Sukhothai Restaurant — Restaurant in Leeds

Just left the restaurant... couldn't wait to leave. Our waitress was super unfriendly... I made the catastrophic mistake of adding my drink selection to the end of my dinner order. It was then that the waitress looked at me completely dissatisfied and said "oh, is that what you're going to do"? "You're going to tell me your drink order before I take everyone else's dinner order"? We just looked at each other in disbelief, because what difference does it make really? We said that we all wanted water. After we told her everything we wanted to eat/drink and asked for salt. We waited about fifteen minutes and asked her if we could have the water because nothing else had come. She proceeded to lecture my mother and tell her that she would have to wait another 10 minutes because the bar is busy. At this point, we said we had been there for a total of 25 minutes (we had waited at the door) and said that we were not going to wait for water any longer. Meanwhile, a patron who sat behind us got a glass of water alongside her menu. When she delivered our food and drinks, she just put it on the table and never said who's was what (drink or food). She never came by to see if we were enjoying our meal or drinks. It was so uncomfortable for us. We asked another waitress for the bill and as we were preparing payment, our waitress walked by us twice and never stopped to say thank-you. I just wonder if this waitress ever goes to a restaurants, wants a glass of water in relative time and/or enjoys behind treated like a human being like her server. Her service to us, wasn't service. It was incredibly disappointing and hateful. The acoustics are terrible. It is very loud and we experienced a hard time hearing each other. She never did bring the salt and frankly, we were afraid to ask again. The food was good, but we won't be back because of the service. Date of...

AVOID THIS PLACE! We weren’t asked about any allergies or intolerances when we arrived. Once we were seated I asked a staff member who said that they didn’t know what was gluten-free but would ask someone else. They didn’t come back to us.

Another staff member then came to take our order. They hadn’t been told that I have an intolerance to wheat and provided no information so I asked again. They couldn’t provide any information.

A fourth staff member then came over, told me that they didn’t have any written information about the ingredients (which I’m pretty sure is a legal requirement?) and instead went though the menu item by item saying “you can’t have that, you can’t have that” etc. It was confusing and felt patronising.

I asked, them to clarity what I COULD HAVE and was told “you can have this but not with that”, or “that dish but not with that meat” etc. At this point we’d wait 15 minutes for a seat (which were told would be 5 minutes) and then another 10 minutes for allergy information so I reluctantly ordered.

Shortly after, I went to the toilet and placed my handbag on the unit behind me. It was soaking wet. When I was sat on the toilet I could feel something dripping onto my lower back and hair (I have long hair). When I looked up the roof had big damp stains which was dripping onto the back of the toilet unit and then onto me.

I took a video and showed a staff member who apologised but dismissed this as something that had just happened, which clearly wasn’t the case by the stained ceiling. I felt dirty and had lost all faith and trust in the staff so I asked to cancel our food order and we promptly left.

Absolute waste of time and money (as we’d already paid for...

Visited Sukhothai last night – I’d heard this place was very popular so thought I’d give it a go instead of my usual, Chaophraya.

Booked ahead, which turned out to be the thing to do as the place was packed – very popular with several large groups in.

Restaurant is large, with interesting décor (wooden statues, art etc) and service was, for such a busy place, excellent. Drinks and food all arrived in good time and as ordered. Well done. The bigger groups were kept away from smaller groups of diners, which is a definite positive, as nobody wants to sit near a large group.

Menu is massive. Hard to choose. Look online first to get an idea of what interests you. Chef Specials sound tasty. Deerdog recommends the items marked with four small chillies.

Opted for the soft-shelled crab to start (love a bit of crab), with chicken Pad Ga Prao as a main. Pad Ga Prao was gorgeous – full of spice and with a fried egg sitting proudly on top, like a conquering hero. The chicken was minced, as it should be. A beautiful dish. The soft-shelled crab I didn’t like as much – it was tasty, but I think it works better with a tempura batter and a bit more sauce. Traditional batter tends to overpower the delicate flavour of the crab. I think I’d try a different starter next time – I spotted minced chicken on toast, which is always moreish.

Dessert was chocolate cake. Cake is always excellent.

The beer for the evening was Singha – as it was and as it should be with this sort of meal. Singha for the people. Bottles though, not pints on this occasion.

Overall a decent night and a good option for a lively Thai...