Sabai Sabai is my kind of Thai
Sabai Sabai Kitchen and Bar
(out of 4) Address: 225 Church St. (at Dundas St. E.), 647-748-4225, sabaisabaito.ca/ Chef: Nuit Regular Hours: Lunch, Monday to Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner, Monday to Wednesday, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Thursday to Saturday, 5:30 to 11 p.m. Reservations: Yes Wheelchair access: No Price: Dinner for two with beer, tax and tip: $70 Even before I get a table at Sabai Sabai Kitchen and Bar, I’m having a good time.
The Thai restaurant buzzes with chatter and energy. Diners laugh near the open garage-door window. At the bar, a newborn sleeps obliviously in his Baby Bjorn as his parents eat a parade of tempting dishes.
Because Sabai Sabai is full and I didn’t make a reservation, I wait. Even this is fun, as I study photographs of customers posted on a board near the entrance. Co-owner Jason Jiang comes up and points to a peroxide blonde singer; she’s up there because she performed on site for a customer’s birthday in a series of curve-hugging outfits.
(Another hint of naughtiness is the Me Love You Long Time cocktail, a rechristened Long Island iced tea that recalls the Vietnamese prostitute in Full Metal Jacket. When later asked about the potential offensiveness to Asian women, Jiang says: “It’s a fun wording. In Bangkok, everyone would know that phrase.”)
Truth is, I’ve come primed for enjoyment because I’m on the turf of Nuit and Jeff Regular, the couple who made Khao San Road one of the city’s best Thai restaurants. They left Khao San Road last year but continue to operate two Sukhothai restaurants, including the six-month-old Wellington St. E. location where the so-called “drunken noodles” are fall-down delicious.
It was through the original Sukhothai on Parliament St. that the Regulars teamed up with Laotian-born Jiang and Seng Luong to open Sabai Sabai last Nov. 29. They knew Jiang and Luong as regular customers and, later, as friends.
“We all have big families and we all like to cook together. We are trying to bring from back home the things we like: Food and entertaining,” says Jiang, a 10-year veteran of the hospitality industry.
Sabai Sabai is big and bright, named after the Thai phrase for “relaxed.” Vintage Thai cigarette and beer ads hang on the white walls. Colourful paper lanterns hung up for Songkran, the Thai/Laotian New Year, still trail golden tassels.
It’s friendly, too. When I finally get a table, the server thanks me for waiting: “I saw you standing there for a while. We really appreciate it.”
Many of Nuit Regular’s signature dishes are here. Nuit, from northern Thailand, still makes funky green papaya salad ($5) and transporting tom yum soup ($6) with snappy curled shrimp. Her khao soi ($11) remains a thing of beauty: soft crimped egg noodles and slippery chicken morsels in curried coconut broth.
But Sabai follows its own path by serving street food (often vegan) from Thailand and neighbouring Laos, big flavours simply presented on rustic wooden boards or modern white plates. Laotian bamboo baskets keep portions of sticky rice ($3) warm.
Tamarind-splashed basa fillets ($8) wear an impeccable crunchy coating. Skewered pork butt ($8) is tender, fatty and smoky in all the right ways; the only possible improvement is to dip the meat into the flavoured fish sauce on the side. Sticky chicken wings ($7) are deceptively plain; after a few bites, the burn creeps up.
Sabai doesn’t serve Thai noodles, which may disappoint fans of Sukhothai’s pad thai. They should console themselves with morning glory stems ($9). These aren’t the climbing garden flowers but rather a hollow-stemmed green vegetable also known as water spinach. Stirfried with a whack of garlic, the crunchy strands make your taste buds sit up and take notice.
This is at night, when you’re meant to come in groups and pass these spicysweet-salty-sour flavour bombs around, along with $40 pitchers of sparkling white sangria garnished with dragon fruit. I prefer the chili-taming qualities of Beerloa ($7), brewed in Laos from local jasmine rice and German hops and yeast. Jiang says Sabai is the only Toronto restaurant to import the smooth lager.
At lunch, rice-based entrées replace the tapas. That’s when Thai barbecued pork ($12) is the rare failure at Sabai. The crispy-edged slices are drenched in monotonously sweet soybean paste; the soft-boiled egg on the side is the best part of the plate.
Dessert ($5) is the same, day or night: Nutty sticky rice cooked in sweetened coconut milk and topped with sliced mango or, my preference, scoops of saltysweet custard stained green by pandan leaf.
It’s the kind of food, and the kind of restaurant, you can’t find often enough in Toronto. apataki@thestar.ca twitter.com/amypataki