The Royal Thai Taste — Restaurant in Crawley

Firstly, where to begin...I was taken here on valentines by my girlfriend which I thought was a nice surprise as it was somewhere we both had, had lots of recommendations for and have wanted to try for a long time. We were barely greeted at the door. When taken to our table the menus were slid onto the table out of our hands. We waited 15mins with no drinks taken so we had to put our hands up to catch the eye of one of the waiters who looked like he would rather have been anywhere else. The restaurant was nicely decorated and seemed to look authentic which was pleasant. Once our drinks arrived which was around another 15mins later baring in mind all we had was a coke and fanta, we decided to order all of our food at once. We then waited at least 30mins for our starter which was by the looks of it a very popular starter for valentines day. After finishing the starter we then had to wait a further 35-40minutes for our main by which point I was ready to leave and just pay for what we had. We at the point of waiting 35mins give or take decided to ask a waiter how long our mains would be and he replied saying that he would find out. He came back after around 5 minutes saying that we were after another table and he proceeded to point to the table we were going to be after so we would know that once they receiver their food, we would be next which completed baffled me and my girlfriend immensely. The waiter who was dressed in all black seemed very sweet and was completed helpful however he wasn't assigned to our table instead we got a middle aged man who wouldn't know basic customer service or manners if it lived on the tip of his nose. I'm not sure whether my race intimated him or the fact that we were a couple, either was he was rude when taking our orders and at one point I had given my order and he said "YOU" to my girlfriend implying he was ready to take her order. We realised at some point that the tap water we asked for never came which was another reason we felt unhappy at our service. The main was bland and lacking any sort of authentic flavour and the starter was weird and very unsatisfying, basically it did not work. When the main arrived we asked for the bill to come too as we expressed we were very displeased with the service, staff and food. The kind waiter did try and persuade us otherwise however at this point we had made up our minds and to be frank we very excited to leave. My girlfriend asked for the service that is automatically gets added to the receipt to be taken off which I was fully in support of. The waiter proceeded to apologise even though he had nothing to say sorry about. As we were eating our mains we noticed a couple had been seated beside us and they had be given tap water which we were not and also complimentary popadoms and thai crackers as well as a finger bowl none of which we had got given. At this point it felt personal and very unfair. We did notice at one point a couple complaining about 3 meals added to their receipt that they had not ordered and so they wanted them removed before paying which me and my girlfriend found to be strange due to the restaurant being what looked like a converted conservatory. My girlfriend was unable to sit there and complete her main as she felt uncomfortable and just ready to leave so asked for a container of some sort to take her curry home with us, however she was given an aluminium tray with paper lid and so the curry leaked into the carrier bag given to us which was a shame. To sum up we will never step foot in there ever again even if they paid us. Valentines was a flop unfortunately due to lack of customer service and being exposed to such a slow service. Glad to have it all...

Amazing Pad Thai, beautiful restaurant and lovely service! A gem in Crawley!

We came here on our way back from Hever castle. We had crispy duck panaeng, roast duck curry, steamed fish with lemon and chillies and prawn pad Thai. Everything was delicious but the panaeng and Pad Thai were showstoppers. It’s quite hard to find Thai restaurants that do crispy duck panaeng because the extra effort of having to deep fry the duck so I was so glad to see that they had it and it was deeeelicous. And then there’s the Pad Thai - just top! The best pad Thai I’ve had in the UK, oozy with the right sauces and not just some cheap ketchup/sriracha combo, lots of prawns and has a good hint of wokhei. Central London has lots of top places that cooks spicy, adventurous and exciting Thai dishes but it’s still so hard to find a good example of this famous dish that isn’t just dried fried noodles.

The staff are polite and friendly. Decor is lovely and ambience is nice and relaxed. Love that the chef puts effort in carving fruit to decorate the dishes. Haven’t seen this in a while and it’s so nice to see because fruit carving is beautiful Thai tradition that people don’t know much...

What’s happened here???? Not many tables taken , The staff especially the owner, they use to be so friendly, no hello how are you today? No chit chat at all, takes 20minutes just to order your drink, only the manager takes the orders, while the rest of the staff flit around tables with no customers on them, when the starters came out it was amazing, but not one word was said, not even enjoy your meal, then when we had our mains the meat was really terrible, so full of fat we actually left it, we were hoping for the staff - someone just to ask how our meal was but no one came to ask, at one point we thought the staff had left the building you couldn’t find anyone!!! When someone from out back came to collect the plates nothing was said , we told them we were disappointed with the meat dish, they said they would let the manager know, when we got the bill, the dish wasn’t taken off, but a hefty 20% service charge added, we asked them to remove it which they did, normally the food is brilliant but the customer service was truly awful and I must say the last time we visited here the service was pretty bad then, I hope that...