Viphalay

I discovered Viphalay on 95 Street in December last year.
I have been a regular on a weekly basis. My reward on a Friday evening!
Sometimes I order takeout twice per week if I am having a bad day.
The «Drunken Noodles» and pork spring rolls are my go-​to dishes. Yum Yum Yum! I cannot get enough of these two dishes.
Lily (one of the owners) and her staff always treat me well. Meals are prepared very quickly and are always consistent in presentation and quality.
Love the Viphalay!

Oh Viphalay how I love thee! (I’m shocked I haven’t professed my love via review sooner?!)
This family owned and run restaurant is by far one of my fav restaurants in the city! If I had to live on a dessert island for the rest of my life and could only eat one thing… It would be their coconut rice! It. is. SO. good! I love everything I’ve tried (so everything) on their menu. If it’s your first time get the coconut rice, pad Thai, red curry and the curry prawns.
The service is fast and friendly and I love the funky atmosphere. It’s a great place to take a date, friends, grab lunch, or take out and enjoy at home. In fact if I’m having last minute friends over for dinner I always order Viphalay for pick up. We even had family visiting from Whales who had never tried Thai food (or really anything except the classic meat and potato meals) and they LOVED it. I knew they would but they definitely were surprised at their newfound love.
Try it, you’ll love it!

Wow. I was expecting good. And what i got was great. I had the red curry and it was superb with a rich coconut sauce and a sweet and spicy flavourful finish.
Great meal and service was excellent even on a very busy night.
Hihgly recommend.

I thought the drinks and appetizers were a little pricey but the meal was fantastic and great service. I asked for very spicy Thai papaya salad, brown curry, and green curry… and they were all spicy. I broke a sweat. Finally, someone understands what «very spicy» means. Cream cheese wonton and samosa were very tasty but not huge servings. The papaya salad and curries were delicious. Though I thought it was weird to not have sticky rice at a Thai restautant, I was pleasantly surprised with the coconut rice… a must buy. About 30 $ per person including drink. Highly recommend this restaurant for any special occasion.

Viphalay has replaced Boualouang as our default thai takeout place, largely because parking is easier and also because their Massaman Curry is fantastic. The décor is much swankier on the inside than you’d expect based on the façade in a fading low-​rise office building. The pad thai reminds me of the best I’ve had in Bangkok.
The green curry is spicy by default, but if you need something milder, they’ll add additional coconut milk, which gives it a nice, creamy mouthfeel.

I eat regularly at Viphalay. The food is exquisite, the atmosphere is good, and the service is fast and friendly. My favourite dishes are the coconut soup, house salad, and basil stir-​fry. The restaurant is clean, well-​decorated, and features low-​volume background music. My orders are often prepared within ten minutes with no impact to food quality, served by happy employees, and my water glass is kept full. End your meal with the sweet purple rice and ice cream. A fine place to dine!

LOVE LOVE LOVE their green curry, penang curry and drunken noodles! My mouth waters every time I think of it. Viphalay’s clean, cozy and welcoming atmosphere is a breath of fresh for an asian restaurant! It’s hard to come by mouthwatering, delicious food that has the ambiance to match! It’s always a pleasure to visit with the staff and owners– always so friendly and hospitable!

As I was leaving I overheard someone saying «The Rice is so good!» In my head I was agreeing. I just had a very pleasant experience along with the best coconut rice I’ve had anywhere else. I was impressed with the strong but not overwhelming flavour of the rice. It went well with my BBQ steak strips in a chili sauce that most people would find really spicy (Seehn Gnua Peang,)
I started off with Tom Yum Gai soup which is always my starter at Thai restaurants. I would have to say this was the best I’ve had to date anywhere. The bowl was small for the price but big enough for two to share as a appetizer. It was filled with chicken, tomato chunks, onions and the other ingredients usually in a bowl. It was bursting with flavour and was just the right spicyness without being over the top.
The Pad Thai with chicken and shrimp was as good as I’ve had anyhere else. It had a strong peanut taste and the noodles were not overcooked or soggy like some other Thai restaurants in the city.
This nice little restaurant serves food to your table fast and is well organized. The quality of the food and pleasant staff will entice me to come back again for seconds.

