Vientiane Trading

Friendly. Great prices. In addition to canned and dry goods they will sell you any and all Fresh ingredients for Thai home cooking. The cans of curry paste are $ 1.20 and are way better than the ones available in grocery stores for $ 5. Their coconut milk/​cream is out of this world compared to grocery store options. It is at the very back of the building. (South west corner). Tricky to find.

First, as you drive down Jutland the numbers go up on the right and down on the left. So if you drive past Lush and feel like you’ve missed it, you haven’t. Just go a bit further.
This place is kind of the best. It looks like nothing from the outside, but inside is a treasure trove of everything Thai you can’t find at T&T, or even the biggest Loblaws, or poking about in Chinatown East, or anywhere else you may have tried. Specifically: yes, Mae Ploy curry pastes including Panang and Massaman. Yes, Thai tea. Assorted health and beauty items, yes, woven cones for steaming sweet Thai rice, yes, &c. It’s a gold mine for the home cook.
Don’t be shy going in, they’re clearly used to random shoppers and even have a little shelf for grocerying. Someone will find you a box for your purchases and take your money (CASH ONLY). 1000g tubs of curry paste are $ 5, Mae Ploy (aka the best) coconut milk is $ 2.50, a bag of Panthai Thai tea leaves is $ 4. Experience of bearing home your treasures and displaying them to your envious friends while casually saying you knew a guy who knew about a warehouse? Priceless.

Attention adventurous home cooks, I read the other two reviews on Unilocal and, since I work just over at Bloor/​Islington, I decided to pop in as I was looking for some Masaman curry paste. I think the hours are Monday-​Friday from 10am-​4pm but I would call ahead. When I called, the girl I spoke with was very friendly and there was no language barrier. Also, cash only!
They are distributors of Asian groceries but particularly Thai and Malaysian (I think). You have to walk through the warehouse to get to the front, where they sell to the public. The girls were very, very helpful in guiding me with what to buy and how to make the curries. I got a big tub of the Masaman curry paste ($ 6.00); two little cans of Panang curry paste ($ 1.00 each), which one of the girls suggested I buy because it’s apparently one of the tastiest curries; two cans of what she thought was the best coconut milk for cooking; fish sauce; and some tamarind paste (for the Masaman curry). The total was about $ 18.00 which, in my opinion, seemed pretty decent because I’ve seen those little jars of only red and green curry paste at Sobey’s for almost $ 5.00. If they don’t have what you’re looking for on the shelf, they will go back into the warehouse and find it for you. I would have bought more stuff but my friends were in a hurry to leave. I’ll likely return to buy cane sugar, jasmine rice, some other curries and more cans of the coconut milk. I’ve been to a lot of Asian grocery stores and have never seen some of the stuff they offer up — really looking forward to making these curries. Now all I have to do is find kaffir lime leafs …

Like the other review says, this place is way out in the middle of nowhere, tucked in the back of an industrial park, and the entrance is the unmarked metal door next to the loading bays (there is a sign near the loading bays, though). Open the door and you’re in a small warehouse which looks nothing like a retail operation, but rest assured they will sell direct to the public, even if the items aren’t in their little aisle of unboxed goods (they’ll simply open up a box and get stuff for you).
The prices are even cheaper than Chinatown supermarkets, though they carry lots of things that you simply can’t get anywhere else (I came in search of Thai ice tea, which they had, along with many other things I haven’t been able to find, like large containers of Massaman curry paste).
Pretty much all the products I saw were Thai, so it seemed a bit strange that the company is named after the capital of Laos, but it seems the owner was born in Laos and lived in Thailand before coming to Canada. The owner was quite helpful and friendly, and it’s nice to have this resource available (though a shame these kinds of products aren’t more accessible in Toronto).

This place is more for the dedicated of home cooks or restaurants that serve Thai Cuisine. Lying in a industrial complex of sorts one would not even think of coming here let alone know there is a place that is dedicated to Thai ingredients.
Well when there is a will there is way and I used the info from a food luver forum to find this spot.
There is no store front to speak of and the entrance to this place can be confusing. Its not the one with the sign at front rather the area where they have shipping and receiving (tip one has to go all the way to the back of this complex to find the entrance)
There are no posted hours to speak of just a single person with a desk and some shelves with one can make a purchase. Otherwise its bulk items dedicated to serve the restaurant industry I think. I would strongly recommend calling before going there to make sure they are open and have what you are looking for.
Now don’t let this put you off this place has some of the hard to find ingredients for Thai cuisine and they are priced well. I wish they had more lighting so I could spend some more time here.
Cash Only and again for the most dedicated of home cooks for this cuisine.