Thai Elephants Restaurant (James Island) — Restaurant in Charleston

Good food, terrible service. We have been doing business with them since we moved to the area 1.5 years ago. We have sushi every Friday night when my wife and I are both in town. We stopped eating in the restaurant because of the very poor service however continued to order take out because they have good food and are close to our home. All of the staff wait on all of the tables together, instead of having assigned tables. The result is that tables get missed, orders don't come out together, and often the orders are incomplete. It takes a long time and is always chaotic. Properly managed they could likely turn 25-35% more tables per night with a higher average bill and tip. Last night I called to place our order, as happens often, I was on hold for nearly 10 minutes waiting to order. I was told it would be about 45 minutes for our order to be ready, so I waited for about 30 minutes before driving over to pick up our order. I figured I would order a beer while I waited as order pickups are usually longer than they say. While I waited a couple seated behind me complained that they had been sitting for 20 minutes and no one had taken their order. Our experience is that this is typical with the service there along with other issues that led to us no longer dining in there. When I arrived they were busy however they were not slammed. I waited 15 minutes for wait staff to come to me so I could order my beer. After another 45 minutes passed one of the employees, from across the sushi counter standing about 10 feet away, pointed at me and started laughing while commenting that I had been there for an hour. Keep in mind this is about 1.5 hours since I placed the order. The waitress that knows me evidently noticed that I was upset and asked me if everything was OK. I responded no and that I wanted to speak to the owner or manager. The waitress looked over at the woman that had just laughed at me and told me that she was the manager. I then became very angry that it was the manager that was laughing at how long I had been waiting on our order. I told both of them that I was done doing business with the restaurant and that I couldn’t believe that the manager would laugh about my long wait time. There was some back and forth and even other customers, not knowing the back ground, defended the restaurant and staff. The manager then came over to me apologized and told me that it was her first day there. We started to have a conversation about the incident and discuss what had happened. She explained that the waitress, that knows me, had told her I was a regular and she assumed that everything was OK. At this point I stopped her and asked if we could reset, I shook her hand and accepted her apology. I told her that my wife and I would give the restaurant another chance and that now that they have a new manager that I hoped they could fix their service issues. At this time a man walked up to me and screamed at me to get out of the restaurant. I turned to him and asked who he was. Having no idea who he was along with his aggressive approach I expected that it was about to turn into a physical confrontation. He informed me that he was the owner’s husband and again told me to get out of the restaurant. I explained that I was trying to pay my bill, which I already had my credit card out, ready to pay. He then said for me to pay my bill and get the hell out of the restaurant. I then reached out and shook his hand and introduced myself. I told him that the manager and I had resolved the issue, I would leave as soon as I could pay my bill, and that it would be the last time I did business with them. The staff refused to allow me to pay the bill and were apologizing at the same time. The owner again told me to get out and to never come back or he would prosecute me for criminal trespass. So I took my order and left...

I feel like I need to clarify a few things. I have eaten at this restaurant probably 7 or 8 times in my life. Every single time has been lack luster. Fortunately I have 17+ years in F&B and can spot poorly made food easily! In addition I have eaten authentic Thai cuisine and these dishes fall very short of anything even close. These people just cannot get it right., not even the Americanized version they are trying to sell you!

This place is like one of those Kitchen nightmare episodes! They can barely function as an eatery and serve subpar dishes back to back time after time with zero care!

Every single time I have received inauthentic improperly made food from this location on Folly rd next to Mondos!

I’m not sure why people continue to rate this place with multiple 4 stars but it is absolutely undeserving of this ranking and here’s why!

The fresh rolls were old and not “Fresh” sticky old rice wrap and stinky unclean shrimp in the middle. The spring rolls were dark brown and full of stinky old fryer oil on multiple occasions. The chicken wings were old and refried, very dry and tuff The pad Thai “every” sauce was reduced too much resulting in a very thick and pasty texture. The noodles were over done, mushy, and served plain with zero sauce! WHY?? The chicken I received had been absolutely pulverized in to pieces smaller than a pencil eraser. When I asked why I was ignored and left to sit with no food to eat while they served everyone else in the restaurant!!!!! I was served raw vegetables in a cooked dish multiple times! I was served improperly cooked rice on multiple occasions! Ya know, the kind that’s not cooked and is kinda crunchy??? Yeah!!!

I have been traumatized by my recent visit to this restaurant. I haven’t been treated this poorly in a very long time! I was with a friend just trying to get some food. The staff here embarrassed me in front of everyone and they refused to correct their mistakes.

It would be one thing if it were just the food but it’s not! It’s the management! It’s the staff! Front and back! I have literally been stared down whilst trying to eat my meal at this location! Very uncomfortable feeling!

All this being said! Use extreme caution when dining here! Demand that you be served freshly prepared food! Only tip if you receive exemplary service!

Ohh! And don’t say that you weren’t warned!

Negative...

I don’t know how this restaurant flew under our radar for so many years but it has. The only excuse is that Mondos Italian is next door and that’s where we were normally heading so the Thai Elephant missed our scrutiny. No longer. We had a wonderful meal at this well lit, pleasant little restaurant in the Folly Road Shopping Center. Plenty of parking and although well occupied on a Friday night, we were able to immediately seat without reservations. The menus is not large but covers all the basics and regardless of your dietary restrictions you will find something to satisfy your tastes. A good wine and beer list is on hand snd the decor would be classified Asian Delightful . Service was efficient and pleasant without the forced friendliness that has become the norm in dining. The dishes we sampled were all good to very good. One very pleasant surprise was that the noise level was subdued despite the restaurant being full. You could actually hold a conversation with your table mates. How nice was that? Summing up we give this nice little restaurant five stars on the Gen X scale or the equivalent four clams on the coveted Five Quahog...