I have read on BlogTO that Sabai Sabai moved to a new Yonge and Bloor location away from its Dundas and Church location. I haven't been to Sabai Sabai before - so I thought this would be a nice opportunity to try their food. While I cannot say I've been to the other location, my friends said that the atmosphere is improved compared to the Church St spot.
When I entered, I was invited to a dark exposed white brick restaurant - which draws parallel to its distant cousin - Pai. We made a reservation on a Friday night - if you did not, you would definitely be waiting for some time. Even with the reservation, we had to wait for 10 minutes before the previous table cleared out. They were very apologetic about the wait.
Looking at the menu, I was quite surprised about the Laotian offering. There are really few restaurants that have Laotian food, so that's definitely the most interesting part for me. We ended up deciding on the following with the attached review:
1) Eggplant Stir Fry ($11) - I'm a huge fan of eggplant, but this is quite the disappointing dish. Don't get me wrong - this was flavourful. However, there were probably the equivalent of half a Chinese eggplant. It was tiny, definitely not worth the price given that a main is just a few dollars more.
2) Squash Fritters ($12.5) - This is a staple for me in Thai Restaurants. The only issue with this is the ratio of squash to batter. There was a little too much squash which makes it less crispy and tasty. The accompanying sauce is great but there was way too little given.
3) Khao Soi ($15) - Rich creamy sauce that I started dipping my squash fritters in to replace the other sauce. There were nice tender pieces of beef in this dish as well. This compares nicely to Pai.
4) Laap Lao ($12) - Very unique flavours that I can imagine as a hit or miss for different people. I think there is just quite a bit of Thai Basil that really enhances the dish. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
Overall, the dishes are overall good. Some were just much better than others though. The service was attentive throughout and they allowed us to sit and chat without ever putting pressure on us to leave. It was busy all the way up until we left at 10PM. I would definitely consider coming back just to mix it up so that I am not only going to Pai. Still waiting for Khao San Road to reopen.
Likely more 3.5/5 stars.