Some new restaurants have opened up near me

Cafe Society
1

I want to go and order only two things off of the offered menu at each place. This would be In the hope of determining the quality and authenticity of the food and more importantly whether I’ll come back.

In my case, one is a Thai restaurant and the other is a Mexican restaurant.

So what two items would you order from each of the above places?

Please, feel free to focus on other types of restaurants too. Well, maybe not Cracker Barrel :wink:

2

Thai:
A noodle dish (not mushy)
Curry (observe if they are paying attention to what level of heat you requested.)

Mexican:
An al pastor taco (no pineapple is a fail)
Machaca and eggs (there should be more of the former than the latter)

3

for Thai, I think Pad thai is de rigueur, while I would choose basil fried rice with chicken as the other (this is only a personal preference and probably not something most would consider an important dish for a Thai restaurant).

4

Perhaps a Pad Thai with Tom Yum soup at the Thai restaurant?

5

Thanks for the replies.

Tomorrow I’ll likely order at the Thai place. Only one thing at a time though. They have a noodle dish that has glass noodles in it, called Pad Woon Sen. The next time I’ll get one of the only three curry dishes they offer. All of them red.

6

You’re probably right that Pad Thai would be more likely to be something that is easily compared as it’s way more common. And they do offer Tom Yum soup too.

7

That’s what I’d pick and add a side of chicken wings.

8

I spent a week getting pad thai at a different restaurant for dinner each night as a way to compare the restaurants against each other. Another friend of mine got green curry each night. Our rankings were really similar - my go to order is now green curry, because it’s just a better meal (to me). I’d prefer to eat in, and judge pretty harshly if the meal didn’t come with complimentary soup (and hopefully a spring roll).

For Mexican, I’d get tacos asada and arroz con pollo, though I’m more concerned about the queso and margaritas.

9

Thai - either a pad kee mow dish or a Massaman or Panang curry.

Mexican - my go-to evaluatory dish is chili relleno.

10

If we’re actually talking Tex-Mex for the Mexican restaurant, I’ll see @silenus’s chili relleno and add a tamale for the 2nd dish.

11

Your methodology is excellent (comparing the same dishes at each restaurant), but seems inconsistent with a rating system that values pricing/meal combo schemes so highly. Why would you care if soup was priced separately from the green curry? Do you feel like “complimentary” means they don’t include the price of soup in the curry when they call it a “meal”?

12

There’s nothing wrong with evaluating on price/performance versus either one separately. As long as you’re clear which one you’re doing. And you’re consistent in comparing a la carte to a la carte and combo to combo. It’s also useful to know if you value portion size as a separate virtue.

I can’t speak to Thai.

As to Mexican, there are many different cuisines and it matters greatly where the OP is. And what types the OP prefers. E.g. if you always order a shredded beef burrito, it makes no sense to evaluate on any other dish.

13

So it depends on your philosophy…. IMO there are two ways to approach ordering at a new restaurant…

  • Order a standard that can’t really do too wrong. This is my philosophy for the first time at least. For a Thai place that would be a green curry. A Mexican it would tacos. You are going to get a decent meal regardless, but you’ll still see how good it is.
  • Order something that rarely gets done right, to see if they are “elite tier”. For me that would be pad Thai at a Thai place (every thai place does it but rarely does it well IMO). Unsure what the equivalent would be for a Mexican place as it’s so dependent on region (like I’m not going to judge a Texmex place for not making a good mission burrito). Maybe a chile relleno?
14

It really is remarkable how pedestrian most pad thais are. It’s their national dish - you’d think someone opening a restaurant would be able to nail it. I’ve only very rarely had a bad pad thai - that was a real shock. But it is a really good separator.

15

Order something you usually like. if it’s good, go back to the restaurant and order it again. If it isn’t, don’t.

16

I haven’t ordered anything yet, but I will soon.

Pad Thai will likely be the first thing I try from there. Lot’s of mentions about green curry. This new Thai restaurant only offers 3 kinds of curry and all of them are listed as red. Maybe that alone should be telling me something.

And please feel free to expand your suggestions to other ethnic restaurants too. Italian, Chinese, and Indian restaurants as examples.

17

Unless you are reviewing the restaurants for other people, just order your favorite dishes. Why judge by any other criteria? Well, I do stand by the clean bathrooms rule . . .

18

For the Mexican restaurant my items would be tamales and quesabirra tacos. And how good the salsa verde is.

19

Gai Pad Med Mamuang is the only thing I eat when ordering Thai so that one.