Salad King

Loved this place as an undergrad and still love this place now! Fantastic portions, decent pricing, quick service, and great tasting dishes! Especially enjoyed all the curry options (Green, Golden, and Panang) and the chicken/beef satay skewers-that peanut sauce is to die for! Highly recommended for anyone craving Thai food while hanging around the DT core. P. S.: if you can't handle spice, don't go over 3. If you're adventurous like me, go for 10+. If you aspire to be a fire-breathing dragon, go for their highest level, 20. You have been warned lol.

I can't think of many places that have consistently served such delicious food for decade after decade! For over 30 years, I have enjoyed the Phud Thai noodles, and they haven't changed a bit. Amazingly fresh and delicious - and of course, you can customize your spice level. The staff are so friendly and attentive and are always one step ahead of you - water at your table before you ask for it, same with napkins and cutlery.

So many people visit here and order their favourite dish over and over - but it's a great idea to dine here with friends to share and try other dishes. The Siam Fried Rice is another star dish - with just the right amount of pineapple to add a sweet touch. Explore the menu - you'll love it!

Great Location. Ample sitting options. Food was perfect. So was service but could be better. I would recommend choosing a less busy time for better dine in experience. We had the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup and Islamic noodle and Mango Salad and Street Noodle with 20 chillies spice level.

Really loved coming here but i think the quality of their food has gone down a bit hence the 4*

Always a treat at salad King. Huge restaurant and you can reserve if you're tight on time but they're usually pretty fast getting small parties in and out quickly. The menu is right on the table as a placemat. Service is really quick and the food delicious as always. I love their noodle dishes, they're just the right amount and a 3 on spiciness is perfect for me because I like a slight kick but nothing crazy. Their prices are just right and I've never had a bad experience yet. Pro tip, you can order the secret menu item Islamic noodles which is a rice noodle dish with coconut curry on top. It's very popular and while not my favorite, many including my boyfriend loves it.

Came back for some takeout recently with work and they're pretty efficient with lots of orders ready to go. Portion and prices are still excellent and taste just as good as I remember.

Been coming here since the university days, so I have a soft spot Salad King. Now that there are so many more Thai options downtown, it’s not my go-to but I still crave a rice dish or pad Thai here and there. I was a little disappointed with the ‘secret menu’ Islamic noodles; the sauce was watery and flavour a little bland.

But for the portion, price, and all the chillies you can handle, I hope Salad King continues to fuel the students of tomorrow

I’ve have loved salad king for 10+ years. I went last week for the first time in a while since COVID and ordered my usual Islamic noodles. Now I’m not sure what happened, but the sauce tasted completely different than what I’ve been getting for over a decade. It was so much more coconut and barely any curry taste and definitely not as good. I even asked the server whether the recipe changed recently and she didn’t have a clue. I still love this place, but would stick with the Thai basil noodles going forward.

They say they don't take anyone for dine in after 9pm. We arrived just before 9 and were denied a table. Not coming back!

Salad King has always been a go to for Thai cuisine but won’t be anymore after today’s experience. I called to check if they have availability as I had a toddler with me and it was raining. They confirmed there is no wait. After reaching, they said they don’t have a table and would be a wait for 30 minutes. When I told I had called and checked, the host said it might be someone on the front desk who gave misinformation and shunned away from the ownership. In the end, whosoever is on the call is representing the brand, the restaurant. You can’t just say it wasn’t you, so you can’t do anything. You lost a regular customer today!
Host Name - Pragati
Manager - Prii

This place deserves a good review, healthy, good portions and clean. Follows COVID-19 policies for safety.
Thank you for your service.
I would definitely go back.

Been coming here for the last 15 years and it still hasn’t changed in taste, service & quality! Kudos to the Salad King team for staying consistent even through the toughest of times businesses have seen in a very long time. Thank you for always serving the community well. 5 stars all the way!

What a waste of calories!

This Toronto institution was talked about so much by our friends, but we never got to try it until yesterday, and I have to say that I was extremely disappointed.
Since it was our first time, we decided to go with the popular picks:

Golden Curry (5 spice level)
Islamic Noodles (3 Spice level)
Fried rice with chicken and shrimp (0 Spice level)
Spring Rolls
Mango Sticky rice pudding

The novelty at Salad King is their spice level. Once you get past that, there is really nothing they have to offer. I don't understand what they are trying to accomplish by adding 20 chills to their recipe. It no longer is Thai food (or any food for that matter! Because the customer won't be able to taste anything beyond the chilli.
Being of South east Asian origin, we have a pretty decent spice tolerance level and even the level 5 was too spicy and the golden curry felt like chilis with coconut milk.
The fried rice was horrible and I couldn't eat beyond 2 spoons. It lacked seasoning and I wasn't able to get any Thai flavour.
The Islamic noodles was stuck together as a lump and was not enjoyable to eat whatsoever.
The spring rolls were extremely oily, but it was the only thing that was edible.
The sticky rice in the dessert felt stale and uninspired. It was literally a ball of rice that wasn't even mixed well with the coconut cream. The coconut cream was just just added on top.

