Yum Yum Too — Restaurant in New York

My husband and I were keen to dine in the Hell's Kitchen area of NYC one evening during our holiday and opted for this restaurant.

We had previously seen Aladdin on Broadway, and jumped into a taxi to this restaurant.

The service was ok, we were sat next to the door, so kept getting a draft when people walked in and out of the restaurant.

Food was ok, nicely presented.

However, the problems came when we paid the bill.

We paid the bill and left a tip also (roughly 10%). When the waitress came to collect the money (a lot quicker than she took our order or brought our drinks over I might add) she asked if we required change and we said no, it's ok as it is.

However, she did bring the change back and circled the bottom part of the receipt which stated that a suggested tip would be 18%, 20% or 22%.

This really annoyed me, so I took the notes that were left as tip and only left the change, which was a couple of dollars.

A tip in my eyes, is discretionary, not obligatory, and as I wasn't happy with the service, I decided not to leave that much of a tip (I wouldn't even leave a 20% tip if I was dining at a TOP London restaurant let alone some tiny un-named Thai restaurant on the corner of Hell's Kitchen!)

Anyway, we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel. Once we reached our hotel, I realised that I'd left my Aladdin programme in the restaurant behind my chair. As this cost me $25, we got the taxi driver to take us back to the restaurant.

We were back there within 5 minutes (it's about 11pm by this point) and no-one else had been seated at our table.

I asked one of the waitresses if she could give me my bag with the Aladdin programme in as it had been moved and I presumed that they had moved it to lost property.

She pretended that she didn't speak much English then said that it had been put in the garbage.

I was astonished that within 5 minutes, it had been thrown in the garbage. She was adamant that it had been thrown away.

I asked which garbage it was in, and she stated that it was in one of the black sacks on the sidewalk ready to be collected.

I questioned why it had been thrown away when it was lost property and belonged to someone, her reply was "because you didn't leave a tip!"

This immediately annoyed me even more. I asked her to let me know which bag it was in, she declined and said she didn't know. How convenient!

I informed her that if she didn't tell me, I would simply rip all the bags on the sidewalk open until I found it, hoping that she would give in and let me know where it was. She again, pretended that she didn't know what I was saying!

By this point, I asked another waitress, as my taxi and husband were waiting outside and the meter was ticking away.

The other waitress said to wait and that she would look, but while I was explaining to her, the initial waitress just continued to talk over the top of me, in what I can only presume to be Thai.

She then continued to do something on the till, looked like she was placing orders. She then placed latex gloves on and disappeared. Within a few moments, she had returned with the programme.

I was completely amazed, astonished, disgusted and upset by the experience. If I can prevent anyone from going to this restaurant in the future, then I will. I've since read other reviews of this restaurant and it appears that they rely and demand large tips, yet, don't want to provide the service. The waitress that I spoke to when I first returned to the restaurant was just damn right 150% RUDE! She is definitely in the wrong industry and should demand a refund from whichever charm school she went to.

Horrible horrible experience, really put a dampener on what had been a lovely day and evening...

Do not go here. There are much better Thai places to go on this street.

I got the grilled chicken because it looked good from the picture on the menu. It appeared to be grilled pieces of boneless chicken in a chili lime sauce.

What I got instead was three large on the bone pieces of chicken covered in soggy skin and weird sauce. It was inedible beyond that...cold and dry. It was brought out less than five minutes after ordering so clearly it had been sitting around for who knows how long. They couldn’t even reheat this old chicken properly. All I ate on the plate was the small salad because even the “sticky” rice was hard and cold.

When the waitress came, I told her this wasn’t what was pictured and as nice as I could that this dish wasn’t good and explained the issues. I asked politely if she could take it off the bill, instead she brought the menu back and said it did look like the picture and she could heat it up. I said again nicely I wasn’t going to eat it and asked if she could take it off the check. She wouldn’t listen and said because I had eaten off the plate she couldn’t take it off the check but she could only heat it up. I didn’t want to make a scene in front of my friends so I just let it be, but I had to pay $15 for inedible chicken.

Also portions for my friends dishes were very small for the overrated price. Don’t bother going here. Just go up or down the street for...

I used to go here all the time, pre-pandemic. I don't know that I will be back any time soon after the last visit. I changed, and maybe they did too. The places I feel comfortable going to take the pandemic seriously, check vaccine cards against ID'S and seat people away from each other and the employees wear masks. At this last visit (just after they had opened for the day) they barely glanced at our vaccine cards. As we were going for our licenses they said it didn't matter. But it did to us. How relaxed were they with other diners? I felt a little unsafe. Then I noticed that only 2 of the staff were wearing masks. Were they vaccinated? Everyone at my work is, but I don't know about this place. And if I test positive that could shut down my work and put a lot of people back on unemployment. Then, on top of all of this, with a mostly empty restaurant, the next 2 parties of 2 were sat right next to us. Less than 2 feet away. At this point we asked for the check, boxed up what food we had left, and got out of there. The spring roles were still frozen on the inside.. The food lacked the flavors it used to have and the portion sizes were smaller. The prices looked the same or similar, as opposed to other places. Honestly, I would have given this place lower than 3 stars if this had been the first time I went. It gets slightly higher rating because they used to be one of my favorite...