Lemongrass Restaurant

This is your typical, North American-​ized restaurant’s take on Asian cuisine. This «Meh. I’ve experienced better» rating couldn’t be more a propos. The food was average, the service was less so. Mango juice was good, though!

I was hesitant about coming here after reading the not so great reviews but a friend of mine insisted this place would be the best place in the area to have dinner. She’s a vegetarian and I can definitely see how she’d enjoy their food as there were multiple true veggie options. The restaurant is really long and thin and was quite busy on a weekday night but we were seated fairly fast. I ordered the chicken pad thai and my friend opted for the stir-​fried chili tofu. I preferred my friend’s tofu over my pad thai as hers was really flavourful while mine was bland and watery. I found the pad thai sauce to be the most unpleasant part of the dish as it was basically ketchup. On the positive side, the portions were large but I didn’t think the prices were justified for the meal we had.

I’m really not one to complain or be annoyingly picky but the food just wasn’t anywhere close to what I was expecting.
For anyone who’s eaten real sticky rice before, in Asia or Toronto or anywhere else, you’ll know this «sticky rice» to be a poor imposter. Shanghai noodles were ordered, which was my fault as I was expecting pad see ew (spicy wide rice noodles), but it was pretty tasteless — apart from the oil and sauce.
Shrimp cold rolls were tasty and tom yum soup was nothing to write home about. Felt too badly to complain to the staff, plus my wife was not happy with my level of dissatisfaction, but the 3 stars are for their attentiveness and general warmth.
Bottom line: they can do better on the food, and so can you.

Come here quite regularly and find the service always excellent. I like their pad Thai and Spring rolls, my sister loves the lemongrass soup. My son really likes the chicken satay. They are soo accommodating and always make suggestions:-))
It’s a nice relaxed family atmosphere where I know my 5 year old is welcome:-)))

Try the veggie taro spring rolls!
Friendly staff, very accommodating. Their vegetarian menu items do NOT include chicken broth. Their vegetarian pad thai equally does not contain any fish ingredients.

This was one of the most disappointing meals. I ordered takeout including Pad Thai, mango salad, spring rolls, sticky rice, young chow fried rice, chicken satay and Singapore curried crab and mango sticky rice.
We threw more than half the food away because it was so disgusting. The sticky rice wasn’t sticky rice at all — it was overlooked regular rice with coconut milk. My kids took a couple of bites of Pad Thai and refused to eat anymore (and they love Pad Thai). The spring rolls were vile… so oily. The fried rice was also oily. The salad was blech and the satay tasted like feet. The crab was actually very tasty which is why I gave this review one star. The mango sticky rice was beyond disappointing, especially considering this is my favourite dish from any Thai restaurant.
The staff was nice and I really appreciated their gluten free menu but given how bad the food was all I feel is that I was just robbed of $ 145.
I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Ordered take out from here last night for the first time in about 6 months and it was terrible. We used to like Lemongrass because they were very consistent, this time though everything was tasteless, mushy noodles and over cooked meat. Never mund that the vegetables — the few that were actually included — were obviously on the verge of rotting. So disappointing — will never ordernfrom here again. Too much money for food of such inferior quality.

Went there for lunch with 5 work colleagues for lunch. I had the Pad Thai which was not very good but not terrible.
At the end of the meal, we asked for separate bills and were rudely told no. We then asked if we could apply 6 credit cards to the bill and was told that it is there policy that no more than 3 credit cards could be used because she didn’t have time to process more than 3 cards. We asked for a manager and was told that one wasn’t on site and couldn’t be contacted.
When I asked for the 15% auto-​gratuity (applied to parties of 6 or more) to be removed, we were told that it is their policy to apply a MANDATORY gratuity for parties of 6 or more. She even went as far as to get a dinner menu and show us the clause. There is no such clause in the lunch menus were were provided but this fell on deaf ears.
After about 20 minutes of battling we simply paid the bill and left to NEVER EVER RETURN.
STAY AWAY!

I have eaten here several times now but it seems to be going down in quality over the last few years. They seem to have turned it around a little and it’s still the best Thai food in the area. They do 10% for pickup cash costumers. Isn’t that illegal? They are obviously trying to avoid Uncle Sam. The service depends whether the owner is there.

One of my Favorite restaurants in all of the city, lemongrass is a great place, with a great atmosphere and even great service. The food is excellent with a wide variety of options and the price is also good. The only problem is the parking which is very hard to get a spot in but other than that lemongrass is arguably one of the best Thai restaurants in the city.