If you disrespect food by adding flavours or ingredients that don't call for it in the way it is suppose to be made, then as a customer don't go expecting tasty food because thats what you'll get at Salad King.

Have been going here for almost a decade now. Always a positive experience. Today, Mina was my server and took great care of me. Shout to her and the kitchen crew!

Updated Review: Still consistently the best restaurant around to stop by for lunch/dinner! A business that's connected with the community and students in the surrounding neighbourhood. Food has been consistent from the first day I was introduced and still the quality has not dropped since!

Our choices are usually the "not-so-secret menu item" Islamic Noodles (a mixture of their phud thai noodles with roasted reddish curry) and the Bangkok Stir Fry (with bean vermicelli). The spice scale as not changed and could vary on spice level pending on how fresh the chilis are as well!

Due to the pandemic, the layout has swapped a bit but definitely recommend reserving if you want. They also have an additional location on Queen West & McCaul with outdoor seating as well!

Review from 9 years ago: I love the options and spice level that you can choose. Servers are nice and the interior design was well done!

Try and order the Islamic Noodles, hidden gem and not on the menu! (:

Affordable, great portion sizes, lots of vegetables, and wonderful service. Flavours are catered to different spice levels for patrons and the Bangkok noodles were especially delicious.

Salad King used to be a regular spot back in the day. Tried it after a few years and it did not disappoint. As always, the Islamic noodles are a fav.

I used to love this place but recently I went with my friend praising about its tasty food, But was so Disappointed when we ordered food, Pad Thai was overcooked, mango salad was awful, hot and spicy noodle was overcooked and very bland taste, chicken was bad too. I was wondering whether they have changed the management! Not advising to go here again!

Wow on how long an order takes to prepare. I understand these are trying times. I get it takes longer for an order to go through. 2 hours is insane. Your food isn't worth that much of a wait. If you can't fulfil orders don't grab the cash and make a customer wait 2 hours for your food. This is fast food.maybe a little better. It's not food that's worth 2 hours.

A little thing you should consider, no one wants to wait 2 hours to wait. Will never order and will spread the word about the horrible service.

If you are hungry go with someone else. At least you can get the food on time. If you are willing to wait hours for your food still go with another restaurant.

Awesome place, the prices are fair, portions are pretty good too, and it was all made fresh for our takeout. If you like thai food, you won't be disappointed

Came to oder for a take out and I saw the lady in the kitchen put order receipts on top of foods before closing the container. I hope they don't.

The Thai basil was good, with just the right amount of spice but I thought the chicken was really bland abd chewy. I would try it again but with shrimp.

Awesome food, Superb Service, If you think you can handle spicy go for it or else just don't go very spice level 3. The staff helped us with the booth seats and made our travel worth it. Customer Service was great.

I wish they had a few more drink options.

Great food.great service.large portions.a staple for the yonge and dundas area for many years and lots of memories if you want to Ryerson!

Don’t get the mango salad! It’s not even a salad, it’s julienned unripe mango on top of two slices of tomato and overpriced Service was slow too.

Oh yeah, this place is fire. The curries are very good but the noodle dishes are excellent. The only downside is that the tables are very cramped and sometimes you have to sit next to randos. But it's super worth, because the food is incredible and it's good value especially for a very nice sit-down dining experience! I like the curry noodles (secret menu item).

Salad king is especially a staple if you went to RU. Great food/dollar ratio. I ended up getting the Phud Thai and the Hot noodles with chicken. Food was also prepared quickly. I should also mention that they do have some halal options for chicken (the specific dishes are mentioned on the menu) and is also hand slaughtered for anyone that is particular with the specifics. My only gripe is the plastic utensils that are provided, they aren't very resilient. When you are eating you meal they aren't really strong enough to eat your noodles. Definitely bring your own if you're taking out. I've been coming here for years, and will likely continue to do so when I'm in the area

Review update:

I went back to Salad King to give them another go, and this time blew my expectations out of the water. I am glad to see they have gone back to use the white take out boxes for their meals and I got more then the fair share portion size of the Thai Fried Rice. The food is hot and always spicy, the flavours are all you want in a bundle of a hug.

