Ari Thai Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Rude waitress, simply asked her: what in the seafood (for a seafood salad on the menu), she frowned straight away and started talking abt sauce. i repeated my question. she got less patient kept going on abt sauce: fish sauce and sugar. I said the third time: I mean what's in the seafood NOT sauce. she snapped: are you allergic to anything? I said No just want to know what in the seafood, is there prawns or fish?. my husband said once at the same time. she was frowning and said I I'll ask the chef. at this point I thought she finally understand my question. when came back, she said, it's got fish sauce, palm sugar... I said, that's NOT my question. she interrupted me and looked very irritated used her finger pressing down on the menu in front of me repeatedly saying u asked abt the sauce in seafood. I said NO! My husband at the same trying to explain, the seafood, is there fish, prawns or whatever. She then in a very impatient tone yeah yeah it's got prawns, mussles. I said that's ok I I'll order that one please. i looked away and zipped my mouth as I didn't want to say no more. she was still staring at me and said, How spicy? i responded, very spicy please. she frowned again and went What? how spicy? I said, I love spicy, so please make it very spicy. she said like Thai spicy? i said yes please. I have never treated by a waitress/waiter ever like this before in the ten years living in AUSTRALIA. I speak English extremely well and I do not have a strange Asian accent even though I'm from Asia. Dish arrived with unexpectedly small portion with only one mouthful of greens and a few onions, and the Thai very spicy promised turned out a very sweet chilli, I knew there's sugar in it but I do expect THAI SPICY like any other Thai restaurant can do. a lovely waitress checked on us during meal and passed on this story to manager and she's the only one apologized for our experience. manager came with a smile and no intention to mention abt my RUDE treatment from her staff. that waitress didn't show again till we left the restaurant. I will absolutely not return after such RUDE treatment. she needs to lose that FROWNING FACE and LISTEN to her customers question and maybe work on...

Had one of the worst experiences here. Me and my partners meals were so disappointing! Not only that, when we voiced our concerns and they did not care to resolve our concerns, rather just make up excuses. Terrible customer service and food! I will never be going back and will be sure to let everyone I know the experience I had there. REPLY TO THEIR RESPONSE- I said that was fine as the girl said the only difference was going to be the leaf of the dish. You brought out a salad which had no sauce or dressing whatsoever. When I brought that to their attention you said WE HAVE NO SAUCE, which is ridiculous as you are a Thai restaurant and have lots of sauces! I had to then go up again asking for some lime or something and you gave me the smallest piece that did nothing as if you were trying to throw it in my face for complaining. I also didn't eat it all and my main dish (larb) was absolutely drowned in sauce so that was inedible - also after telling me you have no sauce. When we went up to the desk to pay again we said to the lady all of our concerns she first said the same thing as we told you we had no beetle leaf but then proceeded after that to say she had no idea there was an issue so she can't discount me and that if she knew early then maybe. So you just keep lying. Honestly the most horrible customer service I have ever experienced. At the end of the day I was told the dish would be exactly the SAME just a different leaf to a beetle leaf, what you provided was NOTHING similar, the original dish also came with a chili lime sauce which is why I ordered it then you used the excuse that you told me at the beginning that you were out of the leaf but didn't explain why you couldn't provide me with sauce!!?? Kept telling me we don't have sauce - what an absolute JOKE! I wish I took photos to prove. We left half of our meals there as they were all...

Another day, another lunch! What a great spot we found ourselves in upstairs at the Robina Shopping Centre. There are a few places to eat all in a small area and it has a nice vibe.

We chose Ari Thai. It has a nice open layout, is clean and the people who welcomed us and served us were a delight. They were very friendly and helpful and a joy to be around. So nice to have that energy when you go out to a place.

There is plenty on the menu and I commend them for the way the menu is laid out and explained. As we were after vegetarian food, the Wok section, or stir fry, seemed to be our best option. We ordered vegetables in Oyster sauce and vegetables with garlic and pepper sauce with a bowl of steamed rice to accompany.

I would never want to be unpleasant to the hard working, happy staff at Ari Thai so my comments are my opinion. There were plenty of people in the restaurant when we were there all seemingly enjoying the food, as we did too. But as a Thai stir fry, there was no caramelisation of the vegetables, no hint of chilli or lemongrass or anything resembling flavour. It was if it was braised. The food was bland. The garlic and pepper sauce seemed to have one limp clove of garlic in it and the oyster sauce was barely recognisable as oyster sauce. But as I said, it was nice enough and everyone else seemed happy but overall, we were not happy with the food that we chose.

I have often thought, it is almost as if restaurants should offer two versions of Thai food; Aussie style Thai and Thai Thai! We have noticed before Aussie Thai is nothing like real Thai or even much of an approximation.

But healthy enough and the service and smiles were...