Lemongrass Thai Port Fairy — Restaurant in Victoria

if you like amazing service, having a good dining experience, and eating all the food you ordered in a timely manner - then this is not the place for you.

we arrived at 6:50pm and got a table for two. 30 minutes after sitting down we had to track down a waiter and ask them to take our order. we notice tables who have been seated after us getting their food with ours still not in sight. close to 8pm (over an hour after sitting down, about 30 mins from ordering) we get our two main entrees and we told that the 3 other dishes we ordered were on the way.

we continued to wait, growing tired of our stories as we just wanted to eat. at 8:15 i go up and ask where our mains are as we have to leave shortly - the waiter is surprised and said he will follow up. he comes out and apologised about the wait however walked off without giving us an ETA which left us confused.

i have never seriously thought about dining and dashing before however thought about this tonight - but decided against it as thought it would be fair if we just invoiced them for our time which they wasted. at 8:35 the food still hasn’t come out so we get up to leave. the waiter notices and comes over to clarify why our food hasn’t come - it’s because i ordered a pad thai without egg. this was on the vegan menu however was told that the chef wouldn’t do it vegan???? and at no point did they come over and tell us as i would have easily chosen the yellow curry, and at no point did the chefs cook my partner’s main or our shared main???? this baffles us, firstly that the chefs refused to accomodate a dietary requirement that they have in the menu, and that they didn’t cook any of our table’s food because they refused to cook one meal?? let alone nobody telling us. anyway, upon this revelation we decided to leave however one of the waiters brought out of shared main (pineapple rice) i cancelled my pad thai, and my partner asked for her main to come out but for takeaway since we were told they had just started cooking it. as we are almost done with our pineapple rice, my partner’s main comes out however in a ceramic bowl (not very take away huh?) and are told due to covid they can’t pack it takeaway for us however they could give us takeaway containers and do it ourself. excuse me??? this makes sense if it’s leftovers but we literally hadn’t had the plate on our table- and these guys do takeaway so what’s the difference? sounds like overworked chefs tbh.

ended up leaving and when we went to pay got spoken to by the manager or owner (unsure) like it was our fault and we had done something wrong and ended up giving us what we ordered for free. there wasn’t even a “i’m so sorry about your experience or that it took so long please don’t worry about paying” it was a “just go i’ll pay for your meal”

huge shout out to teek that was working multiple roles at once. he is a machine and was powering around the restaurant

it’s a shame as the pineapple...

The food? Great honestly. The racism? Pretty great too. They had a specific vegan menu and very accommodating for vegetarians. Very filling sizes too, great to see a Thai place with Thai chefs. However the service was honestly disappointing. I can't help but feel like our service was different being the only non white customers. Yes we were a bit tucked away but so we're other customers who seemed to get easier and faster service than us and without asking, signaling, waiting too long and having to go up to the counter when ever we did want to make an order or a request. Upon reading further reviews you can deduce that there is a clear separation with how they treat their white customers and their ethnic customers. This isn't the first review talking about the clear racism with serving their...

Interestingly, this was one of the few restaurants in Pt Fairy that was busy on this particular Fri night. I now know why. Delicious food, good (and friendly) service, and a comfortable setting. We had to sit outside under gazebos on a cold evening, but patio heaters kept us nice and warm. Really good selection on the menu, and our meals arrived quickly. It was all piping hot (almost too hot), but very tasty. Spring rolls, Pad Thai, Pad Met Mamuang, Red Curry and Massaman Curry all got our tick of approval. Spring rolls and Massaman maybe just a fraction too spicy for our palates, but still very nice. Great quality food, at reasonable prices. Drink selection pretty decent. Highly recommend...