Thai House — Restaurant in Columbia

In a word, Dishonest. Or maybe it’s Stupidity, but even after pointing out an obvious mistake they doubled-down snd got nasty.

Note: it’s not about the $2.

I ordered the Duck Curry from the “Chef Specialties” which take up one entire page. Each and every item on that page is individually priced, the Duck Curry being $14.99. That was all I ordered. When my check arrived it had only the handwritten total of $18.35 which was clearly high, there couldn’t be over 22% sales tax. I went to pay and asked the cashier to explain, and she said it was correct, curry was an extra $2. I said something to the effect that curry wasn’t an option, it’s a curry dish with its own price right next to the name, so she opened a menu and sure enough the price for curry duck was $14.99. Then she started talking about the high cost of coconut milk and a note about an extra charge in the menu, flipping through the menu unable to find it, getting her glasses and continuing the search. Honestly that was amusing, it’s quite a big menu and there she was frantically flipping through pages looking for some fine print to prove I should have known about it.

What she found was two pages back from what I ordered. Under the column heading Curry Entrees it states Curry Additional $2. On that page there is also a column for Sauteed Entrees and a section for Soup. Other than Dumpling Soup NO items on that page are individually priced, they are all the same unless otherwise noted (curry, and one soup). Starting a page or two earlier “regular” entrees are all priced the same with those exceptions, fair enough. But TWO pages later, no longer part of the 1-price entrees, are the more expensive Chef’s Specialties, EVERY SINGLE ONE of which is individually priced, with NO mention on that page about the curry dishes actually being more than the price list immediately NEXT TO the name. e.g. Duck Curry $14.99.

Note: there are no alterations to the menu, the curry sup-charge was known at the time it was printed and noted in the relevant 1-price section. There is no sensible, logical way to claim that the $2 curry up-charge noted on the one-price entree page should apply to individually priced Chef’s Specials two pages later let alone that the customer should make that connection. Those items would have been priced with the cost of coconut milk, like any other ingredient, in mind.

The cashier beckoned for what I took to be the manager or owner (a farang) who delivered the same explanation about expensive coconut milk and pointed to the note in the menu. I said that’s fine since those weren’t individually priced then flipped to the page I ordered from, pointed to the price. He insisted that the up-charge still applied and I asked how that makes any sense at all. His response clinched it “If you don’t like it you don’t have to eat here”. I said that’s dishonest, took the menu aside and snapped pictures of the pages then paid my bill in full. He said he doesn’t want customers with an attitude like mine and quite angrily, threateningly, told me to leave. Prior to the “you don’t have to eat here” line I was insistent but polite, my “attitude” was entirely calm, logical and reasonable. After he told me to leave I did drop a well deserved expletive on...

Thai House serves "almost Thai" food, while most others in the St Louis area serve "nothing like Thai" food. My wife and I live in Thailand and are currently staying in the Columbia/St Louis area for a few months. Desperately seeking a taste of home, I have to say that Thai House disappoints us, but much less than some others. The main problem with Thai food in the USA is that they load it up with sugar. But Thai House is not too bad.

Thai House cannot serve a proper "Prik Nam Plar" (fish sauce with chili) because their chilies are not kept fresh/whole. Instead, they mash them up and freeze them. But upon request, they will serve a tiny portion of their defrosted smashed chilies with fish sauce, so you can at least get a little taste of how it should be. On a later visit, I brought along my own Thai chilies that I bought from Jan International Foods (not expensive at all), and the staff were nice enough to dice them up and serve a proper Prik Nam Plar.

By the way, for those not familiar with Prik Nam Plar, it is arguably the most important condiment in Thailand. This "fish sauce with chilies" is found on every table in the country, and it's used to both "salt" and "spice" for the food.

Apart from that, the menu is somewhat limited. There is no Som Tum or Sticky Rice. But I like the options they give for their other dishes. For example, you can order almost any dish with Salmon or Cod. Their Gyozas are also fried perfectly every time. The servers are friendly and efficient. It's a nice little...

Why isn’t the city checking on this place? They don’t give you a printed receipt, just handwritten one so obviously they don’t want to pay taxes.

Food quantity has significantly reduced over the years and prices have gone up.

Atmosphere sucks, they have improved nothing over the years. They are taking advantage of locals just because they are the only Thai place in town. Folks, have to boycott them so they can increase quality and quantity of food, and improve customer service. They aren’t investing on the customer, but trying to take advantage.

Update June 2020: really small portions for the price. Getting smaller and smaller. Not good to be greedy due to lack of competition.

Small portions Not enough flavor Overpriced

Portions are quite Small for the cost for most dishes except fried rice compared to many of the Thai restaurants in the ST Louis area. Portions were much bigger years ago. Overpriced for what it is and not enough flavor compared to other Thai...