Thai Food without the Famous Thai Hospitality

I love Thai food. When I heard that Thai Orchid, a new Thai restaurant had opened in Moorhead, I was first in line to try it. I had high expectations, and when you start out that way, you almost always end up being let down. You set yourself up for disappointment.

I went to Thai Orchid with three friends on a Sunday night. Sunday nights are certainly the slowest at any restaurant but boy, were they slow at Thai Orchid! I was initially pleased with the late closing time of 10 p.m. daily. We went around 8 p.m., thinking that we’d be out of there way before ten, so we could maybe catch a movie after dinner as well. Not only did we close the place half an hour after the official closing time, we missed the movie and left more frustrated, than full and happy. I do have a lot of criticism for this new restaurant, but it is only because I hope they will listen to it and make some improvements.

I should mention that the location of Thai Orchid (900 1st Ave N, Moorhead) is not the most lucrative. The mere fact that the same venue was previously occupied by a Chinese buffet style restaurant (conventionally containing “dragon” in its name) and before that, a pizza buffet (was it Duane’s?), should tell you that the location isn’t the hottest in town. But leave that aside; I was ready to drive for a few miles for some good Thai. The furnishings in the restaurant resembled Thai as much as they probably could, with the exception of a pizza slice-shaped object made out of masking tape that could be still seen on one of the windows (heritage from the pizza buffet days).

When we entered the restaurant, there were two other parties dining. It took them a while to get us seated, even though it wasn’t very busy. There was a hostess and a waitress, but the waitress was in charge of all guests, who were dining at the time. You would have thought that we’d have her full attention once all the other guests left but that was wishful thinking. I am a big fan of exploring different cultures and cuisines but it is hard to communicate with someone who is struggling with their English. You would probably want your serving staff to be a little more fluent. The lady who served us was a really nice, middle-aged Thai, I assume, woman, whose spoken English was much better than what she actually comprehended. It was hard to explain to her what we wanted when it deviated from the items on the rather poorly-designed paper menu.

Maybe I’m crazy but when I go to an Asian restaurant, I expect to see soy sauce on the table, and maybe some hot sauce, as well (thanks for spoiling me, Jade Dragon). When we asked for soy sauce, we got about a teaspoon worth in a small cup for the entire table. As far as I know, soy sauce isn’t that expensive to not put in a small bottle on each table. Anyhow… What about the food? Well, I wish I could tell you all this hassle was worth the excellent, authentic food, but I am not convinced myself. The restaurant claims they offer authentic Thai, the way it would be prepared in Thailand. Maybe I didn’t have real Thai food before, but when I think Thai, I think spices, flavor, and sweetness, countered by strong aroma, which tingles your tongue. We got none of that at Thai Orchid. The food was mediocre, not bad, but mediocre, and rather tasteless. I was expecting a strong-tasting dish, especially after ordering a garlic-packed medley and requesting the spiciest preparation (“spicy, like burn your tongue,” as clarified by our server). What I got was a mild (not even medium-spicy) mix of sautéed vegetables with a slight hint of garlic and maybe some black pepper. Upon me asking if this was indeed the hottest they got, the lady brought some hot sauce on the side that I could add to my dish to make it hotter. The hot sauce was basically sweet chili from a bottle, with some hot pepper seeds added. It just wasn’t the same adding the chili on top of an already cooked meal. It didn’t taste the same as a meal prepared with tons of spices, which had time to cook with the rest of the ingredients, so they could fully absorb their flavor.

My table mates were far from impressed with their selections also. One of my friends picked out the chicken from her plate and left the rest of it untouched. The best thing we had was the soup, which was curiously served in something that looked like a shallow salad or dip bowl. It was hard eating from that piece of china. The spring roll appetizers were decent as well, but they were also served with a rather inappropriate type of dishware – huge, dining size plates, instead of small appetizer saucers. Oh well.

Probably the most frustrating part of the whole Thai experience was the fact that we had to go the extra mile to attract he attention of our server who was standing behind this counter, in plain view, but for some reason would just never direct her eyesight to the dining area. Once it took us almost ten minutes to grab her attention. She was constantly moving around the counter area, back and forth to the kitchen, and the rest of the time she was just staring at the wall, almost as if she was purposely avoiding us. Not cool. The refills were about twenty minutes late each time, the plates piled up on the table, as we were getting through the course, and it was hard to get anything extra, once we ordered the main course. Ordering was a whole different ordeal. Once we ordered the soup, our waitress probably assumed that soup was all we were going to consume, so long after we were done wit our soup, she didn’t even care to ask if we were going to order anything else. So, it took about 40 minutes from the time we walked in to the time we actually ordered our food. That’s just not acceptable, according to any customer service standards.

The culprit of the night was when I had the stupidity of ordering a side order of noodles, which is not on the menu by itself. First, I was asked if I wanted instant noodles. I imagined the instant Ramen noodles in a cup I used to have in the poor college days and declined that offer instant-ly. I explained I simply wanted the noodles, as they serve them in their noodle dishes (which occupied an entire section of the menu) – boiled, fried, sautéed, whatever. I just wanted those greasy egg noodles that taste so good. I had to go to great lengths to explain exactly what I wanted, after our server lady declared they didn’t have noodles. I knew they had them – they were on the menu, for God’s sake. So finally, I though I had convinced her, when she brought this huge bowl of hard, raw noodles for us to enjoy. I couldn’t hide my surprise when I saw them, so I just told her to take them away and forget about the side noodles order. And I thought noodles would be one of the safest items to order in a Thai restaurant.

At the end of this super long dinner, upon requesting our check, we were informed that our bill could not be split in two because, “I don’t remember what you had.” After I suggested we tell her what each one of us ordered, she smiled agreeably, but returned with a single bill, which contained no indication of each party’s subtotal. Ugh. Frustrating.

I have to say that I am no expert on Thai food, but I’ve had some really good Thai on trips to Chicago and San Francisco. That is how I got hooked. I can’t swallow the fact that the only Thai restaurant in the area is not up to par. I want Thai, I want it well cooked, and quick. Maybe it’s too much to ask for, but most of my bases for complaint are not areas that cannot be easily perfected. I just hope Thai Orchid’s management becomes aware of these areas before they go out of business, which is what will happen, if you have to wait close to an hour to just order dinner. This simply doesn’t go with the general population. Who’s got that much time on their hands?

To sum up my overall impression of Thai Orchid, I think they have great potential and a lot of room for improvement. It is unfortunate that their food was even more tasteless than Saint Cloud’s Sawatdee, but I would be willing to give them another try. However, if it still takes me two and a half hours to get in and out, I will probably reconsider my affection to Thai food. No food is worth that much of my time, whether it be the rarest cuisine in the world. This is Thai, but this is also America. Chop, chop people!