Lotus Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in North Island

We asked to book a table for 4 and we’re told we could only book for 6pm (which was way too early for us) but we agreed being NYE. When we arrived we were only the second table and when we left there were 11 tables still empty. Although the service was good, my only constructive criticism there would be that they are constantly clearing glasses and plates while people are still eating. We had to ask them to stop taking the plates away as we were still eating with them even trying to take away food we hadn’t finished. This interrupts the conversation and doesn’t happen with good training. The staff were all very sweet and polite so nothing else to say there. However, the reason for the one star is the food itself. My dad ordered the chicken tom yum soup, he received the seafood tom yum soup, which we just accepted as a mistake and he ate it anyway. (Keeping in mind we were of only two tables in the restaurant occupied). Three entrees came out and one came out 10 minutes later, no one told us it was running late even though the others at the table were waiting and not eating with theirs going cold. My dad got the beef green curry and the beef was over cooked and curry had no flavour, had too much coconut cream in it. Very hard to mess up a green curry and Tom yum soup to be fair! My partner got the tom yum soup and ordered mild, his was so packed with chilli flakes and again, no flavour and he could not drink the soup. He could only eat the veggies from the soup and he can eat hot food… so this was not mild. Please note there’s a hot and a “Thai hot” and he ordered mild. I got the veggie green curry and mine also had no flavour, filled with coconut cream and had cashews all in it but was not mentioned in the menu. The vegetarian menu had only four options for the mains and three options for entrees and it was a big menu. We absolutely expected more for a Thai restaurant and especially one that states vegetarian friendly. Not once did anyone ask for feedback on the meals which is most likely a major factor in the bad food. Again, staff very nice but need much better training. We have no idea how they don’t have a lower star rating for this restaurant considering the food. We did not enjoy the food...

Definitely a two star experience. A group of us made a large order ($190) on Saturday evening. We ordered at 7:40 and told it would be a 25 minute wait. When a couple of the girls arrived at the restaurant they were told to have a seat. They enquired about how long before the order would be ready a few times, which the staff kept saying 'it's coming soon'. They did not get the order in hand until 9pm (1 hour 20 mins wait from order to hand). I can appreciate it was a large order on a Saturday evening, but if we were informed about the long wait (not 25 mins), we would have just spent our time at home instead of sitting in a restaurant waiting. A couple who came into the store and ordered at the counter while we were sitting there received their takeaway meals before us.

Furthermore, when we arrived home and opened our food, the Massaman curry wasn't in the bag and the Yellow Curry that we also had ordered had been mislabeled '24' to indicate it was the Massaman. It was too late in the evening to go back to amend the order and wait for longer.

Pro - The price of the curry are the cheapest in Taupo as far as we're aware. So...

I’d say we had an okay experience. We ordered the crispy pork and garlic and the red curry. The pork dish was actually very tasty, but the red curry was so creamy it was a bit off putting. And to make things worse, we asked for both dishes to be hot (spicy) and other than a bit of chilli oil on the top of the curry there was absolutely no heat to be found. Very disappointing as usually at authentic Thai restaurants that we have been to around NZ, and in Thailand, “hot” dishes burn my lips in a great way (and “Thai hot” is beyond my ability!) but at this place I think if you want it to be spicy you will have to try Thai Hot as Hot was not even a little bit spicy. To be fair it was extremely busy so service was a little slow and nobody checked on us after we got our meals which meant we couldn’t ask for extra chilli (or more drinks which we were hoping to order) but that is forgivable as almost all tables were filled and I understand how difficult service can be in times like that. However wouldn’t return purely based on the food quality and lack of heat as we definitely prefer more...