White Elephant Restaurant & Bar

    Claimed
    $$ Thai
    Closed11:30 AM - 9:00 PM

    Location & Hours

    Map

    366 Queen Street E

    Toronto, ON M5A 1T1

    Corktown

    Mon

    • 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM

    Tue

    • 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM

    Wed

    • 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM

    Thu

    • 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM

    Closed now

    Fri

    • 11:30 AM - 10:00 PM

    Sat

    • 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM

    Sun

    • Closed

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    About the Business

    Thai street food…

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    Start your review of White Elephant Restaurant & Bar

    Overall rating

    20 reviews

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    • Photo of Matthew H.
      Matthew H.
      Toronto, ON
      4
      27
      13
      May 23, 2014
      First to Review

      Service is attentive as it should be in first few days of a restaurant.
      Pork skewers oh my... Wonderful. Beef meatballs skewers include tendons so one of us didn't like the consistency. Great spice here.
      Have ordered chicken street style dry spicy noodles, and garlic chicken rice. Menu is limited, but very good. There is a sweetness to all the heat. The street style noodles were excellent.
      The music is cool jazz and salsa, odd choices.
      Will return to check on consistency and have the pork skewers and street style dry spicy chicken noodles.
      Support local restaurants.

      Spicy beef skewers. Spicy and include tendons for extra bounce. Really good
      Rheum-mid dessert... Sweet and cold... Really nice
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    • Photo of Christopher N.
      Christopher N.
      Toronto, ON
      0
      23
      20
      Aug 8, 2015

      Great atmosphere! Great service! Great food! Even though the menu is not a huge menu, but the food & taste
      Is so authentic! I'm glad there is more and more diversified cultural food coming to the east end of the city!

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    • Photo of nuevo d.
      nuevo d.
      Toronto, ON
      3
      119
      22
      Apr 25, 2015

      Despite the area (not much else around etc) this is a pretty good place.
      I had the pad Thai and it was good! The look of the place is great too. I didn't have the desert everyone is writing about just the ice cream... But in frozen real fruit "cups". It was yum. The lady was nice too real attentive but didn't realize there was an event happening or that it turns to a bar/club thing with cover after 10 on Saturday. She kinda made it clear we had to leave... Didn't offer us to sit at the lounge tables when we asked if we could stay...I guess because they were charging others at the door... But awkward.
      Nice to know it is near, I'd go again and try the other dishes.

      ----
      ugh! closed.
      darn it. It was the area probably. Tough one.
      was so darned yummy! And so convenient. Was hoping this place would last to make the neighbourhood better. But I guess they couldnt do it by themselves...

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    • Photo of Douglas S.
      Douglas S.
      Toronto, ON
      51
      295
      192
      Dec 17, 2014

      This place is great. It's in an odd location for what it is.
      The food is more "cosmopolitan Thai" but they're not trying to pass it off as "authentic Thai" either.
      The corn fritters are wonderful.
      Pad Thai is very very good, portion size is perfect for lunch or dinner. I enjoy the ambience.
      When the restaurant is moderately empty (lunch times) the music can frequently be too loud, but the owner is always amenable to turning it down.
      Service is very fast, food is always fresh.
      Salads are good too.

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    • Photo of Patty C.
      Patty C.
      Montreal, QC
      12
      114
      84
      Sep 15, 2015

      I ordered the chicken guay teow (spicy) take out. Loved the taste! It was light, with some veggies, and nicely seasoned (maybe lighter on the seasoning would be better).

      I have to mention the spice. I got the spicy and this is actually spicy. Are you the type of person who go to some restros and order something "suicidal hot" on the menu and be like, hey, could you make it twice as spicy because your suicidal hot is a medium for me? If so you will find their spice proper, but not overwhelming. The spice is strong but has more layers to it. By comparison I have tried the "thai spicy" at sukho thai, that for example is the spice that I do not like, because it lacks any other flavor that should come with the pepper and dominate the whole plate with boring, dry heat. White elephant on the other hand offer the spice that compliment the taste of the food.