I am happy to say, my updated review of this restaurant holds up to my expectations as I started eating there as a hungry undergraduate student.

Previous Review:

So I tried the Uber eats BOGO promotion for the Thai Fried Rice, the total came to $30 for two portions.

Normally, the take out comes in a white box and it is a good portion size for your money's worth. However, because of their promotion, the portion sizes were halved, so it was just like paying for one portion size. There was only 3 pieces of shrimp and very few pieces of chicken. Honestly, I have been eating here since my university days and it has always been very good.

I've always been a fan of Salad king since I was still a student at Ryerson, way before their old location got burnt down and they had to relocate across the street. My favourite dish there has always been their seafood fried rice. Better yet was the seafood fried rice from their sister location Linda (sad they closed down) that had lobster on it, yum.needless to say when I used to physically work around the area I used to frequent their takeouts, mainly for their seafood fried rice. Unfortunately, since COVID-19 started, my husband and I have only taken out from them a few times because we found their dishes to no longer taste as delicious as they used to. Today we wanted to give them another try and ordered a few dishes through Uber eats. Boy was I disappointed. The seafood fried rice does not at all taste like what it used to.the tiny brown flavour bits are no longer there, all we tasted were spicy and oil, and they now cut their squids into such tiny pieces despite having raised their prices. The sea queen dish was a cold, soggy mess, although this one I blame Uber eats for taking over an hour to deliver our meal. The pad thai was just bland. The rice on the mango sticky rice was overcooked and the mango was still sour. Overall a very disappointing meal. We definitely won't be coming back for takeouts/deliveries.

Delicious, fast and filling. The food here is worth the price and doesn't disappoint. You can customize your spice levels as well, which is a nice bonus.

Had the Thai Basil Noodles with shrimp most recently. Delicious. Large portion to boot and reasonably priced. Been coming here regularly from the Gould St.days.

One of the best Thai restaurants in Toronto. Been a customer for over 10 years. Seafood fried rice is my favorite dish.

Excellent Thai food, very popular place, currently during Corvid lock down they have delivery via app and take out. The owners also treat his staff very nicez donate to charities like Second Harvest and recently donated money to senior citizens homes during Corvid, gave discounts to Ryerson students.

Food is excellent, ask about their off the menu special Islamic Noodle. Sometimes you get to see chefs eating there, unlike other places this place cooks their stock from scratch and it is delicious.

Highly recommended, they are definitely an institution in Yonge and Dundas areas.

This is the best Thai place I’ve visited in Toronto! The fried rice and curries are so delicious. I always go back for the fried rice because that’s my go-to. But I’ve heard all the menu items are pretty good. It’s also priced very decent it won’t break your wallet and you’ll get an amazing experience. There is lots of room to host for a large group!

Rude, entitled, terrible customer service from host to manager. I’ve never seen such arrogant staff that will openly tell a customer to leave than address concerns.

Best thai food downtown! Have been a regular since they were on Gould street! I Spicy Chicken (5 chilis) is my go to! The Hot Thai Noodle and Islamic noodle are a great option as well! Springrolls are a nice add on. They are huge!

Fabulously priced truly authentic tasting Thai food in a modern setting with lovely staff - nothing disappoints! Will definitely go back. Great for COVID dine in, too, with plenty of space between tables and patrons.

This is one of the best Thai restaurants in downtown Toronto which offers some good vegetarian options and never disappoints. This time, we ordered *Veggie Hot Thai noodles* and *Country Tofu* with spice level of 3 chilis and yet again these did not disappoint us. Both the dishes had a perfect blend of spices and veggies and were really delicious. This is a must visit place for Vegetarians who love stir-fry noodles and tofu.

Ordered Sea Queen and Siam Fried Rice on 11/18. Both did not taste fresh and I had diarrhea for two consecutive days. I visited this restaurant last year before COVID and it was good. Not sure what happened, but I'm not going to visit this place again.

Love this place! Consistently delicious. Islamic Thai noodles are very addictive. Great spring rolls too. Lots of other great menu items. I have never been disappointed! Keep up the great work

Mango salad was bomb. Pad Thai and the curry soup was alright. Different than when I was here last time. Feels like the food is no as good as before. Also didn't like having staff swiping floors next to us when we were eating. Social distancing is not that high here. Since there's no booths in the area we were seated.

Always fresh food, reasonable prices. Staff is friendly and knowledgeable with food they sell and can make Thai food according to your taste i.e. Non-spicy vs spicy.

Been here several times and its always nice. Price is. Not expensive at all at the $15 range and the portions are hearty. There are veggie options and alot of options can be made vegetarian if not explicitly stated. Panang curry is my go to and the spring rolls are really good. There is pleanty of seating but its cafeteria style so you may be a bit friendly with your neighbour. They also let you pick how spicy you want to make your food based on a "chilli" scale - anything 10 and above is pretty damn hot in my opinion!

