Bangkok Milton — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Food Six of us dined on a Sun eve in late Aug. For entrees, we shared vegetarian spring rolls and fish cakes. The spring rolls had a crispy coating with a nice vegetarian filling. The fish cakes had just the right chewy texture. Good solid dishes and the perfect way to start. For our main meals, we chose a selection of dishes, including chicken soup, pad Thai, yellow curry beef, garlic and pepper beef, lamb shanks, vegetables and tofu, and complemented by a huge bowl of fluffy coconut rice for the table. We were impressed with both the quality and quantity of the food. It was all fresh and tasty and infused with those subtle, fragrant and aromatic Thai flavours that we love so much. My yellow beef curry had thin, finely sliced pieces of chunky beef, with soft potatoes and drenched in a spicy, yellow curry sauce. The lamb shanks were melt-in-your-mouth tender, which just fell off the bone. Everyone enjoyed their meals. Serving sizes were huge. We couldn’t finish it all, so we took the leftovers home with us and had it for lunch the next day.

Ambience B.M. is a spacious, airy, and comfortable place. It’s stylishly decked out in traditional Thai colours of pink and purple, with sturdy wooden furniture, low mood lighting, carpeting throughout and tasteful decorations and pics on the walls. You’ll feel like a million dollars when you dine here. The high ceilings and plush carpets make for excellent acoustics and conversation was easy.

Service Last time we dined here in 2021, the service was fast and efficient. This year, B.M. is clearly suffering from understaffing, as it took ages (around 20 minutes) to attract the attention of wait staff to come and take our order. Twice, one of our party had to go up to the kitchen and request attention. And the place was by no means full, with only a handful of other tables occupied. Once orders were taken though, it didn’t take long for the food to arrive. I could see though that the two lady staffers were under some pressure, as, in addition to the sit-down diners, there were numerous people coming in for take-away orders plus a bunch of Uber Eats, Door Dash and Menulog etc drivers waiting around for their orders too. In our experience this reliance on take-away business seems to pile added pressure onto already overworked wait staff, and leads to delays for dine-in customers. Whilst I understand that restaurants need the take-away business to survive, they should ensure that they have the staff to handle it all.

Cost We paid a reasonable 211 for six people, and that included drinks, entrees, main meals and a single bowl of rice for the table. That works out at roughly 35 per person and it bought us enough drinks and tons of food, so on that score at least thanks to these guys for keeping their prices stable in the face of the “Weimar Republic” levels of hyperinflation that we are enduring.

Toilets Toilets are behind the restaurant in the little corridor outside. They’re reasonably clean but rather dated, with the gents featuring just one urinal and one cubicle and an ancient, rather useless 1980s style hand dryer. It’s funny that in such a large place they couldn’t find room for internal toilets.

Parking There’s free parking in a little car park just outside the venue. Access is from Milton Road. There are ample spaces and also more parking in the basement.

Summary After our less than satisfactory experience at our latest visit, my opinion of B.M. has dimmed somewhat and if we do return, it will be on a weeknight, and not a weekend again. On the pos side, the food is consistently of a high quality, the serving sizes are generous. Wait staff are friendly and polite, and as nice as they can be despite being under pressure. The ambience is casual, laid back and relaxed. The interior is a tad dated and old-worldly, but still it presents as stylish and elegant, with good acoustics, which make it a pleasant place to enjoy a night out, just as long as everything runs smoothly. There are clean toilets and ample parking...

I really wanted to like this place as it was recommended by a discerning family member.

It was the issue of telling the wait staff that I simply wanted a mild vege fried rice. After clarifying the veggies that I did not want capsicum, onion and tomato (dietary issue) and what veggies the kitchen had that were ok, the first version came through with chilli all thru it and a fried egg on top. At least it had veggies thru it - broccoli, carrot, peanuts.

This was because the wait staff had to categorise my meal as a Nasi goreng and not understanding my request that I just wanted a mild fried rice.

Requested the mild fried rice to be redone and this time it came with egg through it and carrots and peanuts only.

Asked for a small bowl of broccoli so I could just add it to the rice myself and the chef refused to do that and advised the wait staff that he would only do a dish of stir fry veggies that would be charged. So, they couldn’t get my one dish correct but wanted to charge me for something that I wouldn’t and couldn’t finish and create food wastage.

The only plus side is their portions are generous. Service was polite but it’s useless if you can’t relay what the diner wants to the kitchen. Either do it or say no and I would have ordered something else. Don’t screw up a request - twice.

The rice was left as is and only 3 tablespoons eaten due to hunger.

In the end, another staff member understood where the issue was with the kitchen and the meal was not charged.

I would return but not in a hurry. And the next time I would make sure that they understand I just want mild...

First time dining here tonight and definitely will be our last. Made a booking through Eatclub. When we arrived 2 ladies were down at the bar chatting and did not noticed we were standing there. Uber guy turned up and they noticed and told us to wait even though we have been waiting for a while. Obviously the Uber guy was more important than us.

We ordered a Pad Khee Mao, Pork Mince Larb and Panang Curry. The noodles were very average, the larb was a huge disappointment and the curry was tasteless and obviously have been watered down. No taste at all. I complained to the waitress that the larb is meant to be cooked with pork mince but instead ours was cooked using pork slices. She went and ask the chef and later came back to tell me that they have no mince and had to improvise. I would have thought the chef should have told to the front staff that there were no mince and to let us know and let us decide as to whether we are happy with him using a different meat. Not a good look coming from a chef. We only ate a small amount of the larb and left the rest. All the vegetables were soft and mushy and all the dishes were just luke warm. They must have been warmed up in the microwave. I somehow doubt our meals were freshly cooked based on the appearance and how quick they came out from the time it was ordered.

We eat a fair bit of thai food and know our stuff and this is definitely not your authentic thai. We did not have a very good experience and will stick to our regular in West End. A totally waste...