Saturday night. .. this tiny restaurant is a revolving door of patrons as one by one, tables were cleared and within minutes had new customers to fill them!
We had a table right by the door, which at first I thought ‘grrr’ but was actually better as navigating your way through the restraint seemed precarious.
Staff was a hilarious mix of sweet and attentive, and down-​to-​buiness wipe-​that-​grin-​off-​your-​face efficiency.
For three people, we ordered:
Appetizer platter: I only had the spring roll which was delicious, my husband said the sugar cane shrimp was also good.
Pad Thai: decent with a nice freshness
Green curry: didn’t try it myself but is a fave of my mom’s (the reason we came here)
Crispy Thai Beef — OMG so good I am only sorry the leftovers were sent home to my brother.
Jasmine rice: as you would expect it
All in all decent and I would return to try some other tasty things on the menu! Also loved the mix of people in the restaurant itself.

A cozy place with yummy food. :)

Not great. Service is sub par. Not very friendly. Food is mid line ok … Disappointing.

I took a new part-​time job in the area and decided to try this restaurant before my shift one day.
My boyfriend and I peeked in through the large window in front — the tables are nicely decorated with tableclothes and wineglasses. While there wasn’t a single person sitting inside, this seemed to be a hot spot for take-​out on a Thursday night. The staff even knew the customers by name!
The owners are friendly but one of the waiters, although his intentions are friendly, will awkwardly stare at you eating. It makes it uncomfortable when you are the only customers in the restaurant.
We had two glasses of pinot grigio ($ 18) and the ‘zen platter’ ($ 15) to start. The large plate of mixed appetizers hit the spot and perhaps was a bit too filling! There were two types of deep fried rolls, and the fresh rolls came with a tasty peanut sauce, which would have been more impressive if it was made from scratch. The mango salad, passable, and a bit too raw.
For our mains, I choose the vegetarian laksa. The menu stated that the broth was vegetable-​based (this is a huge relief as we can refrain from peppering the staff with annoying questions and scrutinizing sniffs when the food comes). For a vegetarian version, it wasn’t too bad, although I wouldn’t have pinned it down as a laksa. Mind you, I’ve had the real thing in Malaysia, with shrimps and all. The closest veg version I’ve had in Toronto is at the large Buddhist temple in Mississauga.
For our second main, we ordered a basil and cashew eggplant dish. There were quite a lot of cashews and the eggplant, although nicely fried and not overly greasy, could have had a little more seasoning on it. The purple rice, unfortunately, wasn’t included with any of the orders.
PRO: If you want something gluten-​free, they have plenty of choices. Meat or vegetarian! Prices vary between dishes, so you can order something for $ 10 or $ 20.
CON: Dishes are tasty but don’t have the flair that the reputation of this neighbourhood normally promises.
I’d still come back, considering that the atmosphere is nice, there are lots of vegetarian/​vegan choices and it could please a large crowd of both varying tastes and budgets. Likely, Lemongrass wouldn’t be my first choice though.
3.5÷5 stars

The failure that is the Unilocal Blackberry app left me walking the street («smart» phone purchase my fault) and judging restaurants solely by their appearance and the amount of people sitting on its patio. Thus, I ended up at Lemongrass. What is this? 2004?
I’ll preface this by saying I was already past the point of hunger-​rage, so any delay or unpleasantness is increased about 40 fold.
The restaurant was cold and over air conditioned. The grimy Springroll-​esque menus were placed onto my plate (please get the filth off where my food will go).
It was a mix of different Asian cuisines (mostly Viet/​Thai), but all at prices about 2x too high. I ordered the daily special: Red curry with chicken, jasmine rice, and a spring roll for 12.95 $ (already I’m groaning at this price point, especially given my lowered expectations for the quality of food).
The spring roll: Bland but very fried.
Red curry: a little spice — it was actually quite tasty. There was a single slice of eggplant in there, which was a tease of the other 800 superior places that serve this dish in Toronto.
The chicken looked awful. I asked them to take it back and cook it for me — so slimy, soft, and white (note: these are three adjectives I never plan to describe my food with). The manager said it was like that because they steam (or boil?) the chicken. Well whatever, it was all around unpleasant.
Dining companion, Michelle A. had a large veg. soup. Guess how much that was? 14 $. Goddamn vegetables in broth. I think she liked it. I was really too much focused on my displeasure to know for sure.
ONE PAT.
TTYN LEMONGRASS,
PAT.

Overall, fulfilled my thai craving. This place has a calm quiet atmosphere. There were a number of great lunch specials for an affordable price. Fresh food, full flavours. We ordered a black bean pad thai which was spicy, beef was cooked perfectly and among other things the cold rolls were well made. There was one server with an accent almost too thick to understand, but we were served quickly and with smiles.

I’m reviewing this restaurant because I’ve been coming here for a long time and I think it needs more credit than the one star it currently has. It is a decent restaurant in all respects, food is good, service is ok, all in all I’d say it’s about average for a somewhat upscale thai fusion restaurant. The purple Saigon is a personal favourite.

One of the worst services we have ever experienced!
They don’t explain their dishes well at all and then charge ridiculous amounts for things we didn’t actually want. Talk about putting a damper on a rainy day