Van Thai Restaurant - New Westminster, British Columbia

The owner or staff is very friendly! He’s opening door for every customers and greet them with a smile! He gave me a tea when I was waiting for my pick up order. Pod Thai got a lots of veggies with thick noodle and taste pretty good ! But the ... one thing , it doesn’t taste like a pod Thai. Taste like a rice noodle tomato spaghetti. Anyway we like this place! Convenient location! Plus reasonable price ! Read more

Ordered the basil fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and calamari. So listen, if you want healthy blah blah blah this ain’t the place baby. This is the I-want-salty-flavourful-semi-greased deliciousness meal. At the end of a sh!t day, it’s perfect. They use real white chicken breast meat and the flavours are ... well-pronounced. The service is prompt and user-friendly. Kinda pricey but indicative of the greater Vancouver area. I’ve read the low star reviews on this establishment and I’m sorry, atm I cannot concur. Neighbourhood favourite - I’ll be back Read more

Had a craving for Thai food on May 27, 2019 and chose to stop at Van Thai for the convenience (it's right by the New West SkyTrain station). I ordered chicken satay skewers and pad Thai to go. After getting home, I was excited to eat but was disappointed with my ... food. The rice noodles in my pad thai were overcooked (very mushy) and it tasted like they had used ketchup instead of tamarind in the sauce. As I had spent over $25 on the meal (and was starving), I tried to eat what I could. I was only able to finish the overcooked satay skewers and picked the 4 pieces of shrimp off of my pad thai. I'm hoping this was just an off day for the restaurant but I won't be coming back. Would highly recommend trying your food before you leave if you decide to try this place out. Read more

Last year, I did a round of all of the Thai restaurants in the New Westminster area and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the shops. Earlier this year, I noticed a newish Thai spot that opened up on Carnarvon St (near the Skytrain station) called Van Thai. The ... interior is spacious but a bit on the dark side with minimal decor (partly due to the dark wood coloured chairs, tables, and chair railing). On my first visit, I tried their Lunch Combo B ($14) which included Green Curry Chicken, salad, and Thai Golden Bags. The deep-fried golden bags were tightly wrapped around the filling and had a nice crispness to the bite. I found that the salad was swimming in a bit too much dressing for my preferences. As for the green curry chicken, it came with corn, bamboo, eggplant, onions, and carrots with surprisingly tender pieces of chicken. The curry sauce itself was a bit on the watery side and was more of a pale grey/brown colour. I’ve been to some restaurants where the green curry turns out with a bright green hue and other places where it’s more of a greenish/grey colour… it didn’t bother me too much. However, it wasn’t as creamy of a curry sauce that I’m used to. On my next visit, I tried their Set D Combo ($16) which again was served with an organic salad but, this time, with the addition of fried Fish Cake. The fish cake turned out quite well and offset the tart vinaigrette used in the salad. The Penang Curry Chicken that came with my combo had the same tender pieces of chicken that I had in my last visit. This sauce was thick and had a nice spicy kick to it. In addition to the chicken, the bowl contained baby corn, red and green peppers, peas, and bamboo shoots. I definitely preferred this over the green curry chicken. On my subsequent visit, I wanted to try their Pad Thai ($16) but I also wanted to try their Rendang Beef Lunch Special ($10) so I ordered both. I opted for the chicken version of their pad thai and I have to reiterate… they really know how to cook their chicken here. The morsels of chicken were perfectly tender (I hate when chicken is too dry). The pad thai itself was okay… a typical westernized version of the dish but still tasty. I asked for a medium spice level on the rendang beef and that turned out to be fairly spicy. The aroma of this dish was the first thing that I noticed when it arrived at my table… love the spices that waft through the air. The beef itself was nice and fokr-tender and swimming in an intoxicating thick, rich, curry sauce. The only downside was that they leave the star anise and lemongrass in the bowl so I had to pick those out. Definitely a good pairing with a big bowl of rice. When I returned for a revisit a month later, I noticed that they had some more lunch specials offerings which hovered around $10 (while their lunch set combos were roughly $13-$16). I spotted the Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Chicken ($10) previously and I wanted to give that a try. I wouldn’t really consider this a Thai dish as it’s basically just a stir-fry that you’d find in any asian restaurant. That being said, it was pretty good. There was a combination of shaved carrots, baby corn, onions, and crunchy water chestnuts mixed with the chicken and brussels sprouts. Overall, there are some pretty good dishes here if you know what to look for. Read more

Good deals for lunch specials $10. Portions were smaller than the regular menu but fair. Green curry is mildly spicy with plenty of ingredients. Pad thai is on the saucy side FYI. Comfy seating with large tables. Overall, recommened!