Pestle Rock — Restaurant in Seattle

I should preface this review with it having the intention of being constructive but I am also upset. Super unfortunate experience overall, but plenty of room for improvement. I am feeling under the weather so I ordered the Tom Yum Talay ($25) for take away with a side of Sticky Rice ($4). After taxes or whatever, it ended up costing $32 without tipping. Prices are not accurate on Google.

How many of us know that lemongrass and galangal are inedible? For how much I paid today, I would have assumed that the cooks who prepared the food would've known. They did not. Not only were there large chunks of galangal, the lemongrass was cut on the bias into small pieces that acted as splinters in my mouth. A horrible experience of fishing through my soup for these little shards. Half of the substance of the soup was comprised of INEDIBLE ingredients. The chunks of galangal outnumbered the cherry tomatoes and mushrooms.

For a $4 side of sticky rice, you'd maybe expect an 8 oz. or 12 oz. takeaway container filled with rice. What they gave me was absurd. It was an 8 oz. takeaway container with a small sandwich baggie of rice -- that was clearly microwaved -- totaling about 3 oz... The bag was just a sad steaming lump of plastic crudely thrown into the bottom of the container. I'm sorry I didn't take photos; I was just absolutely shocked and just wanted some soup to soothe my illness.

Now, I bet you're wondering where the constructive part of the review comes in. What I experienced was SHEER LAZINESS across the board. This is the constructive criticism that YOU (the chef/business owners) need to hear. ACT WITH INTENTION! Buy some cheese cloth and make a sachet for your inedible ingredients; the lemongrass and galangal have contributed all they possibly can by the time you serve that dish, right?? Why risk having your guests biting into splinters of lemongrass or bricks of galangal? IT ISN'T AUTHENTIC, it's lazy and you know it. Give me two more pieces of mushroom, one more tomato, and one more shrimp to compensate. ONE QUART OF SOUP FOR $25?? Come on, mannnn..

While I speak of laziness, I honestly would've felt more respect receiving the microwaveable dish of sticky rice from the grocery store at the bottom of the bag with a note saying "here, do it yourself" than the sad, awful sandwich baggie of lumped mush that I paid $4 for today. AND YOU STILL WOULD'VE MADE A PROFIT. Because it's literally $2.50 to buy that from the grocery store and it's a better product. That's how bad that side of rice is. A re-focusing of effort as it relates to the final product needs to happen here. Because right now, as it stands, there's a lazier option that yields a better result.

Lazy, lazy, careless, lazy, lazy.

That being said, all of this seems to have flown under the radar so far and you're lucky that your guests are none the wiser. Maybe they don't bother to leave a review and never come back? Who knows? Does that reflect in your sales report? Is business dwindling?

You raked me over the coals today and that won't happen again. Please take some time and look at the things you have control over and...

I love this place, it's solid and in my top 5 favorite restaurants in Seattle. If you've never had Isan Thai, this is the place to go. I've gone so many times, I always bring family and friends here when they visit and we've never been disappointed. My favorite dishes are the KHAO SOI -- this is closest to yellow curry dishes people that are at most American Thai restaurants, but it has egg noodle, chicken, pickled greens and crispy noodles, sooo good. It's not a very spicy dish, but for me it builds and by the end it's clearing my sinuses. For appetizers, the GAI YAANG (BARBEQUE CHICKEN) is great - nicely seasoned with a little sweetness, SAI UA (HOMEMADE THAI SAUSAGE) is my second favorite dish - has a little heat to it too. MUU PHA LO (STEW) is my second favorite entree and I almost always get it. It's so tender and not spicy, if anything a little savory sweetness, and is great to pour the juices over rice. Lastly, I always have dessert ROTI that is has cinnamon sugar with sweet condensed milk over it. It's crispy and sweet, plus I like to add a scoop of coconut milk.

For people used to chain restaurants that pop out 100 types of dishes, that are about large sizes and not really quality....

The dishes aren't overly huge, but appropriately portioned. It's definitely quality food, that focuses on fresh dishes made traditionally. They don't adjust spiciness, to preserve the way the dish is intended to taste. I recommend eating with family style with your group. I hope you enjoy this place as...

I wasnt in a fantastic mood, and the waitress was very blunt, so I was expecting to leave a bad review. But the meal is so unique! This place is not kidding around when they claim “we’re not your normal Pad Thai and peanut sauce Thai”.

I got the Yum Kao Tod which is tasty but a bit too heavy on the fried-ness for me to order again. I liked the ginger and mint. Worthy of 4/5 in my opinion.

1/3 spiciness is pretty hot for me. I had to take my time eating.

Getting the Ba Mee Hang Muutoon not spicy today. Damn this is good. 5/5... good combo of sweet and savory. Meat is super soft.

Getting the Kao Soi today. It is good. A little spicy for me and takes a bit of time to cool off. Hint of coconut is appreciated and the crunchy noodles add nice texture and savoriness.

Getting the Gai Phad Prick Gang tonight. It was good. It was very spicy but my mouth has grown used to spicy. It had some chicken, vegetables and rice and didn’t seem too fattening or oily which was good.

Getting Tom Zap soup tonight.

Pro tip: ask for it not spicy and for the hot spice on the side so you can make it as spicy or not spicy as you want. They can do it on the Ba Mee but not...