Thai New West Restaurant

“One of our intentions is to keep everything as uncommercial as possible,” says Teg Brar, co-owner of Thai New West. Teg and his wife Vara specialize in traditional Thai food, with no high-concept experimental fusion. “This is pure, fresh cuisine. If you came to our house you would get the food we serve here. We want to retain that.”

As in a Thai household, what that means in practice is ordering fresh meats and produce every two days, and sourcing the unusual ingredients that Thai chefs like Vara would have taken for granted back home: galangal (also known as blue ginger), lime leaf and lemongrass. Curry pastes are made from scratch and prepared to order rather than kept in a pot all day. Same with the spring rolls, which are not rolled until a customer orders them.

“It shows in the freshness and flavour. Anyway, we don’t have a big freezer and can’t do a lot of things with frozen food that other restaurants can do,” he laughs. “Our kitchen is a shoebox.”