Taste of Thai Thomastown halal — Restaurant in Melbourne

Disappointed After Years of Being a Regular

We’ve dined at this restaurant multiple times over the years, mainly because the food has always been flavourful and generously portioned. But unfortunately, our recent dinner visit was a huge letdown, especially considering we spent over $150 on food.

We ordered the same dishes we’ve enjoyed previously, but this time the portions, particularly the Red Curry with Lamb, were extremely underwhelming. There was barely enough lamb for one person, the bowl was filled mostly with vegetables. We didn’t order a vegetable curry, we ordered lamb.

We politely raised the issue with the staff. A waiter came over, listened quietly, and then sent someone more senior. The waitress returned and explained that only 100 grams of lamb is used per serve because "lamb is expensive." That response was disappointing.

I suggested that if cost is an issue, perhaps they should adjust the price on the menu and serve an appropriate portion of meat. I even offered to pay more then and there if they could just top it up with more lamb. But there was no response. They had no solution, and it felt like they knew the portion was inadequate but didn’t want to acknowledge it.

To make matters worse, getting the staff’s attention was unusually difficult. We felt like we were being deliberately ignored, something we’ve never experienced here before.

We also ordered Duck Rice, which was one of our favourites in the past, but even that dish lacked the usual balance of meat and flavour. Again, very little duck and mostly rice and garnish.

Really hoping this was just an off night, but for the price and our history with this place, this experience was deeply disappointing. Video and phone attached...

The place is good for cheap quality mass eaters. If you are after a quality food, don’t bother going here. Apart from coconut juice, rest is not good at all. Let’s start with Tom Yum soup. I had this soup in many different places. Including Thailand many times. I never seen a huge tomato slices placed in the soup. I wish I could take the photo of my wife’s soup. She had bigger ones in there. It occupied a great volume of the soup. How can you put chewy fish in there, I still wonder? Calamari rings were like elastic bands. 1/10 Talking about calamari, we ordered deep fried ones for entree. Sling shot material. My kid’s favourite dish and after taking a bite, he left it. 1/10 Prawn crackers was served with cold peanut sauce. It could have been better if the sauce was at least warm. 2/10 Noodles with beef. The picture I took was when we finished with the dish. No more explanation. Yes, we still paid for it as poor inexperienced waiters need to be payed. 0/10 Thai Penang Curry Chicken ; over-cooked chicken. “Broth” tasted good though. 3/10 Sizzling prawn stir fry: Wife liked it. I found it salty due to too much soya sauce. 4/10 I was also watching the kitchen as it was all open. Apart from one cook that was over 30yo, rest were teenagers who were socialising with each other at times. Didn’t give me a good impression. I must give credits to the cashier for doing a great job. He tried to charge us a large bottle of coke that we never had. Would I go there again? Never... Don’t waste time if you want quality food. I hope they pull up their socks, and invite me once their food is up to Thai standards. :) I love Thai food but what I had last night was...

I enjoyed the food, but the 1-hour trip wasn't worth it due to the terrible staff attitude. Unfortunately, we won't be returning.

Reasons for the poor service rating:

Staff made faces when we asked for take-away containers. Servers repeatedly interrupted our meal to collect plates, making us uncomfortable (We requested take-away containers, even though we still had an appetite, because the unpleasant service had already shifted the atmosphere, making us no longer enjoy our dining experience) Initially, our server seemed understanding when we explained our 1-hour travel for their food, but this perception changed as the meal progressed.

Specifically, our server:

The staff rushed us three times to collect plates while we were still eating, despite there being plenty of empty tables available. We would have understood if we were informed that the table was needed for the next customer, but with only 4-5 groups of people occupying the restaurant at the time, it seemed unnecessary. Failed to acknowledge our presence when delivering dessert, simply placing it at the table's edge without a word.

Notably, this senior waitress was the same person who made a face when we requested take-away containers.

Before sharing my experience, I read existing reviews and saw a pattern of poor customer service ratings from other customers. It's disappointing to see that our negative experience is not an isolated incident. This experience left our group of 9 (5 adults, 4 children) feeling upset...