A few years ago, in March of 2020 to be exact, I had the honour of being invited to participate as a blogger in the Dine Out DTM Festival presented by Downtown Durham. This celebration of food and drink invited consumers to discover the vibrant culinary culture of this up-and-coming urban location through a prix fixe menu and ticketed culinary events from participating establishments. The purpose? To encourage visitors to try out new restaurants, or to revisit old favourites at special, lower prices.

One of the restaurants which my husband and I attended was Lanna Cuisine. This upscale, fusion-inspired Thai establishment is on a mission to bring the food of Northern Thailand to the heart of Markham, and the cooking style of Chef Tim Chen pays homage to the Thai belief that the secret to authentic flavours lies in using natural elements which are sourced locally as much as possible. 

Of course, when I visited two years ago with my partner, Peter, I did not know any of this. I thought: Sure, I like Thai food. I get it at the food court all the time. Such cringeworthy naivety was put to rights on first bite. From my writeup of the experience:

Given that it was just the two of us, and the prix fixe menu had two choices each in the salad, entrée and dessert categories, we ordered everything and shared it between us. I cannot adequately describe the flavours of Chef Chen’s dishes. The term “subtle complexity” seems to me an oxymoron, but that is exactly what it was. I could taste a variety of wonderful notes and spices, herbs and flavours. Yet not one flavour stood out over another. It was culinary harmony in a way that I would never be able to replicate in my own kitchen. Needless to say, everything disappeared—when our waiter asked if he could remove our empty plates, I very nearly tapped his hand away because there was still some curry around the edges that I hadn’t mopped up.

(By the way, the in-house curry is out-of-this-world good. As in, I would order it as soup if I didn’t think I was going to get some funny looks from the other patrons who are more refined than me.)”

https://yorkdurhamheadwaters.ca/thai-excellence-at-lanna-cuisine/

Two years and one global pandemic later, and the hubby and I returned to Downtown Markham to revisit our fondly-remembered culinary experience. The menu has changed (obviously–no one likes a static menu, after all), but it was no less delicious than that first visit. We shared our mango salad appetizer, our pineapple fried rice and our pad Thai noodles with chicken… as well as the necessary argument over which of us was eating more than their fair share, of course. The ambience was just as elegant and the service was just as friendly as we remembered. It was, in short, another memorable date night at Lanna Cuisine.

But here’s the thing that makes our return worth writing about. Through all of the challenges with the pandemic, through all the lockdowns, shutdowns, and reduced capacity limitations, two years later, Lanna Cuisine is still thriving. The meals are still as phenomenal as I remembered them to be, and there was even a brand new menu in the works which, to me, highlights a positive outlook on the future. Over the course of this tumultuous time, restaurants have been forced to close their doors. Yet others have found a way to push through the challenges–thanks in no small part to the local community and regional organizations which were determined to support them through different shop local campaigns, tailored special events and online ordering solutions. Lanna Cuisine stands as a testament–one of many–to the unfettered spirit of our local eateries, businesses and citizens who will not let something as monumental as a global pandemic seal their fate.

For us that night, it was as if there had never been a pandemic. Lanna Cuisine was just as sensational as it had been during our visit two years ago. What’s different now is the gratitude I personally feel when I reflect on how far we’ve all come, and how much stronger we’ve all grown to be. It is both a humbling, and gloriously empowering thing.

How wonderful is that?