Bahn Thai Cuisine

Dinner should never take that long...

With some of my favorite dining companions in town, we decided to venture out to Bahn Thai Cuisine in Plymouth. Although Plymouth is a nice area, this restaurant was tucked away in a mostly-abandoned mall...the place had some nice decor, but the tables and chair made us think of a rec center, so the night was immediately off to sort of a weird start. After waiting for about 35 minutes without having a waiter stop over, I approached the host stand and asked for some service. One of the two waiters came over and said "I can take your order quickly" like we were inconveniencing him. We ordered a few appetizers (we were starving!) and entrees. The appetizers took 40 minutes...we ordered fried meat balls, chicken satay and spring rolls. All items were pretty darn mediocre.

While waiting for the appetizers, many people came to the restaurant and due to the lack of service, they gave up and left. We saw 3 or 4 tables abandon their hopes of dinner...it almost became funny!

The main dishes had mixed reviews. One dining companion ordered Pad Thai with Chicken (rice noodles, eggs, bean sprouts, green onion topped with crushed peanuts). Although it was tasty, the noodles were pretty gummy and seemed overcooked.

Another friend ordered Gaeng Khiao Waan Gai- Chicken Green Curry ( chicken, coconut milk, green curry paste, zucchini, peas and basil leaves). The chicken was extremely weird and thus she barely ate her meal. I tried the curry and it wasn't horrible, but it was a little high on salt and low on flavor. She ended up munching on some of the Pad Thai.


For a break from curry, one dining companion chose Pad Pak with chicken (broccoli, celery, onions, pea pods, carrots, fresh mushrooms and bell peppers). This had great overall flavor, but definitely could have been a bit spicier. This dish had chicken that looked and tasted delicious...not totally sure why some chicken was good and the other wasn't?


I ordered Pad Ped Puck Curry with chicken (coconut milk, red curry, napa, broccoli, carrots and bell peppers). This had absolutely amazing flavor and was probably worth the insane wait! The one issue was that I found a piece of chicken in my tofu dish! Had this been back in my vegetarian days, I would have been quite steamed!!

At the end of the night, we questioned one of the servers about the wait and he shared that they were down a cook and at least one server. Although that did add some perspective, why on earth didn't they tell us that earlier? OR stop over and say, "hey we are short staffed, but we will be back as soon as we can." Not that complicated.

I'll be back...but I'm not super thrilled about the idea of potentially suffering through bad service again...

Decor: mix and match

Prices: average ($10-15)
Spice level: right on

More information:

Bahn Thai Cuisine
4108 Lancaster Lane North
Plymouth, MN 55441

www.bahnthaitripod.com