Maenam — Restaurant in Vancouver

had high hopes for this one. i originally booked this for my grandmothers 85th birthday and got through the online reservation for her day. I got a call a day after from the general manager, lee, who was very helpful at the time to let us know the tuesday was a special event with a $250+ for a set menu.

since I was looking for more of a relaxed a la carte menu since my grandmother doesn’t eat huge portions, lee was very helpful to suggest other places to eat and even suggested we could go the day before to treat us right due to this scheduling mishap. I agreed, and wanted to note it was for her birthday and to add the black pepper crab to the menu since you needed to give advance to the date. He mentioned we’re ok to note the crab then and took our reservation.

Since this was done on the phone and not online, I never received any kind of notification or confirmation on the reservation. I called a couple days before to confirm the crab and reservation but nobody answered, even left a voicemail on their line. Never received a call back, and showed up the day of and noticed it a bigger set-menu ordering 2 dishes per category since we were a table of 4 for a family-style course. I asked about the crab when I arrived, another manager came up and mentioned he tried calling me to confirm the crab but because hear from me which was really strange. I never received a call, and he gave us some champagne as a nice gesture for the miscommunication, and a couple extra dishes, which ended up being way too much food in the end.

All the servers were really nice, but the portions were way too much for the 4 of us, and the dishes were a bit too rich for my grandmother. they ended up plating the rest of the dishes near their closing time where our entire table was filled to the corners of the table. After finishing most of the first courses and tidying up our finished plates, it took a very long time for servers to even tidy up our finished plates and we were absolutely stuffed to take the rest home. not only that but there wasn’t much change of cutlery of serving plates throughout the service, or wiping down the table.

The food pushed traditional thai dishes onto their own which I liked, but i thought they pushed the traditional dishes a bit too far and didn’t recognize the usual dishes/tastes you’d expect. the portions were way too much, and the communication and execution of the service was very poor. I really had high expectations for this restaurant for my grandma’s birthday and I really wish they could improve on certain notes as the price was very high for all of these miscommunications and inconveniences. i really appreciated lee’s initiative to help out initially but I really expected them to come through with the mistakes that were...

This dreadful excuse for a restaurant deserves nothing but disdain. Can you believe the audacity? Their deceitful waitress had the nerve to feed us a blatant lie about their so-called "tasting menu," conveniently priced at a whopping $88. And why, you might ask, were we coerced into this extortionate option? Well, they had the gall to threaten us with a preposterous $40 cancellation fee per person. As if that wasn't infuriating enough, we were subjected to a lackluster "tasting menu" that hardly justified the exorbitant cost, especially for mere "JUST THAI FOOD."

But wait, it gets better. As our lackluster meal came to an end, their supposed manager had the audacity to approach us for feedback. Oh, we had questions alright. We dared to inquire why they peddled this singular tasting menu when a la carte options apparently existed. His pitiful attempt at an explanation fell pathetically short, leaving us baffled as to why his underlings felt entitled to spin their deceitful web of lies. This establishment, if you can even call it that, is nothing short of a conniving SCAM, preying on unsuspecting patrons.

And as if the deplorable service weren't enough, the culinary abominations they dared to present as food were an affront to our palates. The flavors? A disastrous mishmash of sickeningly sweet and disgustingly salty, assaulting our taste buds in a cruel symphony of culinary incompetence. We shall certainly never subject ourselves to such torment again. A resounding declaration: we shall never grace this pitiful excuse for a restaurant with our presence.

Oh, and let's not forget the pièce de résistance of this farce. Among our unfortunate party was a dear friend who happens to be a devoted vegetarian. Now brace yourself for this mind-boggling revelation: they had the audacity to serve her a plate of crudely chopped, practically raw vegetables and beans that were meant to be cooked. The sheer audacity of presenting such a pitiful excuse for a dish was beyond belief. To witness this gastronomic atrocity inflicted upon a vegetarian was an insult of the highest order. This establishment's incompetence knows no bounds, and the culinary catastrophe they orchestrated for our vegetarian companion was the ultimate slap...

Maenam will always be my fav restaurant that’s why we choose it every-time for special occasions. We love all of Angus’ restaurant - from Longtail to Pad Sen.

My wife always chooses Maenam for our anniversary due to it being Angus’ pinnacle restaurant - but this year felt different.

Our experience lacked personalized touches because during the process of booking until the end of our dinner, the staff never really asked why we were dining there. We called ahead because we really wanted Angus’ Black Pepper Crab special as it’s hard to find that dish here in Vancouver.

I even had to forcefully mention over the phone it’s our anniversary and the person on the phone just said “Oh I see ok” - lol. I don’t mean to sound attention-seeking but most fine dining restaurant would be proactive asking things like this. Maybe Maenam isn’t fine dining?

Even during throughout our dinner from walking in and walking out, no one asked what’s our occasion.

Upon eating in, we thought maybe we’d get some amuse-bouche similar to previous experience but not this time — despite other tables getting it. We even saw a different table get “complimentary drinks” at the end of their dinner.

I don’t mean to want to be treated special but our dine-in there, despite spending $250 for 2 people never felt special - especially for our special day. This felt like as if we were just dining in at Pad Sen or Longtail. We would have thought Maenam would be an elevated experience compared Angus’ food court sit-in concepts.

Perhaps we will change our tradition and just try out other restaurants for our anniversary.

Don’t get me wrong, our taste buds will still gravitate towards Angus’ creations but perhaps it’s time to try out other places.

Food-wise was great but previous visits were better. Penang Curry flavour felt nothing special. The Purple Eggplant was really good. The Black Pepper Crab’s flavour was fantastic and was very tasty. I wish it came with more sauce but perhaps this dish doesn’t follow the traditional way of making black pepper crab. I would still get this because the flavour was...