A friend and I like to explore restaurants locally as we are both fairly new to town. When she sugggested Kinaree I was happy to try it out even though I try to follow a low carb diet. Oops! We shared an order of drunken prawns and veggies pad thai. We also ordered some rice each and I loved that the proprietor came to our table with a fancy silver dish and scooped rice on our plates. Both dishes were delish. I've eaten at a ton of thai restaurants over the years and this is as good as any of them. I will definitely go back to try more dishes. Plus the server/owner (?) was lovely and I would like to support his business. read more

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My chicken fried Rice had very little to no meat, I Love Thai food and crave it often but I just can't get myself to come back here after my experience. The area needs a great Thai restaurant so hopefully they improve read more

Best Thai food on the island. Authentic Thai dishes. Friendly staff and cold Chang beer!

Our go to restaurant. The food is knock your socks off, The owners take pride in their service and cusuine, we go there a lot.

very friendly the food was great either shareable or as your own. tried it for Mother's Day and have been back twice since taking different people each time read more

I needed a magnifying glass to find the meat in the dishes. Haven't been to this restaurant in a while and used to love it. Ordered 4 dishes for takeout. Opened up the takeout dishes and it looked like someone's boxed up leftovers. There were four pawns in the pad Thai very few noodles which is funny because noodles aren't even expensive. And scraps in the ginger beef and cashew chicken. It was mostly cut up onion celery and red pepper and a few huge chunks of oranges with peel....and about five cashews. I have NEVER written a review for a restaurant EVER but this was so poorly executed that I was compelled to. I'm probably hangry. I get that businesses are struggling with Covid and times are tough but giving people scraps instead of meals is not the way to save money. The fried rice however was great with a reasonable portion. I really wish I had taken a picture. read more

