Mae Kong Thai Restaurant — Restaurant in New Britain

It’s never easy to give a bad review but here we go. We love Thai food and were we excited to discover this place.

FYI parking is metered. Menu just had one price, didn’t specify lunch or dinner menu or different pricing. We ordered iced tea ($3), 30 spicy and sour Tom yum Khoong (6.95), 51 pad thai with beef (8.95), 69 pad prik khing stir fry (8.95). Around $28.

Ice tea was good. Little did we know that’s the only thing that’s good we tried. Spicy and sour soup is all sour, could not finish even half and we like sour. Pad Thai with beef, happy with the portion, very sweet. Pad prik khing stir fry was uh... let’s just say salty salty salty. Each bite had to be gulped with rice, iced tea, or maybe that sour soup. All the flavors were very skewed lol pad thai so sweet, soup so sour, stir fry so sour. Iced tea is good, no complaints.

Things really hit the fan when I found a piece of blondish white hair in my pad thai. Oh no. I dislike confrontation but felt like I should let them know at least. Stared at it and definitely convinced that it’s hair despite hoping that it’s not so I can make the best out of the not so great meal. The lady, who I think is the owner denied that it’s hair, and said it’s part of a bean sprout or part of banana leaf.

After eating, we got the bill, with tax around $30. When presenting groupon, she said we can’t use it because we didn’t show it when we arrived and it’s only for dinner, and menu we got was lunch prices. She said we need to pay regularly for this time because it was lunch, and then come back again next time with Groupon for dinner. Speechless. We asked if she can increase the prices to dinner prices in order for us to use Groupon. She said just for this one time.

Speechless again when she gave us the new bill. Instead of the $30, the bill is about $38 and then she added a mandatory 18% tip, so even with Groupon of $25, we had to pay another $20 ish. Realizing that if we didn’t have Groupon, we could have paid $30 for lunch or $45 for dinner for that meal?

Didn’t even bother asking, why did she add a mandatory 18% tip on our bill? Is this standard for Groupon customers? I understand if it’s a large party but it was just two of us. Is that even legal? Lol I just wanted to be out of the place. Peace out and won’t be back. Guess we still have yet to find a favorite Thai place...

I guess giving a one star will require some explanation. First, let's begin with the food... I didn't have high expectations going in to the place, but the food was not great. There is no balance in flavors; Tom Yum soup was just too sour, Pad Thai was just too sweet, and Beef with String Beans was overwhelmingly too salty. It was cooked by just throwing random flavors with no thought and technique. I am not a professional, but when food steps into the realm of poor quality... something needs to be addressed.

Okay, so the service. I accept the fact that service is not going to be amazing, but when it becomes egotistical then you know nothing you say will matter. And it did not. I did not complain about the food nor about anything else. I just simply pointed out that there was a piece of gray/white hair on the food. She did not want to acknowledge it at all. Continued to say it was a part of a bean sprout, and then later became a piece of a banana leaf... and also said all Asians have Black hair -_-. If she would have accepted the fact that there was a piece of hair, I would have continued "eating" it and have nothing else to say.

And then to top it off... She slaps on a 18% gratuity with zero explanation. At that point I was just trying to run as fast as I can out the door.

Good luck to those that are willing to try it. If it is a hit and miss experience, I definitely missed...

I liked that they have a Merrill for Mayor sign in the window.

Very delicious, classic Thai dishes at a dear price. Groupon helps. Fresh basil dishes are especially tasty.

But if you're going to use a Groupon, you better bring it as a printed piece of paper, or be prepared to surrender control of your phone - or be given a lecture about how you're not doing Groupon right - forget that all she needed to do was get the number (that's all the barcode is - a number) which she wrote down on the check after she typed it into her computerized checkout system. She could have graciously written down the number on the check, copied from my phone's screen, instead of lecturing us and arguing with us at the end of the meal, thus interfering with our end-of-meal relaxation.

We overlooked the fact that when we arrived at seven o'clock, that every unoccupied table (more than half of the tables) were not cleared of the dirty plates, glasses, and silverware, or that they sat us at a cleared, but still unwashed table still smeared with food.

Now that I think about it, we probably will be looking elsewhere for a place where the price and dining experience are a closer match - like the neighborhood diner where they are much more friendly and a whole lot...