Thai Esan Restaurant — Restaurant in East Ridge

I have ordered from and eaten at Thai Esan many times, and I have recommended it to other people. The food is really great for the price. However, the service is TERRIBLE, and my most recent experience was bad enough to make it my last.

I called in a carryout order around 5:40 on a Saturday night, and was told it would be 30 minutes. Thirty minutes later, I arrived to pick up my order. I told her my name, and the server said, "We don't have an order under that name," and walked away. I waited for her to come back and explained that I had called in an order and told her what it was. She then proceeded to tell me that I didn't place an order, they hadn't taken an order since 5:00, etc. I pulled up my call history on my phone to confirm that I had called the correct number, showed it to her to prove that I had obviously placed an order based on the length of the call, and she still tried to tell me I hadn't placed an order there.

Throughout all of this, she continued to walk away while I was talking, never apologized, and didn't offer any solution. it was only after about ten minutes that she asked if I'd like to place an order, and even then she said it would take more than 30 minutes. It was also interesting to see how many calls she and the other server simply ignored while I was there.

Had the server simply acknowledged that she made a mistake, I would not have written this review. However, she chose instead to accuse me of lying about an order and made no attempt to remedy the situation. I have overlooked poor service from this server there many times before, but this was the final straw for me. I won't...

I really want this business to continue to prosper and to do well, but their outstandingly poor customer service and handling of a situation tonight stands out.

Being from out of town for our first evening visiting Chattanooga based friends, we got take out from there based on their nice Yelp reviews and great menu selection. We ordered our items and upon getting to our friends' home six minutes away, we found a $10 item was missing, a mixed vegetables with chicken dish.

We called right away to let Thai Esan know about the situation. To our shock and surprise, they disputed our report insisting that they had packed all order items and tend to double check everything. We were willing to take photos and video to verify. They declined. We even searched our back car seats again in case that one menu item may have gotten out of the plastic bag, but found nothing. The conversation went on for 10 minutes where the manager repeated that owners believed no item was missing from my order. The most they were willing to offer was possibly a 10% discount on a future order.

I had paid $70.54 for the order giving an extra $5 tip. I also noticed during this disappointing and frustrating experience they CHARGE GRATUITY OF 15% ON YOUR ORDER for any to-go orders beyond $45!!! We were not informed of this during our phone order. That was $7.91 extra that I had paid for my order.

Their food is very good, but given my experience we won't be ordering from them again during our stay. Our friends who live in this area will not go back to...

I came to the restaurant during lunch time. Finding a parking spot for my car was not easy, I had to wait for another car to leave before I could park my car. Inside the restaurant was fully packed, customers had to find a table themselves. I sat at a table that was not cleaned yet, there were no other empty tables available. Not long after a server came. There was only 1 server who had to take orders, work the cashier, and clean tables. They need to hire more servers so customers can be served properly. The food we ordered was very spicy even though we ordered mild.

Overall, the restaurant was very crowded during lunch hours. Parking was difficult, there was no host to seat customers, the tables were not cleaned, and they were understaffed. I had to wait long for my food and the order was wrong because they brought spicy food when we ordered mild. The restaurant needs to improve several things to provide good service to their customers especially during peak lunch hours. More servers should be hired and management of reservations, seating, and orders needs to...