I was greeted at the door by a seemingly nice waitress who weaved us in and out of the rows of tables before she finally found a spot to seat us. Then she left... and didn't return until 45 minutes later when my friend got up, flagged her down and told her that we were ready to order.
When I first sat down at my table, I saw a nice certificate claiming Esan Thai as the "Most Authentic Thai Restaurant in Bloomington," and it was even signed by someone representing an organization I have never heard of. Whoopy! Then right next to it, a cleanly displayed letter to its "valued" customers--pretty much stating that the establishment doesn't really care if you aren't happy with your food selection. To me, not a good sign. The letter then goes on to name off a few of the dishes that might have an "unusual taste." This letter, and the fact that the waitress was no where to be found, made me want to run in the other direction. My friend, however, had eaten at Esan before and assured me that the food was good, despite its apparent horrendous service.
When the food arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the abundance and flavor. I ordered a safe dish of Pad Thai (after reading the letter to their "valued customers" and deducting their listing of dishes with "unusual flavors" from my choices). The Pad Thai was sweet, spicy, tangy and salty; it was the perfect combination of flavors. It was truly how Pad Thai should be (not like what I received at Cafe D'Jango; see my previous posting). I ordered my Pad Thai with chicken, and that is the only caveat in regards to this dish: the aforementioned horrible waitress, after I asked, said that the dish was made with all white meat chicken. If you are like me: not a fan of dark meat chicken; do not order chicken in any of your dishes there. It is like "mystery chicken." One bite tasted like regular chicken and the next bite tasted almost gamey. So, I ended up picking out all of the chicken from my dish.
Additionally, being the freeloader that I am, I sampled my friend's dish: Yellow Curry. Oh my god, it was one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. I want to just buy a gallon of their yellow curry sauce and dump it on everything. It was REALLY, really good. Again, the chicken was gamey. So, if you don't mind a vegetarian dish, I would recommend this one as such. It was so good.
My overall review of Esan Thai is that: 1) The food rocks and 2) The service sucks. So, if you want to try them out, order your food to go and eat it in the comfort of your own home. At least if you end up seeing yellow curry stains you know where they came from.
One last note: if you have read any of my previous postings, you are well aware of how much I hate it when places do not have free refills on their drinks. Be warned, if your beverage shows up at your table at all (ours didn't until we had to hunt down our waitress again after our food was delivered), be prepared to pay extra for a refill of whatever is quenching the spice of the dish you are eating.
