Baan Wasana Thai Restaurant - Vancouver, BC

So Mr. Piglet and I have spent the whole entire day out at the beach and while driving out of the parking lot at Spanish Banks, we want to turn right to go into Kits for a meal.  We notice there's a bit of a traffic jam so left it is!  Our lives honestly revolve around avoid traffic at all costs - sad, yes, but with so much commuting everyday for work and leisure, it really lowers the blood pressure when you don't have to wait in a line for no reason.  So that's how we end up in Kerrisdale and what's open in Kerrisdale on a Sunday evening?  Not much.  The burger joint we were intending on visiting has a handmade sign that says "Sorry, we're closed on Sundays" and since we're parked we might as well walk down the street and see what's open.

Nothing is open.  The only thing we spot is a diner across the street (we're not in the mood) and a small Thai place named Baan Wasana Thai Restaurant.  There's people inside so we thought "might as well" and walked in.  Fingers crossed!  Friendly greeting at the door, a quick peruse through the menu and we wait for our food...

Thai Iced Tea - $3.50

Just awesome.  Great blend of spices, not too sweet and was just the perfect antidote to the spicy dishes.  I haven't had better Thai iced tea anywhere else.  Period.

Thai Iced Coffee - $3.50

Mr. Piglet is a nut for iced coffee, especially the Vietnamese version but he's intrigued by the Thai version served here, especially since there's a hit of spices that were unexpected.  The coffee is also mixed with sweetened condensed milk but with the spices, it's a bit more complex and also delicious at the same time.  The drink really helps later on when the heat of the food hits.  Is it better than the Vietnamese version?  You can't compare the two because although they're fundamentally the same drink, they're completely different and both tasty in their own respects.

Papaya Salad - $8.25

Green papaya and carrot with fresh lime juice, tomato, peanut, dry shrimp and chili

It looks so refreshing and cool but DO NOT be deceived because this thing is SPICY.  Mr. Piglet was sweating and half the iced coffee went down the hatch.  It's an awesome balance of sweet, tart, cool, seafoody, crunchy and of course, spicy.  We haven't had this before but I'm quite sure we'd order it again.  Take the server's advice to scale down the spice because we did and we're thankful we took her advice.

Pad Kee Mao Goong - $13.45

Tiger prawns with basil leaf, green bean, white onion, green and red bell pepper and chili

Succulent tiger prawns in a sweet, savory, spicy and a tad sour sauce.  I didn't care much for the green and red peppers but the green beans were crunchy and the basil leaves a very nice fragrance.  The chili is spicy but not overly so that the other ingredients are drowned out - they are balanced really well here.  With a bit of coconut rice...  ah, YUM.

Massamun Curry Chicken - $10.25

Massamun curry paste, with coconut milk, potato, white onion, peanut

I wasn't sure if I was going to like the combination of coconut milk and potato but this was a hit for both of us.  The aroma coming off this dish was already intoxicating itself.  The dish was not spicy at all which was a nice change from all of the spicy fare already on the table.  Maybe a bit too sweet to eat with the coconut milk rice and we ended up taking most of it home as leftovers because we ordered too much.  It tasted most excellent with the quinoa I had for lunch the next day.  

Pad Thai - $10.95

Stir-fried Thai noodle with Prawn, tofu, egg and bean sprout served with ground peanut

I know we're ordering the stereotypical dish that most customers order but it's different at BW!  I swear!  You know why?  You know why it's not a red-colored noodle?  Because it's actually made the traditional way with tamarind sauce rather than ketchup.  Yes, that's right, this noodle dish isn't supposed to have ketchup in it and it tastes better that way.  This pad thai is much more tangy with a better balance of sweet and sour, the noodles are cooked perfectly so they don't stick together, you can taste the seafood and there's that awesome crunch of sprouts and peanuts.  If you want to taste how pad thai should taste like, come to BW.

Black Sweet Rice Pudding with Taro and Young Coconut - $5.00

I am stuffed TO THE BRIM.  We actually packed almost half of every dish to go (I LOVE leftovers for lunch!) but Mr insists on trying dessert since the rest of the meal was so good.  This was a great dessert for Mr and an interesting one for myself - it's warm sweet black rice in a cool coconut milk with cool strips of young coconut on top.  I'm not sure if I liked the rice pudding but I definitely loved the contrast of warm and cool in one bite and I am a sucker for young coconut.  Mr, on the other hand, devoured this without flinching and he's not even the type to like these kinds of desserts, which goes to show how tasty it was.

The Hungry Piglets are so glad we stumbled upon this little place in Kerrisdale and actually kind of thankful the burger joint was closed.  This place is endearing - family-owned, great food and refreshingly casual.  We would definitely come back and it was funny enough that when Mr and I mentioned this place to other people, a few of them knew of BW and loved it too.  Is this the secret Thai place that no one likes to talk about but everyone loves to go to? If you haven't heard of Baan Wasana, go and experience some really great Thai food.  Bon appetite!


Pros:

• Excellent food
• Friendly service
• Free street parking nearby with plenty of pay parking right outside
• Take-out available
• Moderate to large portion sizes

Cons:

• Service was a bit slow since there was only 1 server and 1 cashier - don't get me wrong, everyone was super nice but there just wasn't enough of them working