Rama Thai

This is my first review, so please be gentle (no holding necessary afterwards)

Ate dinner with my wife and parents last night at Rama Thai in Glenview. I of course forgot to grab a menu on the way out so I'm sorry for that.

First of all the location of the restaurant is funny. It's located in what was Carson's Diner (not the rib place) for almost 40 years. My dad used to eat lunch at this place almost every day for 30 years so it's very funny to see it as a thai restaurant. It's on the west side of Waukegan road, about 150 yards south of Lake street Anyway....

The decor is very nice, they did a complete buildout and it looks almost too nice compared to the thai places I'm used to eating at.

We ordered (again I don't have the menu so I don't know the thai)

Fish Cakes
Chicken Satay

Spicy calamari salad
Chicken green curry (thai hot)
Stuffed grilled calamari
pad thai
"holy" basil chicken. and sweet sticky rice with mango for dessert

The fish cakes were very good, they were the small variety but they gave 10 of them for $6.95. They were a little greasy and slightly tough but the flavor was spot on. In additon, the Satay were very plump with a good curry flavor. They were a bargain as they gave you 5 big skewers.

My wife's calamari salad was very good (and well presented) with very fresh tasting calamari that were not overcooked like a lot of places. It was not as spicy as she is used to, I think next time she will order it "thai hot" My green curry which was seriously scorching which is how I like my thai food. Not so much that it ruined the flavor, but it did make me forehead sweat. I will say it was a little too watery for my liking, next time I would tell them to reduce it a little bit. the grilled stuffed calamari was also a hit, it had a seafood filling that was just terrific.

The loser for the night was the "holy" basil chicken. My friend, coworker, and food nut who is from Bangkok gave me some simple advice on thai restaurants. He said if you ever go to a Thai place and there are any mushrooms, veggies, etc in the basil chicken, run like hell. We didn't run, but we tried the basil chicken anyway. We were sadly disappointed. There were too many flavors, it was watery and didn't taste right. IMHO basil chicken is a dish that is good because it's simple, it should taste like garlic, fish sauce, chilis, and basil who know what was in this stuff?

Anyway, this place opened 2 weeks ago I think. They ate still getting their act together. Entrees run from $9 - 13 and their portions are large. The service is very friendly, and it's a nice place to eat. I think we will give them another chance now that we know what to ask for and what to avoid.

HI,

Today I was in a post-holiday slump probably generated from staying up too late a few too many nights. I enjoyed myself, have not too much to complain about, though getting up to speed today wasn’t in the cards. I was in need of LTHforum-style self-medication, which means visiting a restaurant I know nothing about and let’s see where the cards fall.

The object of my distraction was Rama Thai Kitchen on Waukegan Road in Glenview. It’s in a quaint building strongly reminding you of it’s former life as a diner, though it has been a Japanese restaurant as well. In the window was sign advising of a $7.95 buffet lunch, which I checked to find Ameri-Thai favorites. Not particularly interested in eating warmed over food, I asked for the menu and a Coke.

I am as susceptible to bells and whistles like anyone else. I really liked the elegant presentation of my Coke:



I was especially delighted with the twisted paper wrapped around the straw tip. Is it a finicky detail demanded by the owner or the labors of a bored worker, who knows? It kept me amused for a few minutes.

I ordered fresh spring rolls, then read the appetizers in greater detail. I soon found a more interesting item to try perhaps another day: Tod Mun – deep fried spicy fish cake served with cucumber salad topped with ground peanuts. If only I had been more patient!

The fresh spring rolls were visually stimulating, though the taste didn’t match the presentation. The spring rolls were in desperate need of a bit of salt, which I normally don’t dream of adding in Thai restaurants. The sauce was tasteless as well, then due to too much cornstarch was a bit rubbery.



