Nashville Food Friday: Royal Thai

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a recommendation of Royal Thai. This is a story about how Royal Thai destroyed date night and prevented me from going ice skating.

Royal Thai is located just off of West End Ave surrounded by offices. I guess it's mostly a lunch place, but we went for dinner. We were planning on going to the 7:30-10pm open skate at the local ice rink afterward for date night. We hadn't really had much good quality time together that week so we were both really looking forward to this. Royal Thai was located near the rink and they had a deal on Scout Mob for 50% off. Steve went there a few years ago when he lived in the area and said we should try it. Why not? Below, I'll explain the reasons why you should never visit Royal Thai.

I'll give it up for the decorator, the inside of Royal Thai is pretty cute. They have nice floor-to-ceiling murals and lots of kitsch and character. If you were to judge a place on decor, you would expect this place to be the bee's knees. But this is just another lesson in "don't judge a book by its cover." (Or more precisely, don't judge a Thai Restaurant by its murals.)

Look at the lovely portable heater just hanging out in the corner. It really adds to the ambiance. 

When we arrived there were 3 other people in the restaurant. By the time we got our menus everyone was gone and we were the only people there. At 7:30 on a Friday night we were the only people in this place. Not a good sign. The worst part was that the place was completely silent. Eerily silent. No background music, no chatter, nothing. Every word I said bounced off the walls and I'm sure our waiter could hear everything (and maybe even the kitchen staff). I was so put-off by the silence that we decided to take matters into our own hands. We opened up Spotify on my phone and started DJing our table. I would normally NEVER EVER do this, but there was no one else there so I was 100% sure that we were not pissing anyone off. 

I kept thinking about how terrible of a place Royal Thai would be for a first date. It was so empty and creepy silent that if someone took me here I would be afraid that the date would end with me being abducted. I could see myself texting girlfriends from the bathroom asking them to get me out of this situation. 

We were hungry so we ordered the pork spring rolls. They came to the table fairly quickly which was a plus. The roasted pork inside the spring roll had good flavor, and the dipping sauce was good. Unfortunately the spring roll was mostly lettuce and cabbage and the normal delicious ratio was off. They were also really cold which made me think that they were pre-made and just chilling in the refrigerator. How hard is it to roll some spring rolls to order?

Steve ordered a Thai Ice Tea. It was typical, but a little too sweet for me. Steve liked it.

At this point I guess our waiter was totally bored so he decided to take a break. He got his own Thai ice tea and sat down at the table across from us. He took out his cell phone and I guess he was checking facebook/texting/anything that wasn't his actual job. Good to know that the ONE STAFF MEMBER feels totally comfortable to just kick-back on the job. At least go to the kitchen area or something.

Steve ordered the duck curry which was supposed to be roasted duck in red curry. What arrived was not duck curry at all, but a totally different dish, roasted duck. When we both looked very confused, the waiter realized what was wrong and said something like, "yah, that isn't what you ordered...umm...I can take it back." But Steve was hungry and decided to just eat what they gave him. I would totally pass this off as a normal mistake, but honestly, how?! We were the only people there so they weren't busy. This is just total incompetence.  The duck itself tasted like it was made ages ago and defrosted. The brown sauce it was covered in was pretty salty, probably to cover up the freezer burn.

This is the plate of rice that accompanied the duck dish. No really, this is how it arrived. Completely mangled like someone already took a bite out of it. If you aren't going to plate the rice nicely, just serve it in a bowl as one giant scoop.

I ordered the Pad Woon Sen with beef. The description said it was "Bean Thread Noodles stir fried with our house Soy Base Sauce" but didn't say it came with any vegetables. All of the other noodle dishes on the menu listed the vegetables that were in the dish, so I asked the waiter if it came with veggies because I didn't want noodles only. The waiter was unsure if this dish had vegetables (WTF?) and went to ask the kitchen. He came back and listed off a bunch of good stuff so I went ahead and ordered it.

What I received was not Pad Woon Sen, but a pile of mushy brown stuff that was inedible. It was so salty I could feel the salt crystals burning into my lips, cheeks and tongue. This dish was hurting me! I asked Steve to try it because I know that I'm more sensitive than average to salt, but even he agreed with me that the dish was just too salty.

