Phranakhon — Restaurant in Leeds

Hi there! Firstly, I’m a huge fan phranakhon. The food is always outstanding and well priced. I’ve actually got more of a specific issue I would love to speak to somebody about.

Last night me and my partner arrived for a 7pm booking which I had made several days in advance, in the booking notes I even stated how this was for my partners birthday as it’s one of her favourite restaurants (because the food is that good!) Sadly things did not go well last night. It was clear the team had no table prepared for us even thought we arrived on time. They then spent the next 5 minutes discussing where they would even put us while we stood around (even though there were multiple tables of 2 available) Once we were sat down, a server immediately came over and asked if were okay to leave in exactly an hours time, I myself work in hospitality and understand it can be quite difficult when an unexpected booking turn up however, to ask us if we will only take an hour to eat our food and be out of the restaurant just feels wrong. I don’t see this as acceptable. Let alone the fact I’d already booked and this was supposed to be special for my partners birthday celebrations. It instantly left a sour taste in our mouths as it was such a disappointment to be told we’re essentially getting kicked out in an hour when we already like this place so much! Anyway…. We’re now sat down and feeling a bit down, next we see two separate tables of 2 sit around us and each are served their starters of prawn crackers and drinks before us. Something we thought nothing of. Then both tables are served their mains of tapas dishes, before we have even received our prawn crackers let alone our main dishes. At this point we’re finding it hard to enjoy the place as it feels as if the staff have essentially kicked us to the side. Now to make matters worse, and I want to make it clear that this is what really upset us, BOTH of these tables had paid up and left before we were even served our mains! They arrived much later than us and somehow ate their starters, mains and paid the bill before we had even begun eating. I spent just short of £90 on this meal and I didn’t even get an apology off the staff. I am not the sort to ask for compensation as it just feels cheeky however I think an apology was more than expected at this point. All in we waited just under an hour after ordering our food, to be served it. While watching people who arrived later than us eat and leave.

I’d like to state I think this is a one off occurrence as phranakhon certainly run a tight ship!

To say the least, I am really unhappy with this and feel I have spent far too much to be treated the way we were. I would be more than happy to discuss this further with...

I booked the table for a Saturday evening at peak time based upon seeing the overwhelming positive feedback online. The atmosphere was great and the Saturday in question was my birthday and I specifically requested to visit a top-end establishment. I had high expectations.

Upon arrival we were sat at a good table and ordered drinks in good time. After a time of reading through the menu, we then placed our order with the waitress who was really attentive. We ordered tempura prawns as part of our starters, and we also ordered pork belly for one of the main course elements. Unfortunately, the tempura prawns still had the shells on them under the tempura layer, which was not only inedible but also a head-scratching mistake by the chefs in the kitchen. Never before have I been served tempura prawns with shells still on the prawns!

One of the main courses we ordered (mentioned previously) was the belly pork. This too was another letdown, as the skin from the belly pork was raw and essentially felt like eating a football boot. The chefs had not even cooked it so the skin was in any way edible, instead it was an unpleasant chewing experience and this ruined the dish completely. Surely a chef knows that if you are going to keep the rind on the pork belly to at least make it edible (crackling or rendered down). This was not cooked to a professional/expected standard from a highly rated establishment.

After eating both the starters and the main courses we complained to the front of house member about the issues that we encountered during both courses.

Both the shells still on the prawns and the inedible skin on the belly pork led us to speak to the (supposed) "manager" of the restaurant that evening, which was met with very standoffish and confrontational behaviour from the person that we were told was in charge.

Upon our complaint, the person in charge had to ring someone on the phone who was supposed to be able to override a refund in any way. Why would you leave someone in charge on a Saturday night that was not able to process a complaint let alone a refund for inexcusable errors made by the kitchen?! After much deliberation and a frankly argumentative approach from the "manager", we were able to negotiate down with the person on the phone to not pay for the dishes we were dissatisfied with.

The basic food mistakes. The terrible 'finger-pointing' attitude of the front of house "manager".

Not sure how this place has so many good reviews.

I cannot ever see myself coming back to this restaurant based upon our experience, let alone recommend anyone...

I came here with work colleagues a few weeks ago after wanting to come for a long time and felt very disappointed. Upon arrival they couldn’t find our reservation, I did provide email booking confirmation but they kept insisting that there was no table for us (despite only one table being filled at the time). I did ask if they could find us a table and the lady serving made it seem like it was quite a big ask and to be honest was really quite rude to us, however we did end up being sat. We had come out for my colleagues leaving meal, otherwise at this point we probably would have left it and went somewhere else.

The food was really disappointing, very overpriced for what we got and one of the dishes wasn’t nice at all and ended up uneaten. As soon as the dishes from our mains were collected we were asked to leave for our table back (once again the restaurant was mostly empty). We had hoped to get some drinks as we hadn’t been sat for even an hour, however this clearly wasn’t an option.

The restaurant itself is very pretty, however the overall experience for what we paid was truly not good enough. I don’t like leaving bad reviews but I was so shocked when I saw the vast array of positive reviews online, and I don’t want anybody else to waste their money and leave an expensive dinner hungry and feeling quite down after the attitude from staff. (I also ended up having to get a take away from my Thai down the road due to still...