Zab Thai Food Takeaway — Restaurant in Christchurch

I had been wanting to order from here for ages after hearing good things about this place from Friends. Finally had the opportunity tonight and my review is a little mixed.

After reading the other reviews I knew that there would likely be a long waiting time for the food. They opened at 4:30pm, and we called through to order at around 5:10pm. They quoted a wait time of 1 hour and 15 minutes. We were happy with this as we had called in early.

The wait time ended up being pretty accurate - which was good service. When my partner came to collect around 6:30ish another person came into order and left pretty quickly after being quoted a 2 hour wait time for food. This seems like a major issue for this place - they can’t handle many orders as there is only one guy cooking the food.

We ordered mild chicken green curry and chicken Pad Thai. The portion size of the Pad Thai was great and the Pad Thai was good. For $15 this was great value for money but taste wise was not anything amazing.

Unfortunately the big let down for me was the green curry which was what I was most looking forward to / craving the most. Green curry is my usual dish at places at little high, thai orchard etc.

On the phone the lady asked if we wanted the curry mild, medium or hot. We said mild and she repeated back to us that it was mild we were ordering. My Partner can handle a bit a spice, but I can’t so I always like to get mild to get a mild spice flavour or no spice at all.

THE CURRY TASTED LIKE SPICY WATER. I’m certain I was probably given a hot curry by mistake because it was so hot I couldn’t eat any of it. My partner also said it was very hot and he couldn’t have a lot of it due to the bland flavour / texture. I can acknowledge when a dish is spicy and flavourful - however all you could taste was spicy water. It was horrible and went straight into the bin which is a real shame. No nice curry texture, coconut or anything. I wouldn’t recommend the curry even if you could handle the spice. No flavour, bland and tasted awful - the spice didn’t even match the flavour profile of a typical spicy green curry.

Due to the fuss with the waiting time, probably won’t come back here again as it’s not really worth it. Very...

This place used to be amazing a year or two ago. Great food and good quality for the cheap price.

Unfortunately, the institute of Zab Thai has gone down hill and has crashed at the bottom of the hill. With the shortage of hours and no lunch special anymore, I am disappointed but understandable due to staff shortages. But now they won’t open for lunch anymor even with hiring people.

I tried to give Zab Thai three chances. My wife and I love the red curry and pad Thai here. But for a third time in a row I am disappointed. It just isn’t like it used to be. Such inconsistency in the taste and flavour. My wife had a strong red curry flavour which was somehow watery. And my red curry has seemed to have all her coconut milk as my red curry was more of a yellow cream colour than red at all. And this is not the first time taste has been lost in the meal. Just poor flavour and the veggies aren’t cooked all the way through and don’t both saying a spice level anymore. Everything is just mild.

Lastly, the people managing the phones need to be trained better at estimating time. I understand it is one man cooking but if I will be waiting for an hour and a half for food I would like to know that and not to be told 30 minutes to then have to wait another hour. I would happily wait two hours for Zab Thai two years ago. This has happened twice to me now. This was always a go to takeout spot as it is one of the few places to do authentic Thai but now there are better options. It is sad as this place was an institute for the area as being the best Thai places in chch. But now I can’t say that. All I can say now is that go somewhere else as even non authentic Thai food would be better. Gosh just go down the road and get fish and chips. That will have more flavour than the food lately.

I really hope they pick up and get back to the quality they...

Heard good things about it so thought we'd try it out. So for a Friday evening we ordered a couple of dishes, pretty early on around 530 pm. Were told on the phone it would be one hour and fifteen minutes wait, that was certainly surprising, but hey thought it must be good if that's the case. Partner we to pick up. On arrival there were two staff on the front counter and only one in the kitchen who appeared to be doing everything. Not sure why you'd have it set like that but whatever. Anyway food ended up taking a little over 1.5 hours before it was ready. We actually asked for a refund after about an hour 20min as were over waiting, but they said it was almost ready. Anyway got it home eventually and tucked in. It wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't great either, pretty average which was a disappointment. For the price it was ok. But that wait,...