Thai Tip — Restaurant in Albuquerque

The worst customer service and the food is barely okay: We stopped in for an early dinner because of the reviews. We were greeted by our server, promptly sat, and ordered: vegetarian potstickers, and mini spring rolls, followed by shrimp pad Thai and shrimp pa nang curry. It took a while for the appetizers to arrive, and even longer for the entrees. The restaurant had two other tables when we walked in. The potstickers were deep fried, and had never seen a pot to be stuck to, the mini spring rolls were just okay. Then the pad Thai lacked flavor and the shrimp had obviously been pre cooked in plain water and added to a bland plate of noodles, the pa nang was pretty decent. By this time, we had unrolled our silverware from the paper napkins, and my wife found chewed gum had been wadded up in the napkin. We told our server right away who apologized and told us she would let the manager know. She returned quickly with a stack of clean napkins. At some later point a homeless looking guy who had jut walked in the restaurant stopped by our table and asked how the food was. After 30 seconds we asked if he was the manager and he was the owner, who knew nothing of the gum, and when we told him the pad Thai was a little bland he interrupted my wife to explain the style was Bangkok so it was supposed to be sweet, which it wasn't because it was BLAND. After that, the owner told us about all the stars and reviews and so on. So that interaction was just rude. At the end, we declined an offer for deserts and were presented with a check and a mention of "there's a little discount for that gum." That discount was $4, 10% of our bill. The reason I write this is because I have worked both front and back of house, meaning I have served, bussed tables, washed dishes, cooked, and managed a kitchen. I was trained in award winning Asian restaurants across the country under world class chefs. But me saying this does not mean I had a problem with the food, other than the so called potstickers. My problem is the customer service and especially the owner. Back to receiving the check: I asked to see he manager. 6-7 minutes later the owner comes back over. I explain the situation about the gum, that I didn't expect a discount but at the least for the manager to come and have a word with us, to apologize. The owner interrupted me to tell me how hard it is to hire a manager, that his son is the manager and in the back cooking the food. I told him it's Saturday night and he needs to have a manager on the floor and that his hiring issues aren't my problem. I then told him his staff also are using used napkins to wrap silverware and he decided to point out the other problems, such as the missing salt shakers on other tables, again, as if it's my problem. I told him the gum is unhygienic, and I explained that in my experience working in restaurants as the sole manager I would have come out of the kitchen if I was cooking and made it better for the customer, that a cowardly 10% discount is not acceptable. I said that apart from the potstickers, which he told me I simply should have asked for them to be prepared the right way (which a person would expect when ordering a menu item described that way) the food was decent, the curry was good, and he can dispute my opinion on the pad Thai because his recipe is specific to a certain region of Thailand which I entirely understand. I said my true complaint was for the utter lack of customer service when dealing with an issue of hygiene. My wife wiped her mouth with that napkin. No one checks a paper napkin is clean before using it at a restaurant when it is rolled around the silverware. It was unacceptable. I gave him my card, he asked how to make it better, and I said it was up to him. So he took of another $8: half the pad Thai (which we didn't bother bringing home) and half the potstickers. I suppose him being cheap helps pay for his Mercedes, the keys of which were dangling from his belt throughout our complaint. I would give less...

It’s with a heavy heart that I have to update this review for the worse :( If you only get take-out, it’s likely only the first point will apply to you.

My wife and I stopped going to this restaurant after a number of things changed. This is especially unfortunate because this is also the restaurant I took work visitors from out-of-town to, including a group from two places with far better food (and Thai food) than Albuquerque, and they all loved it.

Firstly, a note which was true in my last review, their service is very slow. As far as I can tell, this is largely due to being understaffed in the kitchen, though I think in this case it’s more a reflection on the restaurant and owners than on the economy / job market. If this were the only problem I would still be going there regularly as their food really is top-notch. If I lived closer, I would likely get food for take-out and eat at home, and thus could mitigate the slowness by driving time, but as it stands I live 40 minutes away.

