A. Absolutely! We have consciously chosen to be a vegetarian, vegan friendly restaurant as we use no FISH SAUCE in any of our sauces.

When we first opened our doors in 1999 we did use fish sauce. However, after a year in business we had so many vegetarian or vegan people come through and leave disappointed when they were unable to order anything on the menu other than steamed veggies and rice we decided to scratch fish sauce entirely. At the time, the Healthy Boy Soy Sauce Brand was becoming quite popular in the Thai cooking world as a wonderful substitute for fish sauce. Thai food at its core is not a vegetarian or vegan friendly cuisine. Fish sauce is usually always a part of a recipe, plus to Asians in general, fish is considered “vegetarian” because it is not a land animal. With Thai cuisine becoming more globalized, Thai chefs had to find a way to accomodate the many more mouths being exposed to Thai food that were vegetarian or vegan. This thin soy sauce was the closet thing to fish sauce. It still provides a well-rounded salty taste without the fishy smell.  So now everyone can enjoy Thai food.

For the hardcore Thai food enthusiasts who think it is sacrilege to not use fish sauce, sure the use of soy sauce is not “traditional” but, the flavors provided by it are fairly authentic. The Pad Thai family is completely 100% Thai, and we don’t even own a bottle of fish sauce. We are quite happy using soy sauce.

Also, our curries are 100% coconut milk. We do not use any dairy. Plus, any dishes that are made with egg like the pad Thai and fried rice can be made without. Dishes requested without egg take a longer and is harder to make because the noodles and rice tend to stick to the wok making it easier to burn. The fat content from the egg provides a nice coating so noodles and rice do not stick and burn.