Chat Thai - Chatswood — Restaurant in Sydney

Beautiful indoor decor with plenty of outdoor seating. The menu is extensive but expect to pay a little more for quality and presentation. 🙃

Grilled Pork Skewers (Mhu Bhing) were not as tender and char flavoured as I’d hope for but the dipping sauce (Nam jim jaew) was excellent. It had all the flavours you can find in a traditional Thai dish, salty, sour, sweet and spicy. I loved the sauce so much I even saved it for other dishes. 😙

Steamed Calamari (Bpla Muek Nueng Manow), the calamari was cooked to perfection. It was soft and tender, each stuffed with mint leaves and topped with Chinese celery and garlic. It was fresh and refreshing but the sauce was way too spicy. 🥵 The green stuff in the sauce I thought they were some herbs but on a closer look, they were chopped green chilies! They were scattered all over the plate and on top of the calamari. Just one bite my mouth was quickly on fire and tears in my eyes! 🔥Avoid this dish if you can’t handle the heat!

I enjoyed Stir Fried Rice Vermicelli Noodle with Prawns (Sen Mee Padt Goong). It was dry and non greasy and packed with flavours. Great chewy springy texture with nice seasoning and the amount of heat was just right. 🙂

Another dish I liked was Crab Meat Omelette (Kai Jiew Bpu). Crispy and fluffy egg omelette stuffed with chunks of crab meat. At first I was worried it might have a fishy taste but surprisingly it was delicious. 😋 I loved the crispy edges more than the crab meat itself, although I did get a little greasy feeling and for sure it wasn’t the healthiest food but indulgence once in a while is forgiving. 😌

For dessert, Sticky rice durian had a nice custardy texture of the durian which mixed right into the coconut milk drenched sticky rice, resulting a creamy, luscious and fragrant rice pudding however the palm sugar made it sickly sweet as to be not...

I visited Chat Thai with my family for lunch today and after standing at the entrance for a few minutes (despite there being no line), was seated.

I had to signal to the waiters at least two times until someone came and took our order. When our first dish arrived, it was incorrect. We were able to quickly let the waiters know and they served the dish to the right table. Our correct first dish then arrived. We then waited at least 20 minutes and followed up 3 times with the staff for our remaining dishes. Upon wanting to cancel, the dishes were made and served. It was a really frustrating and annoying wait especially when we were dining with children and the grandparents.

We then went to pay, only to find that each item on the bill was not the same as the price stated on the menu. Each item was overcharged by at least $1. We could not believe this and asked the manager to rectify it. The manager offered no apology and even gave us the impression that we were "annoying" for asking to be charged the correct price as printed on the menu.

I would not visit this restaurant ever again based on this and previous visits. The service was poor, staff were not knowledgeable, serving portions were tiny, manager was rude, serving time was too long and it is just not worth the stress and frustrations in chasing up food and correct pricing.

The only upside and the reason for one star is that the...

Used to be good, but now not that good anymore.

Taste of the food becomes very average, not special anymore. Something that you would expect from take away shop not a sitting down restaurant.

Portion of the food becomes smaller. One of the menu we ordered was Menu No. 64 Bpla Padt Prik Khing (fried snapper with red curry paste) on the menu it looks like at least 10 pieces of the snapper fillets, when our order arrived it was nothing like the menu, the plate was smaller with only 5 pieces of the fish fillets, very dry and took 50 minutes, not something I would pay $30 for.

Service level down to below average. We visited on Sunday, I understand that some restaurants apply weekend surcharge, but by law they should advise the guests before entering the place not give surprise price when paying the bill. The food took too long to be ready, especially for typical restaurant with all the ingredients that already being prepped beforehand. Pad Thai took 40 minutes Red Curry Paste Snapper fillets took 50 minutes When we asked for small amount of chopped chillies and fish sauce, the waiter told us we need to pay extra for the condiments.

We paid $150 for Pad Thai, Omelette, Stir Fry Vermicelli and Red Curry Paste Snapper. IF it comes with great taste, reasonable portions and good service we don't mind but unfortunately it's not.

Hope you can improve...