Arun's-the thoughts of a first time diner

Last night the wife and I took her best friends for dinner for there 10th Anniversary. We selected Arun's because they are a vegetarian and vegan couple and they love thai food. We wanted a "special experience" and none of us had ever tried Aruns. We were aware of the general sentiment that the restaurant was slipping overall, and at least on this board, that the food is inferior to certain other wonderful, authentic thai restaurants in Chicago.

I cannot give a complete blow by blow report of the meal here because my memorystinks and my wife would not allow me to take notes or pictures. I tried to go into this meal with an open mind even though the reason i have never tried aruns in the past was my reluctance to spend $85 on a thai meal when I could easily have a similiar, competent one for $7.95 on virtually every corner in this town. I am not an expert on thai food by any means, do not speak thai but I have been to thailand several times and have eaten at enough thai joints in chicago to sperate the good the bad and the ugly.

I want to first say that we thoroughly enjoyed the meal. It was a perfect place to eat with a hard core vegan. This is one of the few times we have ever had dinner together at a non-veg restaurant where I felt like my friend wasnt an afterthought. All of the food was beautifully presented and very tasty. Was i wowed like I have been at Troters, Tru, Alinea or Moto....Not even close. The closest experience to this meal that I can conjure is a dinner that I had at the Sala Rim Naam Restaurant at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok 15 years ago. I can not even think of another restaurant here or in Thailand that I have visited that attempts what i can only characterize as "haute" thai cuisine. For that reason I myslef cannot compare this dinner to other dinners I have had at Spoon, TAC or countless other wonderful neighborhood thai places because it is simply a different dining experience. It simply isnt an apples to apples comparison.

That having been said, would I rank this meal in my top 5, top 10 or top 25 meals of all time....probably not. I do not think Arun's compares favorably to the other restaurans that are supposedly of its caliber here in chicago or elsewhere. The fine dining experiences that I have been lucky enough to have at Trotters, Tru, Alinea, the old Trio, Louis XV in Monte Carlo and The French Laundry have been transcendant. This was just good...and fun..$585 with wine tax and tip for fun is a lot of dough. Not Trotters or Tru money but still a lot of dough. Would I go back...well i would never suggest a meal at Arun's again, but if my vegan friends wanted to backI would go for them.

I might feel differently if this were a return trip to Aruns. Frankly, the menu was similiar to the menus that have been posted here in the past so I probably would have been pissed off if i was served this meal a second time. Anyway, I just thought id post my thoughts.