MADALA 134 — Restaurant in Warrnambool

We rarely write Google reviews, but I felt compelled to share our experience at this restaurant yesterday. My family, consisting of two adults and two children, dined here and ordered two appetizers, three main courses, two desserts, and a bottle of white wine. To be honest, the food was quite good and suited our tastes.

However, when we placed our order, we specifically requested the sweet and sour snapper, but we were served barramundi instead. My children prefer snapper and do not enjoy barramundi, which left them disappointed. The female server who took our order did not inform us of this change in advance, and when we questioned her about it, she did not acknowledge any wrongdoing on her part, making us feel as though we had done something wrong.

We spent over $170 on our meal, which I believe is a significant amount. and when my children went to the front desk to take two Mentos candies, they returned to the counter to get a couple more. At this point, the same female server who took our order abruptly moved the bowl of candies below the counter, out of reach. Her behavior made my children feel insulted and completely crushed their self-esteem. Mentos are such inexpensive candies; was it really necessary for her to act in this manner? The elderly gentleman at the front desk who chatted with my children helped to slightly soothe their hurt feelings.

While the food was satisfactory, the service we experienced, particularly from our server, left a bitter taste in our mouths. It is unfortunate that such behavior can ruin an otherwise pleasant dining experience. The restaurant management should address these issues to ensure that all customers feel respected and valued.

Hi MADALA134,

I appreciate your response and explanation regarding the snapper/barramundi mixup and lollies incident. However, I respectfully disagree that the restaurant handled the situation as well as they could have.

While I understand the menu mixup may have been an honest mistake, I believe the server should have notified us of the substitution before serving the dish, especially since we specifically requested snapper. Not acknowledging the oversight or apologizing when we brought it to her attention made us feel unvalued as customers.

Regarding the lollies, I recognize they are complimentary in Australia. However, the abrupt manner in which the server removed them after my children had already taken a couple felt rude and unnecessary, leaving them feeling embarrassed. A gentle reminder that the lollies are meant as a small take-away treat would have sufficed.

I'm glad to hear the manager wanted to ensure my children enjoyed their meals. I hope you can understand our perspective as paying customers who felt disrespected.

I want to reiterate that my review was not meant to disparage the quality of your restaurant's food, which we thoroughly enjoyed. However, I believe that exceptional service is just as crucial as the cuisine in creating a memorable...

A really delicious dinner at Madala 134 tonight. Don't let the non-Thai items on the menu fool you - the Thai food here is authentic and packs a flavour punch.

We started with the house-made deep fried pork (eminently smashable, great beer food) and the duck roti - the fried roti contrasted well with the savoury duck, rich hoisin, and the crunchy fresh vegetables (spring onion, capsicum, carrot, cucumber).

The pad cha fish main special is where the true magic was - deep-fried barramundi with a intensely flavourful sauce with krachai, chillies, and pepper. Veggies made it a complete meal, absolutely delectable with a bowl of steamed rice. We also got the papaya salad (good, pretty spicy) and the lad na with beef, which I was pretty excited about as it's not something you find on every menu!

Service was very attentive and food came out quickly. The friendly staff checked several times to make sure everything was going well. The restaurant was also quite busy on a Monday night - it's clearly a popular local spot.

Would absolutely recommend Madala 134 for...

Food and service aren’t too bad. Not authentic Thai for sure. But the food is highly overpriced. The portion is very small for all dishes we ordered. A big bowl of rice charged us $16 (what sort of rice did we eat?) !! We ended up having another dinner somewhere else, after eating there.

To answer the owner’s reply, it’s uncommon for me to write a negative google review. We got 4 adults and 2 children under 8 and ordered a prawn dumpling (apparently steamed six frozen ones from the shop), 4 dishes, 1 satay noodle with chicken. We eat outside very frequently at different places in Victoria including at least 10 Thai restaurants. We thought we had ordered too much for 4 adults and 2 children. It turns out we hadn’t. Still the mysterious 16 dollar rice is not explained.

Please go out of Warrnambool and check out other Thai restaurants. It’s lucky there isn’t much competition in the...