Siam Le Bien Thai Cuisine: Stuffed Chicken Wings and Red Curry Duck

Siam Le Bien is a relatively new Thai restaurant that opened up a few months ago in Burnaby Heights. Always on the hunt for new Thai restaurants, we stopped by for some take-out in January (they do have dine-in service available).

First off was the Tom Yum Prawn ($13). Thai cuisine is known for the mix of spicy and sour flavours and hot and sour soup is the perfect example.

Next up was the Red Duck Curry ($18) made with tomatoes, pineapple, lychee, bell peppers, bamboo shoots and Thai basil. I always make sure to order this if I see it on a menu as I love how the sweetness of the lychee plays with the spicy curry flavour. I would have liked to see a couple of more pieces of lychee (I think I counted 3-4 lychees) but the creamy curry sauce was on point.

One of my favourite dishes here was the Stuffed Chicken Wings ($9). It seems like so much work… stuffing boneless chicken wings with a mixture of minced chicken, black fungus and bean vermicelli and then deep-frying it. But it’s well worth it once you bite into one of these.

The Crispy Spring Rolls ($7) is a fairly similar appy… having mixed veggies and bean vermicelli stuffed inside crispy spring roll wrappers.

No Thai meal would be complete without Pad Thai ($14 with Prawns). I like that they use a tamarind sauce with the rice noodles instead of ketchup. It’s all mixed up with tofu, egg, shallots, bean sprouts, chives and ground peanuts which can make this dish a whole meal.

Last up was the Pad Prink Jalapeño ($13) which is a stir-fried dish mixed up with onions, jalapeño, bell peppers, and carrots. This goes best with some type of carb to soak up the sauce.

I did make a return because I wanted to try their Yum Won Sen Traditional Thai Salad ($14.50 on Skip the Dishes). Their online menu describes this as the “Siam Magic” Traditional Thai Salad and there’s a good reason why… one look at the translucent blue mung bean noodles instantly makes this dish look magical (thinking they use something like butterfly pea flower to add that bluish hue to the noodles). Served warm, the salad is a mix of mung bean vermicelli, shrimp, minced chicken, tomatoes, celery, roasted peanuts, lime juice, chili, cilantro, and green onions. The colours are quite vibrant and the freshness of the ingredients stands out. I did think the minced chicken was a tad on the dry side but I probably needed to use a bit more dressing.

I dropped by for lunch in March and tried their Lunch Special Green Curry Chicken ($11.50) with a Lime Soda ($4.50). The lunch special comes with a side salad and crisp spring roll while the curry had tender eggplant, red and orange peppers, and basil. This was a pretty good version and a nice price point for lunch. The medium-spiced curry sauce had a nice heat level that you really didn’t feel until afterwards. Wish this place was a little bit closer to where we live.

Overall, the food was pretty good. If you find that their dishes aren’t spicy enough, make sure to ask them to kick up the spice level. I thought their “medium” was okay if you’re not looking for anything overly spicy.

4217 E Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

https://www.siamlebien.com/