Star of Siam — Restaurant in Port Douglas

If I could give zero I would. Here’s why. A restaurant that refuses to take your booking the day before but tells you “come back 7:30pm the next day and we will give you a table”. We arrived at 7:30pm, were told “45-60 mins we can give you a table”. Completely shocked! We requested and said we don’t mind a smaller table (we were a party of six) and were willing to occupy a table of four (there were two tables available) with a couple of side chairs (two of our group were young children). The server said “ok I’ll prepare this”, minute later came back and said “manager does not allow”. We were forced to walk away. Even the person who refused to take our booking the previous day agreed that she told us to come back the next day. The restaurant closes at 9pm. An hour long wait would mean a table at 8:30pm. They could have easily accommodated but didn’t. Sad to see this kind of Port Douglas behaviour, completely didn’t expect - we are from Sydney and restaurants there care far more - thought to expect better up here. I even asked “how come others booked successfully?” Was told “that’s because they phoned”. So basically coming the previous day physically to make a booking for the next day does not count but phoning does. Sad sad sad. I am writing this review from another Thai restaurant nearby (luckily we found this one as didn’t know about it before). Have never been treated like this by a restaurant ever. We know you are popular but keep behaving like this and Port Douglas will lose...

Been frequenting this restaurant for years and hate leaving bad reviews, but after last night feel this is warranted. Ordered Thai Fish cakes and spring rolls for entree , the fish cakes were good and spring rolls were passable. Then here is where it takes a turn for the worst. Ordered Mongolian beef, roasted duck and fried rice with prawns for main. The wait staff tried to rush us into having mains as soon as entree was finished and the restaurant was quiet, it was still relatively early evening. We asked to wait 10 minutes. What we received was a lukewarm at best Mongolian Beef with absolutely NO flavour and the sauce was disgusting like a watery stock and the vegetables were nearly raw. Then comes the roasted duck curry, the duck was like that prepackaged breast you get from Coles with the fat on it and the sauce already in the packet. According to the menu it was supposed to be flavoured with red wine, black bean and soy , tasted of none of this and more like one what I could buy from Coles with sauce already in it. This meal was also cold and the accompanying veg was pretty much raw. Then we have the prawn fried rice, that was absolutely disgusting and expensive. Stodgy rice and your defrosted frozen prawns from Coles. Staff didn’t seem to care when they questioned why we had hardly touched most of the food and only refunded money for the fried rice, while making absolutely pathetic excuses regarding their kitchen and practices. Sorry but won’t...

The 2 stars I give are purely for the whole barramundi that we ordered- baked in a banana leaf and served with a spicy, fishy sauce; it was mildly enjoyable. Although it does state on the menu that the Barra has been marinated in herbs and eating the meat on its own, I couldn’t really taste any flavour or remnants of a herb “marinade”. We also purchased a green curry, this was shocking! It had no flavour whatsoever, a bit of a bite but the sauce was super bland- tasted like spicy coconut milk. When I raised this with the waitress, she offered to change it and so we ordered a Penang. Well, this dish came out with a thick layer of oil on the top and tasted appalling! Nothing like a Penang I’ve ever tasted before. The same waitress tried to say that dishes will taste different depending on where abouts in Thailand the chefs are from. Makes sense, although being an avid lover of Thai food I have had many Penang curries from many different locations and they’ve never tasted like this. It was actually more like a massaman gone wrong. I tried the Siam by the Sea Thai restaurant down by the wharf the next night and that restaurant comes with a high recommendation from me. Polite staff and the food was divine, much more in line with what I’m used to when I eat Thai food. Star of Siam always seems busy but I believe it is the first choice by tourists as it’s the first one you spot on the main strip. Go for a stroll down to the other, you...