Monkey King Thai - Balgowlah — Restaurant in Sydney

Date of Visit**: November 5

*Monkey King Thai Food, Balgowlah

My sister and I visited Monkey King Thai Food balgowlah sydney for the lunch special on nov 5 2024 and we had a concerning experience that I feel compelled to share. I sent this privately to the monkey king business account but no response hence unfortunately need to write this review for awareness . My sister ordered the Padang chicken curry, while I had the beef stir fry. whilst we in the restaurant after eating , she very suddenly began feeling unwell, exhibiting symptoms such as dizziness, blurry vision, sweating, paleness.then ongoing vomiting of the padang chicken curry occurred .

Notably, my sister has no food allergies, no medical history, and does not take any medications. She has traveled frequently and extensively in Asia, eating street food and in remote villages all over asia without ever getting sick .

There was no assistance from the staff during this situation. The waitress clearly struggled with basic English, which hindered communication. The two male staff members—one in the kitchen and one outside—(looking at the situation it was clear a customer was in distress ) simply stayed by the kitchen. The waitress did bring a bottle of water but was unable to converse effectively. At the end, she asked for our name and phone number, but that was the extent of her response. Fortunately, there was only one other customer in the restaurant at the time, who was very kind . Thankfully, there was a medical clinic for skin cancer directly across from the restaurant, and I was able to get my sister in immediately...

A warm friendly welcome at 7pm on a Saturday. We were surprised that the restaurant was empty (except for one table) and remained empty the whole night.

For dinner we ordered two dishes that we shared - both signature dishes according to the menu: (1) Spicy crispy pork belly. The pork belly was beautifully cooked with the sauce and beans. Not particularly spicy. The really awful thing about this dish was both the amount of onion AND that the onion wasn't cooked - so it repeated on you for the next 12hrs. (2) Squid green peppercorns. Sadly the squid tasted like rubber - overcooked. And like the pork belly dish, there was an excessive amount of raw onion. The dishes were served within 5minutes of ordering, so a relaxed night out in a restaurant felt more like a fast food experience.

The positiives - friendly attentive staff (lots of them) and byo.

Sadly our first and last experience. And the worst Thai...

My husband and I had a takeaway from there last night - Wed 21/12. Firstly I was highly disappointed in our first course - crab and prawn rolls - First one I took a bite of, had nothing in it! Second one had a slight morsel in it. My husbands main - green chicken Thai curry - was fine - lot of sauce tho as opposed to content. The egg fried rice was fine. My meal was a disgrace! I ordered, for the first time, the 3 sister mushroom, vegetable and seafood dish. What I got was: 2 prawns, 3 pieces of very chewy squid. The vegetables were just normal ie: carrot, broccoli, capsicum - no Asian vegetables at all. Extremely disappointed- we have sat in and eaten previously, plus had takeaways. Certainly would not recommend those dishes to anyone!!!! We will not be returning any time...