Surin of Thailand — Restaurant in Knoxville

We love to eat here and give Surin a 4 on that level. The food is always good and haven't had a negative experience. That changed when we decided on their back room for a smallish, but important gathering we held and reserved the room for. For 2 months, the room was booked for us & I had spoken with 2-3 people and left a drawing of the table arrangements we wanted, which were almost identical to the way the room was laid out the day of that visit. No issues noted to me. One day, only a few weeks from the event, I received a text stating a new charge for the room because they had a new manager. Having already made all plans for us and guests, I was extremely thrown by this unprofessional surprise. We worked that out by the next day.

Then, on the day of the event, they will not allow us in the building. Both doors were locked and two different people told us they don't open for another 30 min. Guests are beginning to show up and we're all forced to be standing outside, making our event look sloppy and poorly planned, and we now lost our room prep time.

Twenty minutes later, we're let in the room and the room had not set up whatsoever. NOTHING was ready for us. Dirty tables, tables not in the right places, no place settings, menus, missing chairs, extra tables in the way, no patio furniture set up.... This was for our wedding celebration with ~20 of our friends & family and I'm running around setting up items on the bar and moving tables & chairs in my wedding dress, and not able to greet people - on top of that.

I've no complaints about our server; he was on top of things well enough and busy (not sure if they had him on other customers in the main dining area also), however I was appalled at their dropping of the ball on our booking. We will be back for meals, but not as often as we would have given a better experience in the room, and very doubtfully another gathering there after this. Our guests loved the food also, but some of them had never visited them before and the room issues at the beginning unquestionably lessened Our overall draw to...

Our experience at Surin last night wasn’t abysmal, but it wasn’t a good one either as we had the feeling something wasn’t right as soon as we walked in. As we waited for a table, we witnessed a family complaining to (what I assumed was) Management about their takeout order not being ready upon conclusion of their table service. (Apparently, it was never put in the POS). We heard them say something to the effect of, “We used to love this place; this place has really gone downhill,” not exactly filling us with confidence our experience would be any better as we waited for our table.

WHY we were waiting was all the more curious; there was basically no one there. They must have had customers at some point however, as used plates and utensils remained to be bussed on at least 2 if not 3 tables along our path through the dining room. I won’t say the looks from the other guests was akin to “Dead Man Walking,” but more of a generalized empathy, “You made the same mistake too, eh?”

Our server, bless his heart, was professional and courteous, but his eyes said, “This place is a total shitshow right now, I can’t guarantee everything will be ok. Please don’t leave.”

The food was simply meh, not what I remember from my first time here, about 4 years prior. My Panang’s curry was so strong, it collected in little deposits in the cocunut milk at the bottom of my bowl. I could feel its gritty texture with every bite. Offput, but still hungry, I knew my stomach would have trouble with this later. My wife’s “Drunken Noodle” (called something else at Surin) was spectacularly mediocre and lifeless, with no real splashes of color or garnished presentation. It certainly didn’t LOOK appetizing, though the flavor wasn’t offensive.

This restaurant was obviously having an off-night. But after witnessing stressed managers, desperate, clueless staff, and flustered customers, I fear that what may appear as an off-night is really a restaurant in decline, suffering the melancholic woes of a...

I got my order to go, so this review will be mainly food-based. The restaurant has a really nice cozy atmosphere and is very attractive. However, I could see my to go order sitting on the host station and I still had to wait about 15 minutes for someone to help me and let me pay and take my food home. That wait was pretty ridiculous.

As far as the food itself, I got the lunch chicken noodle bowl which had to be packed in the worst way possible. It was packed in one of those clear plastic soup containers and everything inside was layered.

The noodles were on the bottom plain with no sauce, then the grilled chicken with the sauce on top. The noodles on the bottom had no seasoning on them because of how they're packed so you HAVE to dump it all out and mix it together to get the proper experience. It also comes with lettuce in the noodles which I'm sure adds a great fresh crunch to the dish normally, but when you get it to go the lettuce turns into a disgusting hot wilted slimy mess you want to pick out.

My boyfriend got the yellow chicken curry which was good, just a little watery. It's great though with big pieces of potato in it!

We shared the sushi combination #1. I'm not sure what rolls these were, some sort of crunchy rolls, but man they were not for me. I'm a huge sushi eater and I've had it many places, but this was just gross. I ate two pieces of one roll and one of the other and literally had zero interest in eating any more. The rolls were somehow sweet! It was a truly disgusting combination with a loose sloppy mayo-based center filling and some sweetness as if sugar had literally been added to the mix. I've never really been turned off by a roll but these two did it.

In conclusion, the atmosphere and restaurant are very nice. The service might be alright but my experience was not great. The curry was very good just a little watery. The chicken noodle brown had great flavor but poor execution, and the sushi combo #1 was...