Thai Street Food — Restaurant in Worthing

I had previously eaten at the old location and found the food delicious and authentic, so was excited to take my family to the new location.

Had a table of 4 booked for 7pm and we all ordered starters and mains. An hour later at 8pm, the waitress came to say that the veggie spring rolls for starter was not available so my mum chose a duck spring roll instead. The table to the right of us who had arrived half an hour later than us, received all of their starters when we were still left waiting. My dad very politely said to the waitress that he could understand they were busy, but asked if she could check on our starters as the table next to us had theirs despite ordering a good while after us. At 8:15 3 starters came, but they had forgotten my husbands so they said his would be another 10 mins. During that time whilst 3 of us were eating the starters, one of the kitchen staff came out to say that our mains were ready now and did we want have them now. We said we’d like to have our starters first as my husband still hadn’t even received his starter that they’d forgotten. During all this there was no apology made by any of the staff.

Then when the mains came, my husband had ordered a “dry stir fry with battered beef.” His plate was filled with a watery sauce and beef wasn’t battered so it was clearly the wrong order. We again raised this politely and said we thought that the beef was supposed to be battered and we weren’t sure it was the right dish. Then the chef came, took the plate away, added batter to the beef and re-cooked it returning it to the watery sauce so that it all turned into a soggy mush that was inedible, he just ate the veg and left all the meat.

When the waitress came to take our plates away again, still no apology for all the mixups, and they did not ask how the food was. My dad said we would not be happy paying for the beef main that went wrong. Again, still no apology or acknowledgment that they had messed up, they just agreed they would take that off the bill. There was no accountability or sorry for the mess ups and no gestures of good will, they only took off the menu the one main that was inedible and that we had to request not to pay for. In the end we told them how we felt, that all the things wrong with no apology at which point the waitress eventually said she apologised but it did not seem sincere.

Following this the owner and chef came out to tell us that if we want to come out for a nice family meal we should come on a Wednesday instead as Saturdays are always busy. This seemed a bizarre response and again just unnecessary, we would have been happy with a goodwill gesture like drinks taken off the bill or at the least a simple apology. She said she had too big a menu and everything was in her head and so she forgets things.

I agree with other reviews - this place has expanded and they don’t have the processes or staff equipped to deal with more tables at the new location which is a real shame as I really enjoyed the food before!

Mistakes happen which is completely understandable but it’s the way it was dealt with that gave the whole evening a very strange atmosphere. We are not the type of people who like to complain or make fuss and we tried to give the staff the opportunity to correct things rather than just leave a negative review, but we were treated as though we had just been rude and a nuisance, it really was not an enjoyable experience and I’m afraid we won’t...

Living near the restaurant, and having heard so many good things about them at their previous location, we were excited about going last night. I still really hope that they make it a success - however... Booked for 8pm, ordered at 8.10pm, by 9.40pm (!) we'd had some prawn crackers (nice) and pork toast (soggy underneath). Whilst we were sitting by the door waiting to be shown to our table, it was already clear what the problem was - too many covers, and accepting too many walk-ups. It was plain to see that the staff were already struggling. When we were shown to our place, the table wasn't set (I got our own serviettes after we received the toast, and we never received any cutlery at all...). Two people sat next to us - they'd started off outside but had been waiting so long they'd got cold (apparently their food was nice), another table had one meal arrive so late that their partner had already finished theirs...at 9.10 I asked where ours was, and was told '10 minutes'; at 9.35 I was told 'it is coming'. Upon leaving, we were only charged for the beers - which is fair enough - and we left hungry. Advice, in the best spirit: (temporarily at least) limit walk-ups to, say, 10 per evening. It's plain that the kitchen can't cope with the numbers at the moment; train the staff - they've working their socks off, but they clearly don't know which dishes are which (we heard one diner ask if what they were being served was 'seafood' and the waitress plainly didn't know), and they obviously currently have no connection to what is actually happening in the kitchen. We hope to return and have a nice meal one day - the menu reads great, and the dishes look good - but I'd urge the owner to forget about cramming in as many people as possible every night, and get the basics right first. Otherwise, they're really going to get a bad rep pretty quickly, which would be a real shame.

Update - went back at the weekend; fantastic food, attentive service, top...

Mmm where do I start? We decided to give this place a try after seeing the reviews on Tripadvisor citing it as the No.1 place for Thai food. Our usual Thai, 'Spice I am' in Goring was No. 2 which is always fantastic, (we've frequented many many times) but wanted to see what made TSF the best. I'll try to start with something positive, the young guy taking orders was kind of nice. Clearly on his own, he was rushed off his feet, explaining to most diners that there'd be a long wait, some of them getting up and leaving as a result. Sitting outside on a metal table by a rusty fridge and chairs, we had a view into the kitchen. Propped up against the window was a large container of job lot prawn crackers, tasty! Aesthetics aside, we caught the eye of a young waitress and asked her if we could order. "I don't take orders came the reply". Okay we then got the attention of the guy and ordered Chicken Satay and Prawn Tempura. 50 mins later the starters arrived, in chipped bowls. The Chicken Satay was edible but expecting a peanut sauce, it was kind of a masala instead, mm. The prawn Tempura was horribly deep fried and wasn't great but we were so hungry by this point, we ate it. Next up we tried a Chicken Green Curry and a Red Vegetable Curry. We both took one mouthful each and realised this was possibly the worst food either of us had had the misfortune of eating. Salty, tasteless and quite revolting, we just wanted to leave as quickly as possible. To be fair when the bill arrived we weren't charged for either of the main dishes but the taste it left was of "how on earth did TSF get so many positive reviews?" Spice I Am in Goring is definitely the best place without doubt in Sussex for a Thai. Even getting a cab there from Central Worthing with fantastic dining will still be cheaper than this overpriced establishment. I've been to Thailand a few times, perhaps TSF should send a cook there to see how food is...