Starlake Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in North Island

I'll start and finish on a positive note; most of the staff are very friendly and mostly Thai giving Starlake an air of authenticity. We have been here five times in the last eight months, dining in on three occasions, takeaway twice. To be frank, the Takeaway option is more preferable and therefore our recommendation because if you phone your order in, you time the pick up for when it's ready and you're away back home to enjoy what is undeniably fantastic food, no waiting, no frustration, no ear-pod boy!

Yes, the (I think) Chinese guy who always seems to work the bar and has absolutely no interaction or communication with customers, wears ear-pods all the time which is a terrible look and in my books, an absolute no no in Hospitality! It basically declares that ....'I am not here for you, don't approach me, don't talk to me, don't hassle me'..... which makes you wonder why he's in Hospitality in the first place - the ear-pods need to go!

On two out of our three dining in experiences we have had to wait for unacceptably long periods before being served initially and then again before actually receiving our meals which haven't come out at the same time but have been staggered over a 5 - 10 minute period (not a guess, we timed it). Last night - Sunday 3rd January 2021 - our booking was for nine people at 7pm but our table wasn't ready so we had to wait outside for 15-minutes with my mother on crutches having recently broken her hip. Once seated it took 17-minutes before we were approached and asked if we were ready to order only for the waitress to realise we hadn't been given menus yet. Once we had those it took another 12-minutes to see if we were ready to order only for her to realise she hadn't given us a drinks list so she went and got three of those and gave us time to look at them.

Anyway, it was a 7pm booking, we received our first meals at 8:47pm the last one came out at 9:03pm so although we had plenty of time to chat and have a few drinks and the place and staff are lovely, the service and waiting time really do need to be addressed to make this restaurant worthy of five stars. It was exactly like this with ear-pod boy ignoring everyone and food taking a long time when we dined in in May 2020.

Why do we keep coming back? At the end of the day, the food is...

Bland overcooked food from the takeaways. The satay was tasteless and the veggies had no sauce on them, just watery stuff. The nasi goreng tasted nothing like nasi goreng. The chicken in the tom yum was hard and dry. Chicken wings were overcooked. I emailed a complaint with photos as we live 1hr return drive away. I got dismissive and increasingly rude responses. We will never go back. We have been customers for years. Friends and family Ive spoken to about this have had similar experiences with the declining quality of the takeaway. Our $100 takeaways basically...

Staff was very racist. Name on the receipt is Amy, I asked for a bag which i was happy to pay for and when it came time to collecting my food from the takeaway part the gentleman in front of me who brought a bag and didnt need one got one for free and when I got my food they gave it without a bag despite the fact I was walking home. I asked for a bag politely and they just moved onto the next customer and where to busy to care so I left.

The food was also average at best and priced very high for its quality as the sauce was really watery. Dont think I would...