Consistent food and service.
I've been to Bangkok Pepper a few times now, including a handful of times while they were still at their old location farther down on Hill Road, but my husband and I hadn't been patronizing the place too much lately and I couldn't really think of why. Well, now after our most recent visit, I definitely can't remember why we've kinda ignored Bangkok Pepper for the past several months or so! We recently stopped in again for dinner following a friend's funeral last month.
From the service to the food, we were pleased. I ordered the drunken noodles with tofu, while my husband opted for a pad Thai dish. We split a combo appetizer, which featured spring rolls, curry puffs and cheese rolls with dipping sauces. I have to hand it to Bangkok Pepper- those cheese rolls were awesome and a little addictive! The spring rolls were quite nice as well, but my husband preferred the curry puffs the most. For me, it was all about those cheese rolls. More please!
Our appetizer and soups came out of the kitchen fairly quickly, as well our hot teas, which were refilled throughout the meal without question by our server. I will say this, though- my first cup of hot tea wasn't exactly scorching hot, more like lukewarm at best, but my husband's was heated the way it should be. Each refill seemed sufficiently hot, fortunately. I never bothered to mention to our waitress that my hot tea was, in fact, lukewarm as it wasn't a big deal.
The soup that comes with the meal does contain chicken bits, so if you're a vegetarian, you have to ask for a vegan option, which is annoying, but I already knew it in advance from ordering here before, so it wasn't a big deal, but I can see where it would be a problem for people.
The entrees didn't take too long to hit the table after ordering, maybe 20 minutes, which was fine with us. At this point, I'd say the restaurant was pretty bustling. Both of our entrees came with both meat and vegetarian/tofu options, as well as our choice of spice level for the dipping sauces. I went with medium heat level this time, which seemed fine. I've gotten it spicier before, but I wasn't in the mood to eat something super hot, so the medium hot sauce was more than adequate. My husband went with something a little hotter, which he seemed happy with.
The drunken noodles were pretty good, cooked properly with nice chunks of tofu. Was it super authentic Thai food? Probably not, but we're not in Thailand, so I won't overly nitpick about everything. You get the picture. If I expect it to be extremely authentic, then I guess I ought to be ordering it in Thailand. What I do expect is for it to be a tasty, healthy dish based on the traditional drunken noodle concept and not pre-made. Well, it was quite tasty, with plenty of flavor and was pleasing to the palette. My husband was fairly impressed with his dish, too, commenting that it was the best dish he's ever ordered at Bankok Pepper. In the past, we've had a few of their stir fried vegetarian dishes and a sweet and sour option, as well as the cashew chicken between us, and this visit definitely surpassed those experiences.
Overall, the service was great, the food was pretty good and the portions and size were on the money. We had leftovers to take home for lunch the day, which is always a good thing. I'd give it 4.8 stars out of five, but I'll round it up to a five overall. read more