Ban Yai Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Decided to try Ban Yai Thai today for lunch as part of the Eat out to help out scheme. It was warm and I sat outside, it was fairly busy with other diners ( & quite a few flies outside as well). I ordered Chicken Satay £5.75 for starters and Egg Fried Rice (£3.25) and Pad Met Mamuang (£8.45) a stir fry with Chicken, cashew nuts etc in an Oyster sauce. All the food was piping hot and tasty, the service was a little slow but but okay. I felt that the portion sizes were small and if I had of paid full price I would have been a little disappointed (there was certainly not enough chicken in the Pad Met Mamuang). Also, the quality of the chicken seemed poor (typical kind of chicken used in a cheap Chinese takeaway) and again I would expect better for the price. Sitting outside there were no condiments available on the tables, the rice was quite dry and could have done with some extra sauce, maybe soy or similar. The waitress never asked how my meal was or whether I wanted a desert, she didn't ask if I wanted another drink (I'd ordered a coke which was given to me as an un-opened can of Coke with a small glass. No offer of ice. I would have thought many new customers are going to try this place out during this scheme, it's in the very picturesque setting of Merton Abbey Mills but you would think they would be trying really hard to impress and encourage diners to return - that was not the case today - I really hope they try a little...

Had a working lunch here with colleagues. Food is great, admittedly I do not eat a lot of Thai food and I have never been to Thailand so I cannot tell for certain how 'authentic it is' because I know sometimes a lot of foreign cuisine is not exactly as it is in the native country - I've lived abroad most of my life including now; I am actually from Italy and a lot of Italian food here in England is not good (only a few very good places that are full Italian staff).

If owners still respond to reviews I have one question, the answer does not change my opinion, is this same recipes as back home or do you change slightly for Western tastes?

I had Pad Gaprao with beef, chicken satays, and we had the prawn crackers and fish cakes for the table and everything was tasty I don't like peppers very much but I ate most of my peppers because the sauce was delicious. Honestly it tasted like home cooking which is the best compliment I think you can give anyone.

Also 9.95 for 2 courses on a lunch menu is a bargain, no where in London can you get a lunch of this quality, size for that kind of price. My colleague has a salad and she couldn't even finish it the portion was huge.

But it's extremely tasty and the tea is very good here :) Staff are...

BAD FOOD AND RUDE STAFF. Awful awful awful, avoid! The worst Thai I've ever had (and I've had a lot).

Came here a few weeks ago with a family member. The corn cakes were so hard it was like eating a very stale biscuit- if you're not careful you could lose a tooth. The green thai curry was bland, tasteless, and seemed like someone had just watered it down. My pad thai was the worse I've ever had, but I ate it because I was that hungry. The worst part was when we went to pay at the end, although not enjoying any of the meal, we only asked for the green thai curry to be taken off because we didn't touch it it was that bad. Instead of apologising, the lady working there decided to be SO RUDE and say there must be something wrong with us. She gaslit us so badly I haven't ever experienced anything like it before. When we said we weren't going to pay for that 1 dish because it was terrible and we didn't eat it, she asked us if we'd ever had thai food before. Her attitude was so out of order. Will never be returning here. Save yourself the hassle and go somewhere that actually know how to cook Thai food and don't condescend...