Friends and I turned to this restaurant as a second choice when our favourite restaurant in the area was closed for holidays. It was a busy night for the restaurants in the area, and Baan Latsamy was no different in that aspect. Still, we were seated instantaneously (we arrived at about 1915hrs) and was served the menus promptly thereafter.
Service: One of us checked into FourSquare and discovered someone's review of the service as a "gently paced glacier", and we found this to be no different in our visit, even if we made several jokes in that direction. Drinks, entrees and mains were served separately and the the timing between the meals served were sometimes very far apart. E.g. my friend's curry puff was first up, and the last one, his wife's, was nearly another 15 minutes before it turned up. Iced Chocolate took an equally long time to turn up, only making it's way to our table when the 2nd entree was served (about 15-20 mins after the order was made). What was worse was we ordered rice with our mains, and while half the mains have arrived, the accompanying rice was no where near our table.
Any queries towards where our food was was met with a nod, a smile, and eventually, when both vanished, a hassled "it's coming, you have to wait".
Food: I placed the service review first so that you can understand by the time our mains arrived, our appetite was somewhat whetted by the long wait. In all honesty, the entrees were excellent:
Duck Pancakes: succulent meat, awesome drizzle of sauce
Curry puffs: vegetarian; not so spicy but deliciously so nontheless
Money bags: This was the best sounding and great tasting piece of work, with chicken, prawns and peanuts.
Mains: My friend ordered Thai chicken Laksa, which was one of the more interesting laksa I have ever seen: topped with plenty of fried wonton skins. Nevertheless, it tasted beautiful, with nice succulent chicken pieces.
My jungle curry was a mix bag of surprises: the last jungle curry I had was beautiful and was "curryish". This was more of a clear spicy broth that smelt like a ripe toilet in the tropical jungle. The meat tasted good, the veggies left something to be desired, but the broth (despite the smell) was great. I ordered saffron rice with that and the saffron rice was both flavourful and fluffy, which is an excellent match for any curry dish. All in all, I wasn't too happy with the curry and left most of it untouched but the rice definitely mde my night.
Friend's fried rice came an absolute late last, by which time she was so full (from waiting) that she ate half and packed the rest home.
Atmosphere: tight spaces, a little on the noisy side but well lit. it's a good meeting place but be aware that everyone near you can really hear you. had a bunch of interns sat next to me and I could hear everything from patients' names to the tests they ordered for them: not good!
conclusion: While the food is good, I probably won't come back again. I don't like how we have to wait for 1/3 meals the entire time and how they weren't too please that we were asking where someone's meal is. Where the food was slow, there was also no good reason why they were slow unless they were genuinely not prepared way before hand (pre mixed raw stuff, cut meat, etc). read more
