Ruthai's Thai Kitchen

I have to give Ruthai's five stars because it holds a special place in my heart, and from what I can tell I am no the only one who feels this way! My out of town family came to visit and I had planned on taking them to Zips Cafe. Being a small place, they were very crowded and we knew it would be awhile before we got a table. We cautiously proceeded to Ruthai's because we had some very picky, hard to please eaters in our group! My husband and I were raving to them about it and so they were willing to try.

Well, that experience left all 6 of us very happy. The pickiest eater I know even found something on the menu and they were willing to make any modifications to make the meal to her likings. I have found this to be true with every person or group we have taken to Ruthai's. Everyone is always raving about their meal. I have been there dozens of times and the food is always fresh, colorful, and hot.

My absolutely favorite meal is the Tornado Scallops. I can't order anything else because every time I have gotten this, it's just so darn good! I can tell they give you scallops based on weight over quantity. There have been times I have gotten 2-3 really large scallops and times I've gotten 5-6 smaller ones. I am okay with this because either way they always taste amazing with the right amount of breading.

Lastly, the service. Yes. I'll agree with the others, it's slow. For years it was only one woman working as server and maybe an additional food runner. Last time I was there a younger person, pre-teen, was working as a server as well. I find this charming but I know others probably find it annoying. I think it's a cultural experience to dine at Ruthai's and a reminder that we Americans can be too demanding and we just need to chill out, relax and drink some of the beer or wine that we can serve ourselves. :)

This Thai restaurant is in a corner of the Mt.Lookout square. We wanted to try this place for a long time because of the rating. But most of the weekends when we are thinking of eating out, this restaurant opens only for dinner. This time we chose to go for a later show in the evening, and go for dinner at Ruthai before.

Parking can be bit tough on the square. If you are getting there late, you could park in the lot which belongs to the drycleaner on the other side of the road. The place was tightly packed and a little too cozy. I ended up hitting the person on the table behind me!

Like many people, me and wifey have fixed items to try when we try a new Thai restaurant. For her, it is the fried rice. For me it's the curries. She has a craving for Crab Rangoon, but this place did not have that. Tiny rolls seemed to be a favorite on yelp, so we ordered that and Shrimp tempura. We were not impressed by the dishes. The sauces and the appetizers did not seem to go well together.

For main course we ordered fried rice and green curry. For curry, mild was too mild. For fried rice medium was too hot. Half of what we ordered we could not eat and ended up packing them. None of the dishes had much flavor to it, so we are not sure if we will go back.

Oh well, that was different. On a Sunday night I just wanted to get some good thai food and this place had decent reviews. We ordered chicken egg rolls, they were crispy, well fried and juicy inside. Next on the order, pad thai and pad thai soup. Pad thai was OK, not spicy even though we asked to make it hot. My pad thai was different story. It tasted like they just grab some noodles from the drain and added some hot water. It didn't have any salt or pepper. It did have combination of pork, chicken and beef. All of it was pretty chewable. I asked waiter if it was supposed to be this way and he agreed. After 10 minutes of struggling (adding more spices, salt, chili paste etc). I decided to go with pad thai, at least it was somewhat eatable. I am not sure if i will return back there again.