Last night, Jen and I ate at True Thai down on the south side of Minneapolis.
This was our second attempt at dining there. Attempt #1 was trying to seat a party of 6 on a Saturday night, without calling ahead = bad idea.
I haven’t been real pleased with the Minneapolis’ Thai offerings. Sawatdee‘s offerings are fair and their locations are many, and their staff is sharp. Like Dunn Bros.
There’s a bad place just north of us. Bad. Awkward service, bland offerings, bizarre staff. Like bad milk, I don’t see a need to share. Anyway – that’s not True Thai.
The only odd thing about True Thai is, well:
“I am assuming he is the owner, but, I sometimes wonder what restaurant owners do. Well, at least, what was he doing at the front desk if he was incapable of seating us? Better off letting the staff, who knows what is going on, run the show while he plays with the books. Anyway, aside from the owner who rudely passed us off to a staff member, our time at True Thai was enjoyable.”
Scott McGerik wrote this back in November of 2003, Jen and I had the exact same experience – 18 months later. Something to be said for consistency.
My side of the table was their Spinach Curry in Peanut Sauce with Mock Duck. Yes, spicy – to 11. Initially, it was exactly what I was looking for. In the end, it was a little too sweet. Jen enjoyed her bite of it. On her side of the table was the Calamari Pad Thai. You can’t go wrong with that. Can’t.
st. paul has better thai.
taste of thailand and pad thai, both near the mac/grove neighborhood and quite good.
Luckily, once you get past the owner, the food is great.
I agree with kari that Taste of Thailand has good food although the kitchen can be slow.
After reading all the good reviews, thought I’d try True Thai. Made a reservation for Friday night at 7:30. Got there at about 7:15 and the place was packed. Took forever to just get up to the front desk to check on the reservation, at which time I found out I didn’t have one. Evidently they hadn’t written it down, even though I had called twice and changed the number for the table on the second call. That aside, after standing shoulder to shoulder int he crowd for 20 minutes, finally did get a table.
Overall, I’d have to say our entire group was very disappointed. Our service was slow and mediocre, and the food was barely average. I had the choo chee curry with scallops. The dish was luke warm when served. The scallops were definitely from a can, and the curry was overly sweet. I don’t think they really get the whole idea behind thai food regarding the mix of flavors such as sweet with spicy. Their dish was just sweet. Maybe that’s how Minnesotans like it and maybe that’s why the place is packed, but I don’t get it.
I also had the Tom Yum soup which again, was missing the play on mixing subtle flavors. Instead, it was just very sour and lemony. Other members in our party also had mediocre dishes and the wok fried broccoli with beef was horrible. There was barely any beef and what was there was very stringy. The sauce was overly salty and runny.
So, I won’t be going back. I know other places that have much better soup, and other places that have much better thai curries. I won’t mention them since then people will think I’m simply writing this review to draw customers elsewhere. But, True Thai is not good in my opinion, and I’m not sure why the place is so packed. Must be a lot of Minnesotans who don’t know what good Thai food is…