First visit: Jul 2022
We had one of our Official Niece's in town while her husband was taking care of some family business. We gave her a choice of 3 places, and she chose Thai. It had been a few months since we last went here, and it was dinner time, so NaRai Thai was the obvious answer to which Thai restaurant that would be. It's been almost a full year since said niece and nephew-in-law treated us to Aung's Bangkok Thai in Denver. And NaRai Thai is closest in taste and atmosphere to Aung's. We were excited to go back - though there was a caveat... Some of you may recall the surprise visit we received from Mr. and Lady Music last September. We took them to NaRai Siam. That would be the name of their Cheyenne Mountain location. While we collectively enjoyed our meal, they refused to make my dish as noted in the original review, even though they have all the ingredients. Well that was a bummer. At least our closer locale is much more amenable. We just won't go back to this southern location.
Or so we thought. I received a raft full of attitude when I asked for my dish here too! I told them they'd made it for me before on the last 3 visits. Well - they acquiesced and I got what I wanted. But it felt like it was under protest. They were not kind about it - at all. What is wrong with these restaurants? What I'm asking for is not complicated nor unreasonable. Basically they left a strong message to us that they weren't interested in our business. Wow. OK, you win! Was my meal good? Yes, delicious in fact. But I don't want to battle for my meal each time, so I don't want to come back. It wasn't until we got home that Mrs. RJG said she didn't like hers either. Same dish - but their way. I didn't realize that was happening since we were chatter-boxing with our niece. Mrs. RJG is far more unforgiving, especially when it comes to Thai food. So for certain we're not coming back now. As for Official Niece, she said she enjoyed her Pad Thai, though she had some small critiques. I told her to write them down and send them to me. I'm going to guess that won't happen lol.
Late last year we welcomed back Thai Basil (and we've been regulars since). And unfortunately we are now releasing NaRai Thai out of the RJG rotation. Poor business skills and - and as Governor Polis might say - it's their own damn fault!
--- original review (7/31/22)
Anyone who has spent time reading the RJG will know that we are heavily weighted towards Thai food. This would be Mrs. RJG's influence on our blog and dining habits. In NE Tarrant, it wasn't unheard of for us to go out to dinner 3 times a week for Thai food. Such were the great options we had there. But for certain we went at least once weekly. That stopped when we moved to Colorado Springs. But why? Were the Thai restaurants there that much better than here? No, I wouldn't make that claim. It really gets down to associative thinking: Wine. White wine in particular. One goes with the other, or it just isn't the same. I remember hearing my dad talk about coffee and cigarettes in that way. Of course with dad, the formula was anything + cigarettes = happiness. But I digress...
And therein lies the problem. Only a couple of Colorado Springs Thai restaurants serve alcohol in the area. Which isn't that different from NE Tarrant either. What's the X Factor here then? BYOB. Texas has it, Colorado doesn't. We would bring our sub $10 grocery store wine, and our "Spider Man" cooler everywhere we went. For some reason, we didn't realize NaRai Thai (aka NaRai Siam) had wine. The other place, known as Lanna Thai (ed: I forgot about Thai Basil when writing this), went downhill right after we moved here leaving us with what we thought were zero options. Oh we tried to make it work anyway. We'd go with water, or I'd have Thai Iced Coffee. But it just isn't the same. I wanted a little white wine (not red) buzz with my Thai hot. It's a taste of heaven for me. Mrs. RJG isn't quite so particular but she readily admits it's a sacrifice. One she's willing to make. And one I'm not. Just sitting there with a glass of water at night while waiting for my food in a bright lit setting reminds me too much of my college pauper days, when I was just lucky to be able to go out to someplace at all.
So what did we do? We moved our Thai experience from dinner to lunch. At noontime it seems natural to have iced coffee. I rarely have an alcoholic drink during the day, and even at that, it's usually for a business related function. But that still doesn't help with the buzzed flavor, but I'll make that trade for lunch. Mrs. RJG was OK with doing this, but really wants Thai for dinner, not lunch. And Thai food just doesn't do that well as a takeout option. At least for the type of food we get. And to be fair, I'm usually running errands for the side record store business on weekends (or vacation days) during the lunch hour, so I'm not available for a date anyway.
Will NaRai Thai be the solution we've been looking for? After ordering our bottle of wine, we usually get appetizers but we decided to get straight to it on this visit. I had my usual Thai styled basil chicken. I customized the dish with my standards: minced chicken, added fried egg, Thai hot, cut any lousy vegetables (peas, mushrooms). Mrs. also had the stir fry, but the American way with cut chicken breast, medium hot, and the more veggies the better. And let me tell you - they nailed it! The rice was perfect. The flavors our respective basil chickens were out of this world. And with the wine we were enjoying the experience as if we were back in NE Tarrant at Sweet Basil, Sea Siam, or Magic Springroll. And NaRai Thai is a nice setting actually, feeling more like a restaurant than a fast food outlet, as so many Asian restaurants tend to be.
However, I left out one small detail. The menu didn't have the bottle of wine priced. I figured it would be in the $15 to $20 range, even $25. $42! Que? Oh for crying out loud. That's a steakhouse price! Dammit. That's not going to be a sustainable weekly option. I wasn't expecting our sub $10 grocery store wine cost, but c'mon. Well - there is another option here, and it's one I've adapted to for the aforementioned steakhouses and Italian restaurants: Beer. Just a good crisp Thai lager will be just fine actually, like that place our niece took us to in Denver. So the matter is settled (unless they have a price surprise here too).
NaRai Thai may just be the best Thai food we've had in the Springs, though my opinion is a bit skewed given the wine associative experience. Some of the places we've been to here in the Springs are excellent, and we'll continue to go to them. For lunch, that is. NaRai Thai is now our Thai dinner go-to option.
7/31/22 (new entry); 9/26/22; 1/21/23
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