Last Saturday night, my girlfriends and I decided to give the two-year-old
14th Street
restaurant Teak Wood a try. I called
about two hours before we wanted to eat to see if we could snag a reservation and
was immediately told there was a spot for a table of five at 7:30 pm. Let’s call this sign #1 that I
should have reconsidered this option.
Any nice restaurant that can spare a table for five a few hours before the
desired time is questionable, in my opinion.
‘Why aren’t they booked?’ was the first question that popped into my
head. But, we decided to give it a go
anyway.
Upon entering the spot, that features both Thai and Sushi cuisine, with Thai
inspired décor— read: huge Buddha statues– and what seemed like 100 empty
tables greeted us. Sign #2 that this was
not going to be my night. We sat down
and after a few minutes the waitress approached our table. Since we were not ready to order we asked her
to come back in a few minutes. As any
frequent restaurant-goer knows, this can go either one of two ways: the
waitress comes back in a few minutes as requested, or the waitress disappears,
seemingly on a trek to Tibet,
before you have to frantically wave your arms at her to get her attention. Not surprisingly, we dealt with the latter
option.
We placed our order, and eventually one plate of food came
out. One plate. Let me remind you there were five of us
dining together. Finally another two
plates came out. And then one more. That brings our grand total to four plates of
food. One guess as to whose plate of
food was missing? It’s as if the
restaurant gods were laughing at me. I chose to ignore their signs, and this was my punishment.
After alerting the waitress to the fact that, after the 10
minute serving assembly line jaunt, my food had still not arrived, she gave me
a confused look and asked what I had ordered.
Sigh. I knew at that point that she had forgotten to include my order. To make up
for this oversight, I was comped a free bowl of Miso Soup, which I don’t even
like. Finally, my meal came out. The food, I will say, was pretty good. Not the best Thai food I’ve ever had, but
solid food at a good price point. I
sampled Liz’s Pad Thai, which was also delicious. The sushi looked quality, though I did not
sample any. The portions were
decent. Oh, and they did have some
really fancy chopsticks.
Maybe I just had back luck at Teak Wood. But, to me, service is just as important as
food quality when dining out. I’d likely
order take out from them, but will never dine in-house at this restaurant again.
Price: $$
Ambiance: ★★★☆☆
Service: ★★☆☆☆
Entertaining and informative review! Next time I'm in town, we'll have to get their delicious Pad Thai, take out of course.
ReplyDeleteNext time you go to an asian place, ask yourself "Is this Nooshi?" If the answer is "no," probably not as excellent. :)
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