Gai Noi — Restaurant in Minneapolis

Girl, where do we start with this mess? Lmao. How about you grab your purse and run, because the food here was not it! For a Lao inspired/influence, high end restaurant, I had very high expectations because the decor/atmosphere was on point! I got 2 drinks, one app, and two entrees, the total came out to 109, with the 18% auto gratuity + taxes.

The eggrolls were good and crispy, but a bit too salty IMO. The padseew came out salty, drenched in oil, soy sauce, and a strong taste of oyster sauce, the noodles were al-dente and not cooked long enough. Baby, this isn’t ramen, or Italian okay. It’s rice noodles. Make sure the noodles are cooked to a softer point, and a little charred. We like that smoky wok hei, caramelization flavor. The padseew flavor combo was a flat line disaster because it didn’t complement/balance each other at all! Another mini con that got me shooked is that you can’t do any mods, like add proteins to it. Not even fried tofu, girl. So I was feeling like a skinny legend. lol. That’s why I had to order another entree to make up for it. Lol.

Idk why you couldn’t mod, but an extra up charge for meat would’ve been okay with me. (Our server did give out a disclaimer about mods, before I ordered though.)

The shaken beef also came out kinda salty too, but it was more bearable. The beef was very tender. It could’ve used some onions, bell peppers, and a sunny side egg on top. IMO. But that’s just my preference.

Coming from the same industry, honestly I should’ve sent the food back to be corrected, but I was too hungry, and busy catching up with a friend, so I didn’t bother. Plus it was very busy, and they were safe dishes, so I didn’t think you can really f it up that bad. I ended up packing the noodles home. Hoping I can fix it. Nope I was wrong. Rinsed it twice with water, and cooked it a little bit longer, but the strong salty flavors were still there. So in the trash it went. :( My party also agreed with me, saying that the food was overly salted. They also got paseew and didn’t even bother eating it, or packing it to go.

The place has so much potential to offer, but the kitchen needs to revamp the menu, and cooking process, because everything is overly salted, and flavors aren’t balanced at all. The food palate is very catered to beginners, and a very specific demographic. IYKYK. lol. No tea, no shade. If you want to get down, and dirty with your taste buds. Do yourself a favor and drive over to the east side, or STP, area for a more lao/thai/asian fusion.

To end this off, the great things about this place would be the atmosphere, drinks, and service. Shoutout to Sina. She was very funny and attentive! Not only was she serving food, but also lewwkkkss too! Such a unique energy that really elevates the atmosphere. If I were to go back, it would be for the drinks and her service only! Please take this review with a grain of salt. 😉 my outcomes, might not be yours. So give it a try! Just ask for...

We walked in at 2:00 pm on a Saturday. Restaurant was beautiful, hostess was nice. It was pretty empty in the restaurant. We were seated right away. The server, Bird C, started off nice to us. She answered two questions that I had. We then ordered a cocktail, and two entrées. We were told everything is ‘family style’. Food came out quickly, but portions were small and one of them was basically appetizer sized. This is def not what I would describe as ‘family style’ for $18.00 small plates. Food was ok, but I have had much better Laotian food. The drink was sour and not the best I’ve had. All in all, I would’ve left happy enough at this point. Just a let that in LA, a very expensive city, we feed four people at our fab Thai restaurant for under $55.

However, the server, Bird C suddenly took a 180 on us. We were both absolutely shocked! She didn’t come to ask how our first bite was or how the food was at all, which again, I wouldn’t normally care, but dear lord. She just came to our table at the end and barked at us : ‘ready for the bill?’ Again, I thought that was probably not how she meant it so I let it go. No mention of how the food was, if we wanted anything else, if we wanted dessert. Nothing. And as she asked this, she poured water into my cup, stopped, and walked away, leaving my husband’s cup deliberately empty… we were SO confused!

She then came back, threw the bill into the pile of water that she had created a minute before, and walked away. I had to grab the bill to save it from getting soaked.

We looked at the bill, and there was an 18% gratuity charge automatically added. Ok, we would have tipped anyways, but why did she have to be hostile towards us?!?? And for absolutely NO reason!!!! She went from friendly to outright HOSTILE. Just because she could…?

I sat there confused, as she just said the amount to my husband, threw the receipt at him, and walked away without a goodbye.

I just sat there frozen. I am polite to people around me and always try to be kind and understanding. We are the most flexible, easy going, and polite people, so it’s extra confusing to me to comprehend such behaviour, especially at a restaurant towards a patron, and especially when we did absolutely nothing to provoke such horrid behaviour. What a disgusting experience.

I’m sitting here with a knot in my stomach, wondering why we spent $65 on a small lunch to be treated like absolute garbage. Perhaps she had something against middle eastern people? I live in LA, and have never been treated like this in America, but I guess maybe that’s how it is at this restaurant.

At the very end I quietly asked another server if I could speak to a supervisor, and she said ‘no sorry, not right now’. So here we are. Never ever coming back here and I suggest if you want your dignity and sense of peace preserved, avoid this...

PART 1 of 2:

Wow, what an incredibly big mistake dining here last night. My partners colleague flew in for a work event from the South and we wanted to show him the best Minneapolis had to offer. We had ordered food to-go from here a couple times in the past and loved what we tasted. So with that said, we figured this would be a sure bet for showing him some great flavors of the Minneapolis food scene. Unfortunately I could only give one star for two facts from my/our dining experience; I got extremely sick from one of the dishes, and the unbelievably poor/rude service from the rotating series of 4 different servers that served us yesterday evening.

Everything we ordered:

Cocktails: Drinks were great. We ordered a round at the bar in the front while waiting for our table. I had one of their cocktails that had watermelon and dill, very unique combination and was super refreshing! My partner got an old fashioned that was on the savory side and had a dominant flavor profile of anise in it, also very good! My partners colleague had another one of their house cocktails which he seemed to enjoy as well.

Starters: We started with the basil wings and jalepeno wontons. Both very good! Loved the battered pieces of jalepeno in the basil wings and the actual wings were delicious and a huge portion. The (4 large) wontons were super tasty and full of flavor.

Dinner: Here’s where things took a major turn for the worst… My partners colleague ordered the Lao Sausage, which he let me try. Very good, and love the heat and spice they bring into the majority of their dishes. Simply put, sausage with great powerful flavor. He really enjoyed it as well and loved eating it with the sticky rice.

My partners (initially) ordered green curry with chicken and sticky rice. He usually always lets me try what he orders, however he was quiet after eating a couple bites. He said the chicken was so tough you couldn’t chew it. I tried it, and can concur…unbelievably overcooked and tough. Not edible. However, the flavor of the curry broth was very good. This is the first of two dishes that were sent back. The chicken in that dish was unacceptable, and the servers rude response when sending it back was so unprofessional. He had major attitude about it and didn’t apologize, just seemed irritated. Horrible customer service response to a situation like this. He switched it out with the green curry noodles (which we have had before) and it was delicious. The noodles were defiantly far overcooked (slightly mushy), but overall just a fantastic dish. I love the peas in it.

Please see part two as character limit has...