Orchid Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Lincoln

🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑If you are African American or Black American, DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS PLACE. You will be treated like a 5th class citizen. I had an AWFUL EXPERIENCE HERE, and I CAN NOT BELIEVE this is still happening in 2024.🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑

What is sad it that I have eaten at their Downtown Sacramento location as it is within walking distance of my office, for several years, at least once a week. Well, that is no longer going to happen. NEVER AGAIN.

I went in with a colleague who is White. The staff acknowledged her but not me. They consistently spoke to her, refilled her water, and I had to actually ask to have my water glass refilled as the server was walking away. When asked about ordering, the staff spoke directly to my colleague and not to me.

Initally, I ordered from the happy hour food menu, and she did not place an order. When the food I ordered arrived, it was placed towards my White colleague, and I had to rearrange the plates that I ordered to be closer to me/ middle of the table for us to share.

The water issue continued, and I finally gave up about asking for a refill. To illuminate the issue, there were at least three different staff persons who had ignored me in favor of servicing my white colleague at this point.

When it was time to pay, we requested a split check. The check was split, and them brought back to the table.

Long story short, the racist waiter told me my card was declined and demanded another form of payment. Come to find out, after I checked my accounts while in the parking lot, it was my White colleagues card that was DECLINED. THE RACISIT WAITER/SERVER never bothered to verify my name or verify the card numbers on the slip. I was charged TWICE.

I went back in, running through the Friday evening storm we were having in Lincoln and confronted the elderly Asian woman who ignored me earlier. I told her I wanted to speak to a manager (she pretended like she wasn't the owner) and she brought over a younger woman of South American /Mexican American descent. I showed her my online transactions and she said something about the pending falling off. Given that I have worked in the banking industry I told her that if there was a decline, it would show as such. Not as a pending. Anyhow, I told her to pull the pink slips and find the signed tickets. Upon review both tickets had MY CARD NUMBERS.

The manager was apologetic when I told her what happened during the entire evening and being ignored. It was not a fun experience.

If I could rate in NEGATIVE...

The Food - The depth of the flavor, the quality, the presentation, the temperature of the food, the timing of the food being brought out and how quickly: All excellent and deserving of a rating higher than 5!

The Service - The greeting, the speed of the acknowledgment when we entered, the kindness, the friendly attitudes, the patience of the servers, the hospitality and checking in on us in a timely manner, refilling our waters, the knowledge of the food and spices, the helpful suggestions to alleviate my anxious indecisiveness, the checking on my preferences for my vegetarian preferences, the prompt cleaning of tables, the kind tone of voice. All are excellent and impressive for these young men and women.

The atmosphere - beautiful decor, plenty of seating, private feeling booths. The music was tolerable, not my taste, current hip hop/RNB, but tolerable. The servers singing to the music while cleaning was nice. The cleanliness of the bathrooms was tolerable compared to some other restaurants I've seen.

Comments - My wife and I really enjoyed our meal here today. I was looking for some vegetarian options to improve my health, and we were both happy. With such flavor and spice, here they made not eating meat very enjoyable!

I only wish they had smaller meal options at a lower price or some way to have less food with more variety at once so I can enjoy all the items I came for at a lower price and still eat all my food.

We tried going to a different Thai place just before this today, but we were craving the coconut milk flavor to balance the Thai spices. So we had to come here to Orchid Thai instead, since the other restaurant didn't have it. Also, at the other Thai place, they sat a very loud group right next to us, although there were plenty of other seating, and I couldn't even think. But thankfully, at Orchid Thai, it was very pleasant!

We will be coming to this place straight away next time we want Thai.

We both highly recommend this place.

They also have live music during the dinner rush Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from...

Filthy dirty restaurant. Carts loaded with dirty dishes in plain view. We were the only people in the restaurant. People started coming in after we were seated. Aside from some Spring rolls and some drinks we received nothing else that we had ordered,, yet all the other tables were receiving steaming platters of food. The server, who volunteered out to every table she is pregnant, came over to check on us and we pointed out how we had no food yet. “I’ll go check with the kitchen” she said. I watched her go to the POS computer terminal and look at our table info on the screen - the screen was highly visible from our vantage point. The only things visible were drinks and spring rolls. She started flipping through pages of her notepad looking for what she wrote down. It was obvious she didn’t place our order with the kitchen. Here is where the rubber hits the road: She returned to the table to tell us the kitchen was getting ready for their employee party and had already started cleaning up -“ but I’ll make sure your food is out in 15-minutes or less. By the way, what did you order?” She lied to us - she blamed the kitchen for her mistake. Have a little integrity and be honest with your customers instead of making up stories to cover your mistakes. Really frustrating to watch the people who came in after we were already seated pay and leave while we waited. That is the reason for the 10% tip. Liars don’t get good tips. The wall I was sitting next to was FILTHY DIRTY - covered in specks and splashes of countless other diners meals. The restroom looked like a cyclone came through. Gross,. The food is average. Pineapple rice was embarrassing. They put raisins in it and I found one piece of pineapple. Clean up your act Thai Orchid. You should be ashamed. I hope your employee 4th of July party...