Bolan Thai restaurant — Restaurant in Reading

Well I have been to all 3 Thai restaurants in Reading city centre (Thai Corner, Thai Table and Bolan). I have also been to a few others as well in Windsor, Guildford, London and I must say Bolan is the best Thai restaurant. Setting and environment feel welcome, clean and staff are friendly.

Most important of all, food quality is outstanding for the reasonable price. Every restaurant have speciality and Bolan curry is the best. Of course don't expect every single dishes to be Ritz hotel standard. Look at the price you are paying. For set menu £40 for 2 people, you get mixed platters starter, chicken curry, vegetable, beef and duck or pork with rice. That's not a bad price and good portion. They also do lunch time deal for 2 courses at £8.50. I have been there many times with my family for lunch and dinner and always consistent with quality.

Shame their location is not in good spot and easy to get notice since it's upstairs above Pho and Soju. They are usually busy but not busy as Thai Corner mainly due to their location. Review here is also one third of Thai Corner. That's why I put the effort to write this review to help people notice this amazing restaurant. I know it's my first review but I wouldn't bother unless I actually enjoy it. If you like real authentic Thai at the reasonable price,...

I feel like not a lot of love went into the food here, and it's not really worth the price. Thai food should be fresh and light and full of bright flavours. Most of the meal here was just a bit meh. The stuff are very friendly and attentive, though.

Appetisers in particular were really quite poor - both the chicken wings and ribs arrived drowning in the same gloopy, sickly-sweet BBQ sauce (the kind you can get for much cheaper at any Chinese takeaway). The dumplings were bland and of a shape and uniformity that whispered 'microwave from frozen'.

Main courses were better but still nothing to write home about. We had giant prawns and sea bass fillet with sticky rice. The prawns were decent, the sea bass fillets without a doubt the kind you buy pre-portioned and frozen. The rice was the kind that comes in a little plastic baggie - chewy and sticky but lacking in fragrance and actually quite tough.

Overall really not worth a visit. You can get better Thai food elsewhere in Reading for the same price or even...

First of all this review is based on our first visit (as a family) to Bolan Thai in Reading, Berks. 2 adults and a 3 yrs old who had a fantastic time, mainly because of the way the staff treated us and were very patient to us and because of the tasty and sufficient food. All staff is helpful (i.e a spoon felt off my son's hand and in the next second a member of staff approached us with another set of cutlery on top of a napkin...and the examples can continue), but Aunny (I hope I got her name right) was something else...a super sweet appearance, kind and warm voice, VERY PATIENT, polite and paying attention to details (i.e she came over 3 times to our table with tap water to fill our glasses when she was observing it runs low). She is definitely a 10 out of 10. We ordered an 81 for our son, 43 and 41 for me and wifey and egg fried rice and I can t even describe how tasty the food was. We will definitely visit this place soon. Keep up the good work Bolan Thai and thank you for giving us such a nice...