Arun's Thai Restaurant

Arun's is definitely in a state of decline.  This was my third visit to Arun's, and very likely, it was my last.  I found the entire experience to be completely underwhelming and definitely fell well below my expectations.  

First gripe is the servers - the servers are all very nice and well-meaning, but they are all very young, either in college or right out.  For a restaurant with a Michelin star and a high price point, I expect seasoned servers that know the wine list and the menu inside and out.  If your server has to run back into the kitchen to ask if the dish you just received is supposed to be served hot or cold, then he doesn't know his stuff. We also asked him for a wine recommendation.  When we asked him to tell us about the wine he recommended for us, he said it was "kinda like watered down wine"....umm, sorry but when in any book is it a good idea to recommend watered down wine to anyone who is looking for a good bottle of wine?  And for $50...? uhh no thank you.

Second gripe is the clientele...ok so not to sound like a total snooty pants, but when did people decide to think its acceptable to go to an expensive restaurant in mom jeans (I'm talking to the GUYS here) and a tucked in flannel shirt with hiking boots??  Some snarky teenage girls sauntered in wearing Ugg boots and jean skirts. Hello, where am I? Cause for a second, I felt like I was at the City North movie theatre on western waiting for the next showing of Twilight.

Third gripe, and most important - the food.  Totally uninspired and tons of repeats from the meals I've had here in the past. First course arrived cold - it was a dumpling that upon checking with the kitchen was supposed to be hot, but had a cold broth underneath.  Sorry guys, the whole thing was cold and not tasty. 2nd course - a tasty but boring spring roll with minced meat....and why is that minced meat is a trend throughout the meal - it felt very much like Arun was cutting corners on cost. The curry beef entrée had the toughest, stringiest, driest beef I've tasted in a long time. I'm pretty sure the McRib is of comparable meat quality. And give me a break with the giant servings of Daikon and radish and turnip or whatever.  No one wants to eat a huge cube of turnip with a stupid cherry tomato on top for god's sake...stop with the filler food. I appreciate an artfully crafted carrot fish as much and the next person, but enough is enough. The basil chicken (although minced) was tasty, although its a repeat I've had at Arun's before, as well as other repeat offenders such as the fried prawn dish w/egg and tofu.

I'm sorry but this place is way over-priced and has given up any effort to be innovative or interesting.

I'm a bit disappointed because I've had amazing experiences in this restaurant, but my last time dining there almost negates all of those memories. The staff were very polite, yet the food was embarassing. Very simple dishes, no interesting techniques or ingredients, the price is just not worth it. To top it off, they did not have most of the wines on their list in stock. Unfortunately, this place is in decline. I hope Arun was just on vacation...

We dined at Arun's last evening, and came back rather underwhelmed. If we are going to get a bill of $230 for a party of 2, you'd better serve Thai food that's so good, that it'd make us dream of it. This place doesn't. The appetizers are far too filling, which spoils the appetite for the rest of the courses. I understand that you charge $85 per person, but I'd rather have smaller portions of spectacular food than big portions of stuff I can get elsewhere for 1/3 the price. There's so much cucumber and so many starchy components that having space left for the entrees and desserts isn't impossible. You also cannot enjoy every dish because it's really not that great. They should be hitting the ball out of the park with each dish but they don't. It'd also be nice if you could get your severs to pronounce the components of each dish with a little more clarity and also know what's in the dish they're serving. Also, please serve your food at a higher temperature, at least those that are meant to be served hot.

$$$$ for this? No way. I'd value the entire dinner at $40 per person, for the normal flavors. No matter how great the service, if the food isn't awesome, I'm not going to remember a place or be happy to pay this much money for it.

App Course 1: Tom Kha Gai soup with mussel and cod. My husband had specified that he wouldn't eat mushrooms but it still had a mushroom in it. Also, unless it's gazpacho, a soup needs to be served hot. This soup was at room temperature. Tasty, but cold. The soup also had petite scallops which the server completely missed to mention.

App Course 2: Fried round empanada like pastry with crab meat and something else in it. We couldn't quite catch what the server said it had. Tasty.

App Course 3: Spring roll of rice noodles and vegetables (and shrimp for me) that sat on a slaw of jicama, bean sprouts and cucumber, served with a side of sweet and spicy sauce. This was good too.

App Course 4: Chicken patty that sat on a sticky rice filled cylinder of cucumber, served with a side of sweet and spicy sauce. Pretty ok, but very heavy.

App Course 5: Coconut milk rice noodles served with tofu, thin egg omelette, sticks of cucumber and bell peppers and a side of spring onions. I had a fried whole shrimp and my husband had a fried stick of squash. This was god, except that frying a stick of squash with seeds in it makes it watery and the fried dough slips off and doesn't feel good in the mouth. Also, please place the sticks of bell pepper skin side down. Makes for easier and less noisy cutting. Also, please remove the seeds from a slice of lemon, when you serve it.

App Course 6: For the final appetizer, we had a slice of egg plant, fried, sitting atop some really spicy thai salad that was placed inside a cylinder of cucumber. Hot! But good. And heavy again. Heavy because you have to eat the cucumber to cool your mouth.

Main Course 1: 2 patties of red snapper and a starchy root, served with sweet and sour vegetables and rice. It was redundant to serve the rice at this point since the patty was by itself so heavy and starchy. Also, if the server hadn't told us that there was snapper in it, we wouldn't have detected it. Neither by sight, nor by smell.

Main Course 2: Two pan seared scallops served with vegetable and lobster sauce. The sauce was good, but the scallops were WAY OVERDONE. How can a well reviewed restaurant screw up a scallop like this? It was rubbery! Major disappointment.

Main Course 3: Spicy basil shrimp. Like any other normal good thai restaurant's spicy basil chicken. Nothing special. It was good, but I can get the same for around $10 anywhere else.

Main Course 4: Panang curry with 3 types of melons and shrimp. Now, when we asked the server what kinds of melons there were, he said, "Winter melon, Fuzzy melon and the other one, I don't know". He should know. There were probably 15 dishes on the menu that day and to say that he doesn't know was sad. The curry was cold and was just about ok. Nothing special

By now, with the amount of food that would've been served to you, you would just want to pay the bill, ask for a square of chocolate and leave. But you see, when people say that it's one of the best Thai places in Chicago, you begin to look forward to the dessert.

Dessert Course 1: A sandwich of Egg custard and 2 pieces of sweet potato, which sat on a bed of coconut pudding, drizzled with coconut cream. Too heavy for all the food they serve up to this point and too sweet.

Dessert Course 2: One poached plum and one poached strawberry, which wasn't sweet and tasted like Benadryl. Also, we couldn't understand what it was poached in. There was also a black sesame speckled wafer cup in which there sat a scoop of lychee and orange blossom sorbet, with some raspberry sauce drizzled on the plate. The sorbet was good and the sauce was o