Thai Mint – Restaurant Review

After a particularly bad experience at Bhan Thai a couple of weeks ago (which I did not write about), I wanted to get some good Thai food. I had read great things about Thai Mint, and had passed it hundreds of times without ever stopping in. Well today was my chance.

The restaurant is small and tidy. There are only 7 or so tables in the dining room, but the kitchen looks like it takes up more than half of the restaurant! A little remodeling could easily double their seating. My friend Ly and I sat down at a table, and were greeted by our server.

Ly ordered his old standby, drunken noodles with chicken. I’m more prone to interrogate before I order, so I asked our server what HER favorite was. She told me “everything is good.” In my opinion, this is a huge cop-out  I didn’t ask what was good, I asked what YOUR favorite was, so I tried again. “If you were to order lunch, what would you eat?” She told me that she had already eaten lunch. I wasn’t trying to be difficult, and her English was just fine. She was just being very evasive, and would not tell me what (in her opinion) was the best thing on the menu. Finally, I gave up, and ordered my old standby, Pad Thai with pork. I also ordered a small Thai iced tea.

Some vegetarian egg rolls were brought out first. I didn’t realize they came with our lunches, so it was a pleasant surprise. They were pretty good, and I liked the sauce that came with them.

Our main courses arrived, and right away, I knew there was a problem. My Pad Thai had chicken in it, not pork. I like chicken well enough, so I didn’t complain. Close enough, I guess. I enjoyed the noodles and the vegetables quite a bit, and the spice level was just right (I had ordered it hot.) The chicken on the other had was awfully dry. Some of the pieces were better than others, but none of them were what I would call good. I ended up eating the noodles and vegetables, and picking around the meat, the total opposite of what I usually do.

Ly enjoyed his drunken noodles, but had a similar experience with the chicken – dry! His family used to own a Chinese restaurant in town, so he was full of speculation as to why the chicken was so dry, which I mostly ignored.

Between our unhelpful waitress, getting the wrong meat in my order, and the chicken being totally dry, I can’t see this being more than an average experience. I did enjoy many aspects of it – the noodles and vegetables were exceptional, and the Thai Tea was very good (although perhaps a tad sweet), but overall, I was a bit disappointed  considering the 90%+ rating this restaurant has on Urbanspoon.