Art of Siam Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme

I was really excited about trying this restaurant with my husband and friends, but what a disappointment it was.

We originally had a table booked for 7:30pm, but our friends pushed it back to 7:45 on the day itself, due to our group being slightly delayed. When we arrived, we were led to a table by a grumpy young waiter, where we took our seats and waited. After nearly 10 minutes of being completely ignored, I asked our friends if we were supposed to ask to see a menu! They thought menus were brought automatically, so we continued waiting for a few more minutes. I caught the eye of a waitress once and smiled at her, but she quickly looked away! Eventually a different waitress brought the menus. We ordered drinks about 10 minutes later, and the wine arrived quickly.

There were complimentary prawn crackers on the table, which was a nice touch. Most unusually, they were plain crackers of the type normally received in a Chinese restaurant, rather than the spicy Thai-style crackers we often see in a Thai eaterie.

Shortly after our wine arrived, an older lady with short hair came to take our order. She was unfriendly towards us from the beginning, and didn't smile once, despite us being friendly and treating her politely. We had chosen our food and were ready with our choices, but she still tapped her pen impatiently on her pad whenever there was a short pause between one of us finishing our food order and the next person starting theirs. This left us feeling a tad uncomfortable and unwelcome in the establishment.

Unfortunately, things didn't get better when the food arrived. I chose Plar Gung: Thai salad with prawns, lemongrass, spring onions, coriander, lime juice and chilli (£8.75). The prawns were tender and beautifully cooked, but barely warm. The biggest problem was the dressing on the mixture of veg - there was far too much nam pla (fish sauce) in the dish. This fish sauce is intensely fishy and salty, and you only need a very small amount. This dish tasted of it very strongly indeed, and it was quite nauseating. Our friends' fishcakes were greasy and rubbery - and they said the chicken satay skewers were overcooked and dry.

We were getting a distinctly unfriendly vibe from the staff, and didn't think it would actually help matters to point out any of this. As it happens, the short-haired waitress brusquely cleared the dishes away, without asking us how the food was, or asking why I'd left my prawn salad.

The main courses arrived. I'd chosen a sizzling dish - prawns with black pepper sauce. It's supposed to arrive literally sizzling on an iron skillet, but the skillet was barely warm. The food itself was almost cold. Again, the prawns were very nicely cooked, but this time the sauce was very bland. At least this time my dish was edible, which was a huge step up from my starter. Strangely, our friends had a "sizzling" chicken dish with sesame sauce (which was also barely warm when it was brought to the table) - I had a couple of their mushrooms out of this dish and the sauce looked and tasted exactly the same as my 'black pepper' sauce! The rice was a bit dry and cold, but also edible.

Again, nobody asked if the food was OK. Some of the staff were so rude and unhelpful that they made us feel uncomfortable - we weren't inclined to try mentioning the issues with the starters.

We didn't want to bother with dessert, which was lucky, as it wasn't offered. We departed with an air of relief, sadly resolving to...

Really disappointed in this place had such a bad experience and won't be going again. Both my wife and I ordered a beef red curry and egg fried rice when the food arrived my wife's curry had a thick dark hair in it and my beef curry had 4 pieces of chicken in both meals were like warm my wife sent her food back and rightfully so. That meant my meal was just sat in front of me going even colder waiting for a fresh curry for my wife after 10 mins waiting I was become agitated the manager came over and spoke to us I intended to tell him that we were disappointed in the service and the meals and that we were going to leave the manager said he was sorry and that there would be no charge for the food he also went on to ask if we would like a complete beer while we waited at this point the manager had defused my annoyance so we agree we would stay and we both had a drink I would put up with the cold food as it was free and in fairness my wife and I thought it was a kind gesture and we would give them another chance and probably come back next week. After we had finished our meal we waited for around ten minutes before leaving the manager and the waitress both noticed we had finished and they stayed away. We then left a tip as a means to say thank you for your kind gesture. Only to be chased after by the manager saying we had not paid our bill I have never been so embarrassed in all my life both my wife and I started that he himself said the food was free of charge and so was the complimentory drinks he then agreed that he had made a mistake and turned round and went back into the resutrant my wife and I were horrified that all the other customers were watching as such we won't be going back again, having now read similar posts it is plan to see we are not the first couple he has done this kind of thing to bitterly...

After visiting Art of Siam with my work colleagues, and having a fantastic experience with brill food, I decided to take my family there to show them how nice it is.

I'm sad to say that on this occasion, we were treated completely different. We arrived with 5 minutes to spare stood at the front door with the host walking towards the doors tapping on his wrist in an aggressive tone. Upon entering we WERE NOT welcomed with the same warmth and courtesy as my previous visit. It's obviously we weren't welcome. There was myself and my partner, an 8 year old and an 18 month old. Our 18 month old wasn't too happy so was crying. We did our best to soothe him but he's a baby. The staff were not happy, it was written all over their face. This obviously made us feel unwelcome.

It's clear this place aren't accommodating for young families, they couldn't wait to get rid of us. The menu is catered for adults only. As there is no child menu items, I asked if they could make a smaller portion for my 18 month old. I was told no. I was then directed to some soft noodles that was just basically noddles and egg. I asked if we could have that and add some chicken to it. I was told no we don't do that. So we were forced to order an adults portion so our child could eat a proper meal.

If you have a young family and want good hospitality, you would be much better off going somewhere else. It's clear Art of Siam don't like children there and we won't...