Taurus Ox — Restaurant in Seattle

If I could give two separate ratings for food and service, I would. I'll start with the bad, however, which was the service. Remarkably terrible, which is a real shame considering how fantastic the food was and how easy it is to provide moderately decent service (that's all I ask!). I write this in the hopes that the owners will realize they are doing their fantastic food a real disservice (pun intended).

As briefly as I can... my party of 4 arrived at 7:30P and were barely greeted by a "hostess" who pointed towards a tablet where I entered my info. We were given a 1.5 - 2hr wait and a link to follow our progress. So we waited patiently but hungrily for 90 minutes at a nearby bar, checking our link until our time was supposedly up. When we arrived at just before 9P for our table, we were told the restaurant was actually closing. What?! And on top of that, the restaurant was half empty, suggesting their digital hostess had no ability to accurately gauge when a table for four had actually become available to us. Luckily, given my reaction to this news, they reluctantly agreed to seat us anyways.

Once at our table, we started ordering using the given QR code and found out that the app is actually "pretty scuffed", according to our waiter, meaning it doesn't work and doesn't actually have all the menu items to select. Cool. Following this, we received food without any plates, our order was incomplete (no papaya salad!), and the silverware that needlessly lives on the table did not include any knives for splitting our burger. Also, in the days of COVID, etc., do we really need our silverware at the table for every diner to breathe on and touch?

Despite all this... the food is truly delicious. Five stars. We enjoyed the burger (YUM), the sausage entree, the phad lao with tofu, the chicken laap, and TWO coconut sticky rice with mango. Sadly, we did not enjoy the papaya salad as it never came, to which the waiter had a casual "whoopsy" reaction. And given our experience last night, unless real change is made, I may never taste the papaya salad. Also worth noting, PORTIONS ARE SMALL, so order more than...

this dish really was fantastic first of all, i have to mention the spring rolls we ordered - which were incredible these were oily on the outside, incredibly crispy, and the fillings were just absolutely perfect. i could eat like 10 of those if i had the opportunity to

the main thing I ordered was the Thom Khem, since I'd been here before and gotten the Lao Burger. first, the presentation of this dish was excellent i mixed the rice in with the pork belly so it absorbed the sauce, and I could then eat the rice combined with the pork belly / vegetable pieces

the pork meat was super soft and quite tender. it was the opposite of tough - something that would practically melt in your mouth. the only thing i wish was that there was slightly more fat in the meat - as I didn't taste that much - but otherwise, I loved the amount and size of the pieces The other thing I loved was the sauce - this was a sweet, soy-based sauce, that worked wonderfully when coating the rice and providing a great, consistent flavor overall. The vegetables were also really good

When I saw that the dish came with a brussels sprout hash brown, I was initially confused as I wasn't sure what to expect. It turns out that this ended up being my favorite part of the meal. Again, it was astoundingly crispy, and was generously coated with oil. The combination of the brussels sprouts and the fried potatoes ended up working much better than I thought such a combination was possible

This is on the expensive side - my overall meal came out to around 30 dollars - but the food really is top quality so I can't complain too much

Overall, this is really high quality, flavorful, and a unique combination of foods that's exclusive to this...

Stopped by Taurus Ox for lunch on a Friday. The inside of the restaurant is pretty small, only a couple of small tables and some bar seating. There is quite a bit of seating outside. Some on Madison which gets pretty noisy and some on the side street that is much more quiet. We sat in this area. We arrived just as they opened at noon. We ordered 4 dishes to share between the two of us.

Thom Khem - top left dish in pic with all 4 items. This is a pork belly with a slightly sweet sauce served with rice and brussel sprout hash. Unfortunately, this was the last dish we tried. It was amazing! The pork belly was tender, the sauce was delicious, but we were both pretty full by the time we got to it. Would definitely order again. The brussel sprout hash was solid too.

Khao Soi - Top right dish in pic with all 4 items. This was a ground pork sauce over noodles with broth with a few pork rinds as garnish. I thought the broth was really good when a little of the spicy sauce was mixed in. This dish was good, but I probably wouldnt order again.

Lao burger - bottom left dish in pic with all 4 items. I didnt want to order a burger, but it looked so good. Luckily it was delightful. Two patties smashed together with cheese and the jaew tomato between the patties. The bun was toasted perfectly, and the mayo, cilantro and pickled onion were perfect. Definitely my favorite item!

Papaya salad - bottom right dish in pic with all four items. Green papaya salad was good, but not a must order item for me. It was slightly spicy, crunchy salad.

Service was quick. Food was ready in about 10 minutes or so. We both had water, self serve in the restaurant. The bill was about $50 before tax and tip for the three mains...