What a glob of mess. NEVER AGAIN !!! Ordered Vegetable lettuce wraps.. got 1/4 head of lettuce, crispy rice noodles, you know...like the ones that puff up when deep fried and weigh about 1/4 ounce and a greasy onion veggie broth. I guess the broth and the lettuce was the vegetable part. Not even a shred of carrot...bean sprout...vermicilli...green onion....nothing. Greasy onions in a broth with puff rice and 1/4 head of lettuce....all of that for $7.50. Ordered spring rolls 4 for $7.50. These were NOT Thai spring rolls as stated on the menu. There was no "crispy" in the menu description. Thai spring rolls are made with rice paper. At least the 10,000 I have devoured from restaurants in Thai communities in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria in the past 40 years. The spring rolls that I received from Kinaree were a crispy deep fried spring roll, each one no longer than my ring finger and just as round. When I bit into one, I found one piece of carrot, must of been the one missing from the lettuce wraps. These deep fried spring rolls look frozen, uniformed and would be something you would serve at the buffet line at Uncle Billy's wedding. Ordered Deep Fried Tofu $7.50. I got 8 lightly deep fried soggy UNCOOKED tofu pieces. Eight Pieces. Sorry, but if you have every ordered deep fried tofu ANYWHERE, whether its Thai style or Chinese style or whatever style... you pretty much get get a block of tofu ($1.99 @ grocery store) ...deep fried. Not 8 mealy pieces of uncooked firm tofu. Very sad. Ordered Pad Thai. Was not impressed. Order was dead cold, congealed and the tofu in this dish was rubbery. Ordered 3 cans of Coke. hey..... burp. they were pretty good. Total of order $42.47 Hired Kyte Delivery Service at 1:15 pm ($11.55) here in Courtenay to pick up my order 9 blocks away at 1:45, np they said, they needed 30 minute notice before a pickup so it's not an issue. Kineree, order will be ready at 1:45pm, np. Awesome. wait.....and wait.... call Kyte. They say any minute. 2:15 Kyte arrives, blames Kineree. Says they always wait for Kineree orders. Order is stone cold. I lost it. At that moment I blamed Kineree for my late order. I left 2 pissed off messages in a voice mail. 1st for the late order then the second after I opened my order. I was not nice. So all in all...I paid $54.02 for a meal that was totally unedible. Two hours later Kineree calls, he is abrupt....due to my messages, sure, understandable. He starts off about my order being cold. He had called Kyte at 1:45 asking where are you???? The order is ready. Kyte was a half hour late for the food order and then *lied* to me saying it wasn't ready. It arrived stone cold from 9 blocks away. hhhhmmmm Maybe I should visit Kyte Delivery Service comments. The phone call continues with Kineree. He proceeds after the Kyte explaination to really go off on me. Just rips into me and tells me I do not know what I am talking about with Thai food. Rakes me over the coals. Just blasts me. He does not take a breath. Goes on and on how I swore in front of his children. ?? ok. yes. I said f-word in voice mail over the phone. Absolutely my bad. Not cool at all. But what are children doing listening to business messages?? Even a family run business, children have no need to listen to business messages. I was still in the wrong...I did say the f word. I was soo upset in those two voice messages. During the tirade Kineree was laying onto me, I kept saying over and over ....sir, can I just....sir...please..wait, can I...can I ....wait... just explain ..but sir....please...sorry, please..wait..on and on and on.. begging him over and over to give me a sec to explain something to him. I could not get a word in edge wise. He told me to go f**k myself and bring the food back and then he hung up on me. Mr. Kineree.... owner.... what I was trying to do was to *apologize* for going off on you on the phone. I was trying to get a sec to say that. You would not let me. I also wanted to explain WHY the meal was SO IMPORTANT to me. Why I was so disappointed. I know that it is not an excuse for exploding on you but sir....that was going to be my first meal in a week. Last Friday I had a round of chemo for my breast cancer. For the first week after a cocktail of chemicals, the last thing you do is eat. Barely. Pudding, toast, jello, bit of white rice. You are just too tired to eat. All week long I kept dreaming of Tofu Pad Thai and other morsels to go with it. I couldn't wait to eat again. Your food order was my first meal in a week...then when it arrived...... I couldn't eat it. I tried. After I left the messages, I curled up in bed and cried. I was so disappointed. I was not asking for sympathy by any means. I was trying to explain & apologize for my message. You wouldn't let me. ps... I couldn't return the order sir, I couldn't get out of bed. Chemo does that to a body. read more

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Very tasty food. Good variation and quality. We have returned several times. A bit pricy for the serving size.

The worst. extremely small portions, flavourless. canned mushrooms, almost no seafood in the seafood dish, almost no chicken in the chicken dish. Disappointing. read more

I got yellow curry chicken takeout. The portion was very small and there was only a small amount of actual chicken. For the price, I wouldn't go back. The taste was good though. read more

Kinaree Thai is our first go-to option any time we think of dining out. It's that good. I am a little basic and always get the Pad Thai and the Panang Curry plus 2 coconut rice, but we've had people say everything here is good. Don't trust the few bad reviews here on Yelp. It's delicious, and they can do gluten-free and dairy-free. Yum. read more

Very very good tasting authentic Thai food and good staff and the my favorite dish is Pad Thai.

