Chiang Rai Thai Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Markham

I usually don't comment, but I really need to leave one today because it was such a bad experience. Today is Thursday, We two girls were arranged to sit at the innermost window. Our table's waitress rushed us to leave by using a lot of hints. We understood what they meant, but we saw a reserved empty table next to us and didn't see any customers waiting at the door. We said we needed more time. We hadn't seen each other for a long time and discussed about some potential business activities, so i recommended this Thai restaurant that I came before with my husband to my business partner and ordered a lot of food. At that time, about an hour and a half had passed, and we were urged to leave. The most important thing is! When the waitress heard that we needed more time, she pretended not to understand us several times. I felt very offensive. I said very clearly that we need more time. I asked her if there were any customers waiting, but she didn't answer at all. She walked away with a long face. This happened twice. Once she asked us if we could get more water? about few minutes later she came and said Can I get the bill for you? Then she went to the kitchen entrance right behind us and told her colleagues about us. Are you so ​apparent to drive customers away because you are afraid that you are not getting more tips? You guys should put a note at the door to let everyone know that the dining time cannot exceed a certain time, and it is not even on the weekend. Later, I left immediately and asked another waitress if there was anyone waiting. The other lady told us that there were several customers sitting and waiting at the door, but we could not see them because of the partition. Even so, I don’t think it is necessary to treat customers with that attitude, right? The waitress at our table did not show up in the end. Out of personal courtesy, I finally gave her an 18% tip. I really didn’t want to give her a cent. FYI, our timeline: about 6:05 -6:10pm walked into the restaurant; payment at 7:57pm after being urged several times to leave.

If you are a guest, please ask another waiter to serve you; if you are the owner, you really should train your staff more and teach them more polite communication skills, such as directly communicating with guests that someone is waiting for the table now, what if others don’t see the...

Updated review Sept 17, 2023. We came back here again for my birthday and it was wonderful experience. We ordered dishes to share, which was great. We ordered the following appetizers: crispy chicken, calamari, Thai fresh rolls, fish cakes. All dishes were generous portion and beautifully presented. We ordered Khao Soi beef, Pad Gra Prow, Royal Pad Thai chicken, Pineapple fried rice. We were gonna order another dish, but the server said the amount of dishes we ordered is more than enough. The birthday surprise and cake was a great ending for my birthday celebration. I really enjoyed my experience and the server was exceptional from start to finish. She also explained the 18% grauity for parties of 5-12 people.

We saw some nice pics coming from this restaurant. My wife is a fan of Thai cuisine. We came here around 4:30pm and the restaurant was not too busy. The interior decor is very warm and welcoming. It's like you are transported to a street bar in Chiang Mai. Menu is QR code. Beware the prices are more for dine-in vs takeout. I made the mistake of looking at the takeout prices. We ordered the green curry chicken $19.00, Khao Soi noodles with chicken $19.00, spring rolls $5.00, and fish cakes $10.00.

The fish cakes were marinated in red curry paste deep fried and served with a sweet tamarind sauce. The fish cake didn't look like menu picture. They may have used older oil. The taste was on point though. Nice presentation and garnish.

Spring rolls were crispy and served with homemade chili sauce. The spring rolls were delicious however I wish the portions were larger.

The green curry was served in a nice mini pot. Lots of veggies, bamboo shoots, carrots, broccoli and bok choy. Again beautiful presentation. The rice is shaped like a buddhist temple.

The Khao Soi noodles looked so appetizing. Hard boiled egg sliced in half. The crispy noodles served on top great for dipping.

Overall a great culinary experience at this restaurant. The dishes are so nice to look at and the flavours were rich and intense. Will come back and try some other dishes. Seems like the pineapple fried rice is a hit because every table ordered it. Give this Thai place a try if you're in the Markham area. Follow me on Instagram @whenhungerstrikes17 for more...

I came here based on high ratings but was extremely disappointed.

The restaurant itself looks amazing, very aesthetic and the bar reminds me of bars in Thailand! I was so excited walking through the restaurant only to be disappointed the moment I sat down.

The server came up to us the second we sat down and asked if we're ready to order. We were given another 2 mins before another server asked us if we're ready to order (we just started looking at the drinks) then our server came back after 30 seconds to ask us if we're ready to order. We were told we have a 1 hr 45 min (for 6 people) seating time the moment we entered the restaurant but this wasn't specified when I made the reservation (we also arrived 15 mins earlier so doesn't that give us 2 hrs?). The amount of times the servers came and asked if we're ready made us feel extremely rushed.

On to the food.... we were extremely disappointed in everything we ordered. Presentation was fantastic so we were quite excited to try the dishes but literally everything was overly sweet and did not have much flavour. I've had authentic Thai food in Thailand and I'll admit they're sweet but they have immense flavour to compliment the sweetness, not like the food we had here. We ordered the sweet potato fritters (was good which is why i gave them 2 star), veggie coconut soup (quite flavourful, wish it was much less sweet), shrimp Tom yum (this tasted like Campbell's tomato soup but with half a bag of sugar in it), satay chicken skewers (so sweet and dry), chicken pineapple fried rice (couldn't even eat this because of how sweet it was), chicken pad thai (if you squeeze about 5 lime wedges on there, it makes the dish a little less sweet and more bearable), and the minced chicken salad (very bland and way too much vegetables compared to chicken).

To put into perspective, the food was so sweet that my Thai milk tea (tea flavor not very apparent but also very sweet) tasted bitter.

Not one person asked us how the food was during our 45 minute stay either (ate quick cause we really didn't like the food).

Overall, would not recommend. I don't know where all these good reviews are coming from but I won't be...