When my main course of yellow curry arrived, I asked for salt for the remaining bits of spring roll. I speculated to myself I may need it for the curry, wrong, I needed some coconut milk instead. The green curry was salty to the extent I ate only a third wishing to take it home for some doctoring. The potatoes were al dente, which works well for pasta but a bit off-putting for a potato.


When the bill arrived, there came a wrapped confection the waiter advised, “These are Thai fortune cookies. Please be warned the messages inside are not as nice as those found in Chinese fortune cookies.”




I didn't find the message especially unkind, so I queried the waiter more. He advised some were pretty nasty with less than uplifting messages. Too bad I didn't get a nasty one, beceause I'd love to see what he meant.

Alas I am in no rush to come back, though I did enjoy my straw and my fortune cookie. Yep, if bells and whistles were meaningful reasons to return, then I'd be back. Unfortunately the food served today didn't make a compelling argument.

Rama Thai Kitchen
1320 Waukegan Road
Glenview, IL 60025
Tel: 847/657-THAI (8424)

Regards,

With a Coke from Rama and a dog from fRedhots, Glenview is becoming quite the place.

GAF
A Glenview resident from before it was a culinary destination.

GAF wrote:With a Coke from Rama and a dog from fRedhots, Glenview is becoming quite the place.

GAF
A Glenview resident from before it was a culinary destination.

Yes, dining in Glenview has come up quite a bit.

It used to mean Hackney's and a Walker Brothers location, and not much more.

Now a bunch of new places have opened up, especially in the Glen area being developed where the air base used to be. I love Mitchell's Fish Market for seafood (haven't tried any of the other places in the Glen Town Center) and you no longer have to drive to Lincolnshire or Chicago to go to Wildfire!

HI,

Speaking of all things Glenview, I finally stepped into Harrison's Fresh Poultry. I mostly just looked around and didn't buy anything. Lots of sauces and rubs, though there was an odd jar of Durkee's parsley flakes. If it had been Durkee's sandwich dressing, then I know there are some who would thrill to that.

Fresh eggs, though the chickens in the display case had easy to spot frozen water crystals. I will guess in another era, walking into this rambling farm house with the storefront attachment was like walking into Lincoln Live Poultry. A certain barn yard odor and a lot of clucking chickens available for your inspection.

I did see a lot of frozen chicken breasts prepared various ways to take home and pop into the oven. They also sell rabbit, duck, goose and quail.

Does anyone care to describe the evolution of this business?

Regards,

thanks Cathy for the details on Rama Thai! we've driven by and wondered how it was, especially in a location that has changed hands several times over the past years. disappointing that the food wasn't better. ever since my parents moved from west wilmette where we had opart's, to glenview near costco, we've been looking for decent thai in the area. I haven't tried it in years and not 100% certain of the name ("your choice"?), but the last time we tried the place a few doors down from Trader Joe's it was beyond awful.

While I don't know the history, Harrisons was and still is the place to go when we wanted "good" chicken for bbq, a capon for homemade chicken soup and fresh turkey. We used to call it the "chicken butcher".

Cathy2 wrote:Fresh eggs

Anyone tried these? What were the prices?

I am just wondering if I can find a winter replacement for the fresh eggs from the farmer's market.

Cathy2 wrote:Lots of sauces and rubs, though there was an odd jar of Durkee's parsley flakes.

Can you imagine how old that jar must be? Durkee's was purchased by, and renamed to, French's at least 8 - 10 years ago, wasn't it?

They weren't kidding about the fortune cookies. We have the same ones at Thai House here in Bloomington. I believe the last one dh got said something like, "What do you do when the one you run to when you cry is the one making you cry?" But our favorite is, "Soon you will realize your life has no meaning."

My review of Rama was right after it opened.

Seems like things have not improved. I will say that their fish cakes were very good though

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8939&highlight=rama

nsxtasy wrote:

GAF wrote:With a Coke from Rama and a dog from fRedhots, Glenview is becoming quite the place.

GAF
A Glenview resident from before it was a culinary destination.

