Rhong-Tiam: Review

Intro

Rhong-Tiam - Highly Not Recommeded (for service)
541 La Guardia Pl, New York 10012
Btwn Bleecker & W 3rd St
Phone: 212-477-0600

Our first meal back from Mexico and I wanted some Thai food. Read about this place from the NY Times as they raved about the food comparing it to the great Thai restaurants out in Queens. The food is good, but no where near my fave Sripraphai in Queens. New restaurant, so I know there's always issues but this place is terribly run. Overall, I give the restaurant a 40/100.

My Menu
1) Panang Curry *
2) Drunken Noodles *

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way
* Good
** Great
*** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) A good panang, but slightly sweeter than I liked. Nothing to really rave about, since this is equivalent to most of the generic panang curries I've had. I wish the flavors popped more. Nevertheless, still tasty.
2) Drunken noodles is my favorite dish from Sripraphai and this is very solid, but nowhere near as good. The NY Times claimed this place is spicy, but I love heat and this dish in particular could be much spicier. However, it was still very fun to eat - much better than the panang curry.

Overall Restaurant Experience (40/100)

• Food 7.8/10 – Solid Thai food, but not worthy of the Queens Thai food comparison the NY Times made.
• Service 0.0/10 – My wife got there and sat in the waiting area and no one spoke to her until I showed up. Then, it took another 15 minutes before we even got a menu and I had to say something to get it. No apologies...then, after ordering, we got our food after 30 minutes even though we ordered 2 easy to make dishes. This is again, after we complained. I understand it's a newer place, but they have no idea what they're doing. Most of the time the waiters were just talking to each other not doing anything...oh and there's this maitre'd with a clipboard and a fancy hat that does absolutely nothing. What a joke...btw - this wasn't just us either as I heard other people complaining about the same things as we left.
• Atmosphere 7.8/10 – A nicer looking place packed with couples older and slightly younger. Lots of large groups of older men and women as well. Got there at 7pm on a Thursday with no reservations. Were seated promptly after asking to be seated, since no one was talking to any of the customers in the wait area.
  
• Price 0.0/10 – If this was for food alone, I would give a score of 7.5/10 since the price wasn't so bad ($12 for a curry)...but the service is so bad, paying for that crap is ridiculous.
  

Comments
This reminds me that service really is a key part of the overall dining experience. If Rhong-Tiam was the best Thai food ever, I would still consider never going back...