Review #53 - Talay Thai Restaurant

Talay Thai Restaurant
Variety: Thai
Address: 1261 Barrington Street
Date Visited: Saturday, November 16, 2013
Orders: Sweet & Sour Beef, Pad Thai, Cashew Chicken, Deep Fried Spring Rolls

Taste: 7 + 7 + 8 = 22/30
Portion Size: 9 + 9 + 9 = 27/30
Presentation: 8 + 8 + 8 = 24/30
Value: 8 + 8 + 8 = 24/30
Service: 6 + 6 + 6 = 18/30
Bonus: 1
Minus: 3
Final Grade: 75% (Good)

(Scoring: 100% to 140% = Exceptional, 85% to 99% = Excellent, 67% to 84% = Good, 60% to 66% = Satisfactory, 50% to 59% = Marginal, 0% to 49% = Poor, -40% to -1% = Abysmal)

Notes: Our friend B was staying with us for a few weeks and joined us for dinner after the Parade Of Lights. Well, not AFTER the parade, we got tired of waiting for the parade to resume (apparently there was some kind of medical emergency earlier in the route, but the marshals didn't relay any info to us, and standing there for half an hour with nothing going on wasn't much fun). To be honest, this didn't put us in the best headspace, but we'd been looking forward to this meal for weeks so we had high hopes. We had a group reservation in the private room (another reason for our premature departure from the parade) and, yeah, definitely a sweet room (hence the bonus point!) Not particularly quiet but marvelous decor and far enough removed from the rest of the patrons to feign a little privacy. Anyway, we loves us some Thai food but have to be mindful of T's onion allergy. We alerted the server and she said no problem. The restaurant was busy-ish but far from full. However, it was a full 45 minutes from the time we placed our order until the appetizers arrived (we shared the deep fried spring rolls, always good) and another 15 minutes until the main arrived. At no point during this wait did the server return to check on us, offer an explanation or even to refill the beverages. Two minutes points there. The other minus point came in the form of notifying us as our cashew chicken arrived that there had been onion in the sauce so they served it with no sauce at all, just a bit of water that tasted of MSG. A reasonable alternative would have been to provide a different sauce on the side in case we'd like to give it a shot, or at least to tell us in advance and give us an opportunity to order something else. We absolutely appreciated the attention paid to the onion allergy, but the execution was really disappointing. The rest of the meal was quite good, though and aside from the wait and the cashew chicken fiasco, we were pretty satisfied - this otherwise might have been one of our higher rated restaurants in town. Pity.

Final Verdict: Tasty Thai, great private room, but service issues soured the experience.