Sookjai Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Victoria

I’ve been a loyal customer and a big fan of your restaurant for a long time, often recommending it to others, but after you recently re-opened, I made three visits, I’m now really disappointed. I’ve decided not to return anymore, though I feel it’s only fair to leave a review since you’ve been my favorite Thai place until recently.

Out of the last three visits, two were takeout and one was dine-in. The dine-in experience was particularly bad. Even considering that it was a busy weekend evening, it was strange to see so many servers inside the restaurant, yet we were left waiting outside. We waited for over 40 minutes, and when we were finally seated, no one came to our table. It was over an hour before we even placed our order, and when the food finally arrived... it was nothing like I remembered. The taste was completely different, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the chef changed or if the recipes were altered. I ordered the same dishes I always have, and was shocked at how different and disappointing they tasted.

The service wasn’t great, and the food didn’t live up to what I used to love about your restaurant. Afterward, I tried takeout twice more, hoping it was just a one-off, but the taste was inconsistent again. It was disappointing to experience three visits in a row with food that was either bad or completely different from what I expected. What do you do when the Pad Thai doesn’t taste good at a Thai restaurant? And the Tom Yum Goong was bland too.

Consistency is key for any good restaurant, and I truly believed you were the best Thai spot in Victoria. But after these last few visits, I think it’s time to explore other options. I understand that sometimes dishes can vary, but it feels like your restaurant has lost its touch, and I don’t want to keep testing my luck.

Goodbye for now, and I hope you can find your way back to the quality that once made you my...

I really had one of the worst experiences related to customer service which does not depend directly to the regular employees, but the restaurant manager and owner. Today, mother's day my family decided to call to ask an order, we did not receive an answer. Then, we decided to go to Sookjai Thai location and make an order in site. After paying, the waitress mentioned our order will be ready in one hour, we asked confirmation of time because we felt it was long time, the waitress confirmed it would be an hour. The waitress returned the miss call of my wife and my wife said that she was the customer who just paid, no issue with that. The issue comes when coming back to pickup the order after one hour. We are told that there is no expected time and customer should wait until they are called. One waitress mentioned they are understaff and not having an idea about how long would it take the orders. After a bit more than one hour and a half I received my order. Some mistakes happened in here:

1. If your business is understaff do not take the time of the clients as yours. You have to respect others time. It is preferred to stop orders or even closing the business for some time until getting back to normal.
2. The usual quality of food was under the regular quality expected by the client
3. As owner and responsible for the workers, you are burning out your employees with this rhythm. I have been there during many years and usually food is very good. However, never experienced this kind of treatment in any restaurant in Victoria, at certain moment the clients feel they are asking for free food as beggars.

Please close if you are understaff and avoid clients waiting for hours and avoid thinking the time of the...

Where do I begin? I was visiting from out of town and my friend said this place is always packed and would probably be good, boy was she wrong. We went in around 5:30PM before the place got packed and had a line. And let’s start with the good, since there is so little. Lovely decor and absolutely fantastic service, server is super friendly and amicable but if you are looking for authentic Thai food. This is not the place.

Let’s start with the appetizer, fried fish balls seems like store bought frozen fish balls covered in sodium and fried, tastes like pure salt. Peanut sauce maybe had a goal of being a balance between sweet savory and sour but achieved none of that. Overwhelmingly sour and just not flavorful.

Main course was the Pad Thai and Panang Curry. Let’s start with the Pad Thai. I wish I took a picture but it definitely wasn’t authentic. Seemed like normal Pad Thai until you see the thick pool of soy sauce/oyster sauce or whatever mixture at the bottom of the plate. No umami or flavor, just salty. The chicken was the worst part, the absolute driest chicken I’ve had in a restaurant. I don’t know how they serve that in a restaurant. The Panang Curry, if it can even be called that. Tried two spoonfuls of it and stopped, absolute horrid taste, mix of spiciness and bitterness of overcooked kaffir lime leaves. This is the first occurrence in my life where I wasted food at a restaurant.

Overall terrible experience, overpriced unauthentic, and absolutely just bad Thai food. If you enjoy westernized over the top salty Asian cuisine then this is the place, but if you want actual Thai cuisine I would avoid this place...