BOON Restaurant and café — Restaurant in Sydney

Very rarely I rated one star but I can't pass over because I came here because of the high ratings in the reviews while choosing this Thai food restaurant. I had a great dining experience last evening at another Thai restaurant. So today, I was yearning for another go for this delectable cuisine. So choose and came to this place for an early lunch. I am really disappointed and regretted. Firstly, when we arrived and waited to be seated, we were ignored and the place was not very crowded. I had to peep over the waiting sign and catch a waitress attention. When I was noticed she did not come over and nonchalantly just pointed to a few empty tables in the halls. We went and select our tables by ourselves and sat down. But no one came to serve us, so since this is the first visit, I thought it might be a self service restaurant. So I went over to the counter and enquire. There was another waitress standing by the counter doing nothing, so I asked her how do I order. She haughtily told me to be seated and order will be taken. Why is she standing at the counter then while we were waiting to be served? We got the feeling that this place is not welcoming at all and very unfriendly. Actually, this place is not understaff at all but seemed like nobody interested to serve. The waitress who was standing by the counter was seen eating at a corner while another waitress came later to pass us a menu by placing on the table. There were no greetings or smiles, made our presence so uncomfortable. We are a couple, with only a set of menu, we wasted time trying to order our food. Can't they give us two sets of menu, the place wasn't crowded and I saw so many spare set at the counter. If it was crowded, I would understand. Was contemplating leaving but the Thai food I enjoyed last evening was fresh in my mind, I thought a great delicious meal is installed as the ratings were high. Surely, people may have appreciated the food albeit bad service. So decided to enjoy a great meal. Alas, it was not to be. The Spicy fried rice was so salty and the portion smallish. We also ordered the special of the day. From the photos, it looked interesting, a big platter of fried Mackerel fish, vermicelli noodles, fresh herbs of basil, mint, and another herb and spicy groundnut fish sauce. The dish was a disaster, the fish was smallish, bony with the flesh dry and tough. The vermicelli was a soggy, sticky lump. The sauce was a good spiciness that I like but it was so salty, too. Only the herbs were good as they were very fresh. That's why this rating is one star as it failed in every aspects, regrettably. Hopefully, the management take a immediate measures to this feedback for not only their own sake but for the...

Cafe by day, thai street food style eatery restaurant by night, located in “Thai Town” in the Haymarket end of Pitt Street.

The cafe has a good vibe to it and the decor is modern and has a market place vibe to it with exposed brick walls, a bicycle up on the wall and rustic flowers at each of the tables.

Inside the same building is an attached asian grocer and fruit and veg market selling plenty of sauces, noodles, frozen foods and fresh items to cook with. The counter also has to pre-prepared meals to purchase and take to work or home to reheat.

The cafe has a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. At breakfast you can grab a western meal, pan-baked eggs or congee.

At lunch time, some of their sandwiches sounded brilliant - basically it’s the typical thai meals on a Sandwich! Wow, like chicken cashew sandwich, mushrooms and holy basil sandwich or a fried chicken and papaya salad burger. It’s gotta be seen and ordered for sure!

We were there for dinner. The food is described as Isaan cuisine (from Northern Thailand), with Som Dtum, grilled and fried dishes, warm salads and fish, and rice or noodles. We ordered the larb soon sen / spicy glass noodles and minced chicken. I asked for mild, and it unfortunately came out way too spicy. The waiter was observant enough to notice and offered to replace the dish with a new, and less spicy one.

Our favourite dish of the night was the Padt Mee Kha ti - like a pad thai, this one has stir fried thin rice noodles but with tamarind, tofu, coconut milk, garlic chives and shredded omelette. This was super tasty and we’d easily order it again.

If you’re just here for dessert, there’s pandan croissants, toast with house smoked chilli relish and dried shredded pork or condensed milk and milo to name a few. Combine this with a coffee or matcha latte, homemade iced tea or traditional thai coffee, and you’ve got yourself a great combo.

The food here is super tasty, and the menu items are actually inspired and interesting! Prices are extremely reasonable too, and for $6, an entree sized...

I usually avoid Thai food since I'm allergic to nuts, but I didn't know what else to eat and this was a place I had saved before. Entering the premises for the first time, I was a bit confused since they're also a grocery store, but the cafe is on the left side and you'll see a sign to wait for a seat.

You order through the QR code but thankfully they also give you a physical menu. Not knowing any Thai except the few common words in most menus, it took me a while to get through the menu and understand what was being offered. I appreciate that for the items that contain nuts, they put "contains peanuts!" in the item description. But from a UX perspective, I suggest alerting your customers to food sensitivities in a more eye catching way, such as by using icons so that they can quickly discern what food contains what, without having to read through the entire item description to know that something contains an allergen. On top of that, each menu item is only in the Thai name, which I really appreciate bc it forces me to "learn" a bit of Thai, but it also really slowed me down when trying to read the menu and also seeing if things have nuts in them.

Nevertheless, I got through it. I ordered the Boat Fried Rice and matcha Thai tea. I've never had this fried rice before so I was intrigued. It was good but I think it would be better with plain rice, since all the toppings they provide already have so much flavour, and then the fried rice itself is salty and spicy, so everything was almost too flavourful. I really liked the little chopped up green bean things tho, not sure what they are but they were yummy. The matcha Thai tea was delicious too, no complaints. And the paper straw here actually lasted till the end of my drink without...