Bangkok Spoon Deluxe — Restaurant in Hamilton

We were some of the first customers when the Bangkok Spoon Deluxe opened in downtown Dundas in 2009. Very nice decor, pleasant ambience, and - for Dundas - exotic food. So when the dishes were very uneven — some OK, some tasteless and gooey, others surprisingly hot — and when the service was slow and the waiters surly, we thought, ‘Well, it’s just opened and it’s bound to get better.' Except it didn’t.

What it got was noisier, as all the hard surfaces, parallel and at right angles to each other, reflect and amplify every single sound in the room. Some diners raise their voices to be heard, causing others to speak even louder, until you find you are shouting across the tiny table at your dinner partner to comment on the iffy food and poor service.

We decided that take-out was the only answer. We kept hoping that we would find some really good, consistent dishes that must be somewhere on the menu, and we have now eaten a wide range of their offerings.

Some can be very good indeed, such as the fried calamari appetizer, but we stopped ordering it after we got a batch that had raw fish juice spilled into it, and smelly fish juice at that.

The vegetable spring rolls are crisp, with a thin, greaseless crust and packed with savoury julienned veggies including Shiitake mushroom. But on a busy night, the temperature of the fat in the fryer goes down and you get swollen, soft, and tasteless rolls — the grease rolls down your lips at every bite.

The spring rolls with shrimp have one shrimp per roll and it still had part of its shell on. We tried this a couple of times, and each time the shrimp tasted mouldy.

The last vegetable fried rice we had, about a month ago, was luke warm rice that had been soaked, not fried, in oil, with some fast-frozen, un-cooked vegetables thrown in — it was inedible so we threw it out.

The dishes with oyster sauce don’t actually have any oyster sauce in them — maybe they let the oyster watch while the dish is being prepared. Most chicken dishes taste like the chicken has been boiled or steamed, then left to dry out and harden a bit before finally being being warmed up a little in the sauce.

And the prices are soooo out of line with the quality, you wonder how the staff can keep a straight face. Which they do, as they are indeed deadly serious. Because it’s so noisy in there, they often yell in your face to find out what you want.

A while ago they won an award for Authentic Thai Food. If you look in any Thai cookbook, you will find that fresh coriander, sometimes including the roots of the plant, has a prominent place in Thai cuisine. We have yet to find any coriander in any dish at the Bangkok Spoon.

Their Thai food might be the equivalent of the food that was once served in the Canadian/Chinese Deluxe restaurant that originally occupied this building. Deep Fried Chicken Balls in Bright Red Sauce? If you think that is authentic Chinese, you may love the Bangkok Spoon, as they have lots of deep fried dishes covered with gooey sweet sauce, though no...

We came here last night with friends. It was a last-minute decision to try Bangkok Spoon, and we've wanted to go for a while but never made it until now. The atmosphere is very nice, with partitions between some tables that create a more intimate setting.

We tried a few dishes, including Bangkok Pad Thai, spicy noodles, tiger shrimp spring rolls, pepper beef, mixed vegetables, vegetable rice, and garlic string beans. First of all, I want to mention that our waiter was a very nice and courteous gentleman. However, he seemed to struggle with remembering some of our requests.

One issue was that the spicy noodles were forgotten in our order, which was a meal for one of us. While the rest of us were eating, he was still waiting for his dish. When it finally arrived, our friend, who is celiac, had to double-check to ensure that the item was gluten-free, but it wasn’t. This led to it being taken back to the kitchen, and our friend had to wait again for his meal while we continued to eat.

We tried to be patient, but with the two mix-ups, our food was getting cold. The waiter seemed eager to please but just wasn’t having the best night. We also asked for soy sauce, which was forgotten and required a reminder before it was brought to us.

After all of these service issues, when the bill was delivered, the spicy noodles were not taken off our bill, which our friend had to ask to be corrected. It should have been done automatically without us needing to ask. Thank you for trying to make it better by giving us a scoop of ice cream. I hope that the waiter has better days in the future.

Overall, while the food was very tasty, it wasn’t plentiful for four people, and the price was a bit high. For that price, we could’ve had an AYCE meal. While the food was good, the service had some hiccups that impacted our overall experience. I hope they can improve on that for...

Went for lunch on a Thursday and the place was absolutely packed. You had to stand and wait for a table to open up. The waiter or host was abrupt and rude. He didn’t actually greet us, just demanded to know if we had reservations. We did not think a late lunch on a Thursday would need reservations. While the host stood beside a table where people were eating, he pointed at them and told us very loudly and rudely that we would get their table when they left. I was actually mortified by this. It was so rude to the people sitting there. I know if I were them, I’d feel badly on that end too. It was tactless. The seats aren’t comfortable with screens only going to the bench seat and no farther back so your virtually sitting right next to the strangers at the table next to you and can hear their conversations. The bench and the chairs are also different heights making it awkward to have conversation with your dining companions. The food is good but extremely overpriced for portions. What they are calling a “crab claw” in the Radnar Talay entree is actually just a tiny crab leg and is laughable at best with its minuscule size. Three Crab Rangoons for $14 is ridiculous! We asked that the Pad Thai come without onions, they didn’t honour that request and it came with lots of onions. We requested a lime wedge for the Pad Thai and the waitress couldn’t be bothered to get us one and we never got it. We had leftovers but the containers are so poorly designed that they leaked contents out all over the place, so we tossed them in the garbage out front of the restaurant because we didn’t want it to spill in our car.

The service is abrupt and not enjoyable.

Not in a...