Stickered on the door to Kinaree Thai Cuisine is the word "Sawatdee"--a Thai greeting--following by the phrase, "Thai It. You'll Like It", which is both adorable and also probably the catch phrase for various Southeast Asian pornography sites. I'm surprised the owner stopped there with the puns. "Don't let regular food Thai you down, har har!" That aside, Kinaree is a fantastic jewel in the heart of a town you'd not usually associate with good Thai food, most likely due to the charming owner that greeted and served us, sporting an untucked dress shirt lacking a Thai (get it, Thai/Tie...cough, moving on). I do appreciate Thai restaurants for their flare. Call it garish, but they always seem to make it work in my opinion, from the cellophane-topped tables to the red walls and regalia acknowledging the fact that Thailand is still a kingdom. Even the utensils are from Thailand, and they each weighed around 100 grams for some reason. They looked forged from solid brass. Like any good Thai meal, I started with the prawn salad rolls, a pair with peanut sauce for $7.95, a bit more expensive for my taste. They were good, and you do get two generous rolls justifying the value, but I'd prefer a smaller order at a cheaper price. This was followed by a traditional curry. Rice was spooned from a gigantic bowl, the likes of which you'd see serving royalty from the 17th century (serving to royalty, I mean--because the other makes no sense). Not kidding, some of these dishes look pulled from an epic feast within the walls of a medieval great hall, where cooks had to stand naked inside ovens while they turned the suckling pig, and men with weathered teeth, huge beards and draped in furs tore beef directly from the bone while jesters entertained always on guard of committing some offense that would get them demoted to unich. But this is Thai, so I had curry with rice. There were also carrots cut to resemble flowers, because...I don't know, Asia. All this eventually led to dessert, which I'll dedicate at least a generous 130 words to (or would you rather "one-hundred thir-thai" words), because I seriously don't know if they were meant to be a joke. Five of the dessert options all involved ice cream. I ordered the deep-fried banana with ice cream while my friend ordered the deep fried ice cream with banana... I'm not kidding; those were the options, the same ingredients with different parts deep-fried. It makes me wonder why they didn't offer two more, with both ice cream and banana deep-fried and another where neither are. Our orders were served on identical plates with caramel and chocolate drizzle, presented with a tiny wooden shovel for a spoon. A tiny wooden shovel, I assume also from Thailand. It was odd each plate tasted different, with the deep fried ice cream edging the deep fried banana by a hair. But even as I ordered the dish, I felt someone was playing a joke. Then I remembered the "Thai it" sign outside and realized I should have expected it. This owner was obviously a "wise-Thai". Oh god, these are getting worse. Despite the charisma of our host and server, there was a substantial delay in the delivery of food, but it didn't cross the threshold of being too long. Personally, given the size of the town of Courtenay, I was surprised they had a Thai place at all. My home town of Prince George is triple the size and it also only has one. Given that, Kinaree could have surfed its ethnic distinction into lackluster food (which my local spot has been guilty of on occasion), so I am pleasantly impressed Kinaree is refusing to settle. I would add more to this review, but I'm honestly running out of bed puns and am getting "Thai-ered." HA HA!! Food: 4/5 Service: 3.5/5 Presentation: 4/5 Value: 4/5 Recommendation: 4/5 read more

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What a sweet little place. Very cozy and comforting inside. A very relaxing date night spot for us on a Wednesday night. Heard great recommendations from friends about it here and it lives up to the expectations. We live spicy food so we ordered the hottest possible and we sure were not disappointed in spice level. We will be back as there are so many more things on the menu we want to try. So many options! We had the green curry and the pad Thai and both were fantastic!! We will be back again for sure! read more

Very good food, excellent flavour. But I sure wish there was more of it. There was maybe 2 ounces of chicken and a cup and a half of veggies in my stir fried chicken and veggie dish. We also got the pork spring rolls- weirdest spring rolls I have ever had, as they were small (1" diameter) with half of that being the wrapper, no noticeable pork or meat inside that I could tell, and there seemed to be some rice noodles inside. There was also a bit of veggies. The ratio of filling to wrapper was so weird. I would pay more ($13-15) dishes that gave a larger serving. I feel like they need to rethink their serving sizes- the portions are far too small. This place has such potential, but I think they need to do some tweaking with their portions. Maybe offer a Thai sized portion and a western sized portion or something. read more

We went to Kinaree for dinner and were very happy with the service and food. Although the curry was not served with rice the fried rice was delicious and the Pat See Ew was very good and fresh vegetable rolls were excellent with mint and peanut sauce the atmosphere was nice except the pan flute that kept playing. All in all i would go back. read more

I've driven past this place so many times! They were so busy with mountains of take out orders when I popped in for a last minute dinner they had an hour wait. My order was simple so they found a way to accommodate me and my dinner was delicious. Great service!!!!! read more

