Jitlada Thai Restaurant – Small But Tasty Dishes

I’ve been wanting to try Jitlada for a very long time… but, for whatever reason, we haven’t been able to find the time.

We managed to finally drop by for a visit one evening in June and found that the place wasn’t too busy. We started out with a couple of Guava Juices – these drinks were nice and refreshing on a hot evening.

There were so many things on their menu that we wanted to try but we finally decided on the Golden Angel Wings ($11.75). These boneless chicken wings are stuffed with pork, shrimp, carrots, mushrooms, vermicelli noodles and Thai herbs and served with delicious homemade chili plum sauce. Oh my goodness, these were really good!

We also ordered the Satay Gai ($11) which is skewers of chicken marinated in coconut milk and spices and served with a homemade peanut sauce. While I found the chicken to be a bit on the tougher side, the peanut sauce was quite good and I really enjoyed the crispy chips that it came with.

Next up was a “Jitlada Exclusive Dish”… the Jitlada Aroy-D ($15.75 for beef) that’s served on a bed of fast-cooked spinach. One thing that you’ll notice here is that the prices tend to be a bit on the higher side and I thought this dish was a bit small. The fast-cooked spinach was a bit undercooked for my preferences, but the beef was coated with a nice blend of spices and coconut milk.

The Pad Thai ($13 with prawns) is prepared with tamarind sauce, egg, tofu, bean sprouts, green onions and peanuts. The noodles were quite well prepared and the shrimp had a fresh snap to the bite.

Last up was the Hormok Talay Seafood Curry ($17.75) served in a fresh young coconut shell with red curry sauce. Again, this was a very solid dish – I really enjoyed the tender young coconut slices and the creamy sauce. As with the other dishes, it was a bit small and I found myself wishing there were a bit more seafood.

We wound up ordering a scoop of mango ice cream and spumone (chocolate, pistachio, and vanilla with candied fruit) for $4 each. These wound up being quite large scoops… more like two scoops each. I’m not certain, but I think it might have been from Mario’s.

Service was quite friendly although I found that it took a bit of time for the dishes to come out (and the restaurant wasn’t busy). The dishes were all prepared quite well (except for the chicken skewers which were a bit stringy) but you might find that the dishes are on the small side. Definitely worth a revisit for some of their other dishes.

1459 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC

www.jitlada.ca