Sen Thai Noodles & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Bend

This is a difficult review to write because of the dichotomy of the menu.

Pros (4-5 stars): Great menu choices, entrees are delicious Nice cocktail menu Good service

Cons (1 star): Hot Pot

This restaurant bills itself as a hot pot experience. Maybe it's accurate to Thai hot pot, I don't know. But compared to shabu shabu, Chinese hot pot, or Korean BBQ it's a total disappointment. The hot pot 'tables' are little more than regular tables with a portable gas burner set on it. You are supplied with a deep saute pan filled with broth, awkward cooking utensils for trying to manage the food involved, and various prepped foods to cook in it. I've done it twice and on my last visit the veggies were stale and obviously prepped a day in advance (or more). This is not a everyone gets to cook a thing style of hot pot. You designate one party member to be the hot pot cook. They get to toil away at cooking for everyone. The restaurant provides some obvious directions (corn before cabbage before noodles, etc). Then you throw everything into the boiling liquid. Now your food is done. Where do you put it? Tiny, tiny bowls. They have bigger bowls but those are only for entrees. So while you wait for your literally boiling portion to cool in your tiny bowl everything else in the hot pot gets totally overcooked (even if you turn the burner off). The hot pot option is extremely overpriced for what you get. The vegetarian version is at most $5 in vegetables (supposed to feed 2-3) and the meat option might be $10 of ingredients. Again it's all stale and you get to cook it yourself. The broth they provide is boring, unflavorful, and I expect straight out of a box that they spent $3 on. What they charge you is $55. I'm used to Bend prices but this is nonsense.

Conclusion:

Good food as long as it's not the hot pot, great cocktails, good atmosphere, and as a year round Bend resident I appreciate being able to make reservations and not wait two hours behind the tourists. Order some Gupgam and Tuah Gratiem as appetizers (though they'll arrive with your entrees), get a Tropic Thunder to sip on, and pick an entree that sounds...

Dining at Sen is like playing culinary roulette—you never quite know what you’re going to get. At its best, the food is passable. At its worst, it borders on cafeteria-grade fare that leaves you questioning how this establishment remains in operation.

Unfortunately, my most recent visit fell firmly into the latter category.

The food? Disappointing. Bland, uninspired, and thrown together with the kind of indifference that suggests the kitchen itself has lost interest in what it’s serving. Once or twice in the past, I’ve had an acceptable meal here, but any sense of consistency is long gone. What my friend and I received this time around was a forgettable, flavorless assortment of dishes that wouldn’t be out of place in a mall food court—only without the speed or convenience.

What truly solidified this as a one-star experience, however, was the service. Our waitress radiated a level of passive hostility that made even simple requests feel like a burden. I asked, politely, for the ice for my Thai tea to be served on the side—a minimal, reasonable request. The response? A visible, audible display of frustration, as though I had asked her to reinvent the menu. It was the kind of interaction that leaves a bad taste long after the meal has ended.

Hospitality is a demanding profession, and empathy is warranted. But there’s a difference between having a rough shift and making guests feel like they’re unwelcome intrusions. If showing basic courtesy is too much to ask, then perhaps it's time to rethink being in a service role at all.

The interior of the restaurant adds little to salvage the experience—drab, dated, and lacking any of the charm or ambiance you'd expect from a Thai dining establishment. At best, this place might serve as a convenient takeout option in a pinch. But even then, you'd be far better off choosing Noi Thai—a consistently excellent alternative with generous portions, superior service, and pricing that’s nearly identical.

Sen doesn't just lack polish—it lacks pride. And in the restaurant world, that’s the...

Really wanted to love and recommend this spot, but the service and were were just ok. I love Hot Pot and love Noodlees, but this place, is a big thumbs down for me.

We made a reservation for 6 people, 4 of which would do a hot pot and 2 that did their own a la carte food. With the reservation, I was required to pre-order the hot pot and pay an extra fee for the reservation. When we got there the hot pot was not ready and had not been ordered. We sat and waited to get the order started. The 2 people that ordered a la carte got their orders first while the 4 of us who had pre-ordered were sitting and waiting for the hot pot. Whats the point of pre-order if its not going to be ready when you should up for reservation? As the hot pot arrived, there was enough meat for 1 person and the vegetables were so large and extremely inconvenient to cook. The recommendation that hot pot is enough for 3-4 people is not correct and for what you get, its not worth the $. The friends who had the noodles on the side were happy with their meal, but the hot pot group was not. Additionally, we ordered drinks, which, they arrived mid way through the meal, even though they were ordered ahead of the meal. Service was not ok. To end the experience which we were already not satisfied, we were then charged for the hot pot again and an additional fee for the 6 people group. Hot pot was then "subtracted" but goes to question, it was already paid as well as the additional fee for making a hot pot reservation! We were also not allowed to spit the bill in 2. We were told they have a 1 card policy. Overall, would not recommend going here. Nice place, but as a customer and someone who worked in restaurants, I don't appreciate how we were treated and we all felt like we were ripped off. Too expensive, ok food and random Fees. And no, it as not a refundable reservation fee where you only get charged if you...