Yes, dining in Glenview has come up quite a bit.

It used to mean Hackney's and a Walker Brothers location, and not much more.

Now a bunch of new places have opened up, especially in the Glen area being developed where the air base used to be. I love Mitchell's Fish Market for seafood (haven't tried any of the other places in the Glen Town Center) and you no longer have to drive to Lincolnshire or Chicago to go to Wildfire!

Well, "unincorporated Glenview" (meaning Milwaukee Avenue, going towards
(but not getting to) Golf Road has a few more - a branch of Pita Inn, the
Greek spot Periyali (which has gotten its fair share of LTH love) etc.
Iam no Korean-food expert, but I'll bet if someone explored, theyd find
pretty damn decent Korean food in Glenview too - a lot of Korean-immigrant
migration has taken place from the city to the NW burbs, and Glenview has
several Korean spots (I can think of 3 or 4 offhand, around Milwaukee
Avenue itself; one of them, Woori Village I think its called, was reported on
on LTH not long ago). Oh, and this same area also has... um. A nice
Italian place that made it to Check Please, whose name Iam blanking on at
the moment

Further, there is a decent burger stand a short way from Glenview
Station, and the seasonal ice-cream stand near there is well regarded
too. (As is Dad's Ice Cream, also seasonal, on Glenview Road between
Shermer and Milwaukee).

Add Walker Brothers, Hackney's, Fredhots etc, and it really is pretty well
served with good quality dining.

c8w

There is a L'Appetito location in Glenview now too. 1836 Glenview Road.
Haven't been there yet, just saw the notice in the L'Appetito on Huron over the weekend.

saluki9 wrote:My review of Rama was right after it opened.

Seems like things have not improved. I will say that their fish cakes were very good though

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=8939&highlight=rama

I'm sorry I didn't recall it earlier. I have merged our threads together.

Thanks again for alerting us!

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

that, unfortunately, reminds me of a feminine hygiene product.

TonyC wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:

that, unfortunately, reminds me of a feminine hygiene product.

To slightly steer the topic onto safer waters...

bellringr wrote:They weren't kidding about the fortune cookies. We have the same ones at Thai House here in Bloomington. I believe the last one dh got said something like, "What do you do when the one you run to when you cry is the one making you cry?" But our favorite is, "Soon you will realize your life has no meaning."

The waiter had told me about "Soon you will realize your life has no meaning," which I was reticent to paraphrase. It sure adds a new dimension to the tag line added to each Chinese fortune cookie I ever received, i.e. "Soon you will realize your life has no meaning" ... IN BED.

Regards,

I just heard Sherman Kaplan's review of Rama Thai. It was kind of funny as he called the service "slapdash and amateurish." He did say that he liked it, but is holding off on his rating in hopes that the service will improve.

Recently tried their lunch buffet for $7.95; Restaurant only had 1 other table of patrons when we entered. Their buffet had about 8 items which were small in quantity. They had a remainder of salty soup in an oversized cauldron. Buffet had about 8 items including: stir-fried egg noodles with tofu & veges, chicken fried rice w/ frzn veges, beef broccoli, vege pad thai, basil chicken, crab rangoon & spring rolls, chicken green curry amongst those I can recall. Pad thai was the worst my dining companion and I had ever tried, which was surprising - was reminiscent of that instant pad thai they used to sell at Costco (just add water and sauce packet). The pad thai had no fresh veges, no crushed peanuts, and actually tasted of ketchup. The only decent dishes were the basil chicken which had decent spicing and the beef broccoli which was nicely garlicky. A trio of Hispanic construction guys (replete w/ their toolbelts) came in and the kitchen DID attempt to replenish the buffet line at that time, although at times many of the 8 items were empty. Self-serve silverware and napkins. Service was decidedly poor - very family-run affair. May visit again since the price is OK, and I don't mind having perhaps 2 decent dishes to choose from. I'm guessing this place won't last long with such poor lunch business, and I didn't see a lunch specials menu - if you can't do lunch deliveries, this type of restaurant will certainly suffer. Buffet line also had no dessert items - not even fruit. This family-run business definitely does not know how to run a restaurant business in a competitive atmosphere - given there are two other Thai places just down the street.

