Nakhon Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Complete joke - awful quality for money and a shame to the Thai culture. Was very excited about the Pla Rad Prik, a crispy pan fried whole fish (by far one of the tastiest and freshest dishes we had in Thailand). Love deep fried fish whole in particular the fish head which is nutritious and delicious (whole cooked fish is difficult to find in London restaurants). With a menu price of £18.95 just for this dish we had very high expectations. Service was lovely, place looked clean and the hot plates marked a nice start. We made the mistake to order the drinks and food at the same time. The Passionate mocktail - extremely sweet and tasted like a cheap carton peach smoothie mixed with orange juice with no hint of passion fruit despite its description. The Mai Thai had a strange bitter taste like something was off (maybe the rum or the special home made maitai mix in the sugar syrup?). Did not expect the quality of London’s best bars but maybe something at least decent given their price. When the Pla Rad Prik arrived was horrified to see a large plate full of sweet pepper chunks, mange tout and baby corn with something that looked like two fish fillets in the middle - all literally drowned in sweet chilli sauce (sorry no photo!). We asked our waitress if this is the right dish given the menu description (Whole crispy deep fried Tilapia fish cooked in sweet chilli Thai spice and herbs (Contains fish bones)). The waitress explained that they always serve it like this and it never contains bones. She seemed to be unaware of the dish description in the menu and said that people here don’t like eating fish with bones so they serve fillet only. We explained that we came here especially for this authentic dish as described in their menu and that it would be helpful if they could update the menu to describe what is actually served. She said sorry and that she would pass this on. We tried the fish as it was given we were hungry. Made a huge effort to clean the dollops of sweet chilli jam (which absolutely did not look or tasted like something home made). The fish fillets were rather thick, deeply battered and completely soaked in sauce, tasted more like a poor quality frozen “fish and chips” and we really doubted this was tilapia at all. We couldn’t touch the vegetables as they were all smothered in lots of chilli jam which we did not expect or ordered.The raw papaya salad, steamed rice and the Tom Kha Talay soup were barely passable with the lemongrass, kafir lime leaves and chillies being the only ingredients that had any links to authentic thai flavours (how about replacing the ordinary basil with thai basil which nowadays can easily be grown and sourced in London?). When later asked by another waiter if everything was ok, we noted how we were extremely disappointed and really not ok with our main dish. He reassured us that this was tilapia fish that was deep fried but didn’t say anything about the expected fish crispiness or why the fish was not served whole as described. He later quietly charged us the whole amount for the dish and the discretionary service fee of 12.5%. In any restaurant that had some kind of professionalism and integrity, they would have at least offered to replace the dish, take it out of the bill or offer a discount. I hope this was just an incident and that the chef actually cooks flavourful food that he honours and respects, but I doubt it having read the other reviews on google. Nakhon Thai seems to be run to make money off the back of those who don’t know what good food is and who are squeezed by this underdeveloped area with no better options than this place where to celebrate their special occasions. We paid £63 for everything, very close to £69 we recently paid for a similar size beautiful meal in Chelsea. So unless you are keen to encourage bad business in your area, do your research about what your money can get you and don’t fall into such traps. Bad food should be illegal full stop. Even more so should be charging high prices for poor quality food just because you can get...

This place use to be great, went there number of times over the years, took my parents here as well. For my partner's birthday I took her here and the experience was pretty poor.

We were expecting a cake for my partner's birthday as I outlined the fact in the booking form that we were celebrating my partner's birthday, as there was another one or two couples in the restaurant also celebrating their birthdays as well and they all seemed to get the general birthday cake brought up to their table.

We waited and nothing happened, in the end we paid the hefty bill and left. Before leaving we spoke to the manager of the restaurant and asked why wasn't the cake brought out for my partner as for the other customers, he seemed to be coming up with all sorts of excuses, in the end putting the blame on me that I didn't fill in the form properly (even though the form never specified what to put into it, the form was just additional details form, which I put in that we are celebrating my girlfriend's birthday).

Furthermore, the food seemed to have waaaay too many vegetables and only few pieces of meat, and for the price that they were charging was pretty outrageous.

Finally, we also ordered at the start of the meal a takeaway, and part of the order was missing yet we were still charged for the entire order when I checked my bill after coming home.

Needless to say that we will not be back to this restaurant again. They have lost a loyal and repeat customer.

I am not being funny, but considering the restaurants are struggling to get the customers through the door in London during the pandemic you really don't want to be arguing with your customers (especially if you are a manager).

London is packed with fantastic restaurants that are clawing for new business and they will certainly be getting our business instead...

Title: Disappointing Experience at Nakhun Thai Restaurant

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

Review:

Lack of Accommodation: Despite booking a table in advance, our request to get river view seat declined by the staff, claiming it was already reserved. It was perplexing, as we had made our own reservation but we have ignored this one.

Hygiene Issues: Our dissatisfaction continued when we discovered a hair in the Thai green curry we ordered. When we brought it to the staff's attention, they denied any hair being present when the dish was served. Expecting customers to meticulously inspect each portion of their meal is unreasonable.

Repeated Hair Incidents: Our disappointment grew when we encountered another hair in the rice we ordered. It raised concerns about the restaurant's overall cleanliness and hygiene practices. Unfortunately, we witnessed another customer finding hair in their food, indicating a recurring problem.

Lack of Staff Training: It is disheartening to have to write this review, but the staff should receive proper training on how to handle customer concerns with kindness and professionalism. Customers play a vital role in the success of any business, and their concerns should be taken seriously.

Attention to Detail: Rather than dismissing customer concerns, the staff should conduct thorough investigations into such issues. Reviewing security camera footage could help identify the source of the problem and prevent hair from ending up in the food.

Overall, our experience at Nakhun Thai Restaurant fell far short of expectations. The presence of hair in multiple dishes, coupled with the staff's dismissive attitude, left us with a negative impression. We hope that the management addresses these concerns promptly and takes steps to improve the restaurant's service quality and overall...