We recently made our way to Mai Thai, at the end of King St in Old Town, Alexandria. We certainly frequent many of the bars and restaurants in the area, and this has been on the list for some time. So when a friend was celebrating his birthday dinner there before the holidays, it was the perfect opportunity to check it out.

Let me start by saying Mai Thai has great food. Hands down some of the most delicious Thai we have had in the DC area.  Al and I split two dishes, the cashew chicken and pad see eew, neither trumped the other – they were both great. We’ve been meaning to expand our horizons and the food here definitely won us over.

The atmosphere was definitely promising, as we were seated on the 2nd level overlooking the water. I love brick interior coupled with modern flare, and Mai Thai definitely delivered on that point. For pictures, check out the gallery page on their website here.

However,  nothing is perfect. To give the service the benefit of the doubt we did have 25 people as part of the party, and yes reservations were made so there should have been no surprises to the staff. Originally we started with about 3 waiters, one for each of the tables, but it seemed to drop down to 1 after the food was brought out. Most of the group was between the ages of 25-35 and looking for a drink after a long day at the office. Unfortunately, except for when we ordered our food, we were never asked if we wanted another cocktail. After eating the meal (again great food) we decided we were most certainly going to get desert and would just go on and order another drink then.

It was around 8:15pm when we thought this (on a Monday, when only a few people were eating in the restaurant). At 9pm, plates were cleared, and around 9:45 Al  finally had to ask if we could get a check, since the frustration level of everyone had reached the tipping point. At one point we even wondered if the waiters had all left and forgot about the group of 25 upstairs.

We are for the most part incredibly understanding and like to find the positive at most of the restaurants we try,  but we couldn’t help ourselves in this case. Mai Thai Old Town has incredible food that had us thinking we wanted to spend more money and tell everyone about the experience. Unfortunately the lack of service or opportunity to eat anything beyond the entree had several of us leaving thinking it would be our first and last time there. Since going, I asked around what other friends thought of the place. Sadly, all of them have confirmed our sentiments. Great food but the service has kept them from going back.

So, Mai Thai Old Town, PLEASE convince everyone to come back.

Cheers!
Scott
Mai Thai on Urbanspoon