The Lucky Thai Elephant Restaurant in Newport, Oregon was a wonderful experience. Mike and I both really enjoy Thai food, though usually quite different dishes, so we were excited to try it out. The service the entire time was excellent – our glasses were never below half-full and they were all very friendly and attentive to all our needs and desires. I think I understood it was one family that opened up the restaurant about 2.5 years ago. I would say they are doing a marvelous job, although I didn’t have any kind of look at the finances…now THAT would interest me, the nerdy accountant that I am. Ha! When it came time to take our order (by the way, they have a huge menu!), I ordered the Cashew Nut Delight at a medium spiciness (I can’t remember the number scale they used, but I chose the middle one). She had a hard time accepting my request and through a hilarious back-and-forth dialogue, I finally gave in to getting “mild.” It still makes me laugh…guess you had to be there. Mike ordered the yellow curry. His request was just happily accepted by the waitress. Hmph…what, girls can’t take the heat but guys can?! Both of our dishes were fantastic. I ended up piling a ton of the “spicy sauce” she brought all over my dish (and enjoying it!) After she saw that, she said,” Oh! I guess now we know you can have Medium next time!” …yep, now we know… Just a couple negative notes: the white rice served with our dishes wasn’t enough and we were charged $2 extra for more. Sad…but worth it. Also, I was totally bummed that they didn’t have Crab Rangoon. Oh my goodness, I love Crab Rangoon. But I was still really glad we went. Our stomachs were thoroughly satisfied. The restaurant itself was beautiful! It was really well-decorated with the Thailand theme. The bathrooms surprisingly weren’t that great, but that’s not a huge deal – just noting it. From our table, my view was this area full of elephant art. I had to take a picture with it before we left. J Oh silly tourists…
