My’o’tai

I was really excited about this place serving Thai iced tea because it’s not much of a thing in Poland yet, and I really miss it every time I’m out of NYC. Sadly, it seems that the chef here has very little knowledge about Thai cuisine. First off, the menu features green Thai iced tea, which must be some kind of Thai fusion because Thai iced tea is traditionally made with black tea that has a deep red/​orange color when brewed. Also, it’s is sweetened, heavily sweetened to be precise, with sugar and condensed milk. It can be made without milk, but it’s not supposed to be sugar free or flavored with lemon (lime and orange only). That’s why, when the server asked me if I’d like the tea sweetened, I frowned a little. The teas came with no sugar or milk, even though I asked otherwise (more on the horrible service to follow), and lemon slices. O_​O As far as food goes, I had fish balls: p with rice noodles in green curry and my mom had noodle soup with chicken. Both dishes were spicy, but my mom’s was freaking hot! I didn’t not see any warnings on the menu. When we jokingly complained about it to the guy that waited on us, he said something along the lines of the Thai cuisine being spicy. I agree. But I’ve eaten at so many Thai restaurants (NYC is overflowing with them) and they almost always let you choose the spice level. Also the fish balls had little bones in them. Unacceptable and borderline dangerous. On top of that, the waiter was despicably rude and conceited. Every time I made an objection about the way the tea and food should be he tried to convince me I was wrong. He acted as if I couldn’t possibly know anything about Thai food. Well, I do. In fact, I know better than to eat at My’o’tai. I doubt I’ll ever be back.

Polish Thai food (since I’ve never been to Thailand nor had Thai food in America) is characterized by the copious use of lemon grass, fish sauce, and coconut milk. Among other things. Therefore, if you like any of these things plus chicken, you’ll like the food at My’o’tai.
The thing that sets this little place apart from other Thai joints in Warsaw is the care that seems to go into crafting the dishes. There is nothing on the menu that isn’t made at the restaurant. I’m not kidding. There is NO COCA-​COLA. All of the dishes are homemade, and all of the drinks are homemade. There is an extensive homemade cocktail list. This doesn’t necessarily mean everything is good, but some respect is warranted. The lemonade is good even though it’s NOT COCA-​COLA.
One minus — there isn’t a lot of space, and I would refer to the décor as «quaintsy Ikeaesque», like a prepubescent girl’s minimalist bedroom with some Asianish coloured lanterns attached to the ceiling. Now, I suppose this is better than the plastic laminated, fake flower decorated cheap Asian kitsch places with the big paper fans attached to the walls, but something about the sordidness of some Asian cuisine places gives it a sense of authenticity… like all of the care goes into the food and nothing is wasted on the whimsy of décor.
Another minus– whenever fish sauce is involved your hands will smell like dirty man feet until you’ve taken at least two showers and soaked them in a solution of bleach, perfume and vinegar. This of course isn’t the fault of My’o’tai, just a bi-​product of drenching everything in fish sauce.
Food: I ordered a soup with a chicken leg in it. I’m not sure what it was called. It came with onions, some rubbery mushrooms, and a lime as garnishes. It had noodles in it, both soft and crunchy and the contrasting textures were pleasant. The chicken was high quality, and the broth was spicy with a splash of coconut milk. Not the best Thai soup i’ve ever had in Warsaw, but I liked it. The second dish was half a chicken with a sort of sweet chili sauce and a fish sauce for dipping on the side. Again really high quality meat. Others ordered beef cheeks (which were a bit fatty but good), chicken «offal» which sounded nice on the menu with cilantro and chili and lemon grass etc… but then the word «offal» is just so close to «awful» which is how I feel about eating guts and organs. Finally, there was an omelet that was made with egg and rice, fried and topped with seafood (clams and other small crustaceans).
Basically, everything tasted nice, but I wouldn’t say I was amazed. Other people, who have more auhtority than me on the topic, were amazed with it. It’s better than a lot of similar Thai places in Warsaw. It smells less of man feet, and has the benefit of it’s homemade menu. I didn’t care for the service or the atmosphere though. It was not particulary bad, but let’s just said I was eating half a chicken with a soup spoon for awhile and I was particularly appalled by the LACK OF COCA-​COLA.