Lemongrass Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Adelaide

Oh dear, has it changed hands? Previously enjoyed meals here. Dropped in for lunch and chose vegetable/tofu Laksa - there is a glowing review of it from 5 months ago. With a photo showing lots of fresh coriander. Mine was... bland. NO coriander or indeed any signs of the fresh herbs (coriander, thai basil are a must, I use "Laksa herb" AKA Vietnamese hot mint but concede that that is optional.) No chilli that I could see or taste- and I am a wuss, a sliver is usually enough for me. No bean sprouts even! As I glumly picked my way through zucchini, carrot, trace of capsicum and an enormous serve of thick noodles I realised that what I had was... plain vegetable soup touched up with some coconut milk and a scant amount of jarred thai curry paste. Bit like last week's minestrone, minus much of the flavour and with noodles instead of pasta. I commented on the omissions at the desk; (not that they asked when clearing away over half of the plate.) Response "Some people don't like coriander." Indeed, that's why the lady at the bakery asks before adding it to the ban mi! "But no fresh herbs of any sort?" "Some people don't like the kaffir lime when its cut up, its chewy. The herbs are cooked in" Lime leaves should be left entire, anyone who doesn't know to avoid eating them will soon learn, and I don't believe that fresh coriander or thai basil are ever used in a base. "Not even any bean sprouts?" "It usually does have those, didn't you....?" Me "No. I looked. Feel free to check " "they must have forgotton." In a nutshell - much better Laksa in the average food hall and even the stuff in the Woolworths chill cabinet is better. And if I'm home I do have the option of adding flavours... nothing...

We came here on a cold night hoping to find warmth and to try something new after walking past here regularly. Sad to say we were disappointed and unsatisfied, it is a beautiful and well furnished restaurant that is aesthetically pleasing but absolutely freezing cold. We and the only other table in the restaurant; didn't take off our jackets because it was too cold. It took a waiter over 15 minutes to come and ask our order, there was only 1 other table being occupied and they had already ordered. Apart from that the service was ok. They were friendly but casually and confusingly dressed. The menu was extensive and had a large range of your everyday traditional thai dishes, we ordered the kangaroo with Bangkok sauce and the seafood Pud Thai noodles. The kangaroo cut into very small slightly chewy pieces and it was very lacking in quantity and volume, there was a greater ratio of vegetables to meat; which I do not enjoy. But the sauce and the vegetables were nice, not memorable but nice. The "seafood" Pud Thai noodles was disappointing, let me say firstly though: the noodles were lovely and tasted fresh which I really enjoyed and made me start to relax and feel a little better. But I detest stingy seafood dishes; I counted: 2 med/sml prawns, 1 muscle and 2 chewy pieces of squid. The prawns were nice and the muscle was bland and you already know about the squid. So all on all it was a pretty place to dine but cold and over priced. Portions were dissatisfying but the noodles, vegetables, sauces and the service were nice. I hope this review helps them to improve, not...

Our experience was more like Irma Ryan's.. over $100 takeaway.. and could only really eat the rice and half the satay.. which was a bit dry. The Singapore noodle was too dry had half the standard ingredients and we think it had the wrong curry powder as was too gritty.. the larb gai was bizarre.. one of my fave dishes usually and I have no idea what this chopped up chicken mess was.. the beef kway teow looked ok albeit too gluggy, but then tasted like boiled noodles.. and that's it. Was unbelievable how little flavour it had, even the beef in it tasted like just rice noodles. Chicken pad grapow basil sort of had taste but wasn't really edible as the chicken was like eating fish cake.. rubbery and smelt like we would wake up sick tomorrow. We liked the chicken satay and the rice.. the rest was the worst Thai we have ever had.. in Melbourne Adelaide and UK.. there may be worse somewhere. Lemongrass was good 20 years ago. Clearly...