29.1.2019

SpaceTime: Baan Thai, Turku, 12pm lunch
Atmosphere: Cosy, dark wood, dim light, bright jazzy guitar music playing on speaker, not busy
Food: Rice, chicken, veggies, soup (lunch offer)
Price: 7.50€

Thoughts: Baan Thai offers a relatively cheap lunch from a daily rotating menu. The restaurant has been around for a while. The slogan taped to the window reads: "Golden places, smiling faces", the meaning of which eludes me. Inside, a small dim dining room of dark wood for maybe 20 customers. Spot-lit Buddha statues on recessed shelves.

The lunch offer today was very plain and flavorless. Chicken bits in a clear, lightly salted broth, with broccoli and kale. Big bowl of white rice. The food was not bad, but it was very bland and mild, and I ended up adding soy sauce and chili oil to it. The appetizer soup was slightly more flavored, but nothing to write home about. 

The lunch is one of the cheapest I've found so far. It's not awful quality, despite the lack of flavor in today's serving: edible, but not delicious. Also, the portion size for the price is excellent. I'd consider going back if I was trying to save money and still gain my fill. However, if I was looking to derive pleasure from eating, I would go elsewhere. 

23.1.2019

SpaceTime: Vänäk Persian restaurant, Puutori, Turku, 12:40 lunch
Atmosphere: Empty, big windows out to a street with mostly cars going by, comfy chairs, gas heater center of dining space, oriental sounding dance music from a stereo
Food: Mäksun Kebab (minced meat kebab, grilled chicken, rice, seared tomato)
Price: 9.90€

Thoughts: I'm not sure what the "Persian" kitchen is supposed to be like, but if this is a typical representation, it's definitely not my favorite one.

Upon entering the establishment, I was greeted with the two members of staff and an empty dining space. Looking through the lunch-offers, I chose the kebab with chicken option. I sat down, after which the staff kindly cranked up the stereo with oriental pop-music and informed me that salad and coffee is included in the lunch.

I helped myself to something from the thin salad offerings. Nothing special here. After a while, the food arrived. The plate, which you can see down below, did not especially caress my eyes. I dug in. The kebab tasted like mined meat, plenty of onion and light salt, very mild, very non-impressive. The chicken bits were very dry and tasted lemon-y. The rice and the colored rice stripes tasted like rice, with an aftertaste of burnt herbs. The seared tomato was a seared tomato. There was also a tiny pack of margarine on the plate, which I smeared on the kebab and the chicken in the hopes of gaining some kind of sauce.

The food was certainly in the edible category, but it was uninspired and bland to my taste, with a poor presentation, and thus not a pleasure on the senses. Unless I chose the wrong dish to eat somehow, I cannot recommend this place for anyone except an exotic music fan.