This is an all time favourite of mine. Been going since the 80’s and it’s still deelish!

The Thai Islamic Noodle is my fav and not even in the menu. But also the Kari Noodle and Panang Beef are great options.

Make sure to add some chili’s. I go 3 or 4.

Great and cheap Thai food. The menu has vegan options. The place is spacious and located on a second level facing Yonge street.
The curry dishes are yummy

One of my favorite restaurants. I always get the spicy fish from there. Place can be a bit packed at times though. But hey, that can also be a good thing

Customer service was great and food was really tasty. Got a lot of different plates to try and my favourite was the panang curry.
Cups were slightly dirty which is the reason why I didn't give a 5 stars.

Always consistent food and the quality is very good. At times the noodles can get a little gluey but considering how much they churn out it is to be expected. Their secret menu is great and they've done a fantastic job catering to different tastes.

My favourite place for Thai. Very well priced, large portions, never been disappointed in the food. Not a place for a quiet romantic dinner, usually quite busy, bench type seating thoughout most of the restaurant

Tastes great and the portions are huge. An all-time fav is the Islamic Noodles (secret menu item). They also seem to understand gluten intolerance/allergies which is nice!

Food was tasteless. Place was 30% occupied. It used to be a good place, good Thai food. Not anymore. Do not even try! Maybe changed owners or cooks
Anyway Sucks big time.

Fast service and delicious food. Many of the tables are shared with others, and most seats don’t have back supports. Not a huge problem, but something to be mindful of.

The food was great (as a vegetarian I had the Kari Noodles)! The service was ok! My friends and I (5 of us all together) were seated quite quickly on a Friday night! Our server was very nice and quite knowledgeable about the items on the menu. It would be nicer if their glasses for water looked a bit more clean (the rims of the cups were scratchy). Our server also forgot to bring us items that we asked for, but it was a busy night. Plus, once we asked again she brought what we asked for quickly. Oh and did I mention that the prices are quite reasonable especially because we were on a student budget!

Their tofu is fried, which gives it an unpleasant chewy texture. Also their water cups are plastic and taste and smell like soap/plastic. Otherwise food is pretty decent for the price.

Cons:
- mango chicken had barely any chicken
- mango chicken did not taste very good, was fairly bland, but taste is obviously subjective
- Glasses smelled bad and were dirty. I asked to replace the glasses, but the replacements weren't any better

Pros:
- very quick service, we only waited about 5 minutes to get food
- waiter was nice and friendly

I like the restaurant cuz they have alot of variaty and delicious food. The only problem they have that I realized many times is whenever i order chicken it tastes and smell “ rancid”.
I hope they work on that problem.
Other than that the restaurant is recommended

Thank you

Good food, not the best in the world, but excellent for the price. I enjoy the communal tables. It hasn't been overly busy each time I have been here, there's usually a few chairs between you and the next guest. Plenty of room. The ambiance is youthful and modern.

Excellent little restaurant! Very very reasonable and large portion sizes. Service was pleasant and quick! Very popular spot. Very good selection of drinks. All very reasonably priced. Would highly recommend to students and groups of friends looking for quick and filling bite to eat!

I was usually satisfied with the quality of their food. DO NOT come to this place late at night! I ordered an Islamic noodles with chicken, and the dish was just filled with bits and pieces of noodles and A LOT OF SAUCE. I think they may have run out of the noodles at that time and decided to gather what were left and add a lot of sauce to hide that fact. If it was possible to tip the server and the cook separately, I would have given zero dollar for the cook and only tip the server.

Large portion sizes for a great deal, you have to try the Thai Milk ice tea! Also aim to get some seats with backing if you're with a group and are gonna be a while.

I studied at Ryerson University next door and this was my favourite Thai place around! Really good food, good prices. It can get loud when the place is really busy at peak times.

I had the absolute worst time at this particular restaurant on November 4th, 2018. My friends and I decided to grab a late night dinner and due to my multiple allergies I requested no soy sauce on my veggie stir fried noodles. The waitress gave me a revolting look and proceeded to say that the there was no meal on the menu that could be made to suit my allergies. All I had asked for was no soy sauce in the meal not a math equation, as I do this in many other restaurants and cannot be the only one on the planet who does this. She made me feel pathetic and abnormal. I suggest you train your staff on the way they speak to people as it can be very hurtful. And of note you will certainly come across people of all kinds of allergies and illnesses maybe it's time to update your menu or provide other options.