Kinkao — Restaurant in London

Very very upsetting experience !! Our poor children, the manager took their food away from front of them!!!

We went to kinkoa on the 2nd of May. Being Eid day (Festive celebration for muslims) we made reservation for 17 people, (for 4 families in total). The waitress took for 5 dishes and walked off, without acknowledgement of anyone else there. After 10-15 mins the manager came to take the remaining order. While he was completing the order 3 out of the 5 dishes was bought to the table. When we bought to his attention what a mess up everything had already become, some had food served while other were still placing their orders. Rather then addressing this, he become extremely rude. He told us there is nothing he will do about the situation. We again, very politly ask him to resolve the problem, so not ruin our experience in kinkoa restaurant and collectively enjoy our meal as a group. He clearly did not care and took what food was on the table away from us and said he will not service these dishes again or complete our order. So in the end some of the families sat at the restaurant with no food. We felt very bad for the kids, as the dishes he took away from the table were for some children. This was very upsetting and others wanted to walk out. As I mentioned it was Eid day, as a gruop did not want to ruin everyone's day or any further spoil the experience. So we remained there...I can't believe we payed such a large sum, for an experience that will not easily be forgotten, by the children nor the adults.

I can not stress enough how insulting this experience at kinkoa restaurant was. Above is only a few of the issues. So many of the dishes were either cold or wrong. Never in my years of eating out I have ever come across such poor customer service and communication. The waiter services team are rude and unwelcoming. It is clear the team's attitude trickles down from the management.

The manager's audacity shocked us further. His expectations that the customers should compromise due to the restaurant having more booking then which they could cope with. He actually said "you must understand it is a busy evening, staff are over exhausted, and it is impossible to keep everyone happy"....If the staff are overwhelmed with workload, surely the customers are not to pay the price!!

I suggest to the owner, if your employees are unable to run the restaurant, either you recruit more experienced staff or...

What are the few things that cross your mind when you are on a hunt for Asian food in London? "Aw man, I am gonna be splashing cash for some Asian food that doesn't taste great." "Ah shucks, I am gonna be paying and yet the waiter/waitress is gonna get impatient at me for some reason." "Oh god the queue is definitely gonna be horrendous."

Fear not, let me introduce KinKao to you. Yes, it is a posh environment. Yes, it is by the River Thames. Yes, it is fancy. But I can be sure of this, Kinkao is one of the very few restaurants that is situated at such a strategic location in London, offers pretty good Asian food yet still keeping it at an affordable price. It was a shame I failed pathetically as a fellow Gen Z to take pictures of our main dishes, but at least I have gotten a clip of the famous Thai dessert --- Mango Sticky rice!

It was my friend's final few days in London, and we decided to have our dinner in a nice restaurant. If I recalled correctly, we paid around 16-17 quids per person for 4 main dishes: Red Curry Chicken, Thai Green Curry, Seafood Tom Yam and another which I could not remember (they are quite small in portion but it was just enough for four of us), along with the Mango Sticky rice. Allow me to say this: They were quite legit. No joke. Both the Green Curry and Tom Yam were amazing, it was nearly as good as some of the Thai food places I have had back in South East Asia. The balance in the sourly taste and the subtle spice of the Tom Yam was on point. The Mango Sticky Rice, which I am not a big fan of (ironically, mangoes are my favourite), tasted very similar to the ones I have tried in Chiang Mai, the third largest city in Thailand.

If you really enjoy Thai cuisine, you have to visit Kinkao at least once. Oh yeah, I had a long walk with my friends along the Thames, then we took the River Thames Cruise from Greenwich pier to Westminister pier. There is nothing more satisfying than enjoying the London scenery on a calm, peaceful night after having an excellent...

We do not often review restaurants on Google; only if the experience has been exceptionally good to compliment the venue, or in this case quite bad, to give, well 'constructive feedback' so if the restaurant is reading they may improve for other guests in future.

Our experience July 30th 21.40 -22.50 GMT - Family of four from Norway The card contained a few 'set menus'. some for minimum two people, some for minimum four. Me and my wife decided to order a menu for two, whereas the kids wanted to order their own separate dishes. The waitress did not seem very experienced (which is OK to an extent), but she almost refused us to order the set menu for two, and the argumentation/questions back and forth why this was not possible actually raised voices. We tried to explain that the children wanted to order their own dish, but in the end the waitress still would not take our order and needed to 'check with the manager first'. But worst was the nearly deadly look she gave my wife at that same moment. She became rather upset about this. (we have visited quite a number of restaurants and this rarely, if ever, happens)

In effect our mood, appetite, and evening from that moment was, to put it mildly, not optimal... We were allowed to order the set menu for 2 people for me and my wife.

Before paying my wife expressed her dissatisfaction with the service to the waitress. The explanation she gave was that previously there had been a family that had shared a set menu for two with four people (!)

It may be harsh to judge a restaurant by just one waiter but then again, it is part of the package. The one extra star is for the food, which -objectively- was well made. Also the other waiters did their job as one would expect.

All in all, we would not recommend to visit Kinkao Thai because of the perceived severity of the above mentioned...