I had a momentary lapse of judgment and agreed with my friends that Snail (as bad as the name implies, no offense to escargot fans) was where we should go for dinner. This general lapse of judgment was followed by a more specific one: I thought that, if I asked for it without the egg, the tofu pad see eww would be tasty and wonderful. Clearly the egg was not the problem: It was mushy, oily, with overcooked noodles and more or less raw broccoli. As usual for an evening on which Snail strikes me as a good idea, I hadn't eaten much at all earlier in the day, so I of course wolfed the thing down, and, though it tasted OK at the time...
The rest of the evening will be devoted to Hebrew and Astrophysics. Oh, will it ever...
...Hyde Park restaurants tend to be mushy, greasy versions of whichever cuisine they claim to represent in the neighborhood. Cucumber-and-tomato salad at Nile? Mushy. Pizza at Medici? Who are they kidding, it's on a croissant-dough base...
...But enough of that. The work is beckoning. As is the diet Coke, which is the universal antidote. Well, might not do much if the culprit was dioxin, not just mediocre Hyde Park pad see eww, but for the latter, can't complain.
the Snail is amazingly overrated. i don't know where they got their reputation as "best" Thai restaurant in the Hyde Park, but in my experience, their food is always incredibly greasy and makes me sick for the rest of the night. i haven't eaten there for over a year, but it sounds like not much has changed.
ReplyDeleteThai 55 is pretty good. food tastes fine, not heavy on the grease. and very generous takeout portions. the people who work there are awesome, too. it's worth walking the extra block.
Nick here.
ReplyDeleteabsurdity!
Snail is wonderful food! Wonderful! I adore Pad See Ew, and the brocolli has never been undercooked when I've eaten it. Stop this unecessary invective at once!
Thai 55, I'll admit, used to be better...before it changed ownership about four years ago. Right now, the Snail is the best thing around.
I will, however, echo that I think the Med is highly overrated. I'd much rather hit the Snail, or put up with the abysmal service at Leona's, anyday.
I think we can all agree that the best resto in Hyde Park is most definitely Pizza Capri, no? (mind you, I've never eaten at La Petite Folie, though that's a bit beyond my regular-dinner price range.)
You can probably generalize. Most food around most universities, and interestingly medical complexes, is a greasy, mushy version of whatever food genre is being represented.
ReplyDeleteThere are exceptions, but bad food goes with higher education and hospitals.
There are a number of theories that might explain this. Perhaps students are poor and lack a sense a taste? Perhaps some many students eat out that even bad food sells out if it is cheap enough and sold in sufficient quantity.
I have no idea.