Khao (Street Food Thailand and Bar) — Restaurant in Ottawa

This was one of the most overpriced Thai meals I’ve ever had in Canada. I ordered a dish that was $35+ and had to order a second dish that was $25+ because I didn’t feel like I had eaten a proper meal. After finishing the second dish, I went home and still felt a bit hungry. Maybe it’s just that the two dishes weren’t fulfilling, but that only means they were extremely overpriced.

Also, I went with a group. I’m aware of restaurants charging mandatory tips, but the server gave me the machine without telling me. While I was selecting “no tip” (because I saw that a tip was already included), I asked the server, “So the tip is included, right?” She responded, “No, the tip isn’t included.” I had to point it out on the bill, and then she said she forgot. Fine, but the mandatory tip was 18%. I mean, what kind of restaurant did I just eat at? 18% on top of the after-tax total—are you kidding me?

Other than the fact that they had decent décor and the food tasted just okay, my visit left me feeling robbed. I won’t be returning.

Update: Since I got a reply, let me also update my review.

First, you do have a $32 (before tax) dish that comes to $35+ after tax.

Second, I did not pay an “extra” tip; rather, I was not given a choice to decide how much to tip for the service I had received.

Third, forcing people to pay 18% of the after-tax amount is unjustifiable to me and led me to feel I was robbed.

I don’t want a refund. If you ask me what I want, I want you not to force your customers to pay an 18% tip on top of the after-tax amount.

Lastly, I would seriously take into account the feedback not only from me but also from a significant number of reviews commenting on your food portions considering...

Thank you for the response. But i dont need anything ​We had a 7 PM reservation for three on a packed Saturday night. While I understand the challenges of a full dining room, the service delivery was unacceptable and made for a stressful two hours. ​The issues began immediately with our drinks. We ordered cocktails shortly after being seated, but 40 minutes and three separate follow-ups later, they finally arrived. Waiting nearly an hour just to get a sip of water or a cocktail is a huge failure on a Saturday night. ​The chaos continued with the food. We had to follow up twice for our meals. When they finally started coming out, only three of our four dishes arrived. After finishing the three plates, we had to initiate a third follow-up for the missing beef noodles. It seemed the order, likely forgotten by our blonde-haired server, was never correctly put in. Frustrated, we asked to cancel the final dish, and, ironically, it arrived about five minutes later. ​While the majority of the food tasted genuinely good, the pork belly was served cold and hard, suggesting it had been sitting waiting for the rest of the order. ​The restaurant must address its table management. By failing to deliver even drinks in under 30 minutes, they tie up tables unnecessarily. Getting guests served and turned over efficiently is crucial on a packed night. ​The service was so consistently slow and disorganized that it overshadowed the kitchen's efforts. Due to this experience, we will unfortunately never...

I'll start by saying that the food was incredible, probably the best Thai we've had in Ottawa, but the service was so, so bad. We ordered our drinks and food at the same time. Drinks came out 15 minutes later, a bit slow but not too bad. My food came out 40 minutes after we ordered. My boyfriend didn't receive his food at all, you could see the servers looking at our table and pointing at us and checking the kitchen, but no food arrived. Our server kept walking past us and checking on other tables, but didn't check in with us or acknowledge that my boyfriend still didn't have his food. After 20 minutes I waved down who I assumed was the manager, she apologized and brought his meal out within 3 minutes.

Honestly, the time it took for the food to come out and us being served at different times was bad, but what annoyed me the most was that there was zero acknowledgement that there had been a mistake, and our server actively avoided us.

Other tables that were sat after us received food before us, and the table next to us also had to wait over an hour for their food and didn't receive it at the same time.

I certainly wouldn't expect a discount or anything provided to us by the restaurant, but I do think it's worth noting that we still paid full price for this meal.

We would probably go back here just because the food was so good, but I'll give them some time to hopefully fix the service kinks/find...