Jason L.
Yelp
Another disappointing experience trying to find some decent Thai food here in the greater Grand Rapids area. My wife and I came by on our way into Grandville; we had passed this place a few times when we were heading into Comstock Park and have been meaning to stop in and give it a shot.
Well, we stopped in around 7PM one evening and the first thing we noticed was that the dining room is closed after 4PM. Apparently, they stop seating tables at 3:30PM, so it's pretty much takeout only after that. To me, it's a little odd - you've got all of this table space and you're expected to pay at the counter before getting your food, but you don't want people sitting in your establishment to eat? They were able to give us plasticware but we ultimately ended up having to eat in the car.
So, we start looking at the menu and trying to figure out what to order. From here, the first red flag comes up - they serve a 'dual menu' consisting of Chinese and Thai food. I like Asian fusion, where multiple cultural dishes are blended together (IE: bulgogi tacos, for instance) but I'm unsure if I've ever encountered a restaurant where a dual menu works well. It's usually a telltale sign that they need to cater to a wider audience to draw in enough business to remain viable. In an area with such limited diversity, this makes sense, but the best restaurants have a simple menu and do what they do really well.
Anyhow, we order - nothing crazy, a beef drunken noodle and a beef pad thai. We sat in the waiting area while they prepared our food. It was SO fast to come out! I was surprised at how fast it was - maybe 5-6 minutes? We were told 10 minutes, so I was impressed with the level of service. Unfortunately, this should have been another red flag, because the food was mediocre at best.
The food was SUPER hot in terms of cooking temperature (not spice). Again, this is generally not a complaint, but then we realized that the food had been microwaved to bring it back up to temperature. The containers are "microwave safe" food prep style plastic and the temperature of the food was well beyond what you could normally get from cooking it on the spot. It was almost "too hot to eat". It appears as if the base (noodles) is prepackaged and they just reheat then add the meat, peanuts, egg, etc.
I'm glad that others like the food / business as much as they do, but I have a hard time seeing why. The girl working the register was polite and the pricing wasn't ridiculous, but the food was severely lacking. We agreed that wouldn't return to this place for food, and we're back on the hunt for a good Thai spot.