I’ve been a little slow to get to Viphalay, but it’s quickly become my #2 favourite Thai restaurant in the city (Lan’s Asian Grill being #1, despite terrible recent terrible service choices and their move to a cafeteria style, take-​out restaurant). Viphalay is more of a conventional restaurant — compared to Lan’s — but the atmosphere is still very relaxed and I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable about hanging around past the meal.
The prices are also very competitive for Thai food, and if you get your dish sans meat, they’ll drop a couple of bucks off the price. I haven’t tried too many of their dishes yet, other than a couple of curries, coconut rice and Pad Thai, but I’ve been impressed by the quality. Although I compare everything to Lan’s and while most of what I’ve tried is comparable, Viphalay falls a little behind with their Pad Thai. I’ll probably avoid getting it there in the future; it was rather plain and lacked the punch of Lan’s. But the coconut rice and their curries are excellent: nice and rich and hearty.
So my advice would be this: if you’re looking for great Thai food at a good price, but want a traditional restaurant experience, go to Viphalay. But if you’re looking for the absolute best Thai in the city, and can put up with a terrible dining in experience (including mandatory plastic cutlery), head to Lan’s. These days my choice is generally Viphalay. Why Lan’s why?!

Yummy food and pleasant service. Lacks décor, but who cares when the food is so good. Only dish I didn’t care for was the BBQ beef otherwise everything is full of wonderful flavour.

Really solid thai menu. Great flavors! A little overpriced, even by Edmonton standards

Je voulais trouver un bon resto thaï près du centre-​ville. Ce resto est situé dans la partie nord de la ville, à 2 km du centre donc marchable. Je suis arrivée à 17:00 un jeudi soir. J’étais seule pour quelques minutes avant d’autres clients. Mon serveur n’est resté qu’au début puis une dame l’a remplacé. Elle a aussi remplacé la musique
:(mauvaise idée. L’endroit est franchement passé date pour la déco. Tuiles au plancher, une partie du mur en béton, Plexiglas sur les tables, ai climatisé un peu trop forte… Mais ça passé pour un souper de semaine.
J’ai choisie les crevettes au vin rouge :10 crevettes frites dans une sauce sucré et légèrement piquantes pour 15 $, c’était très bon. Puis j’ai pris le riz jasmin au coco et le Green curry au poulet. Le curry est servi avec une bonne pourrions de légume et le poulet né contient pas de gras. Excellent plat pour 17 $. J’ai accompagné d’un verre de pino grigio 6 $. J’ai été déçue de né pas avoir plus de choix de vin au verre.
La nourriture est très bonne et je suis satisfaite de mon repas. J’y retournerais définitivement malgré le look de l’endroit et en espérant que la musique change (ça devenait plutôt pop parfait pour danser à la
fin)

I was at this restaurant on opening day and have eaten here about 100 times over the last many years. This restaurant is also a favourite of my poker buddies as they have catered my high stakes poker game many times.
The food is amazing. My favourite dishes are the orange cashew chicken, penang beef and coconut rice. For a delicious appetizer I recommend the red wine shrimp. I have some friends that I introduced to this restaurant that go here just for the drinks and shrimp. They are that good.
For a great beverage I recommend the iced coffee. It’s amazing.
The owners and staff are all family. It really shows in how they care for their guests.
As you can see from the other reviews we are all on the same page with this Edmonton restaurant success.

This is probably one of the best Thai restaurants in the city. I was impressed with the service from the start. Even though we walked in just 20 minutes before closing, they graciously seated us and did not rush us at all. The green curry had well-​layered flavour with a bit of heat, and the coconut rice was soft and fragrant.
I will definitely be going back here to try some of the other dishes! Sometimes the most unassuming places have the most amazing food.

We went here on a Sunday evening for a pre-​concert dinner. First time I’ve ever been to Viphalay although I’ve passed it a thousand times. Got to love these grungy, hole in the wall looking places from the outside. It’s pretty nice once you get inside, we were pleasantly surprised.
There were 5 of us and we were hungry, so we decided to share a couple dishes:
— Pad thai ($ 15) — awesome! Noodles cooked perfectly, sauce not too sweet and has all the components of a classic pad thai that you crave.
— Drunken noodles with tofu ($ 14) — my friends loved this dish so much, they ordered a second one (after the first one was devoured in record time). The noodles were pretty interesting, they looked like ramen noodles but they are apparently egg noodles. Came with good amount of vegetables too!
— Green curry with chicken ($ 14) — nice amount of spice/​heat to it. Always perfect with coconut rice.
— Coconut rice ($ 6) — we got a large bowl which was plenty for everyone. Smelled amazing and tasted just as good.
— Sweet and sour fish (piew vahn bah) ($ 16) — came with lots of vegetables (tomatoes, onions and sweet bell peppers). Fish was a tad overcooked… worth a try but wouldn’t get it again.
— Massamun (brown) ($ 14) — we got this vegetarian style. This one wasn’t that great, sauce was way too sweet. Don’t bother ordering this one.
Great little Thai spot! Edmonton has a couple of great Thai gems, this is one of them. Definitely check it out.

