Nongkhai Thai Eltham — Restaurant in Melbourne

We thought the food was good and so too the service, but why the low rating...?

Well, before our meal even began, I had to hunt around for a chair that didn't feel like it was about to disintegrate and had to settle for one that was just "shaky".

We ordered beers - at a rather high $8 each - and instead of getting a bottle, were given a small-ish glass with about 4cm of foam on top. I'm guessing this was less than a bottle and feel there was some penny-pinching involved which if true, is very poor form. But there was more to come.

Our attempt to eat our entrees was interrupted by beggars who gave a discordant rendition of "Auld Lang Syne", while one of the troupe tried to compel us into making a "donation" to a children's charity I'd never heard of and none of the beggars seemed to carry any visible identification of in any event. My third refusal to give money caused a fair deal of anger to her and she stormed-off, obviously seeking more gullible prey.

We ordered two chicken dishes and both were the cheaper thigh meat rather than breast. The food though was tasty, but the second dish with prawns came on a sizzling platter that gave off so much steam and smoke I could barely see it and I ended-up smelling of my meal. The vegetables in the dish were limp and soft and I opined that the capsicum (which was so soft as to be mushy) was "older than I am".

Our bill was issued with errors - we were over-charged for one of the dishes but this was quickly corrected, and after making a credit-card payment, I saw there was a 2% surcharge. No mention of this on their website that I could find!

Overall, sub-standard, and not a place I'll ever return to. Hence...

Worst dining experience we have ever had in 40 years. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes for my husband to get . his entrée after asking at least 4 times where it was.He even offered to go to the kitchen to cook it himself. When it finaly appeared our table of 11 cheered. Unfortunately the cheers turned to boos as it was the wrong entrée. He told the SURLY waitress to take it back as it wasn't what he ordered and to just bring his main course. The main finally arrived with no rice. When the rice finally arrived he had almost finished his meal, and of course it was the wrong rice. While this fiasco was going on everyone else was getting wrong meals. The waitresses were terrible and couldn't care less when we complained. It was beyond appalling service so I asked to see the owner to put in a complaint. I was told the owner wasn't there. Amazingly the service changed instantly. Lots of yes ma'am and plenty of bowing and scraping. The food was delicious and without fault but the service was APPALLING....

Long waiting -I had waited for more than 1 hour for the main dish to put into the table. It is very bad experience for waiting the food in a hungry mood. I arrived at 6:44pm and the pad Thai served at 08:05pm. I just ordered total 3 dishes. And the following order after me had came to other table already. I have no idea where is the fairness.

Super salty food -And the food taste is vey salty than average level. For example, tum yum soup and pad Thai. Super high salt. I requested to have a cup of hot water to dilute the tum yum soup that I can finish it. And the pad Thai, only one mouth of it will supply my whole day consumption of sodium.

Waitress are nice but definitely there are not enough staff for Friday night as only 2 waitress for the...