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| - Earning five stars out of five on websites like Yelp is no easy feat; it is natural to believe that food critics are often the toughest critics, but the truth cannot be so far away. People complain and turn from love to hate from things that may not seem so important at all to others - for example, something as petty as the drapes on the windows of a restaurant. So for White Elephant to have achieved a near 5/5 rating on a website where ratings are done by average civilians is an achievement that cannot be ignored. This restaurant has something going on that must have impressed almost every single one of the randomly visiting people who decided to share their experiences on here. Without doing further research, I decided to experience this restaurant myself while accompanied by my lovely parents who are also experienced diners of authentic Thai cuisine.
Now, this restaurant has the highest refusal rate I've ever witnessed; it was turning away all the customers (except for one group of two) who did not make reservation. And one would have to be unreasonable to blame them; they consistently had people coming in and leaving, one group after another. There was not a single time that I saw a table being vacant for more than ten minutes. After seeing just how many people were getting rejected without being offered an option to come back later, my parents and I became excited. The fact was, we were sitting in one of the most popular restaurants - if not the most popular - Thai restaurant in Calgary.
We ordered the papaya salad as the appetizer, and it was phenomenal; it was, in fact, the best I had since I left Thailand. The balance between spiciness from hot peppers, saltiness from fish sauce, and sweet, crunchiness from papaya was flawless. Okay, may be it was a tad too spicy, but my family and I do love spicy food so it was fine.
For the main course, we ordered Guay-Tiew with Chicken, fish with chili sauce, Pad Gra Pow with pork, and green curry with mix veggies. Guay-Tiew, which came first, was delicious. The broth of the soup tasted exactly how it was prepared in Thailand. It brought back many pleasant memories; my parents and I could not help but talk about the times and beautiful places where we ordered and ate exactly the same thing decades ago. Then came the green curry dish. I was rather worried about this dish, because the papaya salad alone was unexpectedly spicy, plus the green curry is known to be spicier than red or yellow curry. However, when I took the first spoonful of it, I heard myself saying - almost subconsciously so - "too sweet". My parents looked at me and nodded in agreement; feeling skeptical of my own first opinion of the curry, I tried it again. The excessive sweetness was still there. Also, the flavour of coconut milk was at the verge of overwhelming that of curry. I couldn't understand this.
Once Pad Gra Pow came out and I tried a bite, I had the same thought again; it was just too sweet. Sure, I always appreciated the inclusion of sweet flavour in Thai cuisine, but the Pad Gra Pow was just excessive. I forced myself to have four bites before I gave up, hoping that I would be able to fill up my stomach with another dish we ordered - fish with chili sauce. My parents and I were looking forward to this dish after reading the description provided in the menu, which made it sound exactly like our favourite fish dish from Thailand. When the dish finally came, my parents and I were even more ecstatic; it looked the same as the one we enjoyed so much during our short time in Thailand. All three of us dug in, and looked at each other after we've all had our mouthful. They didn't have to say a word for me to realize that they were thinking the exact same thing as I was. The fish was too sweet and not at all spicy. I didn't even look at the dish afterwards; my parents took a few bites, but they weren't able to finish it off either.
I won't take back what I said about papaya salad and Guay-Tiew; they were prepared just as my parents and I remembered from our experience in Thailand. However, the green curry, Pad Gra Pow, and Fish w/ Chili Sauce were more than a mere disappointment. They were just utterly revolting; they tasted as though they contained more sugars than pastries from Starbucks. While White Elephant Thai cuisine claims its offerings to be authentic to the culture of Thailand, I have no recollection of any Thai food being as sweet as what the chefs at the restaurant were preparing.
After the visit, would I recommend this restaurant? Not if you are hoping to experience the authentic Thai cuisine with its neutral balance of sweetness, spiciness and saltiness. But the fact that numerous members of Yelp gave high ratings of this restaurant still stands; therefore, I will leave it to your expectations to decide whether this restaurant is right for you or not.
Thanks for reading the review.
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