Red Papaya Thai and Grill — Restaurant in Guelph

I have been to this restaurant a few times for the last few years that I have worked downtown. Each time, the service has been quite slow, but the food decent. Today I had out of town family visiting and one member wanted Thai, with Red Papaya being quite close to my office, we went there. First we were asked where we would like to sit and accepted a nice patio table. As we were heading there, we were moved to an inside table because the patio one didn't have napkins and cutlery yet, I'm not sure why those couldn't have been added but we were told we would have to sit inside. After looking through the menu, we finally ordered, one guest ordered a chicken wrap with a garden salad, he was then advised that they were out of salad (at 12:30 in the afternoon) and asked if he wanted fries. Due to health conditions that lead to dietary restrictions, no fried food allowed. After checking with someone else, the waitress advised that they have caesar salad so he went with that. The rest of us placed our orders. The waitress then came back that a caesar salad was going to be an additional cost (remember, he only ordered a caesar because they were out of the option that came with the meal. Fine, he still wanted the caesar as he can't have fries. Then the waitress came back again to advise me that the meal I had ordered didn't come with one of the options I asked for (spring roll). Confused, I asked to see the menu and pointed out what I had ordered which showed in the meat options, that the spring roll was included with the beef option. By this time, we were kind of fed up but being on a time crunch, we stayed. My meal finally arrived after sometime with the waitress advising that the kitchen was really busy and the other orders (both wraps) would be a few minutes longer (there were about 5 other table occupied while we were there). About 5-10 minutes passed and the other orders finally came out.

While the food was decent, the service was bad. While the waitress was nice, she had no clue what she was doing and the manager (or owner, not sure) just stood there with a look on her face and didn't help at all. As we were finishing up, the waitress brought another table their food and the people at that table all advised that what was brought, was not what was ordered.

Perhaps the manager should put some effort into properly training her staff and or help out a bit.

I give this place a 3 for food and a 0 for service.

I doubt I would come back here, I heard that there is another Thai place downtown that is very good with great service, try there if you're looking for Thai, this place will just waste your time and try...

To say they watered down the drinks is an understatement, they blatantly failed to add any alcohol at all to the mixed drinks and would always make the drinks where people couldn't see them making it. 80 dollars was spent before realizing my partner and I were stone cold sober somehow, and when I brought this problem up to others at least a dozen people at the bar complained of the same problem and had to switch to cans that couldn't be tampered with to feel anything themselves. I spent time observing the staff and they moved at a snails pace, were looking incredibly nervous and always looking over their shoulders and the ONLY time I actually saw them pour any alcohol into a drink was when I brought this up to them and they poured a shot into my drink in front of me to shut me up. It was the only drink that whole night I could taste anything in. I'm pretty certain they were also serving non alcoholic beer, I used to drink that a lot and the pitchers that were bought tasted exactly like non alcoholic beer, and didn't get anyone even slightly drunk to prove that fact. They have live shows here but failed to test or mention that the PA system they use was broken and two of the acts sounded terrible because of it and the whole pa had to be replaced from outta pocket just to save the show, and if all of this wasn't bad enough when they got caught breaking the law by lying about the drinks being alcoholic, they called me some colorful things, tried to say I couldn't taste the alcohol because I was "too drunk" lied and said they couldn't have been messing with the drinks because they were pouring them in front of everyone, cameras stationed around the venue to record the show can prove that was definitely not the case, no one saw them pour ANY drink. I'm not certain if the staff that night took it upon themselves to commit this scheme and pocket the extra money or if management knows this is happening and is behind it, but my next step is the police as this was very illegal and I have video evidence If this issue isn't solved and my money...

It did not seem as though the menu at the Red Papaya had a lot of offerings for the gluten free vegan. Obtaining clear answers about the contents of menu options has proved challenging on all three of our visits to this restaurant and modifications to meals (asking for things to be left out) has not always been successful. The restaurant is large, features a patio (so diners can choose to sit in the mall, if they prefer the natural light from the skylights), and also hosts concerts and events. The construction of the establishment makes for easy navigation as there aren't stairs to mount, and though children are rarely seen here (more of a bar or quick spot for lunch and less of a family restaurant) strollers and mobility devices can easily navigate the expanses between tables and passageways to the bar area and restrooms. In the evenings a bar and a television offer entertainment to seemed bar regulars, while the wait staff attend sporadic tables of transient diners. The regulars appear to be comfortable and catered to, which signals that the Red Papaya does receive a steady stream of patron. During the afternoons diners appear to be people looking for a spot of lunch or a meal following a doctor's appointment somewhere in the mall, or the odd mall Employee. There are a lot more single tables and quick tables turnovers during the day, than the evenings. The menu has moderately priced options, but isn't winning any awards from us for spectacular taste. This combined with the difficulty we faced when ordering makes returning feel undesirable. The Quebec Street mall is located in downtown Guelph, on a line that is accessible by transit and which is also a short walk away from the downtown bus depot and train station. Though the mall hosts a variety of merchants, this is the only licensed establishment that boasts...