Brown Sugar by the Sea — Restaurant in Newburyport

It was supposed to be a night of good food and good company. I had no choice since I believe it is the only Thai restaurant in the area with delivery. I gave it a try for the first time. I placed my order, making sure to specify that I was vegan and that I wanted no fish sauce in my food.

But when my order arrived, I quickly realized that things were not going to go as planned. The fresh rolls, one of the items I was looking forward to was missing . They have made a mistake and made fried rolls. Every item I tasted was made with fish sauce despite my request. And to make matters worse, the soup I had ordered was a small size than I had expected a large size because that's what I ordered.

I tried to keep my cool in front of my guests, but I was pretty upset. Still, I decided to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt and called to let them know about the mix-up with the rolls. They were apologetic and offered me a credit, which I accepted.

But when I called again the next day to address the issue with the fish sauce, I was met with resistance. The first thing she says to me 'why are you calling the next day "? I mean what kind of question is that!?? Well the answer is I didn't want to make my guests uncomfortable by arguing back and forth with you, I was already embarrassed. The hostess, Katie, refused to help me and wouldn't even pass my number along to the manager/owner, Caroline Jolliffe. When I followed up with an email, I never received a response.

It was a disappointing experience, to say the least. I hate leaving bad reviews for local businesses, but the lack of customer service left me with no choice. It's safe to say that I won't be ordering from that restaurant again.

PS: AND I STILL HAVEN'T HEARD FROM THE OWNER...

Not going back. I want to preface I've worked in the food industry for many years and don't review poorly lightly. We ordered takeout last week while we house sat. I ordered off of their website and noticed when my husband picked up the food I was charged additionally. Their website provided the lunch menu and charged lunch charges, which felt like false advertising for ordering on a friday night to charge additionally. We had ordered 2 curries which came without rice, and we have never been to a thai restaurant that made rice an additional charge. Then restaurant was kind enough to provide 'complementary rice' and offered to deliver it. We should have picked it up ourselves as it took 28 minutes for a delivery and our food was cold by then. The driver rang the ring door (we are house sitting so the owners out of town got a ring notification hours later) and we ended up going back to the restuarant to pick up additional rice after 30 minutes of waiting. Rice was found under the snow on the front step (front door never used) the next day. Food was okay, but we feel driving farther for better thai food is more worth it...

Food quality has gone down quite a bit since last year. Delivery at weekends takes 2 hours. I used to live in Boston, so I tried many Tai restaurants. Brown sugar by the sea is the sister restaurant of Brown Sugar in Allston. Brown sugar is by all means the best Tai restaurant in great Boston area. Brown sugar by the Sea is same pricey, but not at the same level in terms of food variety, taste and quality. Since last year, the food in Brown sugar by the Sea has gone down quite a bit. A few times, I ordered Basil fried rice, the taste is so awful, I can make better ones by myself. I talked to the owner, she said they didn't change chef, she needed to find out who made the dish. So, sometimes, the kitchen helpers make the food, not the chef. I gave it 2 stars, because the owner did make a new one for me. Recently, I tried to order a delivery, I called them a few time in a hour, all went to answering machine. My husband used his phone called, and was immediately answered. However, the delivery came 2 hours after we put in order. Am I not welcome to the restaurant after giving the owner...