Wandee Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Ottawa

Poor customer service ruined the experience at this otherwise tasty restaurant.

Edit: response to owner: If there is a language barrier then you need to address that with staff and help them improve.

Restaurant told us it will be ready in 10 mins! They were clear we ordered.

The request was simple - to put meat and egg on the side. This was understood during the phone call and in person. Nothing more than that.

You did not do your very best. If you are the owner and promote this poor customer experience, then your business will not do well regardless of some good cooks which is the only good part of visiting your place.

Details: During a 4 Hour drive to Ottawa we called and ordered one fried rice after discussing with the phone attendant whether it would be enough for 2 to 3 people. Upon arrival after 30 minutes we were told the order was not made in case it was not enough for 2 to 3 people! We were famished and disappointed.

After reviewing the size of one takeout box we decided to order two and waited 20 minutes more. $33.79

When I asked for three paper plates and three cutleries the lady refused and only provided two plates and upon Insistence 3 cutleries.

We decided to eat at the picnic table outside the restaurant as dining inside was not allowed. When the lady saw us managing with the two plates she walked outside and offered one more plate. Guess she changed her mind.

After the meal when I asked if I can throw the takeout boxes into the garbage she offered to take the bag and did it herself which was nice.

However the overall experience was impacted by the initial poor customer service and we will not be returning to the restaurant despite the good food. Customer service, customer Experience and professionalism matters. Thank you

Ps. Perhaps the staff can use some customer...

We tried: chicken tom-yum and shrimp tom-kha soup, chicken pad thai and pineapple shrimp curry.

The food tasted amazingly. The pad thai was slightly sweeter for my taste but I generally don't eat sweet often so it might have just been me. Other than that, the pad thai was good and authentic. The pineapple curry was with shrimp. The curry juice tasted as if it was cooked real pineapple extract (it probably was). And the soups were great as well.

The price was decent. While most thai restaurants overprice their food, this place has lunch specials that price most items under $10. We came for dinner and for a $12 pad thai and curry, the amounts of meat and veggie that they gave us were impressive. In addition, when my girlfriend ordered sticky rice to have with the curry, the sticky rice was good and also came in very generous amount. For $5, the soup was an awesome choice for appetizers.

The service was amazing. Very attentive. Despite the fact that the restaurant's operational style fits more to a "order & sit"/"sit yourself" one, there were servers and they accommodated guests very well.

Very authentic. Unlike many non-Thai-operated Thai restaurants, the owners, cooks and servers are all Thai. And their food is truly Thai's taste.

I was a bit not happy with the spicy level. My pad thai was not spicy at all and my gf's curry was supposed to be "2 chillies" in spicy level but was not. The extra hot sauce that they gave me was more like a Thai's hot-salt mixture, so again, was not hot.

Recommendations: pad thai slightly less sweet and please have options to make your food spicier.

Other than that: this is my go-to Thai food...

I would have loved to give this place five stars since it's so close to us. Unfortunately, either the quality control was lacking or I received the wrong order. This was our first time trying Wandee, as we have always gone to Siam. We ordered chicken satay skewers, crispy pork with broccoli and peppers, and a shrimp pad Thai. I specified in the instructions to please please make it extremely spicy. I only did this, let alone tried Wandee because I'd been advised by a friend that it can and has been done for them. We usually get 3* spicy at Siam, so I was expecting something maybe not as hot, but definitely not as mild as what I got.

Zero Spice!

The flavour wasn't bad (a little lacking in tamarind savouriness) but we had paired our other dish to accompany it to cut heat, and we really only order pad Thai spicy. I had to add my own red pepper flakes. And that didn't really help because they're dried and not cooked into the dish, so if you add too much you're not even getting infused spice, just dried flakes that pierce your gums (and it’s obviously not their fault that I added spice that pierced my gums lol). The pork dish was out of this world good, though satay skewers were slightly dried out but came with a really tasty accompanying peanut sauce.

With mostly every decent Centretown Thai place offering food at the same price point, I think I'll stick to Siam Bistro. They've never give us the wrong order or failed to apply our general requests. It's a shame because I really wanted to love a place that's...