Rexy's Thai - very cool

On my way from one place to another Tuesday, I decided to stop at Rexy's Bangkok Cuisine, large and ornate, tucked in the big strip mall at 13 and Woodward. It was pretty empty, so I got seated, alone, right away.

I have to eat out often by myself for work, and sometimes, the Panera thing will do. Soup, sandwich, with others eating alone, save laptops and cell phones. I used to be someone that never ate alone. EVER. I would take it to go, eat in the car, whatever. But it was cold, and the smell of curry wafted out the door as I walked in. YUM.

Rexy's must be used to single diners. The waitress, with her trainee, was very attentive, nice, and prompt. The vegetable curry was great - not too spicy, not too bland, and the jasmine rice was fluffy, yet every grain was singular and not clumped together. The fried tofu was still a little soft on the inside, which is so much better than the tough chewy stuff you sometimes get.

The thai iced tea could have been better, but it's not something I get very often. It's kind of a waste of cash.

As the restaurant got busy, there was no pressure to leave, no coming back around asking "can I get you something else?" and every waitperson who walked past me smiled and said hi.

Good experience. No, great experience. My bill? $9 total for a huge meal that I would have doggie-bagged had I been heading home right after. And as I walked out the door, I saw three other people eating alone. All of them seemed comfortable and happy, which is how it should be when you go out to eat sans company.

Sweet Lorraine's

At the beginning of this week, A friend and I dined at Sweet Lorraine's in Southfield, at her behest. She is a vegetarian and she loves their veggie burgers. Although they were not as good as she last remembered, it is still one of her favorite restaurants in metro Detroit.

Have you ever dined at one restaurant and had a great experience: food, service, etc., but then when you go to the same restaurant but a different chain the food is horrible and the service is questionable? That really shows you it's the people that make a restaurant good, not the name. Formulaic chains like Macaroni Grill can even get it wrong, even though all they do is take stuff from a bag.

I had the calamari and a Caesar salad at Sweet Lorraine's. I personally like my food to be savory instead of sweet so my opinion might be biased. The batter that was used to fry the calamari was too sweet and all the dipping sauces were sweet. It was asian inspired, but I have seen it done better.

The Caesar salad had wilted lettuce and too much dressing for my taste. Once you have had something done right it's hard to go back. And why is it that whenever I order a Caesar salad they think they can give you the worse lettuce and dump a bunch of caesar dressing all over it like you won't notice. I notice :-)

The high note is the server was attentive and nice. Like too many waiters in Detroit, they don't believe the worse you treat the customer the better your tip will be. The reverse psychology does work, but I would prefer the waitstaff to just spit in my food then be rude to my face. I don't know, call me old fashioned.