Tumnan Thai — Restaurant in London

My friend and I had dinner at Tumnan Thai on Thursday 25 May.

I chose this restaurant after having a lovely meal here in February with my husband. However, my last visit was tainted by extremely poor customer service.

(1) SEATING - we were the only customers in the restaurant at 6pm on a day when the temperature was about 27 degrees. So, naturally, we wanted to sit by the French doors. There was one table for two people and one for four people, but table for two wasn't well positioned and one of the chairs was directly in the sun. So, we asked to sit at the table for four. However, our request was curtly refused.

The member of staff in question, who we later learnt is the manager (her name is Mook), made no attempt to compromise. (Incidentally, we were in the restaurant for two hours and only one other couple came in, so the table for four hadn't even been booked and remained free for the whole time.) What didn't sit well for us was Mook's brusque and dismissive manner.

(2) ATTENTIVENESS AND FLEXIBILITY - after more than 20 minutes of being ignored, I asked for someone to come over and take our order. In fact, I had a question about the menu. I wanted fish but all the sauces were sweet so I asked if I could have curry sauce instead. Again, I was met with a very frank 'no' - even though the fish is fried separately and the sauce is added afterwards. I was told, by the other waitress, that the chilli sauce was not sweet so I should have that one. However, when it came it was so sweet that I had to scrape it off the fish. I decided not to say anything about this, though, as I was hungry.

(3) COMPLAINT HANDLING - my friend ordered the lamb (from the chef's special menu) but when she tried it, she was surprised by the lack of flavour. Apparently it could have been any red meat. When she passed her feedback on to Mook, her brusque manner shifted to aggression. First of all she questioned that there was anything wrong with the dish and that no-one else had ever complained. Then she said they would re-make it and up the flavour (I think that meant throwing it back in the pan with some more chilli etc). However, my friend had to explain that it was a quality-of-meat issue, so adding more heat wouldn't help. Mook then picked up the dish and stomped off.

(4) HOSTILITY - about 10 minutes later, Mook came over again with the menu and asked my friend if she'd like to try another dish. My friend was reluctant but I encouraged her to go for the tofu, which she did. To our surprise, when the bill came, both the lamb and the tofu had been added to it. When we queried it, Mook insisted that my friend had to pay for both dishes. Her argument was that if a party of 10 people were dining in the restaurant and each said they didn't like the food, it would cost the restaurant a significant amount of money to take those dishes off the bill. My friend pointed out that the situation was different: it was not a case of just deciding she didn't want the lamb, she didn't like it and didn't think it was palatable.

Mook then offered to discount the dish, which we were aghast about. In the end, my friend had to firmly state that she had no intention of paying for the lamb before it was finally taken off the bill. She also noted that the customer service we received from Mook had been bad throughout the evening. In response to this remark, Mook actually exclaimed: 'Good, and if you don't like it, don't come back!'

We were both dumbfounded that anyone in a customer-facing role could actually say this (even if she thought it). Is Tim, the owner, aware of Mook's behaviour, I wonder?

The sad thing is, the other waitress was pleasant and the food, apart from the lamb, was good. We did actually provide positive feedback too, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. So now, Tumnan Thai has become memorable for all the wrong reasons, and certainly a restaurant we will never...

I ordered a pad Thai delivery and the food here is usually lovely. Well, when I ordered this over the weekend, my pad Thai was smothered in sweet chilli sauce, which DOES NOT belong on the nutty pad Thai, and as I’ve never had a problem here before I felt my feedback would be welcomed. I got that wrong! I called straight away after receiving the order and I was met with hostility, a terrible attitude, asking me “well what do you want me to do?” Actually, I wanted you to do nothing except take the feedback graciously, because as everyone knows sweet chilli sauce doesn’t go on a pad Thai! And for your person who answered the phone to insist that it does belong on a pad Thai and to be argumentative with the customers is unacceptable, and I am appalled that rather then receive the feedback in the spirit it was intended, you gave me an attitude unbecoming of a person who deals with the public. You kept asking me “what do you want?” I wasn’t looking from anything from you, I wasn’t looking for a freebie, or my money back. I just wanted you to graciously accept my feedback, because this was not up to your usual standard, not by a long shot and actually, the food was like a slop of leftovers from your dine in, with a pad Thai and chilli noodles all mixed up and sent to me! Now, I’ve been using you for a long time, and you can bet I won’t be coming back. The food was atrocious but your attitude was 10 times worse then your food, which is a shame, I have always viewed you quite highly, you’ve ruined the image I had of you, and altogether this has been terribly disappointing. To not be able to take a genuine and honest customer feedback tells me whomever answered the phone has a very bad attitude, which does not bode well for customer service or satisfaction and your repeat business or...

Took my mother and some other family members here for the first time yesterday;

First impressions: Aesthetically pleasing venue with a nice atmosphere.

Starters: Decided on the mixed platter (which normally serves two, but they accommodated for our party of five, which was good), the satay chicken, squid, and tempura prawns were fine, but the fish cakes were rubbery and the lemongrass overpowered the flavour. Was also served "boneless chicken wings", which were really deconstructed chicken wings, made from minced chicken and and fried in batter, but left with a bone in the end...tasted Ok but an odd concept..spring rolls were the best part of the starters.

Main: I ordered a stir fry beef dish with egg fried rice(which was really boiled rice with egg and peas)...pretty bland and underwhelming if I'm honest. However, tried some of my Mother's steak dish which was much more flavoursome, will get that if I go back.

Service: Good overall service and as mentioned earlier, they were accommodating and very polite.

Value: Starter and main for 5 including drinks (no dessert) was surprisingly cheaper than I thought it would be, good value.

Overall: I've had better thai food elsewhere tbh, but I'm willing to give it another try in the future, just have to remember to order the steak next time and stay away from the fish cakes and...