Nohra Thai Kitchen — Restaurant in Oak Bay

I have never reviewed anything online before, but feel compelled to describe the experience my husband and I had at your restaurant recently. You have a lovely menu and location, respond very thoughtfully to reviews, and obviously care about the quality of your food and diners’ experiences. So we are at a loss to understand what happened to us. We were travelling through Victoria, arriving late afternoon – a time many restaurants close. So, we called ahead to see if you were open. The person answering confirmed you were open, and did not tell us we needed a reservation or discourage us from coming. All seemed normal. When we arrived, the restaurant was empty save for a woman standing at the front door texting on her phone, and an employee engaged in a task at a desk. The employee looked up when we came in, but did not speak, smile, nod or otherwise acknowledge us. We were not in a hurry, and assuming she was helping the other woman, were content to wait. However, the minutes ticked by, and as the wait became unusually long, we began to feel uncomfortable. I asked if we could seat ourselves, and the employee responded “No!” loudly and curtly, without looking up. I was surprised by her tone, which was surprisingly abrupt and bordered on rude. We continued to wait, feeling increasingly unwelcome and uncomfortable. After another spell, my husband asked if one of the booths might be available. The employee, again without looking up, said “No!” in the same abrupt loud tone, then asked if we had a reservation. We confirmed we did not – but she did not comment further. We continued to wait, but this now felt very odd and uncomfortable. We had not been told we needed a reservation, and there was literally no one else dining. Eventually, as we were obviously unwelcome, we left. As we were approaching our car down the road, and thinking the nasty experience was over, the employee came out of the restaurant and began shouting at us in the street, rebuking us. I was shocked and disgusted, and told her to stop yelling at us in the street… You obviously take great care and pride in your restaurant. I don’t know who this person was, but her attitude was appalling; she is doing your restaurant a disservice, to say the least. I hope you continue to thrive – but I certainly hope no one else is made to feel as unwelcome as we were. Hopefully this was just someone...

We decided to try a variety of dishes, including Thai iced tea, coconut prawn skewers, pad Thai, pad Thai chai ya, and mango sticky rice. The Thai iced tea was delightful and left me eager to explore the rest of the menu. However, the coconut prawn skewers were a bit underwhelming. They lacked the promised coconut flavor and didn't quite justify their price.

Moving on to the pad Thai, I've had better versions elsewhere. It seemed to lack depth of flavor, and the noodles were overcooked, clumping together uncomfortably. The pad Thai chai ya, on the other hand, fared better with a subtle hint of coconut milk and a generous portion size that could easily feed two to three people.

Unfortunately, the mango sticky rice left much to be desired. It lacked any discernible coconut flavor, and the rice was strangely salty with no other defining flavors. While the mango was fresh, it couldn't salvage the dish entirely.

To top it off, the service was a tad slow. Despite this, I'm inclined to give the restaurant four stars mainly because of the generous portion sizes.

Upon reflection, I'd like to provide details. Firstly, regarding the mango sticky rice, it's important to clarify that while it wasn't bad. I was simply saying the lack of coconut flavor and sweetness was notable. This absence accentuated the saltiness, rather than providing the expected subtle hint. Additionally, we were informed that the wok line was busy, which naturally led to delays in food preparation (since we were told, we did order appitizer to tie us over AND I was not talking about food service being slow). Given this context, I guess it's reasonable to expect that obtaining a box for leftovers might also take some time (I didn't...

Having read good reviews we decided to come for lunch on August 4. I ordered pad thai. When the server brought the dish, I had one look at it and saw that it was not how a pad thai should look. The noodles looked dry, no sauce on them whatsoever, no bean sprouts and no crushed peanuts. I was rather surprised. But decided to taste the dish anyway. It was NOT GOOD . I ate many pad thai dishes in various restaurants and I know how the dish should look and taste. I told the server that the dish was unacceptable and she took my plate away. I felt offended and disrespected to have the poor quality food offered to me , also given the price that was rather high. Very soon afterwards a man, claiming he was the owner, came with another plate of pad thai. It did have a sauce, peanuts and even the slice of lime. What surprised me that the owner was not even apologetic or uncomfortable with the whole situation. I really did not say much. But the day was spoiled and it should NOT have been ! Never before I have felt so disrespected and offended in a restaurant. Not a chance I will ever visit your restaurant again ! NO, THANK YOU !

Thank you for your lengthy response, Joel. I am sorry that you completely missing the point. The dish was very badly made, period. I have read all the reviews on your site and there were at least two of them voicing opinion similar to mine about the ill fated pad thai. Too bad that other people had similar experience with pad thai. This is very strange, actually. I, certainly, lost my respect. My day was ruined and other people mention the same about thei visit. TOO BAD !!!! NOT...