Coconut Thai - Edina — Restaurant in Edina

10/10 for the food. I’ve always loved their food. Excellent taste and quality. Very vegan-friendly as well.

1 star for the service. Our waitress was visibly annoyed by our existence, and I have my theories but I’ll stick to the facts:

She gave an attitude when I added appetizers to our order. She kept trying to take the menu and I kept telling her that I had more to order. She was visibly annoyed by this. I asked for a certain spice level and she was annoyed by this. I asked for chili oil, chopsticks, extra napkins, straws, and plum or sweet and sour sauce for the veggie rolls and curry puffs and she darn near had a fit. Mind you, by that time we realized she had a problem so we asked for a few things at a time, but that didn’t help. Oh, and when I asked for the Thai Fried Rolls (or whatever the name is on the menu) she was like “what is that?” I pointed to the menu and she said, “Oh, egg rolls. They’re egg rolls.” Miss ma’am the menu doesn’t call them that so how are we to know that you call them something else??

My friend asked about the spice level for her Sriracha Fried Rice and the waitress got annoyed, saying it’s already spicy. Completely ignoring the request to adjust the spice level (which can be done on rice and curry dishes).

Lastly, no checking on us to see if we needed anything. No refilling of our empty water glasses. I specifically waited an hour to see if she’d notice my empty water glass. She didn’t. It wasn’t until she audibly heard my slurping of the empty glass that she brought water. Mind you, the table of Caucasian women behind us kept getting refills.

I was fed up and told her that she seemed annoyed. She denied and gave me the most lame excuse, “No, but you keep asking for things and… Well, but it’s not that busy right now.” Poppycock. Her attitude commenced when we walked in. (And we were there on business, working with our laptop too. So it’s not like we were a loud, rambunctious party of two.)

I still tipped her, though she didn’t deserve it.

I love their food, so I will no doubt order again, but carryout...

Rice Paper is a Vietnamese/Thai-style restaurant tucked into the Northwest corner of 50th and France, behind D'Amico & Sons. Having recently moved to this location, the atmosphere is very fresh, clean, and modern. Seating is somewhat limited, with about 20 tables inside and 5 outside. From the ambiance, to the staff, to the menus, to the food presentation, this independently-owned restaurant has a very polished and professional vibe. Unfortunately, the preparation of the food doesn't measure up to the level that one would expect based on first impressions of the restaurant. My first visit, I tried the Mekong Encounter, which is a red curry dish. The presentation was quite impressive and artistic--definitely nothing like what I imagined it might look like. My second immediate impression was how little food was on the plate for an $18 dish; maybe 6 ounces including rice! It tasted fine until I chomped into the asparagus stalks that had been neatly crossed atop the dish like chopsticks--they were like wood--definitely an unfortunate surprise. After having dismissed this blunder and with an interest in trying other dishes, I made a second visit a few weeks later, this time trying the Lunar Clay Pot. Being a sucker for Vietnamese clay pot dishes, I figured this couldn't disappoint. Both my guest and I ordered the same. They were both horribly over-salted, almost to the point of being unpalatable. On both occasions, we had the fresh spring rolls, to which I had seen other reviewers rave (and the menu taunts "limited availability"). They are good, but no different than can be found at just about any other decent restaurant with at least some Asian flare. If you have the right, fresh ingredients, it is hard to screw up spring rolls. I probably won't be making another visit. I recommend Tum Rup Thai in Uptown as an excellent...

Positives: food is good, portion sizes are large so you have 2 meals in 1 or can split it with someone. Areas for improvement: the service was rude and slow. I called 4 days in advance to make a reservation. They confirmed my reservation with me and said all was good to go. Get to the restaurant and they said they did not have a reservation under my name. Explained that I called in advance, they confirmed my reservation, and I had planned ahead since we had a large group (10). Hostess asked when i called so i pulled up the call log and showed her. She said that meant nothing and it would be an hour wait. I asked her if they could work to correct the issue and make it right, and she said it was not her problem and there was nothing she could do. Then she found my name, which was misspelled badly, and blamed me for being unable to find the reservation. Server did not take our drink orders until she took our food orders, and that was about 20-25 minutes after we were seated. Did not come by to see how our food was or if we needed anything. Restaurant was not packed and there were a lot of staff members, so it could not have been because of being short staffed and busy. Asked for boxes at the end of the meal, took 15 minutes to get those. Server asked if it would all be on one bill, I let her know we would split it. She gave an annoyed laugh and said, "Let's see if I remember this." (Um... what about the pen and paper you're holding?) Then proceeded to mess up the bill, not apologize, and the people in our party decided just to venmo each other instead because the server was reluctant to fix the issue. All in all, I recommend this restaurant for takeout but not dine in due to the rude and attitude-filled service that is also very...