Thaikhun — Restaurant in Bath

We came into Thaikhun in good spirits, but our experience quickly turned sour due to one particular staff member, a short Asian woman with a bob haircut and glasses. From the very beginning, her attitude was incredibly rude and dismissive. As soon as we sat down, she immediately asked what we wanted to eat without giving us any time to settle in. Normally, servers first ask about drinks and then return for food orders, but she skipped this completely, meaning half our table never even got to order drinks.

When one of my family members asked about the size of a water bottle (since she only wanted one for herself), the server just said “small” in a very unhelpful way. The bottle then came out large. When my family member politely asked for it to be changed, the server scoffed and laughed, acting as if this basic request was a huge inconvenience. Only when she was directly called out on her attitude did she back off, but she continued being standoffish and unprofessional.

The manager (avg height, ponytail) was then brought over, but instead of resolving things, they doubled down, saying that changes to food or drinks were an “inconvenience.” At this point, it was only a water bottle size being corrected, and the mistake had been the server’s fault in the first place. This made the whole situation worse and left half of us avoiding ordering drinks altogether because it felt like we were burdening the staff just by asking. To add insult to injury, we had asked for service water for the table at the start and never received it.

What made the experience even more uncomfortable is that we are Asian ourselves (Southeast Asian), yet this staff member treated us with clear disdain. It’s hard not to feel as though her rudeness may have been racially motivated, which is extremely disappointing and unacceptable in a hospitality setting.

Thankfully, later we were served by another staff member (her name started with L, with tattoos on one arm), who was polite, attentive, and genuinely improved our experience. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. The rudeness from the first server, paired with the dismissive attitude from the manager, left us feeling unwelcome and disrespected.

Overall, while we appreciated the kindness of the second server, the rest of the experience was so unpleasant that I cannot give more...

Pretty poor overall experience. Firstly it was frowned upon that I turned up at a restaurant without a reservation by the front of house staff, how dare I....

I was first told maybe they cannot fit me, the venue was busy but I could see quite a few 2 seater tables dotted around, I was given a table with no wait, unnecessary frosty reception. I was seated right at the back by the toilet in what was pretty much an alley way to the kitchen. I asked to move but the front of house ignored this. As it was busy I asked the server if there was a wait on food as at this point I was considering leaving they told me up to 20 minutes, again a frosty and not well received response, as if I was in the wrong for asking such a question. The whole order experience was again pretty unfriendly from the server. Food arrived fairly quickly in less than 15 minutes, was pretty much thrown onto my table, I appreciate they were busy but a little bit of personable care would go a long way here. Coconut prawns had no taste and certainly no coconut flavour and were left in the fryer too long. Massaman curry was ok, but for £13 it was a fairly pathetic portion considering rice was not included, 2 Half's of a new potato in the dish was as said awfully portioned. After my meal I wasn't offered anything else and was just thrown the bill pretty soon after my plate was cleared, I had a voucher so asked to have the voucher cost removed and the server went away to do so without a reply or acknowledgement. As listed on the bill optional service charge was also automatically added to my bill which I paid, rather than having to deal with the un-friendly waitress and ask them to remove the charge.

All in all, not authentic tasting, not even good tasting, I think you'd get a better curry from the M&S microwave section, for a 3rd of the cost and not have to deal with unfriendly staff along the way who seemed to just want to get the next set of cash through the door.

Lesson learnt, don't go somewhere because of a voucher, plenty of other Thai restaurants in the Bath which I'm sure are way better, better priced and...

The service was awful. Wait staff were inattentive especially when it came to asking questions about the dishes, and ordering food. Another lady (aside from the waiter) rudely put the food at the corner of the table instead of in front of the patron which I thought was bizarre considering that placing food in front of the customer is a rather standard practice in restaurants. I asked the waiter to reduce the spice on a curry (I also asked if it was possible to which she said it was) but the food was still very spicy.

When I complained to a man who seemed to be the floor manager, he seemed rather disinterested and told me, 'that's how it's supposed to be'. Unacceptable, as I did make my preferences clear for the spice to be reduced, and I was told it was possible before ordering. I suspect the sauce itself was pre-made so actually they couldn't alter the spice level even if they wanted to; suggesting that the food is not freshly prepared on-site. This in hindsight not only makes the floor manager's statement rather ridiculous, but it gives patrons a clue of the low quality, fast-food nature of the dishes' preparation. This is particularly noticeable because in other Thai restaurants, they generally have a lot of flexibility with how a dish (particularly curries) is prepared and served. Thaikhun could perhaps learn something from them, if nothing else.

Further, they didn't even take the food away as I ordered something different to replace it. I waited about five minutes before I requested the waiter directly to remove the food I did not want from the table. Again, this is something that should have happened automatically, as I told the waiter that I did not like the dish. As someone who frequents restaurants, these expectations I have from service staff are rather basic, so this experience was disappointing. If you are going to operate a business in the food & hospitality industry, it might help to teach your staff about the 'hospitality'...