Patsara Thai: Thai restaurant in New Westminster
Patsara Thai is a casual Thai restaurant with two locations in New Westminster and downtown Vancouver. They offer all the classic Thai curries, stir-fries and noodles. This review is based on several visits to their New Westminster location.
Interior
The inside of the restaurant looks quite different from the exterior. Inside they have a little waterfall wall and is a medium-spaced restaurant with quite a few table seating. The first time we came here with no reservation before dinner time (7pm), and we were able to snag their last spot for 2 people, which is a bar seating facing the streets. The second time, we were seated in the back. I would recommend making a reservation even if it is a weekday.
The seating chairs they use are these big black plush chairs, which are comfortable but don’t really feel right for dining. Feels more like a lounge chair so you are far away from the table of food unless you sit at the edge of the chair, but then there’s no back support.
Food
This is everything we’ve ever ordered for 2 people.
Garlic wings ($11)
One order of the garlic wings come with 8 pieces. The chicken wings are deep fried nicely and have a great crunch. They also arrive quite hot so it feels like they are fresh from the kitchen.
It kind of reminds me of the chicken wings you get at Chinese family restaurants as it has a similar fry style and flavour. They also serve it with a sweet & sour Thai chili sauce.
Crispy squid tentacles ($10)
My boyfriend and I love deep fried squid! We found these to be fried well just like the chicken wings. The squid tentacles are a little skinnier than the ones we like at Myst (we think their squid tentacles are the best in metro Vancouver), but they are still delicious.
Roti with curry dip ($7)
This is our favourite appetizer from Patsara Thai and we actually often order this dish at other Thai and Malaysian places. We find the roti at Patsara Thai is extra flaky and tastes great with the Massamun curry dip – definitely a must order!
Grilled pork skewers ($11)
One order of the pork skewers comes with 4 skewers – a good amount to share between 2-4 people. The pork meat was juicy and had great flavour, also really liked the jim jeaw sauce that is served with it.
Drunken noodles ($16)
We ordered the drunken noodles, which comes with your choice of protein (chicken, pork, beef, or Tofu). We selected chicken. It is a stir-fry noodle dish using thick rice noodles, mixed veggies and a house chili sauce.
I was a little disappointed with this dish even though I’ve never tried drunken noodles before. It tasted like a more bland version of pad see ew, which is another common stir-fry noodle dish in Thai places. We did choose mild for our spicy level, so not sure if that contributed to how bland I found it. The chicken wasn’t anything to rave about, but I find often in places where I choose my protein, it’s not like they cook it to juicy perfection.
Khao Soi Gai ($16) and Khao Soi Beef ($17)
I really liked Khao Soi Gai when I was in Thailand because I cannot eat spicy and this was one of the dishes that is not spicy. The traditional Khao Soi Gai is a well-known dish from Northern Thailand that uses egg noodles, lime, shallots, green onions and pickled vegetables with chicken in yellow curry sauce and crispy noodles on top. Appearance wise, it certainly looked like the Khao Soi I’ve had in Chiang Mai and the sweetness of the curry was delicious with the crunchy noodles. It comes with a whole chicken leg under that pile of crispy noodles, and although it wasn’t as tender, it was still pretty good.
The next time, we ordered the Khao Soi Beef, which is essentially the same dish except they use beef and I found the beef meat to be more tender so I actually liked the beef version more at Patsara Thai.
Panang curry ($17)
They offer all the regular Thai curries in red, green or yellow, but we opted to try the panang curry. The panang curry comes with bell pepers and lime leaves cooked in panang curry with coconut milk. It also comes with your choice of protein (chicken, pork, beef or tofu) and we chose beef. I found the curry to be too sweet so I didn’t like it as much.
Orders of curry also do not come with rice so you have to order it as a side for around $3 depending on what kind of rice you want. Always irks me to have to pay for rice though.
Mango sticky rice ($9)
We love their mango sticky rice dessert! We always order it when we come and sometimes they run out so make sure you order it at the beginning of your meal. The green rice is very sticky/glutinous and has a fun green colour. It is soaked in coconut milk and make a great pairing for the full mango they slice up for you.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
We’ve enjoyed our dinners at Patsara Thai. I find that we really like all of their appetizers and anything deep fried is always well executed. The must-orders is definitely the roti with curry dip and mango sticky rice. I also recommend the Khao Soi as not every Thai place has this so it’s kind of unique if you are looking/craving for it.
I don’t know if I would recommend the curries since we’ve only tried one and I didn’t like it. I’ve also ordered the Kapao fried rice before but didn’t enjoy it too much. So for mains, I haven’t seemed to find the one dish I will re-order again yet.
Service is good and they also offer nicely packaged takeout but they do not do delivery and are not on any of the major food delivery apps. Prices are reasonable and portion size is large.
I would still consider Patsara Thai to be a little hole-in-the-wall gem for New Westminster and will still return to try their other menu items.
Sincerely, Loewe