Ruen Urai @ The Rose Boutique Hotel

We were invited to dinner to meet friends of a friend.  Our friend chose one of her favourite Thai restaurants...Ruen Thai at The Rose Hotel.  We have heard of the Rose Hotel and always wanted to see what it was like.  So, this was the perfect opportunity.

The Rose Hotel has been operating on Surawongse Rd. for over 40 years...a long history.  I will not go into details about the hotel.  But what makes Rose famous is their Thai restaurant.

Ruen Urai is situated in a beautiful old Thai house on stilts.  Once you climb the stairs, there is a choice between an in-door and out-door dinning area.  We decided to eat outside because it was not too hot.

The in-door dinning room (photo above) is covered with teak wood floor to ceiling.  Nice volume and height for such a small room.  Not many tables due to the size of the room; yet it looked comfortable and the noise levels were decent.

Since I did not order the food; I have to apologise that there will be no prices included for each dish but will give you the summation of the cost of each person for the dinner.

The first dish was Cuplets with seafood & herbs.

The next dish was Seafood glass noodle salad.

The next dish was Eggplant salad with prawns.

The next dish was Fresh spring rolls.

The next dish was xxx

The next dish was Palm heart mixed vegetables.

The next dish was Water mimosa with bean sauce.

The next dish was Fried fish with peppers.

The next dish was Crab mixed with vegetables.

The next dish was Chicken massaman curry.

The next dish was a Chicken curry.

The next dish was Mushroom curry.

For dessert...Mango and sticky rice.

Overall; Ruen Urai was good but not terrific...I know my friend will kill me later for this review.  However; the reason why I say the food was not terrific was because I thought some dishes lacked spiciness, a dish was not well balanced, a dish was too watery and a dish was too bland.

I will not blame this on the fact that Ruen Urai is catering mostly to tourists.  I am sure tourists like spicy, well balanced, thick & rich and full of flavour Thai food as well.  Maybe the chef had a bad night...anyway; no matter the reason, Ruen Urai did not live up to the hype and all the amazing reviews on Trip Advisor from my point-of-view in terms of the food.

The atmosphere is lovely; sitting outdoors on the terrace of an old style Thai house with trees surrounding us...can't beat that.  The service was very nice and professional.  The prices live up to a restaurant for tourists...it is on the expensive side.  There were six of us so we ordered each dish twice (the servings were a bit small for us) and it came down to around 1,500 baht per person.  

In the end; Ruen Urai is a very nice place to take out-of-town guest to.  There will be no issues what-so-ever...your guests will love the food, atmosphere and service.  But; I am not sure if it will be on my top of mind list when I am craving for Thai food.

Address:  118 Surawongse Rd. 
Phone #:  02-266-8268-72
Operating Hours:  Daily 12:00 - 23:00 
www.ruen-urai.com