Little Bangkok — Restaurant in Cannington

Disappointing. The review score does not reflect the quality of food - it is not authentic Thai - it lacks the punchy, spicy (not heat, I mean flavours of herbs and spices) tastiness of real Thai food. I think people think it tastes better because the presentation is fancy, plates pretty, menu photographed beautifully, and decor is good. I.e. looks over quality We had 2 chefs at our table: one Caucasian and one Thai from Thailand, who has been living in AU for 20 yrs. The consensus was: All entrees/appetizers were underwhelming: - mixed Dumplings - all had good textured skin, but fillings only ok (peanut one was best) Som Tum - not enough authentic ingredients, mainly salty, fish sauce dominant. Tasty but so many better versions than this. Prawn cake - bland, can't taste any prawn except in the chewiness of it 3pcs spring roll only fit to serve kids, filling was basically just glass noodles with soy sauce, no other flavour, no mince Dessert overpriced and tiny serving, $13 can only satisfy a 3 & 4 yr old (Roum mit), waaayyy too sweet Thai milk tea: tea not strong enough, lacking flavour, can only taste the sugar Green curry $20+: chicken overcooked, NO flavour in the curry, too much coconut milk - the most tasteless (only sweet and fish sauce) green curry in my life, barely any chicken, mostly vegetables with undercooked and oversized carrot slices Barramundi with mixed herbs ($42): the tamarind based sauce was underwhelming, again very one note, and not enough of all the "herbs and spices" advertised, needs more kaffir lime leaf, curry leaf, more ginger, more of everything - except I could taste the rind off cubed lemon/lime. The fried fish got soggy very quickly, making it tough to eat. Couldn't tell if it was fresh or old fish, wasn't seasoned, and was served on extraneous bed of lettuce leaf, which made getting to the sauce - the only place with flavour, difficult. Large spoon was not suitable for cutting up fish, butter knife almost useless. Paad Thai: lacking flavour yet again, mostly overcooked sliced chicken, not enough noodle The only saving grace was: the Pork with fried rice dish: tasty pork, rice had the wok fried flavour ($21 so more expensive than the usual Asian restaurant) massaman Wagyu Beef: while overly sweet, the flavour of the curry was well-rounded and beef tender, chunky meaty pieces. bowl of steamed rice: portion is made to look good, but size is definitely smaller than average and not high quality jasmine rice either, which Thailand is famous for. Table water: warm and bleah The waitresses: while all very polite and pleasant despite being rushed, were limited in being efficient by the 'hi-tech' ordering system where they have to go and get an iPad from a counter, and bring it back to the table (so an extra 30 steps) whenever client wants to add a bowl of rice or add takeaway dishes, or to request your already ordered dessert brought out. Otherwise you have to key it into an ordering system yourself! Also did not take any feedback on whether dishes were up to par.

At the price point, I would expect a more efficient way of ordering for the customer. I have been to dozens of hole-in-the-wall restaurants throughout SEA, where they can take orders or serve plain rice scooped from a rice cooker in 1/5 the time it takes these waitresses to key things into their iPad. Waitresses should be able to add on single items in one trip back to their ipad, without walking the same route 3 times to make the client repeat themselves (to add a bowl of plain rice🤦‍♀️!). Simply by using their brains+pen+paper. But they aren't allowed to jot things down to key it in back at their station! Double the work for waitress and customer. Management trying to streamline things, but in practice slowing order-taking down ridiculously and making life hard for wait staff. Positive: kitchen is very fast at putting out food. But this meant our Barramundi was cold & soggy by the time we got around to eating it. Dishes were overly large for the servings on it, crowding...

Rushed, Unwelcome, and Disappointing Service

We arrived before 3pm as a group of 8 and were seated as normal. A staff member told us to order quickly because the kitchen was closing, so we did — at 2:34pm.

We weren’t even served water and had to get it ourselves. All staff seem like rushed and not tried to have eye contact with us for any help.

We ordered 8 dish items including rice. The first dish came out around 2:52pm, but most of the food arrived after 3pm especially pad thai and whole fish. Then, at 3:12pm, a staff member came over and said, “You have five minutes left to eat” while we were still in the middle of our meal. Staff had already started closing blinds and eating their own meals in the dining area while we were still trying to finish.

To be clear, we completely understand that the staff need to eat — that’s totally fine. But the way it was handled… argh, it was just really off-putting.

Overall, we felt rushed, unwelcome, and honestly, quite disrespected.

We didn’t complain at the time. One of my friends went to ask for takeaway containers and came back saying, “She seemed quite moody.”

Then the same waitress who had seated us came directly to our table and said, “I already told her to order quickly because the kitchen was closing.” I responded, “That’s not the point. We did order right away, but no one said we had to leave by 3. If a group of 8 isn’t going to be allowed enough time to eat, maybe don’t seat us at all.”

Her attitude, tone, and facial expression were unprofessional — and she simply replied, “Well, I won’t take your order next time.” So I said, “We won’t be coming back.” She said nothing. No apology, no acknowledgment — she just walked off.

It’s such a shame. The food was okay, but the lack of basic customer service and the poor attitude from staff completely ruined the experience.

The business seems to be growing and expanding quickly, but without proper service training, you risk losing loyal customers. Sadly, we won’t be returning — which I’m sure you don’t care about it. But I felt the need to leave this feedback based on our experiences. Hopefully, the owner takes the time to read & consider it and just not use ai chat to answer like previous replies and seem like...

Cold food and little care taken resulting in inconsistencies. You have to wave them down to take your order without using a QR code. It all looked good until the food arrived. Curry puffs: Avoid. No flavour, all I tasted was frozen peas and carrot. I took only one bite, and my son stopped at one bite too. Better off buying the cold ones from your local Asian grocer. Massaman curry: good depth of flavour, but served cold. Not lukewarm, actually stone cold. I do not understand how this happens.. Hubby said, clearly not cooked fresh; ok, curry tastes better overnight but how can they serve it cold?? It should be sitting on a stove, no? $25 and plain rice is Extra. Hubby asked them to microwave it.

BBQ Pork fried rice: tasty in terms of sauce, but pork overcooked and chewy, and rice had clumps thru it, and unevenly mixed sauce. I wish I took photos to prove this, as my first outing here this was a great dish.

Stir fried pork belly with long beans/mixed vege: Beans were raw, needed another minute or two in wok. And I'm used to eating juust cooked vegetables Chinese-style. Didn't push it back to waitress because I'd already eaten a forkful. Didn't want them to bin it. I tried to eat it like the Thai eat raw veggies at their roadside stalls. Sauce tasty. Pork belly with "crispy skin" had cold, chewy skin. Cold meat, again.

If the waitresses had bothered checking in, I would have spoken up so they could correct it. But couldn't be bothered with 2 hungry kids waiting.

Clearly the sauces are tasty (also much sweeter than authentic Thai unless you add the sugar from the pots they put out in Thailand), but someone is rushing everything in the kitchen and failing on a not-very-busy at all Saturday afternoon. If I had seen a manager walking around I would have had a chat to them. Wanted to bring my parents back for the lychee roast duck. Guess I won't be doing that now. Sad, as it looks great from the outside. Expect to pay $30 pp minimum with 2 persons sharing one drink (or...