Mekkala Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Chico

The owner of this restaurant should be ashamed of the level of service my wife and I received tonight. Mekkala is our favorite Thai restaurant in Chico but we will never come back after today. We ordered the appetizer sampler with egg rolls, prawns, and the chicken satay. The appetizer sampler is supposed to come with sweet and sour sauce and the satay sauce.

When we arrived home we realized the appetizer had no sauce with it. Despite the person at the restaurant saying it was in the bag with our appetizer when I picked it up. When I called the restaurant the employee apologized and essentially offered no solutions to our dilemma leaving a long awkward silence until I asked if they can replace the order. The employee said they couldn’t but he could put an “I owe you” down for sauce next time. What is extra sauce next time going to do for me today? Then they offered to replace the sauce, I mentioned we were 20 minutes away and all of our food would get cold so the employees solution was to take the food and drop it back in the fryer!!!! Excuse me what!?

I can’t even begin to explain the multitude of health code violations that would involve to take food from a person who took it to go, away from the restaurant, and take it back then blindly drop it in the fryer. Not to mention the food would be disgusting. Our egg rolls were so soggy that they were practically inedible. Which I typically give a little grace with because we took it to go. But even for taking it to go, the egg rolls practically fell apart when I picked them up.

After going back and forth with the employee they essentially apologized that they couldn’t help and that under no circumstance would they remake the order. My wife called back and spoke with another employee that repeated the same sentiments.

I have worked in food service. The answer when you make mistake on a to go order is to remake the food. Not argue with the customer that “we only made a mistake on the sauce not the food.”

We spent $50 on one order of curry and the appetizer. The chicken satay was dry, which could have been saved if we had sauce. The egg rolls were soggy and the curry tasted like spicy coconut milk with no aromatics. I am completely baffled by this experience as my wife and I have eaten at Mekkala numerous times and we have never had even the slightest issue. After today we will never return. The customer service paired with the food was so poor that I will certainly let everyone I know to skip this restaurant when they are...

Last night I had my daughter order take out to pick up. We had the green curry chicken, “mild plus”. After she brought it hope and we mixed it in our bowls with the rice, we discovered it was more of a hot to Thai hot experience, not what my stomach could handle at the moment being sick with the flu. When we called the restaurant to find out what happened, we thought maybe they got some orders mixed, the young man answering the phone admitted that he had “screwed up” and made it too hot when he was adding the extra heat to make it mild plus. I replied, “Ok, I understand.” And then an awkward silence ensued where I was obviously waiting for the restaurant to offer to fix their mistake. I spoke up and asked when we could pick up the correct order and he said he had to go “talk to the chef”. When he returned, he said it is Mekkala’s policy that they don’t offer a new order in these situations but that we could “bring it back in” and the chef would “bring it into the kitchen and add some coconut milk to it”. I was shocked. Here I am at home sick with influenza type A, and this guy is telling me to put the now-cold food that has been in my mouth back into the restaurant container, go back to the restaurant with it, have it brought back into the kitchen so the chef could dump some more coconut milk in it and then take it back home again? I asked to speak with his manager. When this woman got in the phone I asked her if that is indeed Mekkala’s policy in these situations, she stated it was and there was nothing else they would offer. She was very rude about the whole thing. I didn’t think I should need to explain to a restaurant manager that their policy is definitely in violation of some OSHA codes and the yuck factor in general. But she very confidently did not care. So that’s my story, I was clear with her I would not be leaving a favorable review. And I can only surmise that if they treat Safety Regulations and OSHA restaurant codes with such blatant disregard publicly I can’t imagine how things look behind the scenes there. I will be avoiding Mekkala at all costs and would recommend you...

I was craving Thai food and wanted to try a different place---Mekkala did not disappoint!! In fact, probably the best Thai food I've had in Chico in a long while. Ordered red curry, beef salad, and appetizer sampler. Curry and appetizers were still hot when I got home. Thai beef salad was on point, plenty of tender beef slices, red onion, mild chili spice, and herbs with that salty and sour, kinda pungent dressing I'm addicted to, on a bed of lettuce---love it. Egg rolls and chicken satay were bigger than others I've had---chicken was tender, not rubbery or dry as I have had from other places in the past---served with a delicious house made yellow color sweet and sour type of sauce. Red curry was steaming when I got home (yes, literally steaming hot), packed with a heap of fresh vegetables---and it was a good variety of crisp tender vegetables, not soggy or overcooked (and no disappointing loads of canned baby corn and canned bamboo shoots... ) Ordered the Mild+ spice level which was spot on, spicy hot chili oil and chili flakes swirling on top with the coconut milk, but not so much to make it unenjoyable. It was that addictive spice, that makes you sweat a little like a crack addict (spoon after spoon), but it wasn't burn your mouth to the point you couldn't enjoy it. On another note, I find a lot of Thai places make their curries too sweet, red curry generally seems to be the least sweet IMO. Mekkala red curry had a superb balance of spices, heat and sweetness with plenty of that lovely Thai basil herb. They informed me on the phone that curries were a $1.00 extra due to some sort of coconut milk shortage or supply issue---WORTH IT!! IDC! Take my money! P.S. felt bad for the nice young man who dropped the receipt printer/card reader (it totally broke) and they had pretty much just opened for dinner service...he said something like, "oh no...im boned!" Sorry bro, feels bad. However, if I have to pay with cash or gemstones...so be it! IDC! Take my money! Just don't stop making your delicious...