Rama V

Glutamat Schock in Legehennen Ambiente

Für einen besonderen Abend darf es auch mal was besonderes sein. Daher ging es mit der Familie zum Geburtstag meiner Frau in das vermeintlich beste Thai-Restaurant der Stadt.

Dass die Reservierungsanfrage (für einen Sonntagabend) erst nach 4(!) Tagen positiv beschieden wurde, erschien zunächst merkwürdig, aber noch nicht beunruhigend.

Nach dem Betreten des Raumes, in schummerig-dunkles Licht getaucht, spärlich mitbeleuchtet durch Straßenlaternen, die durch die Fenster schienen, empfing uns eine Lautstärke, die beim Europapokalfinale der Eintracht im Stadion auch nicht viel größer war.

Eng an Eng standen die Tische, die Teller von vier bis fünf anderen, uns unbekannten Gäste nie mehr als eine Gabelweite entfernt. Eine durchschnittliche Systemgastronomie bietet mindestens doppelt so viel Platz pro Gast, wie dieses immerhin mittelpreisige, mehrfach "ausgezeichnete" Speiselokal. Das sah alles sehr nach Gewinnmaximierung durch größtmöglichen Umsatz pro Quadratmeter Gewerbefläche aus. Nach der zugelassenen feuerpolizeilichen Anzahl an Personen fragt man dabei lieber nicht, es war schlichtweg einfach ungemütlich.

Der Anzahl an Gästen war dementsprechend auch die längere Wartezeit geschuldet.

Das gelieferte Essen war durchaus ansehnlich angerichtet und geschmacklich zunächst akzeptabel bis gutschmeckend. Kurze zeit nach dem letzten Bissen stellten sich bei meiner Frau schon die ersten Symptome ein. Übelkeit, Kopfschmerzen, Schweißausbrüche und Taubheitsgefühle.

Wir zogen es also lieber vor das Restaurant ohne Nachtisch oder Kaffee zu verlassen, selbst auf einen üblichen kleinen Schnaps oder Likör zum Dank hätten wir verzichtet. Die Wahl hat sich nicht ergeben, er wurde uns gar nicht erst angeboten, trotz immerhin reflexartig gegebenen Trinkgeldes.

Die Symptome beschäftigten meine Frau noch den ganzen Abend, ließen dann aber im Laufe der Nacht zum Glück nach. Augenscheinlich, nach einer kurzen Recherche, eine Reaktion auf das vermutlich in rauen Mengen verwendete Glutamat. Und dass wohlgemerkt, obwohl wir sehr gerne und regelmäßig in diversen asiatischen Lokalen, in unterschiedlichen Preiskategorien essen ist sowas bisher noch nie vorgekommen.

Our German colleague recommended Rama V after we found it impossible to get reservations at my favorite local restaurant (which, coincidentally, was right next door!). The food was filling, but I'm not sure I would come back again. Or if I did, I'd order a dish with duck.

The atmosphere is ritzy, with dark wood accents, dim lighting, a giant golden Buddha, white candles, mirrored surfaces, and various Thai artwork. We were greeted with sawasdee kas from the staff, dressed on-theme in silk shirts and skirts accented with gold detail, and led to the back of the large restaurant.

We ordered the house iced lemongrass tea, which was sweet and well-steeped. It was a nice compliment to the spicy meal ahead.

First, we shared a platter of fried starters: a selection of minced chicken in wonton wrappers, spring rolls, chicken satay, and breaded prawns to dip in peanut sauce, onion-chili-vinegar sauce, and sweet hot sauce. As I had ordered a tom yum soup starter I only tried one prawn and found it greasy and far too bland, even with the sauce.

For the tom yum, the flavor was there but the texture wasn't. The lemongrass was chopped up into tiny pieces that were neither pleasant to chew nor fun to swallow whole. There were so many of them that at the end, I got tired of straining them out and left some soup in the cup, along with my prawn tails. The prawns and mushrooms were perfectly cooked--it's a shame the lemongrass bits got in the way!

My main course, a mixed seafood noodle dish, was sadly as bland as the starter I tried. The noodles, though sauced, looked as though they'd been set out to dry for a time before serving. The seafood consisted of two giant curled prawns and some tough squid, and while there were lots of onions, they could have added more greens. One of my colleagues ordered the same noodles but with chicken, and she and I nearly finished the chili soy sauce on the table as we tried to give our dishes some flavor. I say "tried" because even with the addition of sauce our noodles lacked taste.

Our other colleagues, however, had ordered well: one had lacquered duck, another got the duck in red curry, and the other had duck in yellow curry. The real show here was the duck, ladies and gentlemen, and the chef knew it. Instead of being drowned in sauce, each massive portion of duck was breaded and laid out on a giant plate, with saucy vegetables underneath and a steaming bowl of white rice on the side. These three moaned with delight while scraping their plates clean and made me regret my choice.

We left too full for dessert.

Simply killer good Thai food. Always like to go whenever in Frankfurt. Killer good pad Thai! Xoxo

Good restaurant with very friendly service. The toilets have been very clean and there were a enormeous number of towels.

The food was good. I've had rice, duck and ginger. Not to spicy. As I mostly take this dish, I can identify its quality as very good in the region. The cocktails have also been very good (my company said). It's a little bit on the higher price range of asia restaurants, but it has a good price to quality ratio.

The restaurant is also very central in Frankfurt and the ambience can right for a small business meeting.

Very delicious food and very friendly service. The whole restaurant is very clean and very beautiful.

Soup was great. But the ginger chicken was ok. Red curry we actually jungle curry. Overall good experience. I am not sure why they did not have an AC switched on. It was 88 degrees outside. And it was hot inside.

A sommelier friend recommended this place for my visit to Frankfurt. I want to hug him.

We had a wonderful meal here. Basil fried rice, a spicy curry, noodles... We paired it all with a really excellent Bernhard Koch Reserve Chardonnay and met some super kind and gracious locals who went so far as to drop 2 bottles of wine by our hotel the next morning because they wanted to share some German wine with us.

If you find yourself in Frankfurt and hungry for something outside the traditional German cuisine, I highly recommend Rama V.

Host was rude and stroppy.
We saw the host turning some people away but not others. No one had reservation but he was holding a fake reservation list to turn down people.

Food is very average to low quality. Waiting service is very low quality.

Never go there again

Good place to try thai food with a very large menu so there is a variety of things to choose from. The drink menu is also great. We had a friendly waitress and the service was good. Would recommend it!

I was told that this is the best Thai food in town. I do not know about the other ones but food and service are fine. I would not rate with 5 stars neither with 4 as something is missing : special taste as well as decoration of plates which makes the thai food so delicate with a great mixture of flavours.

I waited an hour for food & was given nothing but excuses when the waiter had clearly forgot to put the order in. What made it worse seeing others received food late also.

Don't go in if it looks busy at all, the staff are not trained

The food is good, but only if they are not busy