Went to the recent Wine Pairing here and was blown away again by the food and wine choices to complement the meal. Beautiful presentation of the courses, and great service to go along with the best Thai food in town. read more

Authentic! Who would have guessed Courtenay would have had a Thai restaurant that bests almost everything in BC's Lower Mainland (Vancovuer area). Fresh spices and ingredients in general, a willingness to adjust the heat (of the chilies) to the wishes of the guest, and a solid and traditional menu make this a great stop. An initially gruff maitre-de warms up fast, and can be very friendly. Not high on ambience, this is the place to go mainly for the chef's talents. read more

My wife is Thai and I have lived in Thailand for 15 years. New to Comox/Courtenay we discovered Kinaree Thai Restaurant while driving around and decided to drop in for dinner. My wife ordered Pad Thai with extra spice and I ordered Masaman chicken. We didn't have to wait for very long before our orders were delivered to the table much to my surprise. (not like in Thailand where you have to learn to have a lot of patience waiting for your order to arrive). I have had Pad Thai many times and I was impressed with the presentation and my wife offered me some to taste. I have to say it was better than any I have ordered in Thailand and authentic as any I have ever had while in Thailand. My Masamon dish was exactly as expected and although when I ordered it I was asked if I wanted it spicy and I said no to be on the safe side. (Too many times I have ordered food not spicy (mai pet) in Thailand and it was still too spicy for me to eat) My Masaman arrived as ordered and in hindsight next time I will ask for it to be a little bit (nidnoi) spicy as it was a little bland with no fault to the cook. The ambience was quite nice and the service was excellent. All in all I would not hesitate to recommend Kinaree to any of my friends. read more

Portions very small for what you pay....ordered calimari which was cooked perfect but for eight dollars my two year old would want more...barley a handful,ordered two dishes with chicken and there was hardly chicken to be found in either dish noodle dish not edible saturated in soy very salty five flavor chicken had no chicken more fruit than anything very disapointed read more

Average at best. Small portions, very basic menu with nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly not much better then off the shelf Thai that you can buy at the grocery store. read more

Tiny portions of revolting food. It tasted like a microwave michelinas style meal. Veggies were soggy. Not flavorful curry at all. I love Thai food and this was just nasty. At least it wasn't very expensive. I'd never go here again. It didn't even taste like Thai food. read more

Poor service, myself and my girlfriend were turned away at 8:20 on a Saturday night because it was too close to closing time. The web site states a closing time of 9pm (on-line menu states 9:30). Went to The Atlas instead for a great meal. read more

Ordered takeout. Cons: Small portions, rice ordered was coconut rice - but was plain. Price was too high for amount of food received. Pros: Flavour of pad thai was fine, but for the price it was far too small a portion. read more

This is our favourite Courtenay restaurant. It doesn't seem to matter what we pick on the menu, we always have a great meal.

Delicious! One of the yummiest meals I've had in a long time. I'll be back soon for sure!

Family run place so you get to met the kids too (hence the late night service isn not big city). There is a nice range of menu options, seriously tasty options if you stray outside e obvious, but the pad thai pad kee mao and those obvious things are spectacular. Ask the boss what the cook wants to make tonight and you'll be impressed. Think these are goos people running good restaurant who are stymied by boring patrons. read more

I really want to like this place, because the food is good and the ambience is pleasant. But the service! I've never seen more than one person working the floor, presumably the owner/manager, whose approach to service is lackadaisical at best. On a visit a year ago we had to wait an hour for our food, but he was not in the least apologetic. We tried again recently to see if things had changed, and walked out after being shown to our tables and then utterly ignored for fifteen minutes, without so much as a glass of water, while the patrons at three or four other tables sat with their hands in their laps waiting for someone to appear. Won't be back. read more

Dinner with my wife there last night for the first time and the first thing I noticed was the disgustingly dirty chairs they have for seating. The owner was friendly but slow as hell and the wait for food was even worse even though the restaurant was less than half full. The food was good not great but good and my wife received a nice hair in hers. Price is reasonable but Meh! read more