Excellent and friendly service. Clean. Large portions. Great for sharing.
Came here for lunch today. Everyday they have a daily special combo for $ 15. I had the orange cashew chicken. It was fantastic. The spiceness was subdued a bit but still had a kick. There was plenty of fresh peppers and cashews that it was so tasty. A mild hint of orange in the backround to offset the spice. It came with coconut rice and two wonton squares filled with pinapple and shrimp. It was sweet but I could not taste any shrimp. Crispy and a good texture change from the rice and stirfry.
I also had the laos papaya salad. It was a bit timid with an overwhelming fish sauce flavour to it. The first bite was weird but it became tastier with every bite. It was a welcomed change.
Service was impeccable and my water was always refilled quickly without asking. The food was great.
I found portions to be good enough for two people so its not as pricey as one would think. I had plenty of leftovers. No complaints and left satisfied. I want to come back to try some other dishes too. Five stars.

Excellent thai food. I eat thai food looking for robust flavour hitting every possible centre of taste in a delectable and unique way. That is exactly what I got here. Much more of an authentic feel than some more main stream thai food places here. I mean authentic in a very well done and professional manner too. I ordered the green curry which had a wonderful spice to it with enough sweetness to make a great balance of the two flavours. Vegetables in the curry were very well cooked right in between crunchy and softer. The chicken was very fresh and light tasting and not so much the savoury side of chicken. Which went very well with the nice uplifting flavours of the curry. Also went well with the fresh tasting soup I got gaeng ka. Can’t recall the rest. It was a coconut based soup however. To top that off was a delicious pineapple coconut drink! Good going, this is another bright light making the somewhat dark area of china town look much more inviting!
My one problem: Silly me should have brought more money and given a better tip: P

Thai food is an addiction, and Viphalay doesn’t help matters. Their green curry is probably the best I’ve had anywhere. I’m also a big fan of their orange chicken stir fry, pad thai, red curry, and salad rolls. The tom yum soup is great as well. I don’t think I’ve had anything that I didn’t enjoy.
The only things that I would say are downsides is that there are no refills on pop and I’ve gotten a bit of attitude for showing up 10 minutes late for a reservation, even when the place was totally dead. But the food makes up for it, and I’ve had some really nice servers here.
They are also extremely accommodating for gluten and dairy allergies. One time I kept asking questions about the wheat content in several dishes on the menu. The server kept rushing back and forth between me and the chef several times to let me know what was okay to eat. She was really nice about it, and I really appreciated how careful they are about allergies.
The restaurant is in an old two-​story house. They have obviously kept some of the Indian décor from the previous restaurant, so it’s a little bit odd, but really, who cares? The food is great!

Coconut rice is a must have here!!! So flavorful and delicious, I could eat it alone all day!

If you don’t like viphalay, you don’t like Thai!

I’m always in search of good thai food. I love the range of flavors, the heat and the different types of ingredients that are not commonly used in other restaurants. Viphalay did not disappoint.
We came here after the Rangers victory on my first night in Edmonton. We were able to walk from The Pint (where we had a few) and were craving sustenance. When I sat down and looked over the menu, my pulse quickened and I got even hungrier.
The Gaeng Kah Gal (coconut soup) we started with had nice spice and a hefty amount of lemongrass and beautiful coconut flavor. I took breaks from sipping it by munching on the Dum Mak Hong (laotion papaya salad) which had bright chili flavor that I loved.
Our entrees were the yellow curry chicken, drunken spicy noodles with shrimp, BBQ beef and coconut rice. The beef was my only complaint because it wasn’t as delicious as the others and was overcooked in my opinion. They majority of the entrees were made spicy for us on our request and the whole meal made me very happy. Even the coconut rice had wonderful flavor.
This spot is fun, the prices are reasonable and I’m glad I got to eat here.