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| - I tried Rai Lay based on an intriguing article about it in a weekly, Charlotte events publication. Although I'll give it another try, with friends, I was absolutely not impressed. However, do not let my review discourage you from trying it out. Rai Lay calls it's cuisine "Thai Street Food," but from what I can tell, it has more sushi items than actual food you eat on the street in Thailand. I've been to Thailand a few times, and sushi just isn't something I remember eating off the street. I also don't remember eating edamame either, although Rai Lay's lunch dishes serve it as a complimentary side (like French Fries, I guess). That would have been fine, but the edamame was so tough that it took both of my hands to squeeze the peas out. And, the server tried to take my edamame away before I was even halfway finished trying to ply the peas away from the pods.
Just because it was a chore to eat didn't mean I wanted to give up on it.
In addition, I noted that a simple glass of house Chardonnay is a whopping $9!! Yikes!
The article I read about Rai Lay characterized it as a place where servers explain the "street food" dishes with diners and work with diners on degrees of heat. Not so during my experience. I asked my server if the grilled pork salad was hot and spicy, and he said, "I don't think so." I replied, "Good, I'll take it if it isn't spicy."
When the dish (which was actually quite pretty to look at) arrived, it had a full pepper jetting out from it, and it was littered with pepper flakes. While the pork was really good, it was so hot that tears were rolling down my cheeks. The star of the show (something you don't see in everyday Thai restaurants), is sticky rice served in a basket. Granted, the rice was surrounded in plastic wrap to keep it piping hot (as opposed to a banana leaf), but the concept was nice and different.
The "Thai Street Food" concept seems like a gimmick to me in order to get people in the door. It worked because I went. But if the menu or the servers don't really indicate the difference between "Thai Street Food" and food from other Thai restaurants, then the gimmick could just as well be "Free Parking." When I visited, it was at a time when only a few other diners were there, so there was no excuse for an experience which I expected would be educational but, instead, was just a little less than ordinary.
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