Ruam Mit Thai + Lao Cuisine — Restaurant in Saint Paul

April 4, 2025 Visit 2 Kayla barely acknowledged us. 0 stars. The way she carried herself tonight was not approachable-she had an aura of attitude about her that I found quite unattractive. She was preoccupied w/ her closing procedures & socializing with the girls. Surprisingly, she paid more attention to the table next to us more. A male serve noticed us & I had to let him know blatantly how we hadn’t seen her in “ages.” My husband, the empath, always feels giving even to those who don’t deserve-so I had to “steal” the tab from him & pay. I openly say in this review, I did not provide a tip, as we did not receive good service this evening. Towards the end when Kayla approached us, seemingly wanting to close out to get out of there (she was wiping black books-again, probably focused on getting cut so she can start her weekend) she appeared disingenuous & unenthused. Zillenials certainly show their colors when in the working world; here’s a tip: that silver spoon isn’t gonna be there to pave your way in life forever kids.

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March 28, 2025 Visit 1 First time visitors to Ruam Mit & a second generation Khon Lao soht Thai fluent speaking diner. Tyler is an excellent server. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ He’s funny, charismatic, attentive & informative; & he speaks & understands Lao. Wish I took photos of our supper, which I normally do, but I was so hungry that I didn’t & dove right in. Ruam Mit is in a cute spot, parking isn’t terrible to find & the street fees aren’t terrible. The Passport app was a little complex, Tyler assisted with that (you have to add the code 651 then your zone number). The atmosphere is adorable-cute cozy date spot & prices are reasonable. I appreciate the single stall restrooms & how they’re kept tidy too. //

$18 Thum Mak Hoong ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ perfect blend of sweet & savory, I like it Lao style hence ordering the thum mak hoong & not the som thum. I’m not huge on indulging in the lettuce part of it all when it comes to thum, so I feel like the quantity of it is a waste-had I known the amount it comes with, (if I had known it came with any at all) I’d have 86’d it, so the kitchen didn’t waste any, but otherwise it’s great. Could use an optional side of kiep moo aka chicharrones aka pork rinds.

Surprise! Also comes with seen savanh aka jerky! One of my favs growing up! Sweet & crispy, done perfectly & pairs so well with the complimentary sticky rice.

$18 Nam Khao ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Not terrible, little dry. I don’t like peanuts in my nam khao but they can easily be picked out. I like the textures, but the flavor here could’ve been amped up a lil bit more. Still very good. Maybe could use...

Let me just preface this by saying my initial visit here (dine in 4/9) was amazing. 10/10 service and food. I especially enjoyed the fried rice which I ordered at a level 3 spiciness.

The second time that I ordered (4/11/25) I decided to do takeout. I ordered fried rice level three spice once again. The rice however, wasn’t spicy. Not a big deal to me. I’ll go back to the restaurant since I wasn’t too far anyways. I let whichever lady who answered the phone know I would be coming back for that pepper lol. Her tone and reply (You’re gonna come back🤨???) came off as surprised that I would do that. I arrived at the restaurant and a gentleman which I’m not sure if he was a chef was VERY chill about me coming in. The lady who I’m assuming I spoke to on the phone walked over and interrupted the chef, stating “keep in mind the spiciness depends on the batch of pepper” I asked so even if I ordered a level 3 spice, its possible I won’t taste ANY spice in my rice?” She said yep… (The chef and I looked at each other like 🌚)

The man I assumed was a chef, explained everything he placed in my side of spices. Very genuine and not rude at all!!

Back to the lady—(If you as a restaurant create a scale of spiciness, it’s your duty to make sure no matter the “batch of peppers” your spice is consistent. I understand wavering off slightly from the spice but 2 levels from the top spice means I should get a kick of something. Her input was definitely not needed because I didn’t come storming in etc. She came off very defensive.

*We will see if I come back due to that woman, not great vibes from her at all and respectfully I like to eat at restaurants where I feel comfortable.

I tested my theory of whether there was spice lacking in that rice with my boyfriend. He also said it wasn’t spicy at all, not even a White spicy. And when we added in the dry spice you could tell a difference in the appearance. Looked similar to the first time...

First, our food was awesome, as always. But I was very disappointed in our service last night. We had brought my brother and his kids who were visiting from North Carolina telling them about how great the restaurant was and then we ended up being embarrassed at the experience.

We had made a reservation and were seated right away. Waters were brought to our table as soon as we were seated. We then waited and waited, we finally went and asked for a server to wait on us. It was not that busy and there were plenty of staff, so not sure why the wait. Our waiter then came and took our order, no apology for the wait. We ordered a few appetizers, one being the entree with the deep fried tilapia, which we specifically said we wanted as an appetizer to share. A little bit later our waiter came to take our entree order after bringing drinks. I said we did want an order of pad thai to go and wanted to know when to order so that it came closer to us leaving, the waiter said he could take the order now and would let the kitchen know to make it later. Spring rolls and cream cheese wontons came, no tilapia. Then our entree orders started to come. Takeout pad thai order came before my entree came. I had to ask about the tilapia, they said it would be coming. After we all got our entrees, still no tilapia, so asked again. Someone came to our table later to say the preparation of the tilapia takes longer. The tilapia came as we were finishing our entrees.

I get that it took longer for the tilapia, but why didn't the waiter tell us that when I specifically said we wanted to share as an appetizer. We weren't in a hurry, we could have slowed things down.

It will be really tough to go back to dine-in again. The new space is nice and the food was very good but you really need to improve...