For this review of Salad King, I've invited one part of the wonderful couple (and fellow bloggers) I dined with at SK, to contribute her take on this restaurant which will be up soon.

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A couple of the neon lights in the "Salad King" sign were out when we went - so it read "SAD KING" ...which is absolutely APT for this dump of a restaurant that 275 of you on Urbanspoon claim is the best Thai resto in Toronto.

Are you kidding me? Where else are you people eating that this has become the place to go for Thai??!

To start, we ordered the Papaya Salad (which boasted "dried shrimps"...the salad that came to our table had non-existent dried shrimp (must have been so dry that it shriveled away?) and a garnish that had black spots on it. Good start, right?

Our "medium" heat Shrimp Delight ($8.95 - Shrimps, bell peppers, onions, yellow bean sauce, chilli sauce, lime juice, steamed rice) arrived with neither heat NOR shrimp (nor delight for that matter!) and plenty of accompanying liquid "spicy" water. We weren't aware we'd ordered soups?

The Spicy Fish dish ($8.95 - Red cod fillet, lime leaf, carrots, onions, bell peppers chilli, garlic, shallots, palm sugar, steamed rice) came with hardly any fish although what was there certainly was still swimming..in a pool of oily liquid!

And the Evil Jungle Prince ($6.75 - Egg plant, baby corn, peas, carrots, onions, chilli sauce, lemon grass, bamboo shoots and steam rice) which was supposed to contain eggplant and veggies came with one tiny piece of eggplant, plenty of frozen peas and a generous portion of WATER!

How disgusting.

I asked the server whether the dishes were always that watery - to which she replied 'yes that's how they are made'. I told her it was a disappointing meal to which she shrugged and moved along to serve the next table of assembly line patrons.

Salad King will forever be SAD KING to me - it's the worst thai food I've ever had and I'm really sorry that so many of you think that that's what Thai is supposed to taste like! I'd really love to see where else the 275 of you are eating and stay the hell away from those places!

Location:
188 Augusta Avenue, Toronto (Kensington Market)

Cost: Lunch specials (Mon - Fri only) $5.99 -8.99

Beside Back Alley Woodfire BBQ & Grill is a fancy place called Amadeus; you can't tell from the exterior but inside, the cream-coloured walls, dark wood and cloth napkins don't exactly call out "lunch specials!" and certainly not "lunch specials under $10!!". No.

We felt like Portuguese food, but not $25 Portuguese seafood. For dinner maybe but not for a hurried lunch date. And where the chicken at? Next door, apparently. So, Back Alley it was to be.

The rustic interior and giant woodfire ovens made for a cosy atmosphere and the wallet-friendly menu wasn't too shabby, either. The lunch specials are a good deal - which makes this #3 in Foodhogger's Frugal Fare in the city.

We got the quarter chicken breast and the shrimps in a herbed lemon sauce...each including a salad, which was fairly good and arrived promptly to the table.

Granted the portions aren't massive, and the sides a bit bland - especially the rice with gravy drizzled over it, but there were 5 jumbo shrimps (in the shell) which weren't altogether terrible.

The chicken breast looked a tad mightier in size, but a bit fatty for my liking and lacking in any true flavour.

Not an entirely satisfying meal - I think I really really wanted some hearty Portuguese BBQ instead, like churrasqueira-style chicken from Bairrada Churrasqueira Grill on College St....mmm..yummeh - but it's probably our own fault for not ordering something that would benefit better from a smouldering wood oven. Something like ribs?

Definitely worth another try.