Viphalay Laos & Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Edmonton

Time for an upgrade.

I’ve gone past this place for years, always noticing how full it seemed, always wanting to try it, unfortunately never getting around to it. Finally, last week we were able to dine in. We came in around open hoping to beat the crowds, another table sat politely in a corner and us in another across from them. The lights were blaring, though even more invasive now that it gets dark out at 4pm. Not only were the lights blaring but so was a random television playing the sports network. Not the typical “Thai” aesthetics I’m used to. Now with the lights as bright as they were I was able to see absolutely every imperfection. From the thickening dust collecting on the window drapes and lights, to the spattered and paint chipped walls. With all the staff on, I would have assumed some were available for cleaning as there were only two tables of two sat. A faint, very randomized playlist played in the background…but was heavily muted by the constant dinging of the online orders coming in and telephone constantly ringing. (I must also mention that the volume was cranked on the online ordering system, which I understand that you don’t want your staff to miss, but this was excessive, have one staff member assigned to both the online order system and telephone and lower the volume of each). Now, combine all of these elements together and you get a rather poor, uninviting and confused atmosphere. The service was nice, however it was only average and not exceeding. We ordered multiple dishes, the signature dish being the “Red Wine Shrimp” which I would recommend, while the other dishes were just average and lacking in excitement. Overall I was disappointed in the experience, as I think this place has the capacity to do so...

I like the food but not the service. The waitresses are have discrimination issue. It was a horrible experience. We had 5 people to go there to celebrate the birthday, it like a normal dinner and we chat quite because the space there is not really big and we didn't want to disturb other customers. When we ordered the foods, one of the waitress missed record the 2 friends' drinks and 1 friend's food. And there is no waitress came to say anything to us (i.e. how is the food? Do you need anymore thing?) Normally, if the group of people over 8, I could understand the restaurant charge the gratuity on all the people in the group. But we only had 5 people, she put 18% gratuity on our bill. And she also yelled to us when she passed the bill to us, the attitude was really bad and it was surprised us. Use my bill as an example. On the menu, my dish is $17 (I ordered a Tum Yum soup with shrimp), on my bill it was showed as $19 and she also put 18% gratuity on my bill. When I went to pay my bill, she even expected me to pay more tips. To be honest, If her service is really nice, I'd like to pay more on the tips. But not force us to pay the gratuity plus expected more tips with such horrible service. Before we left, another waitress went to chat with her and found out we didn't pay more tips rather than that 18% gratuity. She gave us a sign (means: get out from the restaurant). I really surprise how this restaurant 's service and I had never ever get this kind of service. If anyone would like to try this restaurant, watch out your bill! I like the food but not...

We had a deeply disappointing and concerning experience with Viphalay Laos restaurant through Uber Eats. We specifically requested that our curry dishes be made vegan due to my spouse's seafood allergy. At no point during our first order were we informed that the curry sauces contained shrimp paste by default—something that should absolutely be disclosed, especially when a customer clearly states dietary restrictions and allergy concerns.

Trusting that our request had been honored, we ate the food and unfortunately, my spouse became very ill. At the time, we didn’t suspect the food, thinking our dietary request had been taken seriously. Weeks later, we ordered the same dishes again—making the same vegan request due to dietary restrictions—only to be told this time that they could not make the curries vegan because the shrimp paste was already in the base sauces. This means that the first time, our request was completely ignored or misunderstood, and the ingredients were not disclosed, despite our clear communication.

This kind of oversight is not only disappointing but dangerous. We trusted the restaurant with a serious allergy, and that trust was broken. It's unacceptable for ingredients like shrimp paste to be hidden, especially when customers raise dietary needs. We won’t be ordering from Viphalay again, and I sincerely hope they improve their transparency and allergy awareness moving forward.

What is the point of noting dietary restrictions if they’re not taken seriously...