Because our kitchen currently looks like this...
...we decided to go out to dinner last evening to Baan Thai in Sandyford. I have been there before on at least two occasions and found the food to be excellent. While we had a very enjoyable meal, the evening was spoilt by some minor irritations. First is parking - at 7.00pm I had to pay for parking in an empty car park or risk clamping and a fine for not paying before 9.00pm. Not having any change I had to go into the restaurant to get some before heading back to the car - two hours cost a cheap €1.50, why do they bother?
I find it difficult to hear conversation in restaurants at the best of times, but being placed under a speaker with loud music was too much for me. I asked for the music to be turned down or for us to be moved to another table (yes - I am a grumpy auld bollix). Our irritable waiter told us another table had asked for the music to be turned up and he moved us to another table. But he got his revenge on us for making him work as our new table was under the air-conditioning which was set at Antarctic temperature. Twice I asked for the fan to be turned down, but no noticeable difference was observed. It's unusual for me to feel cold, but I did so this evening under this breeze.
I had delicious breaded jumbo prawns for main course - except I had to send them back immediately because they were cold. A few seconds in the microwave sorted that out.
The food is delicious in Baan Thai, and was very good value for us as we also had a Living Social deal. But a message to the Baan Thai folks is to listen to customers who want music and air-conditioning turned down. Clearly they do not know how to handle warm days and need to work on his.