Kala Thai Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in England

I was pretty excited to try this restaurant and as we walked in, I liked the atmosphere and the decor. The waiting staff seemed quite friendly. The menu looked pretty good too! I'm vegetarian and I don’t like tofu, but as it was the only option for me, I thought I would give it a try. It was a bit pricey with having to order a curry and rice and the prices being separate, but I assumed it must be good for the price.

For starters I ordered vegetable spring rolls, and my friend ordered the duck ones. The service seemed pretty good still at this point. the waiter told us which were which and gave the to the appropriate people. Vegetable ones for me. The restaurant must have been just under half full. When our food arrived, it looked tasty! I started eating my spring rolls and thought something was a bit off... Ends up the waiter gave me the meat ones and was wrong when putting them on the table. I was absolutely devastated. It was my friends leaving meal, so I did not want to put up a fuss, but I have been veggie for 4 years and in all that time this had never happened before. When we told the staff, the waiter came over and said he struggled to hear the kitchen staff through the mask. This excuse is not good enough. If he did not hear then he should have asked again. The incident turned my stomach and when my main arrived I could not eat it. We got the starters for free but by then the damage was done. I would have hoped we would have got a free drink so I could drown my sorrows in a nice cocktail, but no, this was not the case and then the staff did not come back over to the table for about 30 minutes after we had new starters put down. From there on the staff took an hour to take our main meal orders and took around 40 minutes to get us some water. I would have thought given what had happened that the staff would have been even more attentive to our table, but it was the complete opposite. I understand for the staff this must have made them feel uncomfortable but given we did not make a fuss at all and in no way kicked off I expected better. The two of us who ordered rice said it was not worth £4.95 for a portion, and that price given the vegetable and tofu curry was £13ish plus the price of the rice, it was more expensive for me to eat than those who had duck. And just to top it all off, I had an upset tummy the next day and had to call in sick for work. So thanks. You have lost the company of the four people at our table, which is a shame because everyone’s main meals looked great, and the cocktails were super tasty. I will be letting my friends and family know not to come to the restaurant and will be writing this review elsewhere so other people with allergens/intolerances do not make the same...

Hopeless service is putting it lightly. They delivered my order but missed out my £7 Kala Prawn starter. I called them to advise of this expecting an apology and swift delivery of said missing item but there was no answer, it was 9pm on a Saturday evening. It's now the following afternoon and they are still not answering their phone or replying to my two answer phone messages or FB message, but they are open.

I happened to be in town by the afternoon so paid them a visit and explained what had happened to which the very nice girl said, where even is the phone!? She then found the the phone which had over 50 missed calls (only about 7 of those were mine!). I was then informed that there were no managers available to authorise a refund and that my contract was in fact with Just Eat so to go through them, which is fine but to have to physically visit them to receive any sort of assistance is quite shocking.

Sort your customer service and QA out and train your staff with takeaway business basics such as where to locate the phone and how to properly pack an order.

UPDATE:

Thanks for the copy paste reply you also sent to my FB message 48 hours after I sent it. Here's my copy paste to your reply which you've failed to respond to...

I completely appreciate how hard it must be running a busy restaurant full of paying customer during these times, still, you owe it to your paying customers to provide them a service that they have paid for.

What's really poor about this whole saga is not the fact that you removed all means of communication to customers like me who have an issue with their expensive takeaway meal, it's not the fact the kitchen staff made the mistake in the first place, it's how you've handled this complaint with what appears to be a total reluctance to stand accountable. My initial message above was also read early on today but its taken me to leave a negative post comment to get a response out of you it would appear.

To tell me to email in when you have me right now, communicating directly with me is again really poor. The same goes for pointing me in Just Eats direction, they didn't make the error, they didn't cause the disappointment for us on Saturday when our order only partly turned up (but yes don't worry I have requested the refund for the missing item).

Unfortunately you've missed the opportunity now of simply saying hi, we're sorry, mistakes happen etc etc but to show we value you're custom and that we're not simply about taking as many orders online as possible, here, give us another chance to make it up and have £xx of your next order. That would of gone a long way.

Best of luck, you'll going to need it...

So why only four stars? Firstly this is an excellent restaurant. The service on a Friday night was outstanding - attentive without being overbearing, genuine, happy smiling waitresses, greeted and seated with a smile and zero fuss. We were pleasantly thanked for our custom as we left too. It was just super. You should be very proud of your front of house team.

The restaurant itself is kinda cool, with a diner/sports bar vibe and clean and atmospheric. No airs and graces but clearly cared for. I was expecting a "proper" restaurant and while this IS a proper restaurant, it's much less stuffy than I expected; really relaxed.

Food choice is outstanding. I could easily have created 10 meals for myself with different course choices each time. Everything is clearly marked for spicy heat (more on this later), vegetarian, gluten free etc. There's a full featured, small bar, so you know your drinks and cocktails will be nicely created and they were.

Prices ranged from £7-£8 for a starter to £15ish for a main soup/noodle/duck that I had. Veg was cooked to perfection (pak choi in this instance). Flavours were spot on.

I've always been wary of Thai food because I can't judge the heat very well. My wife is more tolerant than I so I chose grade 1 heat and she grade 2. Sadly there was no heat detectable in either dish... So only four stars for spice. Would have preferred more of a kick but it didn't spoil our evening whatsoever.

We had a lovely time. I mean a meal is as much about good company as it is good food and I had both. My wife enjoyed it very much too.

With a cocktail, soft drink, 2 starters and 2 mains, plus 15% (my discretion) our meal was about £80 but I feel that was worth it for the whole experience (thanks to my wife for being such great company too).

We will definitely be back. Keep up...