Tongtara Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Nelson

As a frequent consumer of Thai food, it was time to give Tongtara a try. While I had eaten here before, it had been years ago. I remember my first experience fondly, so was looking forward to this visit. We were seated, served a bottle of water and drink orders were taken. The drinks arrived and we then ordered our dinner. We took advantage of the Silver level group deal, 4 people get a selection of entrees, a main each and ice cream all for $34 each. The first course arrived quickly. The chicken nibbles were tasty, although somewhat small serving, A lot of vegetable spring rolls and some other bits and pieces. Our mains arrived and they were fine. The most successful was the beef masaman, which was rich a flavourful. I ordered the chicken cashew nut stir fry and it was tasty. The vegetables could be a little fresher, but the flavour was good. The only complaint here was that the main took 30+ minutes to come out after the entrees were finished, and this time was noticeable. Dessert was ice cream with a sauce selection and this was OK too. Not the best Thai in town, I prefer Chokdee on the corner, but a good effort and appreciate...

Been a regular customer at Tongtara since 2018, so all the more galling what happened. Put in a take away order last Sunday and picked it up. They've changed to paper bags for the order presumably to cut down on plastic use. Drove home with order on son's lap. When we got back to the house he said it was leaking over his lap. Picked it up at which point the bag was disintegrating and leaking over my lap and then trying to get to house the bag fully disintegrated and dropped the meals over the drive. I called the restaurant and their first reaction was 'that couldn't possibly have happened' (why would I be ringing?). Their second reaction was 'well it was fine when I left the restaurant therefor my fault'. Their third reaction was disinterest and 'what do you want me to do about it?' Given that I was a long time customer I felt I would be treated better than just being a trouble maker and would at least have had some acknowledgement of the issue and an apology. Consequently they have lost a regular customer - beware if you have issues they don't...

Come from Christchurch lastnight and got a takeaway order $96 in total, worked out to be 2 plates worth,rice was dry all food was lacking flavour of traditional Thai that we are use to having,the worst part was the chicken nibbles that looked and tasted like they had been in a warming drawer for 3 days before being served ,the portion to price ratio was pretty bad i mean you wouldn't get anyone through the doors paying nearly $50 a plate for average tasteless food,I also asked for thai hot..and got not hot, they may do a little better for dine as if they served the same quality as the takeaway I got lastnight inside the restaurant they wouldn't be getting paid for it.🤷‍♂️the ribs were "ok" but still not something we would...