So I sat their pouting, feeling really bad. I was upset because I couldn't eat dinner and that our nice date-night out wasn't going as planned. The waiter looked in our direction and noticed that I wasn't eating and asked what was wrong. I told him that the dish was just way too salty and inedible. While he said they could re-make it, I was so pissed off at this point that we just asked for a bunch of to-go boxes. Steve and I packed up our food without eating it. 

While we did get the Scout Mob discount, we got no money off the check and no apology for the quality of the food or our experience. I guess it's a common thing at Royal Thai that patrons immediately leave after their food hits the table. Since we didn't really get to eat dinner #1, we had to come up with an option for dinner #2.

So Steve and I went to our favorite Indian place Woodlands where we knew that we would get excellent food and service. I mean, look at my face! AM SO HAPPY FOR SAAG PANEER. But because dinner #1 was an EPIC FAIL and we had to have dinner #2, we missed ice skating. I guess the moral of the story is: If you want to eat at Royal Thai and plan on doing something after, make sure you leave enough time for eating your real dinner somewhere else. 

After 4 years of living in Nashville, Royal Thai gets the prize for the worst dining experience. It's definitely the worst Thai Food I ever had and it's pretty high on the list of not-so-great customer service experiences. The prices for dishes were also way too expensive for what you got. If I'm paying $15 for duck curry, I would like the duck to not taste like the back of your deep freezer. For that much money I could go to whole foods and get myself a whole damn duck and roast it to perfection.

Royal Thai? More like Plebian Thai. Just don't go. 

Mad Men Yourself

I don't know about you, but I'm super excited that Mad Men is back on the air. While I wasn't completely blown away by the season opener this past Sunday, I still really love the show. The late 60s fashions are amazing, plus most of the dudes have facial hair! Hooray!

A few seasons back Mad Men offered the option to Mad Men Yourself and I love this little toy. While they haven't updated it with the '67-'68 fashions (Please do this AMC!) you can still play around and make yourself look fabulous. Here I am wearing some crazy print dress, cat eye glasses and drinking a coffee by a pool. Totally like real life.

Show me what you look like when you're all Mad Men!

April: What I've Been Listening To

 

IO Echo// Ministry of Love

James Blake//Overgrown


Telekinesis//Dormarion

Efterklang//Piramida

Mazes//Ores & Minerals

Chvrches//Recover EP

Springtime Kittens and a little DIY

I am one incredibly happy camper. Why do I have such a happy face? Because spring has come to Nashville! All of the cherry trees in my neighborhood are blooming and everything smells like fresh cut grass. I have been waiting for this for so long! I did a nice long 8 mile training run on Saturday morning with some of my favorite East Nastys and I think it was my best run yet because the weather was so accommodating. That run was a big confidence booster!

This weekend was super special. Myself, Lladybird Lauren and Elle from Jam + Toast took a trip out to the country to celebrate Kaelah's birthday! We had so much fun hanging out at Kaelah's awesome new digs, gabbing and hanging out around a fire pit. We even went to a local bar where we sang karaoke (Total Eclipse of the Heart), danced and played pool. Kaelah's husband Mike was so sweet and cooked us the most amazing breakfast. Those girls are amazing and I'm so happy I got to spend a weekend with them! 

So, this outfit is super special. Why you ask? BECAUSE I MADE THIS SKIRT, Y'ALL. This is my first ever sewing project and I'm crazy happy with how it turned out. I really have the talented Lauren to thank, as she spent an afternoon teaching me how to sew. I also followed along at home with the circle skirt tutorial from Casey's Elegant Musings. This was such a fun skirt to make! I've already finished another, and even started a different type of skirt.

I'm going to brag on this skirt for a bit. I love how big and twirly it is. It's super full and I think the fullness makes my butt look really good (BONUS!). I also love that I put pockets in it; they're the perfect size to hold my cell phone and keys.

Plus, the fabric! I fell in love with this kitty paint by numbers fabric the second I saw it- I knew I had to make something out it. I love this print and I feel like I should make a dress out of it as well. Does anyone know a place where I can get more cute fabric like this? More kittens please!

 CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THE KITTENS!

 Skirt: Made by Me

T-Shirt: Gift from Jen

Belt: Super Old!

