Thaikhun Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Oxford

Arriving here on a Sunday afternoon, we were able to get a table if we waited 15 minutes, which we agreed to do. We were asked to head to the bar and we would be fetched from there.

At the bar, drinks were being prepared for other diners, but nobody else was waiting for drinks - just us. It was a little bit disappointing that staff there didn’t acknowledge our presence. Not to say “we’ll be with you in a minute” or something along those lines. Many minutes later, and after muttering under my breath how disappointed I was by the lack of engagement, we at last received some service.

Thankfully, the service did improve and our server was very friendly, apologetic for the slightly slower service (the restaurant was quite busy) and very knowledgable about the items on the menu.

We ordered from the ‘pinto’ menu - chicken green curry, chicken and cashew nut stir fry and the beef street noodles. Jasmine rice (and lots of it) was included too.

The food was exceptional. The green curry and the chicken and cashew nut had a real spicy kick to them! The beef too was excellent.

At £17.00 per person, the price was reasonable, and there was the option to add a dessert for just £3.00 each. We didn’t have room after such a feast but it was great to see two of my Thai favourites on there - fried banana and mango and sticky rice.

Paying the bill was quick and easy but it was frustrating to see an ‘optional’ service charge and an ‘optional’ charity donation added to it. Although the earlier part of our experience was disappointing, it did improve, so I had no objections to paying 10%. I did check first of all that staff received all of the service charges, however.

But a charity contribution should not be opt-out. Ask diners if they’d like to contribute and then add it to the bill - don’t assume that everybody is happy to pay.

All in all, a...

We got very poor treatment and left very upset and disrespected yesterday. I don't feel like going back because of the demeaning tone the waiter spoke to us. What happened was- it was a Saturday, we made a phone call to Thaikhun to book a table for 3 and the girl on the phone took down my details. But when we got there, they had trouble locating our details. A Thai guy took over and asked for our confirmation number, but we never received one. He then asked us to show our proof on our phone that we made that call in the afternoon, and then said it would be impossible for them to have booked the table because they didn't take bookings anymore on the Saturday within a certain time frame. Our phone call fell a few minutes before that time frame anyway. He proceeded to click on his computer and said Thaikhun's number is different- but we definitely clicked call on the number on google. I got a little frustrated at how he was talking to me with suspicion when I clearly had spoken to someone on the phone that afternoon. He didn't offer an apology or humility and kept on going on all the reasons why I seemingly didn't make that booking. I finally asked- well, do you have a table for me or not? He responded with a very proud no. I'm so embarrassed and feel so small after this incident. Why should I feel this way as a customer? I'm never going back. I have never experienced this kind of customer service in Oxford ever- this was the worst ever Saturday night I took my mum and sister out on. Poorest ever service. Poorest ever representation of the restaurant...

Shocking experience! We visited this afternoon and were sat downstairs. The duration of our meal there were 2-3 members of staff “on their break” fast asleep at surrounding tables. Our starters were fine and then they brought out some of our main courses. One of which was completely wrong, the staff didn’t speak enough English to understand when we tried to raise it with them and by the time a manager came to us we’d given up and swapped dishes to allow mum (who’s birthday it was) to eat something. In the meantime one of our parties food hadn’t arrived, we checked with staff twice and eventually it came after about 20 minutes when most of us had finished. We pointed out that she’d ordered chips instead of rice so they took the rice away and 15 minutes laters somebody full of attitude walked past and slid chips across the table at her. Absolutely not good enough. When we tried to express our disappointment the waiter we had didn’t understand so we mentioned it again to the manager on our way out and his only response was that he was new. Not bloody good enough. Over priced not great food and I’ve had a nasty stomach ache since we left. Very disappointed and if it turns out I have food poisoning I will be taking it further. Oh and the toilets stink and the ladies had no loo roll either....