They seem to have perpetual supply chain issues. One time when we went there they were out of rice, which is quite unfathomable for a Thai restaurant. Twice they were out of straws. For a significant period of time the hot-water machine for making tea was broken, and thus you couldn’t have tea (this may still be the case, but I can only attest to the times we tried ordering it).

Their wait staff appears to have significant turnover. Over the course of a few months (before we stopped going) they had several new faces appear and several others disappear (including their best one).

The owner’s (or, who I presume to be the owner) treatment of the wait staff is noticeably bad. The very last time we were there we had a new waitress who was just learning. She made a mistake with my order (I ordered “no potato” on my Yellow Curry and it came with potato) because didn’t know it came with potato and thus had to make a note to remove it. This was fine and not a big deal - and she handled it very well - but we heard the [presumed] owner in the back berate her (“no mistake!” “But… everybody makes mistakes!” “No mistake!”).

Additionally, the owner apparently really loves this heart-shaped rice shaper (when the rice for your food comes out, it comes formed in the shape of a heart). Unfortunately, this rice is a measly amount - much smaller than the normal measly amount many Thai restaurants provide. To provide a visualizable example, I assume many reading this review are familiar with how much rice you can fit into a typical Asian-food to-go box (with the folding lid). Using this as a reference, most restaurants provide about half of that if you eat in the restaurant (which is already slightly too little for my tastes); the heart-shape at this restaurant is a quarter of that, and you’re charged a significant markup for more rice. We started ordering the rice to-go even though we were eating there, and they started filling the box slightly more than half-way up (which is still weird and slightly absurd, but at least I got the amount of rice I wanted).

So, to summarize, eating in the restaurant meant that I’d pay too much for too little rice, we’d wait for too long for our food, we’d have ever-changing wait staff, we’d have to deal with constant random and weird missing inventory, and we’d have to deal with knowing the owner doesn’t treat them as well as they should. Everything here points to a pretty significant management issue.

However, their curry is the best in town, and I will miss it for as long as...

A group of three of us met at Thai Tip at 5:30pm on a weekday for dinner. It was the first time for all of us.

Their fried rice selection is very large - there are seven different fried rice options to choose from!

I chose the eggplant curry (khang kheaw whan nua) which I haven’t seen on many Thai menus. It came with a choice of protein, green curry, eggplant, coconut milk, and is topped with bell peppers. I ordered mine mild with tofu as the protein.

The curry was delicious! The tofu came fried in the dish. It had a hint of heat that complimented the flavor. My only critique would be that I wished I had more rice.

My husband got the Thai Tip Famous Teriyaki Fried Rice, which is also something I haven’t seen on other Thai menus (teriyaki fried rice). The rice consisted of a choice of protein, egg, bacon, bacon grease, onions, peas, carrots, and teriyaki sauce. It was flavorful, and interesting, as Thai cuisine doesn’t usually use bacon. I’m not sure I’d get it again if it was an option between that and, say, a staple like pineapple fried rice.

The service was friendly and attentive. The restaurant has both booths and open seating. Customers using wheelchairs and large bodied customers will not have an issue at this place as there are no steps and the chairs are a sturdy metal with no sides/arm rests.

————————- *UPDATE *

What a disappointing experience. This was our second visit here. Our last time was over a half year ago, and either they’ve gotten a new chef overall or they had a new chef for this evening.

We came in on a Wednesday evening at 4:30pm, so there wasn’t a dinner rush. There were two servers and at least one cook, yet the wait was very, very long for the food. There was only one other couple in the restaurant, so why there was such a delay was confusing.

I had the pineapple fried rice with tofu, medium spice. I ordered cilantro to be added, but they forgot it. The entree came out hot instead of medium, and for some reason tasted incredibly metallic. I’m not sure what caused it, but it was not appetizing in any way.

The service was slow and non-attentive, which again was odd given there were two servers and just two two-tops (so four patrons overall).

Previously I had given Thai Tip a 4/5, but this time my dining companion and I agreed on a 2/5. I think that’s generous given the food was unappetizing, the wait time slow, and the service inattentive. It’s too bad their chef changed over or the quality has declined in the past half year. We...