Earrings and Ring: Honeybean

Necklace: Vivi Dot

Shoes: Old Red Boots

Nashville Food Friday: Mesob

Here is a little known fact about why I chose to settle in Nashville: They had an Ethiopian restaurant. When I was making my way across the country visiting grad schools I would take myself out on a "date night" to see if I could live in whatever city I happened to be in. My night in Nashville consisted of dinner at an Ethiopian place close to campus (which is no longer in business) and visiting the Frist museum. Culture and ethnic food in the south? I was so ready for Nashville. Since I moved here more Ethiopian restaurants have opened (or they're just new to me). My favorite will always be Addis Red Sea in Boston, but Mesob in Nashville comes fairly close!
Located a little out of the way from my usual dining circle in a tiny strip mall, Mesob is a no-fuss type of place. The decor consists of what appears to be old banquet dining tables and chairs mixed in with cheery paintings and artifacts from Ethiopia. I was hoping that a restaurant named Mesob (after the traditional Ethiopian table) would actually have them for seating. But they didn't, and that was tad bit disappointing.

What surprised me is that this restaurant also appears to become a pool hall and bar later at night, which explains why their Yelp page says they're open till 3am on the weekends. When we were there around dinner time the bar and pool tables were empty. I'd like to stop back here for a cocktail and some snacks late one night.

We started out with the Beef Sambusa, which to me was the Ethiopian version of an empanada. They were nicely fried and had a crisp flaky outer shell with some spiced meat inside. They were really good and didn't last long. Did I mention we went when we were VERY hungry?

My favorite thing to order at any Ethiopian place is the veggie combination platter. I feel it gives you a nice variety and the option to try what the restaurant thinks is their best dishes. Now, forgive me, but I have a hard time remembering exactly what each little dish was called, so I'll just describe them by color. My favorite is always the cabbage and Mesob's cabbage was tasty. It was soft and buttery just the way I like it. Their collard greens were OK and could have used a tad bit more spice for my palate. The beets were also great! But I think my favorite thing on the plate was the brown/reddish dollop on the left hand side. I think it was the Yemisir Kike We’t (red lentils in a spicy berbere sauce) but don't hold me to that. It had the absolute best flavor and texture.

Steve was feeling more carnivorous and went with the Qey Wot, which was beef cubes in the berbere sauce. I think he ordered this because it came with Ethiopian cottage cheese to sprinkle on top. The beef was really tender and the sauce was thick and flavorful. When you combined the cheese with the meat, you couldn't really taste it. But, when you tried it by itself it had an earthy, smokey flavor to it. I wish I knew where I could buy this cheese on the regular. That would get me some major bonus points with the Steve. Oh, and the injera bread? It was very tasty. It had that nice light sour taste to it and our waiter kept bringing out more!

Overall, I really liked Mesob. The service was great and we got our food rather quickly. I was really impressed by this because a HUGE group (maybe 30 people, 75% of which were kids under 10) arrived at the same time we did. Our waiters didn't overlook us to take care of the big table, a problem I have often. The owner was sweet and even stopped by to say hello and introduce himself. I highly recommend Mesob for your next Ethiopian food adventure.

Ms. Rhythm and Blues Kickstarter

Gosh, I have some incredibly talented friends. My friend Catie just finished her novel, Ms. Rhythm & Blues and she plans to self-publish it, funded via a Kickstarter campaign. It is a novel about music, romance and Nashville- my 3 favorite things. Steve even helped Catie film the video below:

I just supported her project at the $25 level, where I get a signed hard copy of the book! If you are interested in helping out an aspiring writer you should check out the giving levels and some of the awesome incentives (books, cookies, t-shirts, PRIVATE CONCERTS!). Check out her Kickstarter page and consider helping out a talented young writer!

The Color Run (Again)

You may remember that way back in October I participated in my first Color Run. I had such an amazing time that when I found out the event would be coming back to Nashville I quickly signed up. I was joined by a bunch of my favorite people and we spent the morning hula hooping and throwing colored powder in each others faces. The best part for me was that Steve decided to participate this year rather than just taking pictures from the sidelines. But you can't stop the man from being a photographer, so here are some wonderful snapshots he captured during the race.