Soothr LIC — Restaurant in New York

Nice atmosphere and decor. Large space. Decent food.

My rating reflects more on the restaurant's service. We went during lunch on a weekday (Wednesday).

The host at the front sat us at our table but failed to tell us the menu could be found from the QR code on the physical drink menu (the drink menu also wasn't placed on our table).

So we were left twiddling our thumbs and then resorted to looking at Google review pictures of the menu.

More than five minutes passed before a waiter/staff came by and informed us about the QR code for the menu.

I understand if the restaurant was busy and they couldn't attend to us right away but there were only about six tables and all were already dining. There were more staff than seated tables. If you're trying to get in and out during an hour lunch break then just be aware.

The next waiter that came to take our order (I forget her name but she was a young lady, probably youngest of the waiters). She just seemed like she lacked basic knowledge of restaurant service and didn't want to be there in general. We inquired whether each of the dishes and drinks we ordered could be adjusted in terms of spice and sweetness. Each subsequent question (3) seemed to be met with a more and more curt response of: "it's fixed" without offering any other accommodations or perhaps options as you might expect at a higher end restaurant.

Other things that added to the poor service, although writing it all out now may seem to be nitpicky, but in real time it added up to the general vibe. E.g taking away our bowls before asking if we were done. Just an overall lack of warmth especially compared to the other wait staff.

Considering the poor service, I tipped what I thought was appropriate and a not insulting amount. 15%. I had to manually enter in the amount of tip since the lowest selection was 18%. Apparently the waitress didn't appreciate the amount, because any small pretense of service disappeared as she briskley took the reader and quickly walked off silently. Even my partner who didn't know how I tipped, commented on the weird interaction at the end of service. We hadn't discussed all the issues with the service during the meal and yet after we left, we both mentioned that we noticed the same...

I got very bad food poisoning from here!! Added details below

Simply put, this place is not ready for prime time, unlike its east village sister restaurant. Took over 40 minutes to get my drink and had to ask several times about it. The server was very nice and it wasn’t her fault, and the owner did come over and I had a nice conversation with him. But I shouldn’t have to ask about my drink, it shouldn’t take 40 mins, I shouldn’t have to ask to have it taken off the bill, and I also got someone else’s food. It also took quite a bit for my food to come out. I also got the rice roll which was awful; I told the owner I didn’t like it at all but that wasn’t removed from my bill. The flavor was terrible and it smelled bad too.

They could learn a thing or two about how efficient the east village location is and bring that same efficiency here. The space itself is beautiful and you can tell the staff cares, but ultimately, time is money in NY, and it took over an hour and a half here (more than the amount of time they give at their east village sister restaurant to eat your meal). Not sure I’ll be back to this location for a while.

Edit on 9/25: I ended up getting very bad food poisoning from here, and I know it was from here as it was the only thing I ate all day yesterday. I woke up very sick this morning with a very bad stomach ache, was in the bathroom quite a bit all day, experienced quite a bit of fluid loss and felt lethargic. I guarantee you it was the rice roll that did it. Absolutely awful and I will be reporting this incident to the NYC...

We arrived around 8:10 PM and were told the wait would be about 10–15 minutes, but we didn’t get seated until 9 PM. The restaurant was clearly very busy, and unfortunately, service suffered as a result. We weren’t offered water or given a chance to order until we asked — and the water didn’t taste great either.

As for the food, it was underwhelming overall. We tried the Moo Dang Puff, Hoi Johr, Panang Duck Lychee Curry, Koong Karee, and Beef Pad Si-Iw. The rice was warm (not hot), overly sticky, and likely overcooked with too much water — not ideal if you’re particular about rice quality.

The duck in the Panang curry tasted gamey and appeared slightly undercooked — not something I’d recommend. The Beef Pad Si-Iw was overly sweet, and while the shrimp dish (Koong Karee) it was a bit too salty. Hoi Johr not bad, might be the best out of all.

It was also hard to get the server’s attention, and the noise level inside made conversation difficult — we had to raise our voices just to hear each other. On the plus side, the plates were cute.

Overall, we were disappointed and regretted coming to try this place. Hopefully, they were just having an off night, but based on this experience, I...