Tum Rup Thai

This is not a spot I would have ordinarily chosen, as I do not like Uptown. By the way, this restaurant is in Uptown. At any rate most places I have been to in Uptown have been overhyped, overpriced, overrated, haughty, or some combination of the preceding.

We were drawn there by a gift certificate given to me by my generous employees. I always like trying new Thai restaurants, so even though it was in Uptown we gave it a shot.

The evening did not start well. We had reservations, and the completely vacant and inept host told us it would be just a short wait. I wasn't expecting a wait at all since I had reservations. If this was a small, family owned restaurant I would not have been shocked or minded at all. However, this is run by the same people who run the Sawatdee restaurants and was supposed to be their more "upscale" location, so I did mind.

The restaurant was packed with people. The space was nothing to look at, simply a typical dimly lit semi-modern room in too narrow a suite. There was not anything near an adequate waiting area as we continued to have to shuffle about to make room for servers and other staff walking around doing seemingly nothing. The bar looked like something they tacked on when the designer remembered it was Uptown and people would expect a bar area.

The host never bothered to update us on exactly how long it was going to be. Fifteen minutes later I lost patience and asked him what the heck was going on and informed him that given we had reservations this was completely unacceptable. He looked a bit frightened and mumbled something. About ten minutes later he mumbled something again and started walking towards a table that looked like it could accommodate our group, so we followed.

I honestly don't remember much about the food except that it was fairly good and reasonably priced but underwhelming. The highlight of the menu was the red curry that one member of our party ordered. It was wonderful, but not authentic enough to redeem the rest of the over-sauced, Americanized Thai food trying to pass itself off as authentic.

Bad service was simply the theme of the evening. Our server, while not quite as inept as the host, did not know what wine was available. After ordering a bottle, he came back a long time later to inform us they were out. We made a second choice which he claimed would be just as good. It was not. It was a blend with a passable body, but the finish tasted like inferior Chenin Blanc. He did not even open the bottle in the proper fashion, nor did he ever deliver the tea that another member of the party ordered. If you want to know what this wine was so you can avoid it, it was the Folie à DeuxMénage à Trois White Blend. It should be noted however that I was the only person in the party who strongly disliked it, everyone else thought it was good or ok. I couldn't bring myself to finish one glass.

There's nothing wrong with Americanized Thai food, if that's what you're looking for, sometimes I would rather have it than the real thing. There is something wrong with poor service from start to finish. The one nice thing is that the restaurant did not fit the typical Uptown mold that I stated above. It was only over-self-hyped.

Website: http://www.tumrupthai.com/