May Kitchen & Bar

Beautiful atmosphere, cheerful service, good Thai food (for the most part.)  Unfortunately, it's pricey ($16 for Pad Thai takeout.)  They get my business on account of being the only Thai place on the island, but you could definitely do worse.

Great food, but my oh my, the service.  

We have eaten there five or six times.  We like the bar because they are high seats with a nice view of the restaurant.  We went again last night and I've decided this might be a way to get through to the management that the bartender/server for the bar is absolutely overwhelmed if they get busy.

May is big on cocktails, complex concoctions that take time to make.  The bartender/server is responsible for the drinks for the entire restaurant plus he is supposed to wait on 12 or 14 people sitting at the bar.  They do use food runners (actually the owners)  when it gets busy.

Last night, my wife waited 30 minutes for a glass of wine and only got it because I insisted to a passing waitperson.  We were there nearly two and a half hours for a light dinner.  Make no mistake, it was pleasant enough, except a half hour to get wine when the bottle was sitting three feet from us is ridiculous.

The waitstaff gets almost frantic when the place gets busy.  We've noticed that most times when we've been in there.  Racing around.  The bartender is always overwhelmed as soon as the restaurant fills at all, so this wasn't a reflection of the gentlemen last night. It always happens.  

So enough on the waitstaff.  Great food, I think the spring rolls are pretty fabulous, we had octopus that was very spicy and very good, my wife's creme brûlée was  judged "spectacular", the red curry main dish that we split was good, very spicy, not great, although I think we just got spiced out.  

The decor of the place is just great.  Hard to believe you are in a store front on Vashon.  Very elegant.

One last point, one of the owners spoke to us about running out of red rice, he said they didn't expect to be busy.  It is summer on Vashon, if you serve good food, priced right, you are going to be busy.  $60 for two, not including tip, is priced right for a nice dinner out with drinks.

We'll try it again soon.  I hope they get the service right.  I'll update if they do.

What a lovely experience. Everything we ordered (flash fried watercress and fresh veggie spring rolls as appetizers, phad see iew and yum neua for mains, creme brûlée for shared desert) was fresh, tasty, appropriately spiced, and beautifully presented. The atmosphere is authentic and calming. May can most definitely hold her own with any of the many great Thai restaurants in Seattle.