Hill Monkeys Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Crestview

I rarely write bad reviews, but the manager/owner of this place earned it. I'll review the food first before getting to the real kicker of this mediocre dining experience. Best thing? A complimentary house salad with ginger dressing. It went downhill fast.

Only saving grace? Our waitress Alexa. A fantastic server, handling a full house solo with grace and poise. Efficient, attentive, and never missing a beat. If you dare eat this dull food, she’s the only perk. Tip her well—she deserves it.

We wanted to love this place. We support local businesses and own one ourselves. But bad business practices and sketchy food need to be called out.

We ordered:

Shrimp Eggrolls – second-best thing on the table. Nothing special, but shrimp were a decent size.

Papaya Salad – No palm sugar, no lime juice. Super salty. Came with a lemon? Tomatoes were grainy and sad.

Pineapple Curry (mild) – Thin. Bland. Coconut milk tasted watered down. Curry flavor was barely there.

Combo Pad Thai (tofu for pork, medium spice) – Immediate red flag: noodles drowning in brown mystery sauce. Pad Thai isn’t supposed to be saucy. Worse, the smell was off. Took a bite—unpleasant, unfamiliar. Took a bite of tofu—fine, aside from the unnecessary sauce. One bite of beef? Nearly spit it out. It tasted off.

Alexa saw I had pushed it aside untouched and offered a remake. I declined. Then she asked if I wanted them to "throw it away"—odd, since I had just told them the beef tasted rancid. She insisted the chef cuts the beef fresh daily and could remake it. Again, no thanks.

Still hungry, I ordered wings. Took forever. Greasy beyond belief. My boyfriend refused to eat them. I forced them down out of pure hunger. Nothing like any “Thai-style” wings I’ve had.

Boyfriend handed over his card without checking the bill. When the receipt came back, I noticed the Pad Thai ($17.95) was still on it. Went to wash chicken grease off my hands, and boyfriend said he’d handle it. Fast forward to the car—he tells me the manager came out, rudely stating, “You ordered it, you pay for it!”

Excuse me?! I’ve worked in restaurants for 20+ years—cook, server, bartender. That’s NOT how this works. Especially in a small town where people talk. If a customer says their food tastes rancid and returns it uneaten, you do NOT charge them. You definitely don’t double down with attitude.

Boyfriend wisely didn’t tell me this in the restaurant—I wouldn’t have taken “no” for an answer. But this is the age of public opinion, and my opinion is this: Hill Monkeys’ management needs an overhaul, ownership needs a wake-up call, and the kitchen needs re-training. A call to the health department, BBB, and chamber of commerce should do the trick.

I don’t appreciate being served suspect food and then having my money stolen for avoiding...

Summary: while the food may be good, be wary if you are ordering online! We read reviews of this place on our way through Crestview and couldn't wait to try it! So we ordered online, picked up our food when we arrived in town, and got back to the hotel to enjoy it. My wife and I are vegetarians (pescatarians, to be exact), and our vegetable rolls were very good. But when we opened our main dish, Ginger Shrimp Glass Noodles, it was full of pieces of chicken! We did not order chicken, but when we looked at our online receipt, it had added chicken and "no spice" (gah!) added to the order. I called the number for the restaurant and got the owner on the phone. He apologized for the problem, and offered to remake the dish properly. I drove back to the restaurant, spoke to the woman at the main desk to explain the issue, and returned the uneaten dish. She went to the back, and when she came back said "this is what you ordered, so this is what you get". She refused to acknowledge that this might be a problem with their online ordering system, and adamantly refused to replace it. I left the food with her, went outside, and called the owner back. He was once again apologetic, commiserating that the woman at the front end was a recent hire and it's been hard to find good help. He once again offered to replace the meal, but at that point I didn't trust the staff to handle my food anymore, so instead he offered to refund the cost of the dish. I thought that this was fair, and accepted that as a resolution. So while the food here may be excellent, be wary of their online ordering system! Triple-check the receipt they send you after your order...

Wish i could have experienced the restaurant here that gets 5 stars. We came in during lunch, the place was about half full, seat yourself...waited 10+ mins to get acknowledged, meanwhile place fills up, ppl that came in after us get drink orders. Finally server comes by frantically takes our drinks along with several other tables, looks like shes the only one working the entire floor and shes new. Eventually our drinks come out (but still no menu or order taken), drinks taste awful, watered down, i asked for a new one.... Finally get a menu and get to order, side salad comes out but no utensils, still waiting for a new drink, that comes out, still tastes bad ( they argued with me that it didnt) so i ask for just a water, this never came. Still no utensils...ended up eating the salad with my fingers. After 45 mins our orders comes out, order is wrong, not even close to what was ordered (curry order but got a stir fry). At this point im well beyond my lunch break and late to get back, so i cancel my order, they argue again because they had already started to remake it. They told me "next time its free" but didnt really offer any voucher for it, just lip service really as he didnt bother to comp the one correct meal we did get and seemed mad that we strangly didnt leave a tip for our lack of lunch. doesnt matter, i wouldnt waste another lunch break trying it again. Thanks for the...