Mod Thai — Restaurant in Nelson Bay

While we did not find a hair in our meals like some other reviewers, our night started when the satay chicken we ordered for entree, looked like it was covered in spew. It was pale and amaemic and unsatayish. It did not taste like a proper satay chicken, but an Anglo version version by someone who had seen a picture of what it was supposed to look like in a faded 70's cook book.

It got worse when our mains came out and the waitress didn't know the names of the dishes we ordered. I knew we deffo had a problem. Even from the sad, soup like drivel that the waitress was holding, I knew it was a Pad Siew. Then there was my Pad Thai... I have had many Pad Thai's in my life... and this one I have to say, was seriously the worst Pad Thai I have ever had in my life, second worst was an overpriced plastic late full from a movie festival. The noodles were al dente, and it was wet... drowning in a sea of sauce. Hours after the meal, I still have the aweful lingering taste of venegar and God knows what else, in my mouth. My friends have been administering gastronomic first aid, by giving me gelato, curly fries, cookies and even Kambucha to cure me of the taste... but it continues to torture me.

The only positive is that my other friend ordered a stir fry with prawns and it came with more prawns than I have ever seen in my life in...

Delicious food and overall dining experience. We had the Spring Rolls and Curry Puffs for entree, followed by Vegetarian Fried Rice and Spicy Flat Rice Noodles🍝🌶 for our mains. The meals had all the right flavours, with a perfect balance of spice and sweetness. I would definitely return and recommend making a booking in advance to avoid being disappointed. We didn't book in advance and nearly missed out. The place was full by the time we left. It is also BYO. The only constructive criticism is that when we arrived and for the first 20 minutes they only had one staff member seating people, taking orders and running plates to tables. This was not enough staff for the number of customers and also the number of tables reserved which were all starting to arrive - this is predictable. Where staffing levels are not optimal restaurants should consider holding up on seating new guests and also indicate to customers that there would be some delays until additional staff could get in. This gives people in a rush an opportunity to go elsewhere. Two more staff arrived within 20 minutes and it ran perfectly from then on. We look forward to returning to this place...

From the moment you arrive it is clear to see that the restaurant is poorly managed and heavily understaffed. When you manage to walk in you are not greeted by the staff but instead welcomed by loud, cranky customers. While you patiently wait for a staff member to finally notice and greet you, you can’t help but notice the many complains about delayed pick up orders. After 20-25 minutes we sat down with our one-year old and waited for 1.5h to be served one dish out of five. Extremely sad to see that the staff is so heavily under the pump that quality of the food has been affected. There was a lack of original Thai flavours and made passionless. We asked for our order to change to take-away but after another 30 minutes wait we eventually gave up and decided to leave for the sake of our little one. When we explained we will not eat here, it seemed that the team was too familiar to complaints and too exhausted to even acknowledge the situation and apologise. Such a shame, it is unfair to the restaurant team members who work ridiculously hard on what seems to be a sinking ship. Safe to say we will...