Siam Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Bodhgaya

This review is for people who actually care about what they eat — and not those influencers who hype anything they can click a picture of.

SIAM THAI, BODHGAYA — One line summary: A restaurant hyped by people who have 1000% never eaten Thai food, run by untrained staff using old ingredients or even expired ones, without understanding or knowledge and surviving on Instagram posts, not repeat customers. Or even average basic thai food.

Worst food experience of my life — from a chef’s point of view based on 23 years of working in small restaurants and growing as executive in hotels.

Visited on 31st Aug, 4 PM. I’m writing this as a chef myself — someone who understands food not just from taste but from ingredients, technique, and kitchen discipline

Chicken Tom Kha

This dish is supposed to be made with coconut milk or cream diluted with stock for more flavour — that's what gives it body and richness. Flavour comes from lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal.

But what I got was watery, vinegar-like soup with no coconut taste, no body, nothing. Not a drop of coconut milk or cream.

It was overloaded with raw coriander, and tasted exactly like a below-average Rasam. Lemongrass was old, tasteless, 100% stored for over a 4 days. Lime leaves were completely dead in flavour. And when I asked, the staff confidently said: “We use fresh coconut water.”

At that point, I didn’t argue. I just returned the dish. Coconut water in Tom Kha? Nothing more to say.

Chicken Tom Yum

Already disappointed, I tried this. Mistake.

At least no coconut water this time. But again, same watery base, this time with dark brown colour — why? Because they added cheap soy sauce, street-style with colour, salt, and ajinomoto.

There was no lemongrass taste, no galangal, no Thai chili paste — basically no Tom Yum flavours. Chicken pieces were random dry cubes of over boiled breast meat — so dry they literally crumbled in the mouth. I had two sips and left it aside.

Chef? Sorry, no chef here. This is just some local cook asked to follow a random recipe with no proper training, and probably no access to real ingredients. Just following orders to earn daily wages.

Phad Wunsen

Should be glass noodles stir-fried with veggies, with strong garlic + oyster sauce flavours.

But what I got was just glass noodle chowmein — and yes, with momo chutney again.

Veggies were cooked separately and just dumped on top of noodles — not even tossed properly. Nothing Thai about it. Just fusion nonsense.

We ate half because we were hungry, packed the rest and left. That was the moment I knew:

This restaurant is surviving only because of influencers who praise anything that “looks different,” not because it’s actually good.

Prawn Somtum

This was the most unhygienic dish of all.

Prawns were unclean, badly cut, and worst part — boiled then frozen and old. The texture and smell were so bad, I literally lost my appetite. This is what happens when there are no real customers — they keep week-old frozen prawns and serve them like it’s normal.

Papaya was dry and dead — clearly plucked days ago and stored in fridge. No juice, no texture. And the dressing? There was none. Just salt, pepper, lemon juice, and again... momo chutney. That’s not Thai. That’s pure laziness.

Service, Staff & Environment

The staff is not trained at all. They were playing nipple-pinch games with each other — yes, inside the restaurant, in front of guests. Loud, vulgar jokes, zero customer awareness. No manager, no discipline, no professionalism.

Music was from YouTube — one minute Aaj Ki Raat, next minute a YouTube ad, and then Ae Sanam Hum Toh Sirf Tumse Pyaar Karte Hain. When I asked, the staff said, “Mujhe ye gaana pasand hai.” That’s why he played it.

You can imagine what kind of atmosphere...

Not quite what I would call "authentic", but it is very good by India standards. [1] The Khao soi was a bit ugly but tasty, but seemed to use spaghetti instead of Thai noodles. The pad grapao tofu was okay, but didn't have enough garlic and sauce and basil, the tofu was a bit boring. The yam woon sen was too sweet and didn't seem to have any lime juice. But the glass noodles were right and once we added Chili's and asked for lots of lime (squeezed on top ourselves) it was much better. Giving 4 stars because it is closer to authentic than other places here.

[1] I've been to Thailand 5 times, taken cooking courses there and practiced cooking Thai food many times on my own, so I like to think I have a decent understanding of how Thai food...

We visited this restaurant on 26th January, 2days ago, for wanting to have some authentic thai food based on high rating. We ordered red thai curry, rice ( as thai sticky rice wasn't available) and cheesy crispy fried. Food was a complete disappointment. Red curry had no coconut milk at all, it was watery with few regular vegetables. No red red and yellow pepper, no zuccini, no broccoli. Cheesy fries had only sparingly spread grated cheese. Rice was very ordinary quality. Overall tasteless food. Never again to try authentic...