Thai in Korea?

After being here for almost one year - it is quite clear that Koreans have a different idea of "western food" and "Chinese food." Maybe one day Koreans will realize that we "westerners" don't serve sweet pickles with every meal, and Chinese people don't actually eat Ja Jang Mein....or maybe they wont.

So we thought, could Korea misinterpret any other genre of food? What about the ever so popular Thai? Where in Korea can we get a decent Pad Thai, or a hearty red curry? After much research and debate - the Dinner club came to the consensus that "Thai Orchid" would be a good place to start. 1) because it has the word "Thai" in its name (it's gotta be authentic) and 2) because, well there actually isn't a 2, I think the name sold itself really. (restaurant names are very important)

So the first restaurant of the Dinner Club, and the first restaurant of the new 2009 year, was "Thai Orchid." Located right in the heart of Itaewon, and a fitting place since Itaewon seems to have a good cluster of foreign restaurants.

The meals were....unmemorable. Which is not good - but it doesn't mean the food was bad. I think the restaurant got off to a bad start with water that was served in a tainted glass. Who knows what it was tainted with - all we knew was that it smelled like feet, or bleach and didn't even bother to try it to see which one it tasted like.

We ordered the typical thai food. Camera ordered the pad thai, I ordered some curry, Gerald ordered another curry, and Chien got some spicy stir fry esque dish. We ate it, enjoyed it, but didn't RAVE about it afterwards. The prices were average, ranging from 15-17 dollars per dish, plus your rice. The portion sizes were typical Korean portions. We've come to learn not to expect Costco size in Korea. In anything. Especially food. Even if they have pictures OF the food.

After being satisfied with our meals, we were tickled at the desert menu we saw earlier. How can "sweet mango sticky rice" and "banana coconut milk desert" not sound good? Needless to say I was pretty excited about my mango desert, afterall, desert is the best part for me! So we ordered 2 of each between the 4 of us - boy were we disappointed. They ran out of bananas, so Gerald had to go sans desert, and the mango sticky rice was bleh (as seen below). The rice was not "sticky" it was dry and undercooked with milk poured over top. The banana in milk was essentially just that. Half a banana in milk, for 7 dollars. Thanks.


And so our ratings of Thai Orchid are as follows:

Atmosphere: 8.5/10
Food: 7.7/10
Service: 8/10
Price: 6.5/10

Total: 76% ---- B

A surprise awaited us at the front when we went up to pay. Turns out we were at the right place at the right time because we got 20% off our whole bill!! I don't know about you, but things just seem to taste better, look better and feel better when you realize you just got a deal!

We didn't understand where this 20% discount was coming from. Did they overhear us about the feet water? Were they compensating for the lost banana? Turns out it was just a "limited offer discount." OK! we'll take it. Too bad they didn't mention this earlier, it definately would have changed their rating. But once its written on the napkin, it STAYS on the napkin. (we write down all our ratings on an authentic napkin FROM the actual restaurant. Swanky...we know.)

So in the end Thai Orchid still gets a B. Not bad if you're desperate for a Thai food fix.

A little tip if you end up going - Go quickly who knows when the limited time discount will be up! and watch out for your water!

Until next time.

World Peace,
Dinner Club.