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| - When I moved to Toronto I was more than a little disappointed in the smaller takeout thai experiences I was having. Why is the pad thai so pink, I'd ask? Oh, some places put ketchup in it, was the glib reply. What? Really? Maybe I was a bit of a thai food snob, but I decided to just hold out for something better than to complain about the less than stellar options available.
Eventually someone convinced me to go to Real Thailand for their incredibly cheap lunch specials, most of which run between $5-$7 each. For that kind of price I knew that I could afford to have a bad experience, so I went ahead and ordered the pad thai. Your lunch comes with the choice of soup or mango salad, then the meal itself which comes with a spring roll. The first trip hit the ball right out of the park, and thus I was converted.
If you're fussy about soup you may have to try and sweet talk your way into something better, the soup seems to be lemongrass chicken more than the far superior hot and sour soup. If you go earlier the service will be a bit faster, but generally speaking you'll be eating in very short order, and with soup or salad to keep you busy it's no big sacrifice to have to wait a few more minutes. Ice cream at the end is just another couple of dollars with options like coconut and mango ice cream. I also recommend the red pork curry and the spicy tofu, although bear in mind that nearly anything with the word "spicy" in the title isn't going to really be spicy at all, I haven't tried yet but it might be worth a try to see if you can get it extra hot or something.
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