Thai Chef's Restaurant New Plymouth — Restaurant in North Island

Terrible Experience - Avoid This Place!

If I could give zero stars, I would. This was hands down the WORST dining experience I've ever had.

Poor Service: We ordered just two main dishes for four people (clearly mentioned we were sharing while ordering). Yet, the clueless waitress kept asking if we needed big plates to share. How else were we supposed to eat? Isn’t that common sense?

Soup Disaster: Ordered a main-sized soup, and it arrived cold. When I asked for a candle to keep it warm (as most decent Thai restaurants do), they said they don’t provide candles.

Lack of Basics: They brought us the soup without bowls. When we asked for them, the response was, “Oh, do you need bowls? Fine, I’ll get them.” Excuse me? That’s not a favor; it’s basic service!

Horrible Food: The taste of the food was abysmal. We tried the “Spicy Girl” tofu dish, and it was disgusting—absolutely inedible.

Overall Experience: The food and service were equally terrible. We’ve dined at Thai Chef branches in Auckland (when it was open) and Christchurch, and they were fantastic. This New Plymouth branch is an absolute disgrace.

If you’re local and don’t know better, maybe you’ll tolerate it. But as a tourist, I strongly recommend staying away. It’s nothing like the high-quality experience you’d expect from a Thai Chef restaurant.

Don’t waste your time...

Terrible food! Don't go there! You will be disappointed. My friend and I had two different curries. Now I can only speak for mine what it tasted like. It was the "spicy girl with chicken" curry. But the chicken was so overcooked and dry that I actually suspect this was yesterday's leftovers just sitting there stewing away getting drier and drier. The Sauce, if you can call it that, was so watery it was slushing around on my plate. Not a nice flavor. We both ordered the dishes to be medium spicy and mine was but my friends was not. Absolutely nothing in it. Another negative point

When paying I complained the chicken was dry and I was told no no no chicken is nice and tender and juicy. I said well you go to the kitchen and try it yourself, it was dry as a bone. There is a takeaway in Westown that makes a most beautiful Chop Suey with chicken that really is tender and juicy. Cost $20 and is enough for two people... just saying. This food was not worth what we paid for it.

My friends dish had ingredients he didn't want like egg which are not mentioned on the menu. When I told the front of house we were not impressed and we weren't coming back he said okay don't come back. We so sorry.

I will definitely never go back there again. And I warn other people to be careful. Don't believe the raving reviews.. Total waste of...

Really disappointing experience. Tried to book in the day but email bounced so was unable to make a reservation for a Sunday. Would have called to book but they were closed in the day. The times say they are open till 9pm so watched the sunset and arrived for dinner at 8pm and that’s when the problems began.

We were instantly met with a reluctance to be seated and told we had to order within 5 minutes and could only order mains. They kept coming over telling us we only had minutes to order even though we were trying to read the menu and were rushed into picking dishes and drinks as the waitress was hovering at the table.

When the food came out it was pretty average and there were no chopsticks and sloppy presentation, could tell it had been cooked and dumped on a plate.

Once finished and the plates cleared, at 8:50 before even finishing our drinks we were told to leave the restaurant even though there were other tables still there.

We appreciate they close at 9pm but have never been in a situation where a customer has been rushed to finished their meals or drinks before closing.

After the absolute whirlwind it left us feeling we hadn’t even been out for dinner. Most definitely will not be returning or recommending any Thai chefs to...