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| - It hurts to write a 1-star review for this restaurant. That being said, do not alter a time-honored and familiar recipe. There is nothing wrong with an addition to the recipe, as the additions can be requested left out of the order. However, it is wrong to replace ingredients that make up the basic presentation of the recipe.
This afternoon, I found myself in Mesa for a shopping trip to Mekong Supermarket. We have a potluck event coming up at work and I wanted to scope out the place ahead of time for the ingredients I will need. Seeing the sign for Thai Spices, the trip offered a chance to stop for lunch after I checked out Mekong Supermarket.
On entering the establishment around 1:30 PM, I observed a clean dining room, with a pleasant ambience. On picking up the 'take it home' version of the menu, I read through and saw what appeared to be suitable offerings for a Thai restaurant. As always, I looked for Som Tom, green papaya salad, the yardstick by which I measure all Thai restaurants. Finding green papaya salad listed, I was gratified.
With no indication whether I should seat myself or wait, I waited. From entering to being greeted and offered a table, it was about 5 minutes. There were about 10 people seated in the restaurant, so the wait was, in my perception, reasonable. When the host came to me, he asked if I would prefer their table menu. I responded that I found what I wanted, and I would like to be seated.
As I was guided to a table, the host advised I would see my wait person shortly. He asked what I would like for my beverage and was quick to bring the water with lime I requested. My waitress arrived shortly after and asked what I would be ordering. I placed my order for papaya salad, omitting shrimp and long beans, served Thai Hot, along with an order of steamed jasmine rice. The waitress asked if I could clarify my order, hot being 1-5. I requested 6. She wrote down the order and asked if I wanted another beverage in addition to the water. I declined, and she went to the kitchen, advising I could anticipate a wait of 7-10 minutes for my order. Sipping water, I waited for my order to arrive.
My order was presented at about 8 minutes. The salad looked to be reasonable, about 2 cups and the rice about 1 cup. Som Tom, properly made, should have lime, chile, palm sugar and fish sauce, each of which brings tangy, sweet, salty and spicy notes with the crunch of fresh papaya.
On tasting the salad, I got lime, vinegar , garlic and spicy notes. The spice was about 5 on a scale of 10 (5 makes my nose run, 8 makes my forehead sweat and 10 brings tears to my eyes). I caught the waitress' eye and when she came to the table, she asked if everything was satisfactory. I told her that the salad was missing some ingredients, specifically fish sauce and palm sugar. She apologized and took the order back to the kitchen.
3 minutes later, she returned with the same order, though it had been doctored with fish sauce and granulated sugar. The chef had not remixed or even replated the order, only put fish sauce and granulated sugar on top of the previous order. I asked the waitress to return this version to the kitchen and requested a new presentation be made, without the vinegar. She went to the kitchen and returned with the same plate, telling me that the chef would not make a new order.
I asked for the bill, and requested consideration as the order I wanted was not what I anticipated. The waitress apologized and asked if I wanted to speak with the manager. In replying that I would, she said the manager would meet me at the register. I went to the register and on asking for consideration, the manager advised me that the salad was prepared exactly to my order, with no beans and no shrimp. When I asked why vinegar was used instead of fish sauce, she said "That is how it is listed in the menu. Did you not see that?"
I paid my bill and left. Oh, I have regrets...yes, I have many regrets.
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