Inside: Roat Osha

We were never big fans of the Sawatdee that occupied the corner of 27th and Hennepin. The food didn't distinguish itself from the few other Sawatdee locations and the service was painfully slow. And since there's no shortage of restaurants to visit in Uptown, poor service can be a deal breaker when it comes to return business for a restaurant.

Fortunately the occupants of Sawatdee's spot, Roat Osha, another new Thai restaurant from the folks behind Tum Rup Thai, have done a great job of both remodeling the building and staffing it with amicable servers.

Thai is clearly near the top of our list of favorite food genres. But even for us, the Twin Cities are starting to see a number of Thai restaurants recently pop up, and that means the food needs to be extra special for us to pick one Uptown Thai location over another.

Surprisingly, even though there are so many Thai places, there always seems to be a long wait to get a table at other restaurants. But when we popped in for lunch the other day, we were warmly greeted, promply seated, and taken care of the entire time we were dining. (When the weather is this cold, a warm smiling face is more important than it seems.)

The food at Roat Osha is definitely good, and we were glad to see that much of the menu is under $15 a dish. We tried some standard dishes to see how the basics stacked up to other Thai restaurants in the Twin Cities. The fried spring rolls we ordered for an appetizer were light, but still flavorful. The pad Thai was a bit heavy on the bean sprouts, but hit the mark in-between those pad thai dishes that are either too oily or too dry. And the masaman curry has a good consistency, but could've been boosted with a bit more spice.

Does Roat Osha's menu set itself apart from some of the other Twin Cities Thai locations? Not by any great length. But if you're looking for affordable Thai food with good service and a short wait, we'd definitely recommend it.