Chili Club Thai House Restaurant

One of my favorite things about eating out is enjoying the unique character of each restaurant. Each one is different and special. The Chili Club Thai House is no exception.

I was surprised by how small the dining room is. There were probably only 10 tables. The room was lit perfectly for dinner time, soft and yellow with just enough light to see who I’m eating with and more importantly what I’m eating. The walls are painted a warm orange color with shadow boxes filled with unique items like foreign currency or Thai formal dress clothes.

The menu was extensive and Nicole even mentioned that there was so much too choose from that we were taking a really long time deciding.

It’s nice to know that I can eat there every Friday for almost an entire year without ever eating the same meal! The food comes very similar to Indian food where you order what main course you want and you order your rice separately with several choices, fried rice, fried rice with curry, boiled rice, coconut rice, or lemon grass Roti with green onions. We all opted for the coconut rice and although you may naively think that rice is rice you are wrong, my friend. It was fantastic and a great way to compliment the dinners we all ordered.

Nicole had the Kaeng Kheir Wan Gai Tua (say that three times fast) which is chicken with snow peas in a mild green curry.

Oh, I should mention that each dish is labeled for how hot it is. One chili pepper is “Amusing”, two chili peppers are “Very Spicy” and three peppers are “Holy $#@%…that’s HOT!”. And that’s a direct quote from the menu.

Nicole’s meal was amazing. I’m not a super huge fan of snow peas but it was a great sauce.
(One chili pepper)

Bjorn had the Thai Chi Kung which is sauteed prawns with lemon grass and is also only one chili pepper hot but he asked for a kick to his by adding another pepper. Crazy man!

Chuck had a meal that he said reminded him of some of the meals he had in France because of it’s warmth and rich flavors.

Musamun Beef Curry which is beef chunks sauteed in Thai curry with potatoes, onion and peanuts. It was really good and I never would have thought potatoes were a Thai thing but it was a phenomenal plate to nibble from when Chuck wasn’t looking. His was two chili peppers hot so we had two hot, sweating men at the table!

I had the house special which is called Swimming Rama, chicken on a bed of spinach with spicy peanut sauce. (only one chili pepper) I was nervous about the peanut sauce because I wasn’t in the mood for chicken with peanut butter but it didn’t taste like that at all.

It was smooth and creamy with warm flavors that I didn’t even think of was peanuts at first. It was a beautiful work of oral art.
(I’m so good at this review business. Anyone wanting to pay me for it?)

The four of us sat at our table talking about everything from autopsies to computer software to cranky children, although I try not to talk about my kids when I’ve left them with a stranger and fled from the house.

I like to just sit back and enjoy the relative quiet, don’t you?

We sat at a table by the front window, the only window since this is a small place.
I could see the tall, majestic building of downtown Calgary. I still find it exhilarating to be living so close to downtown. There’s a lot of energy here and it was nice to be sitting at a table with friends, enjoying quiet and intelligent company while the lights of the towering buildings watched us eat.

A great night, I must say.

Chili Club Thai House
125, 555 – 11 Avenue SW
Calgary