Vancouver Good

Gastropod is no more, but the owners have given us Maenam Thai Restaurant, specializing in authentic Thai food and a late night menu until 2am! Most Kitsilano places shut down early, around 10pm. A good late night place is perfect for late night me.

I went for dinner at 10:30pm last night, which was Maenam’s second full day of business.

The menu is a nice variety of salads, soups, curries, and noodles. We ordered the basics last night: Pad Thai, Papaya Salad, and Panaeng Beef Curry. I really wanted to order the hangar steak salad and creamy mushroom soup though – next time.

The Pad Thai was awesome. I have been making a lot of Pad Thai at home and was starting to feel pretty good about my version. Maenam’s version has me going back to the drawing board at home. It nails the flavours of salty, sweet, spicy, sour and the sauce is luscious, blending perfectly wtih the noodles. I will return many times for a plate of pad thai and a glass of wine. It’s also cheaper then the very un-authentic pad thai at Earl’s, might I add. Chains are not cheaper!

Mixed reviews on the Papaya Salad. Great mixture of papaya, green beans and roasted peanuts, but it was heavy too on the fish sauce for me. Perhaps this is the more authentic version though?

Panaeng Beef was sweet and tasty wtih tender beef served up in a beautiful bowl.

Service was friendly and professional. We definitely still felt like we were in a Gastropod type dining restaurant. The only hitch is that the Thai menu seems a little more casual.  It’ll be interesting to see how the clientele develops at Maenam.

Overall  – I’ll be back often! Loved it and I hope the late night menu takes off.