Lanna Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Cairns City

2022 Update: Unfortunately a very bad experience today. Placed a somewhat large order online therefore I set the pick-up time for 1hr 40min away, order was confirmed immediately by phone and email. Still, was left waiting 25 minutes past this time to pick up my food (disregarding the additional time spent waiting because I arrived a little early). Front staff tried to be helpful and offer me water while I waited but I was not accurately advised how late the food was going to be (the only time I was given an update was when the food was going to be "3 minutes away" but it was at least another 10 minutes). I could understand if this was just due to busy-ness, but I watched people be seated without a reservation, order and receive their food between 1pm (when my food was scheduled for pick-up) and before my food was ready. I also need to retract the advice in my previous review - despite listing mushrooms separate to vegetables in certain menu items (as they should be, fungus and plants are entirely separate kingdoms after all), 4 items that I ordered unexpectedly had mushrooms in them. As per my review, these dishes did not have mushrooms in them last year, so admittedly I did not feel like I would have to specifically ask for the dishes to not include them. Their unwanted inclusion in my order and the fact that mushroom flavour permeates through everything means that I have to throw away all this food and waste $56 (plus the cost of needing to find replacement meals on my travels at short notice).

I'll leave my previous review as it was below in fairness to a more holistic picture of the restaurant - its highs, lows and consistency record.

Great experience. Staff were very friendly, welcoming and professional. Easy to order and we were walked through customising each item as we preferred. We were placing a large takeaway order and it was done very efficiently, priced accurately as expected and the waiting time given was not excessive and they matched it exactly. One of the items I ordered was the Thai Laksa Soup, and for the takeaway packaging the soup was thoughtfully placed in a separate container to the crispy noodles and other items to ensure they didn't go soggy during transit. While we were waiting we saw the tables being cleaned and disinfected very well after dine-in customers left. I had the peanut satay stir-fry for lunch and the ingredients were fresh and delicious with a nice variety of vegetables. Generous serving sizes. I have yet to try the other items as I will be freezing them to take on my further travels (being a vegetarian on a road-trip is difficult!) but they look very nice. I was very impressed with the website. The menu was descriptive for each item which is great. The online ordering looked to be very well-structured, easy to use and convenient (the only reason we didn't use it today was that I couldn't see how to take advantage of the $10 lunch specials, and while the food is great at either price I like to save a dollar wherever I can). This may not be relevant to many customers reading the reviews, but I forgot to ask while ordering whether the vegetables listed on the menu items might include mushrooms. I really do not like mushrooms and find it frustrating when other places will throw them in without warning, even though they are technically not vegetables and not everyone likes fungus in their food! I was glad to find that none of my dishes contained the dreaded mushrooms, and saw for at least one of the dishes on the menu that mushrooms were listed separate to vegetables, which is a relief to high-maintenance people like me! Overall a very fast, affordable and impressive dining experience and I wish the owners and staff...

I took my Deaf friend here as he loves this food and we've gone here several times as we are locals. I especially went there because his mother had just passed away, to cheer him up. He chose Pad Cha based on a photo outside window. There were a lot of prawns in the photo so we thought this was a prawn and vege dish. The young lady working there was really lovely and helpful. Her service was excellent!! When we got the food there was 2 prawns and lots of other seafood like squid, mussels and something I could not even identify. My friend eats mussels and prawns, so I explained to the young lady that it looked like it was filled with prawns, I paid a bit extra to get some more prawns cooked up. She told the cook in a calm polite voice and he just started yelling at her so everyone in the restaurant could hear it. She stayed calm throughout. When she came past us, I said tell him to forget about it. She offered to refund me the extra I paid, but I said no that's ok. I was so upset I nearly cried. We are both grieving from our loss as his mother was also a friend of mine. But it is unacceptable to yell like that in a restaurant at the staff, he only needed to explain calmly it was a mixed seafood dish, he may have been stressed but his behaviour was unacceptable. The young lady was both polite and gracious and for her service I...

We have been to Lanna Thai and few times now and on this occasion we ordered 2 entree and 2 mains. The first item delivered was a main. I know this happens in Thailand a lot but this is Australia and priced accordingly. Is is so difficult to read an order and get it right. We sent the main back (med. chilli basil stirfry) and asked that the entrees be delivered first. Out came one entree and the chilli basil again. We said to take it back and bring the other entree then the two mains. This eventually happened but when the chilli basil was delivered we all took one bite and found it was so spicy that it was inedible. The waitstaff came over and tried to take it back. She knew this was a vindictive act to "pay us back". I persevered until I had tears streaming from my eyes and my face was on fire. We also had a beef massaman curry which was very ordinary to say the least. Stringy chunks of beef, 2 pieces of potato and in hindsight, I wonder what bodily fluids the cook added. Needless to say we will never go back and I will stop recommending this place to my friends. We lived in Thailand for five years so know a bit about the cuisine. There are better Thai restaurants in Cairns with better food, better service and...