Emerald Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

A group of us went there last night for a birthday dinner, Initial impression was that it wasn't as bad as I had read from reviews. We were seated up the back with a series of square tables placed side by side to accommodate about 20 people. My seating was at the end of the table under a large wall mounted air conditioner which was blowing cold air down onto us. The floor under my chair wasn't level and the chair constantly rocked, one leg being down in a lower area of the floor During the course of the evening the aircon kicked into heating mode and although not uncomfortable, staff had to come up and turn it off. The venue didn't split bills so everyone had to go up and order and staff asked you your name,.presumeably so they knew whose meals were coming out of the kitchen. When you went to order a drink you had to go back to the front counter to pay because they only had one cash register and then go back and wait until the receipt was passed across to get your drinks. When the meals came out there was no order of whose they were so I don't know why they asked for you names when ordering. People got parts of their meal and had to wait for other dishes they had ordered to accompany their main meal, so what was the purpose of taking peoples banes when they ordered? The entree of chilli prawns we ordered came out with the prawns wrapped in a hard pastry. No mention of this was on the menu. My sister in law and her partner had finished their main before the accompanying rice they had ordered came out, My main meal , oyster duck, when it eventually arrived was nearly cold . Even the sauce was nearly cold and the duck was an unpalatable looking grey with a soggy skin and the vegetables were that hard that you could hardly eat them. Several comments were made as to how salty the meals were. Some of the meals looked very watery and the satay chicken almost looked like a dish of my dog chicken puppy food the way it came out. Definitely would never go...

We used to go to and get takeaway from this restaurant a few years ago, initially the vegan curries and stir fries were really good, sadly it deteriorated and we stopped going there. Tonight we decided to try a vegan takeaway, ginger stir fry and sweet n sour stir fry with coconut rice, sadly if anything the food was worse! I couldn’t even taste the ginger and the sweet n sour was awful, such a disappointment. I doubt they have any trained chefs working there. This business needs to seriously consider getting an excellent Thai chef or at least visit a really good Thai restaurant (Leibig thai in Warrnambool would be a good place to start) and taste how really good Thai should taste. It’s really sad to see how this place has deteriorated so much. We certainly won’t be trying it again unless new owners take over. ...

It seems a little unfair to give a bad review, as it was the last day that they were open before a holiday shutdown. The young front of house staff were extremely helpful, friendly and eager to please. Couldn't fault a thing in that department. Walking in was like entering an Australian Chinese restaurant of days of old. The menu said thai, and some of the dishes seemed to reflect this, but it did have the overwhelming feeling of being in a rural Chinese Australian Palace of the 1980's. The food was ~ served well. Not something to rave about, although more people (locals) were wandering in so our choice of dishes might have been better. Did I say how great...