Busara Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Bellingham

Went in tonight with my family, my wife was very excited to try this restaurant. They seated us right away but it was a while before anyone approached to take our order and well after that to get what would be our only offering of water for the night. We ordered 4 things:

Pot stickers: these were unfortunately the best part of the meal. They came quickly and as ordered

Pad Thai: this was ordered for our kids and it was quite clear that was the case. We ordered it at the lowest spice level but it came as a medium to medium + level. It was actually quite tasty for me but both kids tried it and it was way too intense for them. When it's clearly for kids, extra care on spice levels should be taken (especially for pad Thai!)

Massuman curry: this was ordered as medium spicy and not only was it not spicy at all, it was very bland. There was just zero flavor. The chicken was also very tough which was an extra disappointment because it was super heavy on chicken with only a couple pieces of potato and carrots to be found. It was pretty gross, I would describe it as boiled chicken in curry looking broth. I brought it home for my dogs, they thought it was okay

Red curry: this was also lacking flavor. It did have a little spice (ordered medium) but not much

We are generally pretty flexible at restaurants but this was by far the worst experience we've had in quite some time. When we finally got our waiter to come by (well after the food was brought out, it wasn't that busy either) we mentioned the mix-up and she left to check on it. She offered to remake the pad Thai but it was well past that point. The window of opportunity for that would have been with the first bites, our kids were not starving and not feeling well from the extra spice. She also brought a spice rack for the massuman curry but spice alone would not have revived that train wreck.

This wasn't a cheap meal and we were pretty excited to try out a new place. We were pretty disappointed and will certainly not...

This was our first time and will be our last time ordering from this restaurant. We ordered a simple takeout order of Pad Thai and Kee Mao with the appetizer sampler. The pad Thai is advertised on the menu as having “stir-fried pork, bean sprouts, scallions, eggs and garnished with carrots and crushed peanuts.” All that was in the container was noodles and a few scant pieces of extremely dry pork. In our appetizer sampler we were supposed to have 2 chicken satay but we only had 1 and there was no plum sauce (also advertised) for the Giew Grob. I called the restaurant immediately as we live 30 mins away so it was not convenient to drive all the way back to the restaurant. I was told the restaurant was too busy to speak with me and they would call me back, no one called back. I called the restaurant and the manager refused to get on the phone with me until I insisted she speak with me rather than to her employee ( I could over hear their conversation over the open phone line) she insisted that I drive back to the restaurant with the food to “prove” that there was a mistake and then went on to say that when it is busy they can run out of the garnishes and “their customers don’t care.” I was appalled at the poor manners and accusatory tone of the manager especially as I was very patient initially. The way in which this manger spoke to me was completely unacceptable and the only reason I am sharing this experience as I don’t normally complain let alone write negative reviews but this was too much! Terrible food. Terrible service. Terrible...

Highlights to the experience.... Worst meal I have had dining out- and I always clear my plate. Think "frozen food left out in the sun then refrozen, thrown into a pan and thrown onto a plate with some pre- packaged sauce and crunchy rice" Mediocre service- no concern with how the food tasted. They were nice. My girlfriend and I visited Busara around 9 pm on a Wednesday. Service staff was friendly enough. I ordered number 22 (Gai Pad Pak-sautéed chicken, rice and veggies- how could I go wrong?). My lady ordered the pad woonsen- cellophane noodles with shrimp and chicken and vegetables. In theory, they would be easy to eat and lean/healthyish dishes. I have never not attempted to finish a meal. I tried to eat it. The vegetables tasted like they were fresh out of the freezer. They were chewy, flavorless, and under cooked. The rice was almost crunchy. Also undercooked. The chicken tasted like it had been refrozen multiple times because it, too, was chewy and had no seasoning. My lady's food was the same. She ate the shrimp and the noodles, but couldn't eat the chicken or the vegetables. The server did not ask anything about how we felt abut our meal. We are pretty sure, but do not want to be accusatory, that other service staff may have been aware of how unhappy we were with the food, but seemed afraid of asking us how it was. Just saying- if the food sucks, please please inquire with the guest with what they are unhappy with. Cheers, and here's to hoping they find some ingredients not from the...