Rosa's Thai Waterloo — Restaurant in London

Sadly a real let-down experience by Rosa's last night

Firstly, my table reservation was cancelled by the restaurant two hours before -leading me to chase and get my table back. Upon arrival we waited to receive menus and get our order taken for a good 15 minutes. Food was delicious when it arrived (the only reason this review as one star). During our meal, I had already finished eating but my friend was still eating, multiple waiters came over asking, almost hassling if we had finished and if they can take things of the table which they could obviously not. Then our table got cleared - and we waited for a good 10-15 minutes for desert menus to reach us and our order to be taken. Once ordered we carried on chatting until our desserts and hot tea arrived. Shortly after, at 7:44 one of the waiters came over and told us they need the table back at 7:45 (bearing in mind we just received dessert and teas). Slightly in shock with the exceptional short notice, I asked why he did not give us more notice to which he replied with "you have a booking for 2 hours and should know we need the table back" - while that might be true, I am not having dinner with my friend and constantly check my watch about the time. We asked for the bill which again took a few minutes. We paid and had to leave not even finishing our tea or have a relaxed ending to our evening, but instead literally got kicked off the table because they had another reservation waiting at the door.

A real shame, because the food was great and what I did drink from the tea, it was delicious. So thank you to the kitchen. Sadly the service needs desperate improvement and so does the booking system. The restaurant was packed and a little friendliness goes a long way to customers who want to have an enjoyable experience and not be hassled and rushed...

I was looking for a good Thai restaurant for my business trip in London and found Rosa's Thai in Waterloo, London. After inspecting the menu online, I was very keen to try it for myself, so I booked a table for one person on a Saturday evening.

Everything regarding the booking went very smoothly, and upon arrival, I was shown to my table.

The food came pretty quickly, starting with my Tom Ka Coconut Soup. The taste was really good, but it wasn't as creamy as I expected it to be.

For the main course, I ordered the Drunken Kee Mao Noodles with Pork Belly. This dish was a home run for me! It is marked on the menu with three chili peppers, indicating that it's very spicy normally. I can handle spice, but I've had my fair share of spicy food in Thailand that "took my breath away." So, I asked the waitress (Pimpim, I think?) if the kitchen could tone down the spice just a notch. She was very kind and said she would ask the cook to do so. Since I couldn't compare it to the regular dish, I have to say the spice level was still strong but perfectly manageable for me. I highly recommend this dish to anyone who can handle spicy food.

For dessert, I went for the classic Mango and Sticky Rice. There's no debate about the mango being great; that's what you'd expect from a restaurant. However, the Sticky Rice was very tasty—slightly salty yet sweet with a coconut taste. I would love to have the recipe for that because I hope it's not too complicated to make in a batch for myself with 1-2 kg of mango.

In summary, the experience, though short, was very enjoyable, and I am 101% sure that I will book myself a table for a second or third time next week to try some different items from the menu.

Thanks a lot to Rosa's Thai Staff in Waterloo, London!

Khob khun...

We booked this table after bit hype from colleagues. It was a pure disappointment in-terms of food. We ordered spicy prawn crackers and got us with peanut sauce which is very sweet to start. And to start we ordered prawn doughnuts which were really good and I recommend if you go reminds me Thailand street vendors. However surprised it’s served with sugar syrup missing the taste of plum syrup. Please please Rosa Thai, please tell the chef not to cook Gai satay in advance it’s tough and super dry and cold. Being a Thai kitchen and with your ethos in your stories, it’s not fair to Service , it’s so cheap.

For our mains we ordered veg & Tofu penang curry and pad kra prow. Felt very disappointed. The first one was hardly feel any flavour except lemon grass

Panama curry comes in a small amount of thick , rich sauce. You can make an argument that. It’s more a saucy stir fry. But what we got is just cauliflower, Thai aubergine, Thai basil, few sliced flat beans and some green chilli slices and 3 pcs of tofu.

And the pad kra prow was missing Holy basil which is the main star flavouring of this dish. And in the top every waiter who passes by asking how is the food. We been asked around 10 times in the duration of 1 hour meal. The table next to us also complained their pad Thai was too liquid which was really over sauce. Don’t know but may be it’s the chef’s bad day.

Seriously they need to work out . Very disappointing to see how restaurants which exploit the customers by promising the dishes and which they clearly can’t deliver.

Overall our experience was not great with Rosa...