Thai Boat Restaurant — Restaurant in Calgary

APPAULING EXPERIENCE:

I am very disappointed to be writing an unfavorable review, as this restaurant was one of my husband and I's favorites. However, after our experience this evening we will NEVER return to Thai Boat.

My husband and I went to the restaurant this evening and ordered our respective meals. I had been feeling like a dish with noodles as opposed to coconut rice (which is what I typically order and is quite good). Upon ordering my stir fry dish with noodles instead of rice, the waitress asked if I wanted rice instead, to which I replied no, I would like noodles, and she instructed me to order off of a different segment of the menu. Needless to say my order was simple, sweet and sour vegetarian stir fry with noodles. Upon returning a few minutes later with our food, I unfortunately found the noodles to be extremely bland and unappetizing, and asked if I could exchange it for the coconut rice instead. She replied with something along the lines of, "that's why I told you to get the rice" and said she would have to ask the chef if I could have rice instead. This was all very surprising to me as I didnt realize getting a bowl of rice instead of some steamed noodles would be such an ordeal. She returned to tell me the chef would have to throw the noodles out and continued to give excuses so I said to forget it, I would just eat them as this back and forth was becoming ridiculous. However, I wanted to relay to the waitress that this hassle over noodles was really quite disappointing and when my husband called her over to ask for food boxes, I began to tell her about my annoyance over this experience. She cut me off and walked away mid sentence to bring the chef. I told the chef that my husband and I come to Thai Boat often and love the food, however it was very disappointing from a customer service standpoint to be given such a hard time over replacing noodles with rice. To my surprise, the chef became extremely rude, saying the waitress told me to get rice, and that Thai food is not meant to be eaten with noodles. It got to the point where when I brought up the lack of customer service, the chef was shouting at me and becoming extremely disrespectful...over NOODLES. I told him it was an absolute joke he was raising his voice and being so rude over such a small issue, when I was willing to pay the extra to get the rice instead. He exclaimed it was not about the price but the fact that as a chef, he did not want to throw out food. Keep in mind this was a small bowl of steamed noodles, in a restaurant which I imagine needs to unfortunately throw out a great deal of food that patrons may not have finished. Needless to say we ended the conversation and asked for our bill. My husband was kind and still gave a tip, a courtesy I would NOT have extended considering the absolutely disgusting behavior from the chef and the complete lack of customer service of the waitress, both of which essentially ganged up on paying customers who were simply voicing a concern. Appalling experience, and chef, if you are reading this, as I hope you do, please understand that having a long day is no excuse to verbally batter your customers. You have lost two loyal clients and I will be sure to tell as many people as I can about this experience. I hope that not throwing out the noodles was worth it, which in the end you had to do anyway. Pick your battles.

Regards,

A VERY dissatisfied...

I've ordered takeout occasionally in the last few years for convenience, and because there aren't too many Thai places around the area. Food is quite flavorful. However... Every time I ordered, the lady who took my order through the phone would try to upsell me and insinuate that my chosen dish was not as good as the pricier option she suggested. She would reiterate that when I pick up in person. That's fine - it's mildly uncomfortable if anything. The latest time I tried to call for take out, it took three calls to get through (with internet dial-up tones the first few tries). When I went to pick up, their payment system refused to work with multiple attempts with each of my credit cards. Every time it failed, the lady looked at me with an accusatory expression saying "How come?" with a side eye, as if I were the problem (my cards worked before and after this occasion, and were not the problem). Finally the "boss" came out to reset everything and it still didn't work. I paid by cash. The "boss" explained how the machine shares a line with other uses to reduce overhead. That's fine - it's a business decision I can understand. However, the lady's tone is aggressive, accusatory, and managed to ruin a takeout (!) experience with her attitude and snide comments which were absolutely uncalled for. I could only imagine what I dine-in experience would be like. It's a shame because their food is decent, but the "service" ruined any chance of me...

Terrible, Terrible Customer Service! I went there today for lunch between meetings and I was very disappointed in the way I was treated. I have been to this location before with another colleague of mine and it wasn't bad. I was asking about the Menu and the lady just just get the special we have "2 left", and of course I went with the special. First of all this is NOT real THAI food, it's more like the western version if Thia food and the special was $20.00 which I don't mind, but not worth it and the soup that she recommended was disgusting. The thing that really ticked me off was I wasn't even finished my meal and they assumed I was done and she took my plate I wasn't even half done. Not just that she asked me if I wanted packed up... I said it's not worth taking for left overs. I felt like they were trying to rush me and I like to take my time to eat it's also gives me time to think before my next meeting. I believe she is the owner's wife, older Asian lady long red highlighted hair and she was training a new girl. Just terrible. If you can AVOID this place as much as possible because the food is no good, the service is horrible and the prices are not reasonable. If your going with a group then you might get better service..... Just Terrible. I promise my self that I will not step food it that place again or recommend it...