Thaikhun Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in Southampton

Me and my boyfriend visited this place for the first time on the 21st of May. I enjoy Thai food and could wait to try this place as it looked interesting and the reviews were mostly good. We booked a table in advance. We ordered 2 beers and a pinto sharing main for 2. It included Pad Tha, Massaman curry and a stir fry. We paid £50 for the dinner. Here is my opinion. Pros: +We were invited by a friendly woman at the entrance. She was smiley and very polite. +The atmosphere in the place is unique and has a real vibe of being on a street of Thaiand. +The flavour of the food was generally good. The pad thai was too sweet though. Cons: The table we were seated at was small and felt a bit grubby. So were the glasses we were given. The place is a bit run down and not very clean. It's in need of renovation or at least deep clean. I also saw a trolley with clean cutlery standing right next to a bin with rubbish. The service was a bit in shambles as we were served by 3 waiters. None of whom was particularly friendly or attentive. The main thing. The chicken in all 3 our dishes was overboiled and stiff. Chewy. Unpleasant to eat. We left 80% of the chicken and just eat the sauce and noodles. I told about this to one of the waiters when he came to collect our dirty plates. He said he would tell the cook. Then a different waiter came for the bill. She took additional "optional"10% service charge which is included in the bill. Noone cared about the inedible chicken. Overall, it wasn't awful but there are many other nicer places with better food and service.

Update. Decided to give the place another chance. I had pad thai with prawns which was quite nice but very sweet. My partner had a stir-fry with chicken. I tried some. The flavour was good but the chicken was again very stiff and rubbery. No idea what's wrong with their chicken it's so bad. It was a good atmosphere though a bit grubby (authentic Thai street eating experience?). Overall the food was OK apart from the chicken. While we were eating noone came to ask us if everything was fine. Not the best service. But they added a 10% service charge to the bill...

I came here genuinely wanting to enjoy this place. My friend and I love Thai food, and since Thaikun is a well-known chain, we assumed we were in for a solid meal. Spoiler: we were not. If this was considered a “good day,” I’d hate to see what an off day looks like.

The Pineapple King Prawn Fried Rice was nearly £17, and the most generous part of that dish was the price. A few tiny pineapple bits, uncooked prawns, and enough burnt pieces to make me question whether the pan was on fire or just giving up. When the strongest flavour in a fried rice is burnt bitterness, something might be wrong in that kitchen.

Then came the Mango Sticky Rice, which honestly deserved an award — for Best Example of How Not To Cook Sticky Rice. It was undercooked, hard, and had the texture of rice that decided halfway through cooking that it no longer wanted to be involved. We politely mentioned it to the manager, and instead of an apology or any kind of hospitality, the dish was taken away and returned with the exact same problem. At this point it felt less like dining and more like a social experiment.

When we brought it up again while paying, the manager delivered a performance I won’t forget. No apology, no willingness to listen. She poked the rice with a fork and said, “It’s soft in the centre.” If your defence is “just eat the middle”, that’s basically admitting the dish failed — unless the new concept is Mango Sticky Rice With a Side of Instructions. I wasn’t even done speaking before she walked off. The food came out warm; the hospitality was ice-cold.

For the price, the food tasted closer to reheated frozen meals than fresh Thai cooking. There are family-run Thai restaurants that deliver 10× the flavour at half the price — and with actual warmth, both from the food and the people serving it. The staff here were trying their best, but the manager’s attitude wiped out any goodwill.

We still paid the 10% service charge — only because the waitress refunded the sticky rice, not because the service deserved...

Had late lunch there today (15 October), food was ok, a bit too sweet for me but it is personal taste. Main issue was they overcharged me. The bill was over £25, but £28.85 was charged from my card!! Tried to call but nobody taking phonecall and no way to talk to any staff. One other issue with customer service was that the staff refused to give me a table intially as I did not have a reservation. I got there after 2pm while only half a dozen customers were eating in. So I said ok, can I make a reservation ? Another staff came over to take reservation from me and asked me what time I wanted the table. I said right now ! I can see you have many spare tables, why turning customers away. She gave in and gave me a table.

*Update on 9 November, nearly a month after my review and visit to this restaurant on 15 October. The £3 overcharge is still not resolved. I have emailed the restaurant/head office 4-5 times and provided evidence and picture of the dishes I have ordered but am getting nowhere so far. My time and efforts are costing way more than £3! I don't normally leave reviews but when the services are so bad, I felt I needed to make public aware so others won't suffer from the same bad experience. Every business is operating fine when plain-sailing; however, when issues happen, the way they deal with them will show you how robust and responsible their customer services are. This company/restaurant completely failed at customer services. I will never visit them ever again. If there was a ZERO star, that would be the rating I am...