Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Kitchener

Really surprised at the low quality of our experience considering the 4.2 rating on Google Maps. A few issues that contributed to this rating, so that someone else might not make the same misjudgment that I did:

-While they have tables for sitting, this is essentially a lunch counter and not a restaurant. Despite asking to stay to dine, they packaged everything up in takeout containers as they don't have dishes for serving. You order at the counter and pay in advance. -They don't have a physical copy of their menu available. We were directed to look up the menu on our phones. It seems like it would be easy to have a few sheets printed and tacked up on the wall with their menu options as a bare minimum, especially for those who don't have a smartphone. -Huge range of quality in the food. One dish was flavourless, one was too oily, and the last was good. Definitely not a consistent experience. -The restaurant itself was freezing cold, like they had the thermostat turned way down, perhaps because they are not expecting people to stay and get comfortable. -The floor was quite dirty, with chunks of road salt scattered throughout. It hasn't snowed in a week at this point, which makes me wonder how long that salt has been sitting in the middle of the floor. -While sitting in the restaurant over the lunch period (12-1pm), not a single other person entered the restaurant. This is not a complaint per se, but lack of traffic can be a red flag that people are avoiding a place.

I was really hoping to find a good sit-down Thai place, now that Bangkok Cuisine has removed their dining tables, but this is definitely not the replacement I was...

My son search up for Thai food and we give Thai Bistro a try. Extremely terrible food, but I decide to call the owner instead putting in reviews. Unfortunately he doesn’t admit what’s wrong with the food. I don’t know how the reviews came up with 4.3 stars or just my bad day what they left overs from the holiday. I ordered one red curry with one rice and pad thai. Rice are broken and hard, must be old from a day before, I repeat that to the owner 4 times and he pretend he don’t understand and repeat what I am saying to him. His behavior repeating my complaint telling me that he knew. Big container curry got so many carrots and celery, and curry very watery, not much chicken. No spice and sweet. The Pad Thai rice noodle broken, he repeats my words what I told him again. The spoiled shrimps are mushy, and I was very upsetting called owner. Didn’t had a chance to the shrimps complaint because his attitude. These people only wanted one time customer cannot be success. Owner can charge more but be responsible to your business. He can take what I paid for and customer with all the bad left over food....

A mixed bag: the service was prompt, polite and accurate. The Ginger Beef was recommended by server, and it was super delicious - the meat was tender and moist, the veg perfectly cooked (crispy tender), and the sauce was tasty. The Pad Thai, on the other hand, was VERY bland - I couldn't taste any of the usual ingredients that I normally taste in a Pad Thai (peanuts, fish sauce, lime/rice vinegar), and the noodles overcooked. The fresh spring rolls only had noodles, a bit of very bitter basil that had clearly been picked when overgrown, some shrimp, and raw beansprouts in them. They would have been better with some other veg that is better raw (carrots or lettuce) and some younger basil and maybe some other herbs too. So they were okay but not great. The dipping sauce the rolls came with was GREAT though! So a mixed bag. We will eat here again and maybe ask the server...