Thai Orchid Restaurant — Restaurant in Christchurch

Visited here for the first time after receiving a voucher as a Christmas present with my partner and found the staff to be very friendly and welcoming but once seated at our table we noticed it was clearly under staffed as there only appeared to be three staff members on the floor running around taking orders,bringing out meals to tables,clearing tables,trying to keep up with the demand of online delivery and manning the desk all the while more people were turning up waiting to be seated at a table!...What astonished me was the fact that none of the staff were wearing any masks which I assumed is mandatory in hospitality??? however they did ask to see our vaccine passes and had sanatiser on the counter..While seated at our table I decided to pour a glass of water which was luke warm so had obviously been sitting out at room temperature for awhile,it didn't worry me too much but I would of expected the water to of been chilled...My partner ordered an en'tree which arrived within 15-20 minutes to the table and he thoroughly enjoyed it but no clean cutlery was offered to him for his main nor a clean serviette which was disappointing and unhygienic but the biggest let down was the amount of time it took for our mains to arrive nearly an hour and that was before the place started filling up with people...When our mains did finally arrive the presentation was beautiful,I had the spicy lemon salmon dish and my partner had the chicken pad mamuang and we both really enjoyed our meals,the portion size was decent and the authentic Thai flavours were there so well done to the chef!...Our friendly waiter did eventually come over and ask us how our meals were and we did ask him for some more water in which this time the water arrived chilled to our table.We did notice another fourth staff member on the floor during our main which was good to see as he was definitely needed from the amount of patrons walking in the door...I decided to have a dessert to finish off my meal so I chose the sticky rice in which I was told they had run out of mango but could substitute with pineapple so I was ok with that unfortunately my dessert took over 25 minutes to arrive and I was less than impressed because it should not of taken this long when you can see there is not much to it and I felt for $15 this was not value for money and looked like there had been no "love" gone into it in terms of presentation ...I don't normally write such long reviews but after last nights experience I felt the need to because what could of been a great dining experience was sadly let down by the lack of service and while I admit they were busy they should of had more staff on deck to...

Went here based on all the glowing reviews. I’ve never been to a place where I have wanted to walk out several times. The whole vibe here was weird. We walked in and were ignored for 10mins while the wait staff walked past several times. We were finally acknowledged from a man, albeit on a balcony upstairs. We got snapped at for not having a booking and were told that when they have live music you need to book. We aren’t locals so how did we know they had live music on. The place was pretty quiet anyway, plenty of tables everywhere. We got given a seat outside but the overall ambience was a bit muddled there was the remains of a gazebo and old furniture shoved into the corner of the garden and strange high tables that really weren’t practical for eating a meal (fine for a bar perhaps) We had to ask several times if we could order as we were left sitting while other tables that had arrived after us had ordered and had their drinks. After maybe 30mins we finally could order, the waiter took our drinks order and said he would come back to take our food order (even though we had indicated we wanted to order food now) about 15mins later a different guy appeared and decided to explain the menu (it was a bit condescending and lectured us, like we weren’t able to read) looking back on other reviews someone mentioned this guy is a bit like a used car salesman. Thats exactly how I would describe it. After telling him we were ready to order he said he would come back. This was really frustrating as we had indicated several times we wanted to order food but we couldn’t. Eventually he came back and we placed our order. Instantly he started pushing us to other dishes that we should order instead. I really disliked this- I appreciate a recommendation but this was far from that. After explaining our mind was already made up he admitted defeat and took our food order. The food came out quickly (thankfully) because at this point we were hungry. The food was ok. Certainly nothing amazing. Based on our experience and the price I certainly won’t be back and would struggle to recommend this...

If I could give this 0 stars I would. My partner and I have never been made to feel so utterly uncomfortable - hands down the worst dining experience we’ve ever experienced. Upon arrival the host counter was a mess with dirty dishes piled up, unsightly and plausibly unsanitary. We eventually were acknowledged and offered a table, only after being walked through the generic menu like we’d never seen a menu before. The manager gives bad used car sales men energy. We had the misfortune of arriving on live music Sunday which was not planned, the paid musicians were generally good, however, it was hard to hear them over the table adjacent to us which had some has beens enjoying a bottle or few cooing along. Our order was eventually taken by the manager, who promptly delivered the two “crazy horse beer” (surely speights) but the starter we ordered never came. A second person took our main order and after the dishes arrived we waited 5 minutes for cutlery to eat all while the owner and other staff walked about the restaurant with a drink in their hand and taking photos and videos of the patrons signing along to the music. By this time we’d been asked to help sing along ‘let it be’ while trying to eat and have an non consented video taken of us. We got through our generic, salty and overpriced food as fast as we could but not before we could avoid having another staff member take a video of the live music and patrons, table by table. It was absolutely awful and unsure if complies with the privacy act. We went to pay and we’re offered Easter desserts, hearing for the third time “what a day!” from the used car salesmen host. Half way through paying our tab he left to talk to someone else, we paid and proceeded to take the chance to make our move out when he realised we’d left before he could get the last line in.. we hurried away and he follows us out into the street to try and say thanks or something. We will never be back and deeply regret having ever set foot inside. We will be sure to tell anyone looking for dinner recommendations in the area to give this...