Thai House in Moscow, Idaho - Simply delicious

Yesterday my girlfriend and I thought we’d try a new local restaurant called Thai House. They recently held their grand opening here in Moscow, Idaho. Now I don’t go out to eat frequently since I’m not big on spending $50 for food I could either make myself or eat better for 1/4 that price. So every time I go out to eat at somewhere I’m usually very critical of everything as I’m usually thinking it’s a total waste of money. That being said, here is my review of Thai House.

1. The location is great (In the Moscow Hotel). It’s right down town in Moscow and not far from the local bars. Thats a plus for the college students and locals looking for an affordable sit down restaurant. +1

2. Upon entering Thai House the first thing you’ll notice is the Sushi bar with what appears to be a pretty nice selection of beer (although I don’t drink). There was a little girl sitting at the bar (on the sushi side of course) which was very cute but a little worrisome that she wasn’t accompanied by an adult (the first indication of a family owned joint). +0 (little girl alone at bar cancels out the cool sushi bar)

3. Right to the left of the little girl was where someone would usually take your reservation or seat you… but there was nobody in sight (except of course customers at tables). It looked a fairly busy before we walked in so it was no surprise. A few minutes later someone appeared and got us seated. +0

4. You could tell they were understaffed because we walked by 3 uncleaned tables and were seated at a table that looked like it was washed in a hurry. Every employee we saw was in a hurry and we even spotted the chef serving tables to help out. It kind of seemed like some of them were related so I’m guessing it’s a family owned business. Making matters worse, there were 3 tables in sight that hadn’t had their orders taken yet and took nearly 15-20 minutes for that to happen and it was very sporadic (not all at one time). -1

5. One of the things I’m most critical about in a restaurant is the period of time it takes between being seated and someone taking our order. The first thing I like to see is having drinks served right away and something like bread sticks served to occupy us while we wait. We waited 35-45 minutes before someone came over. -2

6. The employees were very polite although too rushed. They didn’t rush us however and I liked that. They wanted to make sure they did whatever they could for us. +1

7. From the time our orders were taken to the time the appetizers arrived my girlfriend and I had a nice little discussion about being patient in restaurants. She is very patient and I am very…not. I was a little surprised to see that our appetizers arrived a short 10-15 minutes after we ordered them. +1

8. Here is where Thai House really racked up the good review points. The appetizer was…simply amazing. <- If there was a smiley face that was drooling I would have used that! I can’t even remember what we ordered (I do remember it was #5 on the menu though) but it was some kind of seasoned chicken with a peanut butter dip.

My expectations were low and the first bite resulted in the response, “Oh my God, that is delicious!” That was before I even tried the peanut butter dip, which only made it better. +2

9. Next up was our actual meals which arrived once the staff noticed we had finished our appetizers. It was maybe a 3-5 minute wait, which seemed like a good response time considering how things looked for other people. +1 (good response for us, terrible for others who had been there long before us.)

10. Now, for the main meal, I had the Rama Satay (beef with peanut butter spread on top, white rice, and chow mein) and I can’t really remember what my girlfriend had I wasn’t sure what to expect after the appetizers but I was impressed. There was way too much of the peanut butter spread but it was still delicious. Overall it was a very tasty meal and a pretty good serving size. Audrey liked her meal just as much as I liked mine. We even dropped a compliment to the chef. +3

11. Cleaning up the table once we were finished was quite weak but I kind of expected it. They looked like they were trying hard and doing the best they could. Not bad I guess since they just opened and had what appeared to be an excellent turnout (probably much more than they expected). +0

12. They brought us our check in a timely manner but we were left wondering if we were supposed to bring it to the front or if they were going to come back and get my card to charge it. After about 5-10 minutes someone came and grabbed the card and brought us boxes for the leftovers we didn’t finish (I hate it when I do that but it was a decent sized meal ). They brought the receipt back for me to sign but didn’t bring a pen. The server walked away so quickly I couldn’t even catch him unless I had yelled. I asked the next server that walked by for a pen, which also scooted off pretty quick after handing me one. I signed the receipt and was on my way. -1

Cons

• Poor service
• Pretty long wait time
• Not very clean or organized
• Understaffed

Pros

• Great tasting food (good enough that I will definitely return)
• Nice, friendly environment
• Polite staff that was trying very hard (I think that shows potential given time)

Point Score = +5 (out of 15 possible)