Thai Siam Wanaka — Restaurant in South Island

Summer 2023 Review

We almost didn't eat here Tuesday night because of so many recent reviews saying it's not good. Well, glad we didn't listen to those people! This is a repeat place for us as we ate here in 2019 during our first visit to NZ and we liked it then. Well, we still like it now!

The food is fresh and delicious. They made my husband's order right. He can't do anything spicy and no coriander (cilantro). The waitress was very good in disclosing that there may be traces (which he can do). We let her know that it just can't be intentional putting in of spicy (anything capsaicin) or coriander.

I went with a different dish than my usual. I tried the Sizzling Cashew Chicken. It was tasty. Had lots of veggies! Sauce is sweet and a tad sour. I liked it. It is simply a personal reference that I wouldn't order it again because I prefer milder, lighter, and less sweet of a sauce. My fav-go-to is the the Thai basil and spicy. So, just be aware that this dish comes with lots of sauce. (I'm not sure if normally this dish is spicy or not. Mine wasn't.)

Husband had the Cashew Chicken. Delicious! I liked his sauce more than mine.

Both of our dishes had cauliflower which was a bonus for me. Not normally something we see served up with our Thai dishes in the US.

We shared a bowl of steamed white rice. (It is an extra charge. Nothing fatal.)

Is the wait time long? Yes. BUT! Every place we have gone to during this summer vacation has been 40+ minute wait times. So. Not sure why people are complaining so much in their reviews. It's just a thing with restaurants. They are understaffed. I feel bad for them. They do have signs up notifying of long wait time. We went prepared with our Kindle and Nooks. Got in some reading time. We got seated right away and got to sit and read in comfort while they made our food. The places was packed and they were smart to cut off outdoor seating. They don't try and squeeze in every customer, as they are bountiful, instead they focus on what they can handle.

It was great to be back and had a wonderful first night dine...

I am a firm believer that when you order food it should be of a quality that exceeds what is able to be produced by the average home cook. After a day of work my family and friends were looking forward to sharing a nice meal and are disappointed with the quality, freshness and value of our meals. We ordered Thai beef salad ($30), seafood salad ($30) and a green curry. Granted the green curry was good the salads were far below the expected standard. The beef “salad” was about 10 pieces of beef a small pile of coleslaw, onion and 2 lettuce leaves. The seafood salad contained what tasted like frozen prawns, squid and tiny mussels all not fresh and far below what was expected for a $30 salad. Those of us that ordered salads had an expectation of far more food for the price and have been left hungry and disappointed. The pictures on the website showed large portions and well presented meals with greenery not the tiny, soggy slop which we received. It is a shame as there is so much potential and as many people have had before a Thai salad can be great. However this meal has not been satisfactory and has not met the expected quality as shown by the website. It would have been a better idea to cook this meal for ourselves at half the cost and it is for this reason that we will not...

This is in addition to the review left by a member of our party two days ago regarding RAW CHICKEN. My family and I ate at your restaurant on Monday evening. We were a party of 4 seated near the front windows TABLE 7. We ordered two serves of spring rolls, one serve of satay chicken skewers. One serve chicken fried rice, red beef curry and chicken pad Thai. The entrees were very nice. However there was at least one piece of raw chicken in the chicken fried rice. Your observation that all foods were fully consumed in your restaurant that night is absolutely incorrect. We had one small spoonful of the pad Thai and maybe two tablespoons of the red curry. We left our main courses uneaten after discovering the raw chicken. I really am loathe to leave you a bad review. Your restaurant is beautiful inside however serving raw chicken is simply dangerous and can be catastrophic to both your business and someone's health. You were obviously very busy and quite rushed as evidenced by the sporadic way the food came out. I would say you were understaffed and underprepared resulting in your chicken being served raw. The receipt details for your reference are 3rd July 18:48...