Thailander — Restaurant in Porto

Unfortunately, we thought Friday night get in early in this highly recommended restaurant in google map to expect our familiar food but it comes impressively to really bad experience from how we look and where we from. We have been welcoming by a male staff as we didn’t have any reservations he guided us to ground floor for a table. As an Asian we don’t know what happened to the female lady while taking the order; I didn’t understand her that moment so that she needed to repeat again and again. Yeah, we are Asian. U do have accent as well that make her unhappy. “She went back to counter her face expression presented all her emotions. Especially the way she tried to make the face as the way we talked …to her workmates in the meantime the guy looked at us “I totally get it. What ashamed; same as Asian background that we can’t tolerate these. However it seems making difficulties to a staff. Even I don’t know how to? I did say “sorry ,I didn’t get it?” And she was staring and with a long face slowed down to repeat what she said in her Korean accent.I do work overseas I know how the situation was.

Interesting 🤔 but she was really nice manner to those people especially not Asian look,and laugh together. People said “Don’t take it personally,” but the time you wait for ur food you can see the staff peeking 👀 from kitchen,from the counter …how they react to these “what a manner” …if u don’t like serve Asian we don’t ask you for, honestly. “U r not happy,so are we.”the whole process was really uncomfortable.

But there is Asian guy such a good manner ;the way he down to our level talking to us..apologised for the things out of the stock~ really need to highlighted. And he was also the one welcoming us to...

Thailander truly has my heart. It is, from my personal view, the gold standard for how a restaurant should operate. They are thoughtful of their decor and maintain high standards for cleanliness, while still offering a menu at decent prices (especially for Asian food). It is one of the few restaurants here that have not inflated their prices and lowered their quality of both food and service, despite the overwhelming boom in tourism/immigration over the last few years.

They also have incredibly kind and attentive employees who always greet us with a smile. Shawn checks in to make sure that the flavour/quality of our dishes are up to par, Lee is thoughtful to remember our orders and jokes with us, and Mateus is always helping us with our Portuguese (apologies if my spelling is incorrect!).

And last but not least, the food is always delicious; the balance of umami, sweetness, and spiciness is ideal to me. We typically come for lunch here, and their set menu is an awesome deal; it’s an appetizer, main (which is a rotation of three regular entrees and you get to choose the protein - chicken, pork, and tofu I believe), and a drink. The quality and quantity of food makes it a great deal for the price. My notable favorites are the pad thai, pad prik pao, duck massaman curry, and their thom yum soup. Yes, the food takes a bit longer to come out, but I don’t mind because they make everything fresh.

We always leave feeling satiated and happy. They’ve truly made it impossible to go to any other Thai...

First off, I have to admit this small Thai restaurant impressed me with their menu. The have most of the common street food like Pad Thai, Tom Yam, Pad See Ew, Mango Stick Rice, Red and Green Curry. And then some like Khao Soi which is a Northern Thailand dish and Larb which is a pork dish not commonly found in Thai restaurants in Europe.

I ordered the set menu and choose fried spring roll, drunken noodles and water. And added mango stick rice. The spring roll was good. Freshly fried, it was served piping hot and the crispy skin gave way and fell off in pieces in every crunchy bite. The fillings inside made up of jicamas strips and black fungus (I think) were very juicy. Nice.

The Pad Kee Mao (drunken noodles) was not cooked with broad rice noodles (of course you cannot get the fresh type like in Thailand) but with Pad Thai type chewy rice noodles. And the smell of lemongrass comes across immediately when the dish lands in front of you. But right there, any resemblance of the real thing stops with the exception of spiciness. Carrots and zucchini were added. Abundance of sliced pork too. Be warned that the spice level in this dish is quite serious. And I am no pushover when it comes to chilli.

The mangoes used in their Mango sticky rice was sweet but they lacked fragrance. Not sure where they were sourced from.

Total damage was Euros 19.65 (added another bottle of still water to quench the heat from the Pad...