Bet T.
Yelp
Overall, I had a poor experience at this restaurant in Bad Animal. From food, to service, to ambiance, all aspects of our experience left a negative impression. I never leave reviews but this was so especially bad that I felt compelled to.
Food:
We ordered three savory dishes and one dessert.
1. "Mieng" was a set of 3 small nasturtium leaf wraps with toasted coconut, peanuts, lemongrass, apples, ginger, shallots, tamarind sauce. They were falling apart, composed of chunky items rough the size of a peanut and these items were not held together. This made the wrap awkward to eat, as it was a small round leaf filled with large loose items that had to be corralled, lest they fall out either end. To to add to the awkwardness, the wraps arrived already dripping out excessive tamarind sauce. The items should have been lightly crushed in a mortar and pestle or chopped finer and held together by some kind of a binder--perhaps some sticky rice.
2. "Yum makua" was a small salad on a bed of fire-roasted eggplant , with minced pork, fish sauce, celery leaf, mint, fried shallot, cilantro. The dish again was unbalanced. The pork had a overly-strong aroma of pork characteristic of "boar taint," and this flavor was not balanced out by the aromatics. It should have been cooked with plenty of lime leaf and the sauce should have had more lime juice. It also sorely needed more mint, cilantro, and celery leaf. It also lacked fresh allium to balance out the heavy pork flavor, such as minced shallots and scallions. And strangely the mint was cut in a chiffonade, when it most certainly should have been torn to limit oxidation and preserve a fresh flavor.
3. "Gai Tod hat yai" was "coriander rubbed" fried chicken thighs, served with a Laotian roasted tomato relish. First of all, the chicken itself was bland and slightly dry, and had minimal coriander flavor. It needed an accompaniment but unfortunately became nearly inedible when dipped in the sauce. The sauce was overpoweringly salty. I know Laotian food can sometimes be salty but this was beyond that and unreasonable. We had a couple of bites and did not touch the rest. When our server came to ask us if we were done after a while, we said yes we were done, and that no, we did not want a box. I even added, "this dish is not working. It is overly salty and not balanced." The server ignored me, avoiding eye contact and continued clearing the plates. The server did not apologize, inquire further, or defend their cooking, and, of course, they charged us all the same when it was time for the bill.
Despite a poor track record we decided to try dessert, partly because we still held a kind of cruel optimism that the restaurant would redeem itself, and partly because we simply needed to cleanse our palate after an extremely salty dish. Water alone wasn't cutting it, and something sweet helps to relieve an overly salty taste. We ordered the pavlova which was composed of a meringue topped in strawberry & rhubarb compote, lime cream, toasted coconut. Unfortunately, the meringue was not optimally fresh--it tasted a bit stale, as if it had been sitting around for too long in the humidity of the Santa Cruz air--definitely not freshly made. The dish did the job at cleansing the overly salted palate but was quite forgettable and poorly executed.
Service:
The nadir of the service was the moment I complained about a dish and the server ignored my complaint without any sign of recognition or apology. This was characteristic of our entire experience that night, disaffected service in which the front of house and the servers seemed like they could barely bother to give us any thought or attention. This happened from the moment we arrived when we said that we came for our reservation, and we received no acknowledgment or response while the front of house person did something or other and came back a few minutes later.
Ambiance:
This is the least important aspect for me personally but somehow they still managed to offend. Visible piles of dust and debris in the corners of the room, below their sofa, a very dirty rug. All these issues make one feel icky and question whether or not this establishment ever sweeps and mops their floor, and whether that lack of cleanliness translates into their kitchen.
