Paradai Thai Elsternwick — Restaurant in Melbourne

I’ve been a regular at Paradai Thai Elsternwick, but after my recent experience I’m left with nothing but a sour taste. Both figuratively and literally. I placed an online order and unable to add extra vegetables through the system, left a polite note in the order description. The restaurant called to inform me there’d be an additional charge. I immediately replied, asking them to disregard the request.

When I arrived, I was ignored - no greeting, no acknowledgment—until another customer walked in with a booking. Suddenly, I was noticed. Without confirming anything, the staff member pulled up the EFTPOS machine, expecting payment for the extra vegetables I had already asked to cancel. When I explained, her tone shifted and instead of simply handing over the meal they’d already made, she threw it away and remade it with fewer vegetables. Wasteful, petty, and completely unnecessary.

This whole episode was handled with such poor service and lack of professionalism that I’m honestly appalled. As someone who has supported this restaurant consistently, I...

Update: back for another visit. Food was good again but the service pretty hopeless: I was trying to get their attention for almost ten minutes to order, but the waitresses did not look out. We had finished our water bottle and it was quickly removed but then nothing came back, until we asked 15 min later. Despite taking our orders on an ipad our 5th dish was completely missed, until we asked later what happened.

Great Thai addition to Glen Huntley road strip. Great food, not as sweet and rich as Thai can be, very fresh. Only disappointment was Roti, pretty bland. On a Friday night had to be patient to order but food came quickly after that. Great atmosphere in this fairly large restaurant, can accommodate bigger parties if booking ahead. Sofa seats can't really use the back rest bar but...

Moderately friendly service in a lovely atmosphere. Ordered chicken spring rolls, satay chicken skewers, steamed fish and massaman beef. The real letdown was the beef curry , really firm solid blocks and meat served barely warm. Upon paying I mentioned the beef dish vs the other three decent dishes, the waitress smiled and said ok, I'll tell the kitchen! To reiterate the message incase she didn't hear me , I repeated it ... Again I got a smile and same message. Maybe don't care ? Won't be back. There are plenty of other places that may not look as swanky, but at least care what customers think. At $55 per head, could have been a different experience for a...