Lovely Thai Noodle Counter Mae Sri is Up and Running Near McGill

There’s an excitingly affordable new Thai option available in Milton Parc (AKA “the McGill Ghetto”), with noodle shop Mae Sri now open in the student neighbourhood.

The casual counter operation takes over the Milton Street space that was formerly longtime diner Place Milton, after it closed earlier this year.

Mae Sri comes with some established Thai culinary talent — its owner, Pamika Sukla, has run Sherbrooke East Thai restaurant Pamika Thai Brasserie for around five years. The new operation is named for Sukla’s mom, Sri, who ran a food stand in the eastern Thailand city of Ubon Ratchathani.

But while Pamika is a more formal bistro, Mae Sri is getting into street food.

It’s billed as a kuai tiao counter — so variations on that Thai rice noodle soup figure prominently. With a dozen noodle soup options, choose between a classic pork option with both pork balls and belly, or bitter melon with chicken leg, or other beef and seafood options.

But it’s not strictly kuai tiao — other dishes include a Thai holy basil stir fry, pad thai, pad see ew, and papaya salads, with most main plates coming it at the solid price of $13 to $15.

The well-rounded menu also has a solid number of vegetarian options, sweet Thai drinks including iced coffee with condensed milk or iced tea, and tapioca and mango puddings. There’s also a small grocery section, with sauces and noodles for sale.

Montreal’s small Thai food scene has stuck mostly to more formal restaurants like Pick Thai in NDG, or Laurier Avenue’s Chao Phraya, meaning Mae Sri is one of very few places to take the street food angle — it joins the similarly casual Epicerie Pumpui, which has been doing solid business on St-Zotique Street in Little Italy since opening in 2017.

STATUS — Mae Sri is open at 224 Milton Street from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday and 5 to 11 p.m. Monday to Saturday.

• Mae Sri [Official]