| rev:text
| - This is my purpose of being--I review hidden gems, therefore I am.
I enjoy finding restaurants run by passionate owners out of the way, in alleys or behind buildings, hidden in urban sprawls, known to enough to keep the business going and appreciated by all that patronize it. It's not important I impact that restaurant's reputation. I could be the first to stand and scream "Spartacus" or the last--the point is making the stand.
I'm not going to indulge the fact that a hidden gem rewarded as the best of its kind in town can no longer be classed as a hidden gem, no matter how difficult it is to get to. The theory of group consensus begins with a single voice which others share. But it's the second voice which really turns the shower into a storm--the one that causes the mob to form. I won't even claim to be the first or second in support of White Elephant Thai Cuisine. I don't even think I'm the thirtieth. I'm just another in the crowd showing support for this out of the way treasure literally walled off from the city behind by a fence-line more apt for a prison. I'm not even exaggerating; my navigation system led me past a pedestrian hotel I refused to believe was the location I was seeking. I parked across the street in front of a Tim Hortons and stared puzzled at my iPhone. I had to double check the diminutive sign over a door I thought only led into a hotel hallway. The first step was to navigate around the towering fence, like some concentration camp from Red Dawn. This involved circumnavigating almost the entire block and approaching the door under the sign...which was not the entrance at all, and I was redirected back over to the hotel entrance. There are hidden gems and then there are buried treasures, and this is the latter.
If I didn't know better, I'd believe White Elephant was built out of two hotel rooms, like the owners bought out two rooms and squeezed a restaurant in the space. At what point do you realize you've entered one of the best restaurants in the city? Your first clue is probably the numerous awards in the show window you pass by before reaching the entrance, awards so numerous that they spill over on top of the now useless bar cluttered with awards and bottles. Inside I found plastic cups over plastic-topped tables and was presented with a single-page menu with options numbered 1 through 20. Basic? Yes. Cheap? Absolutely. I asked for recommendations and the pleasant and jubilant waiter (perhaps owner) answered there was a reason why #1 was where it was listed. So without more than a passing glance at the single piece of paper, I accepted the recommendation, a lunch special combination--panang curry: beef / chicken / pork--and waited briefly for the meal to arrive, taking a moment to admire the homely decor surrounding me. There was no contractor hired to build these tables or to paint these walls. The faux fresco was done by someone in dire need to insert more color in an already borderline psychedelic restaurant. The clientele is a bouillabaisse from every walk of life--business suits with and without ties, middle aged friends discussing their children, a group of hippies being all hip, I do not stand out as brazenly as I had thought or hoped.
For this review, I don't think I'll repeat the common praise of White Elephant. If it didn't justify its praise, it wouldn't have become the underground hit it has become. There are many restaurants that no one knows about which close down without a tear shed by the community. How many businesses have fallen without one throat lump or shuddered phrase of lamentation? What I'm saying is that a place this hidden would have to earn this praise, so there would be nothing served to reiterate those points.
...or I'll do it anyway.
It's good.
It's really really good.
Ignore the paltry little garnish parading itself as a salad, enjoy the generous scented rice, and relish in the exquisite offering of curry and daily soup (hot & sour chicken usually). And to think that plate was only $10.95. This is a $20 plate anywhere else in town, anywhere else in my home town. No one is offering this kind of quality anywhere. No wonder this place is packed every day.
Yes, there is not denying it. White Elephant Thai Cuisine is not one resting on its laurels--their laurels rest on them (literally). This would become a weekly outing if I lived in Calgary. Hell, if I ever do move to Calgary, I would make sure my future home was a reasonable commuting distance to this clandestine treasure.
Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Presentation: 4/5
Value: 5/5
Recommendation: 4.25/5
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)