      One big complaint, the portion. Way too small. The noodle is 10 dollars and I felt I could have another one after I ak done. From a business point of view it cost the restaurant 30 cents to add a bit more noodle and veg to the plate and it wouldve been so much better value. Lets face it, this restro is thai street food on queen and Parliament basically 20 meters east of the big moss park project and 10 meters west of salvation army. I am expecting their rent is cheap and I can get some good value food and if they do offer that Im willing to walk up from King often. But the reality is most of time I get my take out at the pathetic fast food place or bars on king. And this place is totally empty tonight. Not even one customer, just me getting take out. They really need to seize every customer they have and give them more reasons to come back, especially when they already make great food and I would be sad if they dont succeed.

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    • Photo of Shayna L.
      Shayna L.
      Toronto, ON
      0
      16
      May 5, 2015

      I have taken to frequenting this spot. The menu is intentionally small and as such, I've found all of the dishes to be outstandingly fresh with a different flavour profile than the go-to toronto canadian-thai fare.
      At $10 the street noodles are a steal... really love the tofu. The other entrees can get a little pricey at a few bucks more (e.g. 14$ for pad thai is a stretch for me). The fritters are the star of the app list, as others have mentioned.
      It's pretty laid back during the day, which I like, but fills up over the weekend evenings as a lounge/music venue, which can also be fun. Their cocktails are well done (I particularly enjoy the namesake white elephant with lychee and fresh chili...that killer sweet&hot combo).
      The family that runs it are unpretentious and friendly, and what with the scarcity of quality food options around the Queen/Parliament intersection, I'm so happy they're in the neighbourhood.

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    • Photo of Andrew K.
      Andrew K.
      Toronto, ON
      5
      9
      Jun 17, 2015

      My girlfriend and I met up with another couple for dinner, and the food was actually pretty good. They started shooting some sort of YouTube talk show around the time when we got our food, and it made for a very awkward experience. We were having a conversation (shocking, I know) and someone came around and essentially told us to quiet down.

      On our way out, there was a couple looking at the menu outside and we advised them not to go in. They thanked us for the head's up, and I only wish someone would have extended that same courtesy to us.

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    • Photo of James P.
      James P.
      Toronto, ON
      1
      17
      1
      May 28, 2014

      So happy to see a new restaurant in this location.
      We got takeout last night and it was delicious. The Beef ball skewers were amazing. Tender and lean with a really nice sauce.
      I had dry noodles with pork. Perfect combination of sweet, spicy, salty and sour. Really nice combination. My wife had a similar dish but as a soup. This was a different menu from what I'm used to with traditional Thai restaurants but we were both so happy to try something new.
      The menu is limited and I only hope this expands in the future. The one desert option was a fruit/ice dish that was light and a perfect end to a wonderful meal.
      Looking forward to eating in as the atmosphere seems very nice as do the owners and staff.
      Please expand the menu!!! I'll eat it all!!

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    • Photo of Diana A.
      Diana A.
      Toronto, ON
      1
      24
      Jun 30, 2014

      Ate here with friends a couple weeks ago. The food and service are good. The atmosphere is fine. The problem is the prices relative to the portion sizes.

      We had a couple drinks and appetizers at the restaurant and then ordered several dishes for take-out. Everything we had was fine. Nothing blew us away.

      In terms of value for money though, this place is disappointing. Each dish cost around $14. The portions were about half the size of standard take out. The take-away containers were half packed with rice, the remaining space was garnish and the actual meal. Normally, the container is filled with the meal and rice comes in separate containers.

      I want to see local restaurants succeed but not enough to overpay for your food. To be successful on this stretch of Queen E, this restaurant needs a reliable take-out business. Increase your portion sizes and decrease your prices so that you are competitive with our other local Thai choices.

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    • Photo of Andrew E.
      Andrew E.
      Downtown Core, Toronto, ON
      0
      3
      Sep 5, 2015

      We had an alright experience with White Elephant once in the past, but our last experience was bad enough to ensure we won't order from them again.

      Delivery took over an hour and a half and the food was absolutely cold. The phad thai was bland and dull. The corn fritters were just a pile of greasy corn niblets in the bottom of the styrofoam box -- no fritters there at all! Maybe it was just a bad night, but it was terrible.

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    14 other reviews that are not currently recommended

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