Last month I told you a story about Taco Bell at Target and free water. Today I have the 2nd story that I wanted to share with you; better late than never. This story is about Thai restaurant, spicy food, water, and compulsory ice.

I love going to different food places all the time. When I say food places, I’m also including fast food places. Every now and then I only have 10 or so minutes to spare, and I only have access to fast food places during those times. Variety can work wonders in such situations in the same way different restaurants are healthy for you, compared to going to the same place over and over again.

I recently went to a Thai restaurant called Spicy Thai. I love Thai food, and I try to go to different Thai restaurants once in a while. This Thai restaurant that I found was built like a temple. You actually had to walk up a set of stairs to get to the main entrance. Inside, the decoration is all from Thailand, the lighting is bright enough to see your friends and food, and dark enough to keep the entire atmosphere relaxed. I ordered something with my friend, and I have to say that it was the best Thai food I’ve had in my life so far. My friend ordered a Coke and I ordered water with no ice. The waitress, a girl in her early 20’s, brought my water with ice. I told her that I wanted no ice, to which she replied “That’s 1 dollar extra.” I thought she didn’t understand me correctly, so I told her I needed the ice taken out, and not something else put in that costed an extra dollar.

She told me “Yes, if we put no ice in, it’s 1 dollar extra.” Me and my friend looked at her with a straight face, and I said “Really?” She smiled back “Yes :D.” I asked her why, and she said “Because if we don’t put ice we’ll have to give more drinks to customers.” That was interesting and impressive; here was a restaurant that charged you for having no ice, and didn’t give you a stupid reason for it, and told you the reason straight. But the water is free, right? “No, we charge for that too.” I told her to keep the ice then. She left with a smiling face.

Hmmm, I’d never heard of such a thing before anywhere in the country. I wonder if they can be sued for that. When she was passing by again, I asked her if we would get one dollar off our entire bill if we only ordered ice, and nothing to drink. This caused my friend to choke on his spiced beef, and his eyes were filled with water. He didn’t die, but he sure had a good time. I took the to-go menu with me; a snapshot of it is shown below. You can also <%popup(20051206-spicy-thai-menu.jpg|929|835|see the entire front and last page of the menu)%> to look at the bigger picture.

Whatever they charged for no ice, they made up well enough for it in the quality of the food they cook. I go there often now. If you ever go to that restaurant, contact me, and we can get together to have a good meal, and extra ice.