Ayada — Restaurant in New York

I liked Ayada in Queens, and was looking forward with great excitement the opining of the Manhattan location. I have to say, I'm super disappointed. First of all, the menu is much smaller at the Manhattan location, leaving of some of the more interesting dishes. The new location's menu is a typical, commonplace Thai menu. The food isn't bad—everything tastes fresh and is well prepared—but it's not as good as the Queens location.

When I've ordered take-out, I've noticed that the staff has a very consistent, deliberate and somewhat scamming way of encouraging you, with a slight but noticable bit of pressure, to click on the 20% – 26% tip buttons on their credit card reader, always with the directive, "Click below and then click enter." The fourth or fifth option is "Custom amount." Their pressuring approach and omission of all the options in their verbal instructions, makes it feel as if they want you to click 26% before you realize that there are other options. They also hover over you, watching to see what you're clicking. They make it feel as though they are trying to give you the impression that it is commonplace to give a 26% tip for take-out. Nuts!

Also, their suggested tips are based on a post tax total. Shady!

If you think I'm playing too much into this, I suggest the reader read on to some of the other poor reviews to read about this restaurant's suggested tip policy for dine-in. They seem to have some shady policies.

Thirdly, I've worked in restaurants before, so I understand that there is a strong desire on the part of both management and wait staff to turn over tables, but one of the things that one learns as a waiter is that people dine out partly to enjoy a night out with friends, chatting, enjoying each other's complany, and that it's totally inappropriate and terrible restaurant etiquette to ask your customers to leave because you need the table (especially when the restaurant isn't that crowded). The staff at Ayada probably care less about their customers because management thinks that that most of their customers are tourists and will probably never come back anyway. Well, neither...

TLDR; This place is a tourist trap that up charges a ridiculous amount of Tips. The waiter staff is super rude too. I will never come back to this restaurant and will be telling everyone going to Chelsea to avoid it. Customers shouldn’t be treated so horribly, and this is coming from a younger millennial who despises Karen behavior.

Full story: Came here as 2 parties of 2 (we let them know), at first the service was ok, but once we started asking questions about the dishes and the spice levels the waiter started getting frustrated very fast. The food was decent, nothing to brag about unfortunately. The real issue real issue began when we were ready for the check. The waiter brought it all giddy as one check and noticed there was a mandatory 20% tip already added. I went to him at the booth to fix it but he thought I was going to pay, the funny part was that there was a tip option marked for another 25%. I let him know that the check was separate because we were two parties, he was visably annoyed. He then split the check without removing the added tip. When I told him to removed all the tips and that we would leave a cash tip on the table, he was furious, rude and gave us so much attitude we felt like he was ready to start a fight. After we paid, he then complained to what I assume was his boss and pointed at us as he argued. While we were at the table discussing what had happened, he came to the table and with his hand out asked for the cash tip in the rudest most demanding manner. I seriously debated walking away and not even giving him a tip(but that’s not how I was raised), we did however leave a 10% tip on a $200+ bill. Even then he was massively upset and cleared the table and left the money on the table like it was nothing. He looked at me and shook his head. From my POV he walked away from the table without collecting it. He deserved 0. I go to Chelsea market every time I visit Manhattan and I will never return to this specific restaurant. I do not recommend it to anyone, especially if you are from a state with high hospitality...

Very disappointing experience, won’t be visiting again. I’ve visited here a few times over the years and really enjoyed it. I’ve had the massaman curry (average taste but very aesthetic) and summer rolls (bland but works well with the creamy sauce) that I enjoyed over a nice classy ambiance. Yesterday I drove 1.5 hours with special friends to give them the experience I enjoy. I really hyped it up, we were hungry and looking forward to it. Online it says they close after 9 but when I got there around 3:30, the moment we stepped inside they shooed us away saying they’re closed and to visit their smaller restaurant in Chelsea market. Well we go sit there (less aesthetic, loud disco music) and I try ordering my tried and tested items. Well despite it being summer in June, they didn’t have summer rolls. Everyone’s majorly disappointed at this second setback but they figure since we’re here let’s just order something. So we order the massaman curry. You’ll see an image attached with the floral vegetables of what I’ve always had, comes with a pita bread ($36~). And then you’ll see an image of what they served us yesterday. Completely different look, taste and presentation. Came with rice instead of bread. The menu was the same, item was the same so I ordered the same thing. When I show the server my picture and ask, they explain that original menu item was discontinued and they serve this knockoff instead. How misleading!! The menu should’ve been updated, there should’ve been signage somewhere to indicate items may differ but no nothing! And this dish was $18! Incredibly overpriced for what it is, didn’t taste good. Despite my negative experience, they offered nothing, no apologies or anything to compensate for my waste of time and horrible experience. I was so embarrassed in front of my friends. Imagine expecting a fine dining experience and getting takeout instead. I honestly should’ve just walked out of there but we paid for our uneaten...