Cinnamon — Restaurant in Victoria

Quick review before details of my experience below.

*Slow service, expect to wait for something *Lack of urgency and care factor from staff *Check your takeaway order before you leave the store to make sure everything is there (we did not and paid the price dearly as our roti bread and peanut sauce was not in the bag)

Rambling review;

Being one of the only Thai restaurants in town we are unfortunately stuck with returning to Cinnamon whenever we fancy Thai. Each time I hope for a better experience than the last but each time I am left disappointed. Today pushed me over the edge and I am leaving this negative review to make myself feel better for the fact that part of my paid order was not in the bag when my wife got home after collecting.

We have only ever had takeaway from cinnamon and the fact we keep returning, despite the negative experiences, shows that the one good thing going for the place is the food which I can’t complain about.

However, the service and time taken to produce the food is something I think everyone can complain about. We are usually told the food is going to take between 15mins - 40mins which is absolutely fine. The problem is when you go to collect your food after 40 mins and you have to wait another hour in the shop for your food. I have experienced these delays (not always an hour) pretty much every time I have ordered from cinnamon. I also see others having the same experience. I am not usually offered an apology for the delay either.

The staff are ok but it seems like there no urgency from anybody. I have had the occasional good experience with staff but mostly they are not really interested and slow. On one occasion the staff member seemed perturbed that I wanted 2 seperate single peanut sauce pots rather than both in the same pot, which baffled me.

Anyway, I digress, hopefully the owner sees this and does something about the issues that it seems many of us are having.

I’m sure I’ll be back for another poor experience for lack of...

When I got to the front door the alarm bells were ringing as two, not one, but two signs adorned the glass both offering vacant positions in the kitchen, waiting, Jnr’s, basically anyone they could get. We were seated and then sat for twenty minutes before we were asked if we would like anything 🤦. I’m not sure what answer the young waiter was expecting. I asked for a drinks menu which was snatched from another table and placed on our table. After 30 minutes since arriving we were now asked what we would like to drink. I ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir and a further 10 minutes later the waitress arrived some 5 minutes later with a bottle of Pinot Grigio 🤦. I explained that it was a red wine. Another 5 minutes elapsed before the waitress reliably informed me that they didn’t have any of that wine in stock. 🤦. I said either of the other two Pinot offerings would suffice. The wine arrived and I felt it necessary to demand the waiter stay and take our food order. We sat in what could only be described as a lovely atmosphere, albeit void of food. As I sat waiting For our food I noticed an adjoining table customer get up out of his seat and promptly leave the premises and return shortly after with a pack of uno cards. It was at this point I realised the locals may have an upper hand in time expectations. 90 minutes had elapsed and we finally got our entrees. I am pleased to report that this was quickly followed by our mains, just a short 30 minutes afterwards. Now let me talk about the food because after all, that’s the important bit. The food was spot on. Fresh, tasty, and delicious. A couple of warnings….. Don’t go unless you love talking…. You need a conversation otherwise it’s a long time between feeds. The best way I could describe our experience would be an Asian version of faulty towers. Anything that could go wrong did. We just laughed and enjoyed our night anyway and were greeted with an apology for the wait upon our departure. Will we go...

Second time there. Very good food, spent $100 for 2. Service left us considering not going back. Door was locked at 5:10 pm, supposed to open at 5. No big deal, sometimes these things happen, but server didn’t seem all that fussed and didn’t apologize. All tables open and no customers but us, but were asked to wait to see if we could be seated without a reservation. Ok, a tad frustrating but understandable. Then when we ordered had to repeat our wine choice several times. Then she came back and asked for yet another clarification. Ok, new to the position. But no apologies or eye contact. Then our lattes arrived colder than lukewarm. I was over saying anything, but my wife called over the person who made them, and very politely said they were not hot. This person said she could see that just from looking at them, and nicely apologized and brought us 2 new lattes, hot this time. The last straw however was that there was some thumping sort of “techno” style music playing. My wife asked this coffee server what it was, and where it was coming from, trying to be nice but give a bit of a hint that we and the other table of middle aged women might not appreciate that sort of music to eat dinner by. Her answer was “it’s coming from the speakers” And left. Uh huh. We’ll think twice before...