Thai Express by Rin — Restaurant in Cutler Bay

I have ordered from the original Tani Thai on US1 for many years while living near The Falls Mall. I know the menu of this restaurant very well. My wife and I moved to cutler bay after a few years and began ordering from this location that was not owned by “Rin” prior to the last year. It was terrible Thai food we never ordered again after the one time. Then this location to our surprise was purchased by Rin and given the same menu as the original Tani Thai. Well tonight we decided to get Thai food and we said let’s get the old hits. The usual order: wife gets chicken pad Thai, I get red curry no veggies (I know it’s weird whatever I like it lol) some garlic chicken for my son and the star of every order the Cocky Bob. Let me tell you that we paid $75 was the biggest waste of money we’ve ever spent. The curry that I ate was watery, I mean that I have tried to replicate this exact dish at home many times before ordering this tonight in an effort to mimic Tani Thai’s original curry and it was always a fail. Well this new express place made it worse than me somehow. Just straight up water and curry spice filled halfway up in a take out container, not even a full container of curry it was halfway filled. The cocky Bob in the original Tani Thai were these delicious thin and very crispy strips of bite sized chicken marinated in this sweet soy/teriyaki garlic flavored sauce…. Well this one from Express Thai was fist sized pieces of laughably “breaded” chicken (seriously should’ve been labeled grilled) soggy cocky bob in again what can only be described as watery sauce that seems to just have soy sauce in it as extra flavoring. Just disappointing. Who is running this place? I can very frankly say that my wife and I will never order from here again. $75 for this garbage. You got me this time but...

My husband and I were the only customers and it took almost an hour for the food to arrive. The entire room smelled like burnt plastic, smelled toxic that I covered my nose throughout the time we waited for the food, and the server recommended that we sit on another table (she didn't understand that the entire restaurant smelled so strong and so bad). My husband decided to have lunch there for soup. I ordered crispy duck with pineapple and baby corn (like how they're usually served in other Thai restaurants). When my food arrived, the pieces of duck were served on top of a bowl of soup. I verified with the server if that's how their crispy duck was served, and she said, "Yes" so I thought I didn't read the dish description well. I didn't have dinner the night before and skipped breakfast, so I was there very hungry. I went through that bowl so fast and didn't realize till halfway through that there were no baby corns or pineapple. I called the server who then went to talk to the cook. I told the server it was her responsibility to make sure that the food she was delivering was the one I ordered, but the manager instead, relayed what the cook told her that it was my fault that I did not check what was delivered. It turned out that the food that the cook prepared was a different dish. Long story short, we were made to pay for the food without the place making any effort to make up for the mistake. I DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT...

Today was my first time hearing of this restaurant, and even though I was a bit hesitant, I am glad I gave them a try. For months, I’ve been craving Pho like how my Vietnamese side makes it, but I couldn’t figure out where to find any close to home. After giving their Pho Tai a try, I am definitely returning to this place as their food and service have left me very satisfied. The staff was friendly and helpful with any questions I may have had. I look forward to returning to this place and giving some of their other dishes a try!

Another thing I would like to note is that even though someone had mistakenly picked up my order and returned it, they went out of their way to remake it. I believe the way they packaged my order was also very considerate as the broth was in a separate container, so there was no worry of the noodles being soggy or having to pick out any of the toppings I may not wanted in my food. The broth container had a plastic bag around it just in case of leaks. This was something that I appreciated, as not many restaurants care to do that...