn't make a reservation and was made to wait pretty long for a table to free up (either you eat along the road or behind and we chose behind which had better shelter in the smeltering summer heat). Wait staff were courteous though they were not fast but that's not something I would nitpick, since the pace here is way slower than back home. Nice place if you can get a seat fast or make reservation without having to wait in the heat during summer, or snow in winter.

This is the best chicken I've had. It look so simple, yet it is so flavourful and have an amazing full-bodied taste. This is a must if you eat around here. Nothing beats it!

Great ambiance, awesome food and service! Ordered the Ping Gai and chicken samosas. Both dishes tasted great with a very tasty chutney! Will definitely go back.

Great food, great service, great ambiance. Looks can be deceiving. When we first arrived, the front of the store looked like a bar and the room was quite dark. We made reservations for a patio in the back, and when we got there, it was actually a really nice cute place - definitely not what I was expecting when walking through the restaurant. I also think you need to make reservations in advance because it can get quite busy - we almost wasn’t able to book a table, but luckily we were only 5 minutes away. Anyways, it’s an interesting place for Thai food fusion. I saw lots of people ordering burgers, but we ordered the Asian dishes. We got the spring rolls for appetizers, which was delicious. Whatever that dipping sauce is - it’s really good. We got the pad Thai, the Ping Gai chicken and khao soy. It was definitely lots of food and the portion sizes were a lot bigger than what was shown in the pictures from other reviews. So, our favourite was definitely the Ping Gai chicken - absolutely loved the flavours. It was marinated and then barbecued, so it was the married combination of juicy and crunchy/ charred chicken. It came with a little rice and some greens (mixed green salad). We also enjoyed the pad Thai; it was different than the authentic flavour, but still very delicious. There was shrimp and chicken in it. We got it mild which I personally found to be a little light - might go for the medium next time. The khao soy was good too - tasted like a curry mixed noodle, and less sweet (we had gone to Pai the previous night and found their khao soy to be too sweet over savoury), which is what we were looking for. There was thin egg noodles in the khao soy that was super bouncy and soaked up all the flavours of the curry. We got the medium spicy for the khao soy which I found to be pretty good. Either way, overall the food was great. Our waiter (I think I overheard her name was Sue?) was super nice and attentive. Service was great. Mood and ambiance was great. Definitely a hidden gem that I would come back to again. Don’t let the front of the store deceive you!

Very cozy and welcoming restaurant! Staff super nice and kind and food, oh boy, delicious! Very taste and dishes are very well served, great cocktail menu too!

Incredible food, absolutely flavourful and great portions. Diverse menu and a must try. They cook chicken like no one I’ve seen!!

Pleasant place in the heart of Toronto. The place is cozy with great service from our waiter that night. Our group had the Ping Ghai chicken as recommended by other reviewers and also Khao Soy. Absolutely delicious! The dipping sauce was just wonderful and compliment the chicken. Thanks for the staff for waiting for us pass the closing hour and letting us pickup the gloves we left that night. Definitely recommended!