Jay K wrote: The pad thai had no fresh veges, no crushed peanuts, and actually tasted of ketchup. The only decent dishes were the basil chicken which had decent spicing and the beef broccoli which was nicely garlicky. street.

Funny that you liked the basil chicken? I think it is the low point of the dining experience there. It is their most americanized dish there, it's watery, has no heat, and is packed full of veggies.

saluki9 wrote:

Jay K wrote: The pad thai had no fresh veges, no crushed peanuts, and actually tasted of ketchup. The only decent dishes were the basil chicken which had decent spicing and the beef broccoli which was nicely garlicky. street.

Funny that you liked the basil chicken? I think it is the low point of the dining experience there. It is their most americanized dish there, it's watery, has no heat, and is packed full of veggies.

Let me clarify why I liked the basil chicken and beef broccoli - they were the lesser of multiple evils. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "lesser of two evils." Of the whole buffet, the only palatable items were those two, despite how Americanized they may have been.

Tripped over this thread while searching for something else. I tried Rama back in September of 2007. It looked promising and is only about half the distance between my house and Ruby of Siam in Skokie, which I enjoy. I have to say that, unfortunately, our meal was one of the worst I've had in a long time. In fact, even now, 7 months later, I can't recall having a meal worse than the one we experienced that night at Rama.

Many items and ingredients were previously frozen, freezer-burned and desiccated. The noodle dishes were doused in gloppy, overly-sweet sauces, the meats were over-cooked into dry oblivion. The calamari was rubbery. The papaya salad had clearly been sitting around for days. It and a few other dishes were simply made improperly, too. It was the worst "Thai" food I've ever had.

I felt horrible because everything we tasted was bad on multiple levels and with a table full of nearly full plates, we asked for the check. Our waitress asked if we wanted to take our leftovers and seemed surprised and hurt when we said "no." At that point, she began to insist. We knew we wouldn't eat them, so we made up a story about being from out of town and not having a place to properly store them . . . not a proud moment. In the end, we were able to depart without the leftovers and, following the Kuhdo rule, went for a 2nd dinner elsewhere.

I'm sure the people who run this place are nice, hard-working folks but they really don't know how to cook Thai food. I also felt that some of the shortcuts we experienced reflected a certain amount disrespect or disregard for the clientele but that was my purely gut, emotional response to the meal we were served. Sadly, this is one place to which I can say I will never willingly return.

=R=

Cathy2 wrote:If it had been Durkee's sandwich dressing, then I know there are some who would thrill to that.

Jumping in late here, but I just noticed this thread. I have a bottle of Durkee's Sandwich Dressing that I purchased recently at Sunset Foods in HP if anyone is looking for this stuff. I am using it on turkey and jarlsberg on ciabatta in the panini press i received from the in-laws for christmas.

Stevez wrote:Can you imagine how old that jar must be? Durkee's was purchased by, and renamed to, French's at least 8 - 10 years ago, wasn't it?

See above

I believe the Durkee brand name is still viable. See:

http://www.durkee.com/homeuse/

Just discovered this restaurant moved to north central Evanston about 8 mo's ago. For anyone interested, now:

Rama Thai Kitchen
1601 Simpson St #3 (NW corner w/ Ashland 1 blk SW of Green Bay Rd)
Evanston, IL 60201
(847)657-8424
Mon-Sat 4:30p-8p, Closed Sun
BeyondMenu is best online source:
http://www.glenviewramathaikitchen.com/menu.aspx
About the Move:
http://evanstonroundtable.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=4&ArticleID=16141

here is the new website:
http://ramathaiexpress.com/