Lina's Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Dubuque

Let me preface by saying I am not a picky eater; it takes a lot for me to say something is terrible—and goodness this food was awful. My husband and I came here yesterday and ordered the following: chicken dumplings, hot and sour soup (tom yum), kam kha gai soup, beef pad thai, and kung pao chicken. Out of everything, the only passable items were the dumplings and Coke; our waitress was sweet and friendly; these three things are the only reason I’m even giving Lina’s one star.

I don’t know how a thai place can ruin pad thai; that’s like a steakhouse having horrible steak or a Chinese restaurant having horrible general tso’s; it’s a staple item and is a safe bet, but man, this was terrible. It was so unbearably sweet—yes, I am aware most thai cooking utilizes sugar—but this was grotesquely sweet; it was also doused in this sauce, whereas pad thai noodles are meant to be drier; the beef had a very strange taste to it, as well—somewhat rubbery. I attempted to cut the sweetness with some lime juice, and that made it infinitely worse. I was nauseous, and had I not stopped eating, I surely would have gotten sick.

The Kung pao was bland, and the fried rice was undercooked; this dish lacked flavor overall—which is a bit of a disservice to its name. The soups were also bland, particularly the kam kha gai, which is coconut based; again, this is a staple item which I frequently order from such places, and it was not good—like drinking heated coconut milk from a can; there was absolutely no seasoning in this whatsoever.

I don’t know how this place has such high ratings; they were the reason we opted to go here over Pete’s—should have stuck with my first instinct. Good thing Sonic was...

The food was delicious, I would recommend that to people.

However, I ordered food online through their website (not a 3rd party company such as door dash) tonight at 6 o'clock and had an estimated pick up time at 6:25 pm. I got there at 6:30, tried checking the progress of the order when I arrived but the website didn't give an update other than the 6:25 pm time. I headed inside and was assisted right away, but waited for the staff to come back for about 5 minutes to be told it'll be about 7 more minutes. I took a seat and patiently waited, but it was around 6:55 that they finally checked on me again. I was letting other customers get help. They said it's getting bagged up, it'll be a minute. I finally got my food and headed out a few minutes after 7 pm.

I understand being busy or under staffed, but don't say it'll be ready in 7 minutes when it isn't ready by then. Give a better estimate of pick up time. 40 minutes later is not acceptable.

I had given a nice tip. I want to support local companies and tip well. I'm only picking up food, I don't feel that needs a big tip.

Also, the customer before me, and at least the customer after me, were told it'll be a 7 minutes wait also, but had to wait longer than that, and they were upset/frustrated.

Maybe I should have talked with them, but they didn't say anything to me or apologize, so I didn't feel like talking, also I had waited 40...

Went in for lunch today and they weren't busy- maybe three tables total. The minute we walked in, we knew it was going to be...hmmm how to say this?... It felt like it was going to be a challenge- we'll say that. Anyway, the minute we walked thru and made contact with our server who was sitting by the bar table thing, and she saw us and literally grunted/sighed like she couldn't believe she was being bothered...that's the feeling we got. We've been to Lina's plenty times before, but this was absolutely the worst service we've ever experienced. She ( her name was Alex E. ) was not hiding the fact that she clearly didn't want to be there, yet alone serve us or anyone else. She practically thru our silverware at us and each time we needed her, she just kept walking by. Completely ignored u and rolled her eyes when she did approach our table. It made me think we were doing something wrong...I mean we said, please and thank you, and apologized...well for nothing, but we thought if we said "i'm sorry" her attitude might change? I even complimented her....I don't want to say she was rude rude, but in a sense she was- if that makes sense. She had no personality, no friendliness, no smile, nothing. I'm not sure who hires these kind of workers to work with the public, yet alone keep them around anyway. The food tho, as always, SO DELICIOUS! love the...