Kinn Thai Knox — Restaurant in Melbourne

Unfortunately a very disappointing experience overall. I have been to this establishment several times. Have always been quiet happy with the food, but admittedly have always had an uneasy experience. The last visit has unfortunately solidified an impression that has been slowly insinuating in my consciousness over the last several visits.

Knowing how busy this place can get, we purposely chose to attend at an early dinner time. The place was still fairly empty at the time. We were encouraged to sit outside despite asking to sit inside. We were explained that it could get a little cold inside. We therefore obliged. In isolation not a big deal, however i will come back to this later.

We ordered shortly after our arrival. A standard order, nothing off menu, simply some rice, 3 mains and an entree. 40 minutes later, no food had arrived. Not the longest wait, we were entertaining ourselves. I noted that another table had an interesting dish, which we also wanted to try, and therefore requested the same. Within 10 minutes, the extra dish we had ordered had arrived, without any of our initial order. Of course this sparked alarm bells, that our order had been missed. We asked the server if she could check.

Rather then checking immediately and advising us of its status it wasn't till we brought her attention again 10 minutes later, hat she advised us it was coming. No explanation, no apology, nothing. almost 1 hour from our initial order all our food came out in succinct timeliness. It had been missed.

The food was quiet good. Definitely up to the standard which it usually delivers. This place is popular, and this is understandable based on its simple but very tasty Thai cuisine. You definitely do need to have an idea of what you want (Or get recommendations from people who have been before). This is due to the variability of the different dishes. The menu does feel to have been designed to please the masses in the sense that there is something that will satisfy most palates. No consistent identity. Spicy items, sweet items, saucy, peanut based. Chilli based. From a business perspective, i think this is something that has worked well for them, and i think its great that they've got some talent in pulling these dishes together.

This does however bring me to the main gripe of what seems to be rearing itself. I understand that ultimately this place is a business. To do well it needs to produce good food, and sell it. Unfortunately this is what this place feels like. They make food, have done well with it, and want to sell it to you and really couldn't care for much else. They want you to pay for it and move on so the next person can come in. We were provided with minimal and subpar service from the moment we arrived. We weren't expecting fine dining, We weren't expecting anything out of the ordinary. Asked for water, never got it, asked for an extra menu, never got it. Food doesn't come, no explanation, no apology. What does happen quickly is clearing up your table. We don't generally hang around after we have eaten, but i know others do enjoy this. As mentioned through other reviews we also couldn't help but notice that staff basically hover until you are ready to go. there was a small group a couple of tables down which were asked almost 3 or 4 times in a period of about 15 minutes if they needed anything else. No doubt intended to get them to move on.

And that is the problem with this place. Every focus really is intended to make money... from encouraging you to sit outside, to ensuring that you don't linger. Little energy or training is placed on ensuring that staff ensures you enjoy your dining experience. We don't expect fine dining, however we also don't expect to feel that we are an annoyance. This is a poor reflection of its management. Overall food trucks will provide better dining experiences.

If all you want to do is experience the food, have no care in its culture, or how your obviously viewed as a customer, then certainly give this place a go, otherwise, there are other places you can get...

I would give this restaurant zero star if I could. We went to Kinn Thai Knox for mother's day dinner and it was a terrible experience, we will never go back again and will strongly encourage our family and friends to do the same.

To start off, my teenage brother asked if he can get the schnitzel (menu says only for kids under 8) because he's not a big fan of thai food, the waitress serving us then bluntly said 'you don't look 8'. How rude!? We then asked if it can be done even if it meant that they'd charge more, then she also responded 'its only for kids under 8 and he is not 8'. Okay not a great start for a restaurant offering no flexibility...

While ordering drinks, my mother wanted a coffee and asked the waitress about the difference between a 'coffee all' and the 'thai coffee' on its menu, my mother couldn't really hear what the waitress was saying, so she tried to confirm with her a couple of times. The waitress then threw her head back and rolled her eyes in front of our whole family and said 'its just coffee, like a latte, and a thai coffee is sweet'. Mind you the restaurant was not that busy as there were empty tables inside and outside the venue. My mother later told me that she also wanted to ask if they can make the beverages hot instead of iced, but thought against it given the reaction of the staff.

The food was also sub-par, we ordered three entrees and two main dishes with rice, the quality of the food is just unjust for the price it charges. The entrees: Betel leave is just sweet crunchy bits with a defrosted shrimp priced at $5 each, the duck pancake had no taste, the duck tasted funny, and the seared scallop priced at $12 came with just 2 scallops the size of a $1 coin (that looked exactly like the ones I get from the frozen department of coles), the middle of the scallop was lukewarm and close to raw so I suspect it was rushed because we had to follow up on it (they forgot), it tasted so bad that we spat it out and did not touch the rest of it. During this time, no one came and asked us how the food/service was. Absolutely...

If there was a possibility of giving no stars I would be giving the this place no stars. The food was average for one. But the service was terrible, we visited for dinner as we had been to the restaurant before but after this experience I will not be returning. We went to there for dinne the host was extremely rude, no smile... she then told us that we would have to leave by a certain time as there was a booking after us which we were happy with as we understood it was a Saturday (early) night. She then proceeded to throw menus at us and then when asked if we would like drinks before we even go a chance to reply had walked off... why bother even asking if you are just going to walk off... she then came back and and got our food and drink orders. We waited for our food and drink which the people who were Asian background sitting next to us received first even though we had ordered first with the same amount of dishes as we had but then to top it off she got the drinks ordered wrong and then acted like it was our fault that she missed two drinks. Tip for everyone who goes there make sure you go with a person who is Asian as at least you will get a smile from the wait staff and treated like paying customers . After we had the meals and still had half an hour left before we had to leave the waitress kept hounding us if we had finished and slowly kept taking items a away in a intrusive manner and kept interrupting our conversation we felt pushed out of the restaurant and they were talking about us and pointing at our table constantly. We decided to leave prematurely and paid above 100 dollars for our table, not worth it for the...