Bangkok Thai Food 2 — Restaurant in Lakewood

Our Bangkok Thai experience was memorable from start to finish—in the way that some memories are traumatic enough to stick with you.

Our adventure began with a discourse on spice levels. Namely, that the owner/chef was displeased with the chili pepper options available locally, so she bought, roasted, and created her own spicy pepper blends. These blends were reported to be WAY hotter than most Thai places. Thus, if we normally like our dishes “spicy,” we should order “medium.” The lesson was long, and the message was received loud and clear. We heard this speech multiple times throughout our time there, and it never wavered from customer to customer. We agreed to the emphatic recommendation and ordered our food “medium-plus.”

The first course: Vegetable egg rolls. My girlfriend and I each bit into an eggroll, surprised to find them ice cold. As close to frozen as you can get without traveling to the Artic tundra. Naturally, I alerted the waiter, who explained that “several people have said that in the last week,” and proceeded to inform us that “sometimes the food cools down in transit from the kitchen to the table.” We can all agree that the thermal physics of eggrolls do not function in this way. The waiter took the two uneaten eggrolls—leaving the two single-bite, freezing cold eggrolls—and whisked them off to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, our entrees arrived: tofu noodle soup for my girlfriend; pad thai for me. At first glance, we deduced that this house-made spice blend must be invisible, because there was no evidence of said spice on either of our dishes. Imagine our surprise when each dish had ZERO spice. Certainly not medium-plus, not medium, not mild. I would have comfortably fed my dish to a toddler—nay, to an infant—worrying not one iota about the spice level. We kindly requested a spicy tray, which arrived with each jar nearly empty: a testament to the downtrodden spice seekers before us.

The eggrolls? Ah, yes. The waiter brought us the two eggrolls he’d whisked away earlier, and they were, indeed, fully cooked and piping hot. The two single-bite, frozen eggrolls still sitting untouched on our table? Not one word about those from the protagonist-turned-antagonist in our story. Instead, he told us with a tone of condescending confidence, “There was a reason these were cold—but I won’t get into it.” Just what every diner loves—an air of mystery!

We ate our way through the bland and spice-less dishes, adding as much soy sauce and spicy condiments as possible. When the waiter returned to clear our dishes, he stared disappointingly at my girlfriend’s bowl—which was mostly finished, but not entirely empty. “The chef is going to be upset,” he said. My girlfriend, who was not expecting to be admonished about her almost-finished entrée, replied softly, “I ate as much as I could.”

When the check arrived, my girlfriend slapped down her credit card without even glancing at the bill. From the booth behind us, another patron was explaining to the server that he should’ve just ordered his dish spicy, like he’d wanted to do (but was talked out of doing for fear of overdoing it on the spice level). The disappointment in his voice was louder than his words. When the server brought back the paid bill for my girlfriend to sign, we realized the total was wildly incorrect. Upon closer inspection, we found that we’d been charged for extra food and drinks. (But what about those eggrolls, you’re probably wondering. They took them off the bill, right? Reader: They did not.)

At this point, the server—who was clearly afraid of the owner—threw in the towel and disappeared into the back, never to be seen again. The owner finally refunded the entire bill, then recharged my girlfriend’s card for the correct amount. No apology. No offer of recompense for the ice-cold eggrolls we paid for but did not consume. We left the restaurant in a state of spice-less shock, no endorphins running through our veins, buoyed only by the understanding that we would never, ever visit this restaurant...

I’m truly such a push over, and this experience surpassed my ability to be pushed. We ordered green papaya salad, green curry, basil fried rice, spring rolls, mango sticky rice, and a Thai tea boba drink. I ordered online and everything seemed okay. The pick up time said 6:09, I arrived at 6:08 not expecting it to be done but wanting to check in and just be ready when it came out. The only waiter in the entire restaurant was running around between every table attempting to take care of things. A woman came from the back for a moment and kept asking what i ordered and ended up walking away. After about 20 minutes I asked if he had a time frame, no rush, I decided to run an errand seeing they were understaffed. After 10 minutes away I came back and still no food. It’s now 6:45 and the waiter came out and told me she was cooking the green papaya salad, a cold salad that is made of chopped vegetables. By 6:55 I ended up asking if it would be soon and he said yes, I checked if I could get my drink and he had completely forgot, again totally normal when you’re overworked, but he came back with a receipt and said that I didn’t order the right thing and I didn’t pay for the drink I wanted, so he told me I had to pay another $1 to get the drink I wanted. A small charge yes but after almost an hour of waiting for that drink and my food I was baffled that they were really asking for more money from me. I finally get my drink and food at 7:10 and head home. I ordered med heat and med + heat on one thing, all of our food was covered in chili powder, just mounds of it. My child could not eat and single thing, I could not, my mother could not. We took the food back, maybe a bite taken out of each thing and asked for a refund and they refused on top of telling us that’s what we ordered. This was the worst experience I’ve ever had. Star Thai, I’m so sorry I...

Ordered the Papiya Salad, Thai Fried Rice, and Thai Custard to go. Once I arrived home I noticed the papiya salad was old and was only a half an order. The stir fry looked okay but was very basic. I ate some and it didn't taste bad. The custard was old also old and smelled of mold. So the only thing I ate was the stir fry. Two hours later I had diarrhea and horrible stomach cramps. So I called the next day to let them know their food was not good. I asked to speak with the owner and the woman on the phone hung up. I continued to try to call 5 more times, each time with the woman hanging up. Finally I spoke with her but she still refused to get the owner and then said she was the owner. She was very rude and asked me why I ate the food if it looked old. I told her I still have all of the Papiya Salad and Thai Custard if she wants me to bring it in. She said she would not do anything about it and told me not to come back. I didn't want a refund, just wanted to make her aware of their dangerous food they are serving to the public. Needless to say, I won't...