Panang Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Lafayette

I’ve frequented and have highly recommended Panang Thai forever. In the past, I loved their curry and vegetable egg rolls. Sadly, my last two experiences with them will be my last. I’m someone who likes to promote local businesses not leave bad reviews, however, when push comes to shove I don’t want others to have to live through my bad experience.

Yesterday (5/29/25), I ordered Panang Curry with extra veggies ($1 up charge) and brown rice ($1 up charge). I ended up going to the Farmer’s Market and was exited to heat my curry up for lunch today. Upon taking my first bite it tasted like soured milk, I smelled it and confirmed it smelled spoiled. I called and nicely told them about my experience and offered to bring the bad curry in so they could verify and asked them replace it with a new one. An inconvenience for me. They put me on hold and told me that due to their policy they couldn’t replace it. I was shocked and disappointed and asked why they couldn’t make it right when I was the one who couldn’t eat, paid for the meal and was willing to bring the food back? She said well we get scammed and are sorry. I feel like I’m the one being scammed out of my money for food that I can’t eat. This is horrible customer service to a previously loyal patron.

In the beginning of the year, my daughter and I were craving Thai and saw online they were asking people to use their online order service even though we were right around the corner, even though it was an inconvenience to signup for another useless app and give them my card, we did. We placed the order, paid the order service a tip and then heard nothing. After waiting in the parking lot for 25 minutes my daughter went in only to be told they never received the order. We had to pull our online order receipt up and show it to them and then wait another 20 minutes for it to be made. My daughter tipped again since they had to write a new ticket. Bad experience.

Reply to restaurant reply:

It’s so sad that it has came down to this. I simply wanted to enjoy a meal I paid for, have always enjoyed in the past and was nice as always. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt understanding situations occur outside of our control and offered to bring the dish in so you could assess it yourself. I never blamed anyone or yelled or even said the ingredients were bad. I simply said the taste was off and it tasted and smelled sour and thought you should know about it as it was unusual and I couldn’t eat it. I could also waste my time and pull up years of receipts proving my loyalty to your restaurant.

You contradict yourself in your own reply, you've never seen me order or come nor call yet you claim you made it? I’ll even add it was nicely delivered to my car when it was ready and I thanked the person with a big smile. I also left a $4 tip even though it was takeout. Your reply: "I never seen you order it nor did you come or call and I was the one made it and all the ingredients we got was from the market it was fresh and all pre made." I’ve attached the phone call record, order receipt and a picture of the uneaten meal. I offered to bring the meal in so you could taste it yourself and address any issue you may not have known about.

The woman on the phone told me “ I’m sorry, no, I’ve spoken to the manager and it’s against policy to replace the dish since the restaurant had been scammed before hence the policy ” which didn't make any sense to me. I just wanted to enjoy the food I’ve always gotten in the past. Also, I mentioned on the phone that I've loved your restaurant for years and recommend it often to friends and was simply asking for a replacement curry (not a refund) as the one I received tasted and smelled like something had soured. I was very nice on the phone and when no one was willing to work with me I said I’d be leaving a bad review and...

Bad food, worse service and an owner/manager who lies. We visited Panang Thai a few times as there are very limited options for Asian food in Lafayette. After the third visit, we had to stop - it was just too bad. The food is not prepared in the Thai manner as the restaurant owners and operators are actually Chinese. When placing a take out order I was told 20 minutes on the phone. When I arrived to get the food, I was told 20 minutes again. When I asked why the delay, I was told they were having kitchen machine issues. 20 minutes later, when I was told 10 minutes, having seen another take out order given the same excuse, I realized that the owner/manager had lied to me. There was no kitchen machine issue, the issue was that they had not started my order until I came in to pay. When I confronted the owner/manager about the lie, he explained that they had some orders placed in the past that people didn't pick up. I explained to him that didn't justify him lying to me. He gave an unconvincing apology and nothing else. I told him that I would be cancelling the payment I just made and that he could keep my food. If you enjoy being lied to, eating Chinese Thai food, and having poor service - you'll...

Unfortunately, I read the reviews after ordering food- I just wanted Thai, lesson learned. The menu sounded fantastic, so I ordered the crispy duck with basil. I was told 45 minutes, but much to my delight, it arrived in 25. Only the duck was cold and the skin was anything but crisp. Just soggy pieces of duck fat. The rice was also cold. It was just bad. I'm definitely not one to complain (or write negative reviews for that matter) but this was a terrible food experience. So I called and the person that answered just said "hello" not "Hi, this is Panang Thai" I told him that I had just received my order and that everything was cold and the duck was super flabby. I asked him to send the driver back because I didn't want it and to please refund my credit card. He told me that they were closed and very hostility refused to help me out at all. Just a jerk. I am the sales coordinator and customer service expert for a highly successful local company. Worst customer experience in long time recent memory-...