Ann Arbor Restaurant Week: Marnee Thai
As a huge fan of Thai food, I have always tried to take every opportunity to eat at Ann Arbor’s bevy of Thai restaurants. Cue Marnee Thai, located at 414 South Main Street. I ordered the shrimp in red curry, and my friend ordered the Tom yum poh tak (spicy seafood soup) and the appetizer sampler. For dessert, we both had the mango ice cream. In all, the curry was delicious, but in general I tend to be a sucker for curry. The largest problem was that the curry did not fill me up, and I was still a little hungry after eating. That made me question whether it was worth the 14 dollars I paid for it. In addition, my friend thought his soup was pretty bland, and described it as “not worth the 7 dollars [it cost].” However, he loved the appetizer sampler, especially the beef satay. The sampler also came with 4 different sauces, so it provided a nice variety of dipping combinations. Finally, the mango ice cream was good, but again, not worth the 4 dollars we paid for it. Overall, that seems to be the issue when it comes to Marnee Thai’s food. It is very good, but it is pretty hard to justify the price you pay for it.
Red Curry from Marnee Thai
In terms of service, Marnee Thai was decent. They were slow to take our order, but that was partially because my friend came late, so they most likely did not know when we were ready to order. Once they took our order though, the food was quick to arrive. My friend thought they were a little slow in refilling his drink, but I thought they did a fine job. The staff was, for the most part, quite friendly and I had a pleasant conversation with our waitress about how we owned the same phone. In addition, the hanging oriental lights and the pictures hanging on the walls give it a cozy feeling. It feels more like someone’s dining room than a restaurant, which is nice to see.
Overall, I would give Marnee Thai 7.5 stars out of 10. I thought the food was very good, but not worth the money. My friend thought it was pretty good, but definitely not worth the price. The service was decent: not bad by any means, but not exceptional, and the atmosphere was great. I recommend Marnee Thai to all lovers of Thai food, but if you are not craving Thai food, you may want to spend your money elsewhere.
