Thai Elephant is Miss Havisham’s wedding dress. My husband and I stumbled upon it by accident last weekend and having heard good things about it, we decided to try it out. We left with a desire to try more Thai food, just not there.
To start with, the décor is actually quite nice. The entrance to the restaurant is appropriately flanked by two elephants guiding you to a small staircase. The staircase opens onto an empty courtyard. When we got there it was a mass of empty tables and kitschy odds and ends. There was not a soul in sight, however, and we began to wonder if it was even open or not.
After poking our heads around a bit, a waiter came to greet us and showed us the menu. He left us to peruse it and we seated ourselves after deciding to stay. The dining room is quite large and they still had the Christmas decorations up, but the whole place needs a little love. There are some lovely pieces on the walls, but they are actually in the process of falling down and no one seems to care enough to straighten things out.
One thing I was happy with was the fact that they had a vegetarian menu. I decided on the pad thai and vegetable spring rolls. I asked about the Thai Juice, but was told that they had never had it and the waiter did not even know what it was. They also did not have any hot drinks, not even tea. After ordering we were brought a large 9LE bottle of water. I find that quite irritating. Why would you bring someone something they didn’t order and then expect them to pay for it?
Anyway, the spring rolls were quite nice. There was nothing remarkable about them, but there was nothing bad about them either. The sweet chili sauce they came with was quite nice, though, as was the portion size. They were a touch greasy and, surprisingly, there were no napkins on our table. We also couldn’t find the waiter to ask for some. In the end, we scavenged two from another table.
The pad thai was rather mediocre as well. The bean curd didn’t taste of much and the noodles were a bit rubbery. Still, the sauce was nice and it was okay. I asked for it to not be too spicy. When the plate arrived, the chef had left a small pile of red pepper flakes and a small pile of sugar on the side of my plate. I still don’t know what the sugar was for. They also didn’t care enough to wipe the plate and make a clean presentation. If Top Chef and Gordon Ramsay have taught me anything, it’s that that’s important. It was still nice to have pad thai again after so long.
My husband ordered a rice dish and a fried chicken dish. He fared far worse than I did. His rice dish was supposed to be rice with chicken, shrimp, and vegetables. Supposed to be. It actually consisted of rice, chicken, a few shrimp, cashews, and hot dogs, which are not vegetables. Nonetheless, it apparently tasted all right; it just wasn’t what he expected.
The chicken was its own disaster. There were small triangles of fried chicken set atop a large bed of cardboard noodles. The chicken was supposed to be topped with a light lemon sauce, but it was only covered by mayonnaise. Great big globs of mayonnaise. We complained to the manager about this, but we were only told that it would be better next time before he ran off.
In the end, Thai Elephant was one of the more bizarre dining experiences we’ve had as of late. The food was nothing to write home about and the service was pretty abysmal. The entire meal cost about 150LE and we weren’t happy to pay it. I’d recommend looking elsewhere to satisfy your Thai craving.