Savory Thai Orem — Restaurant in Orem

My wife and I love the food at Savory Thai. We really like the owner/chef too. My wife likes the yellow coconut curry with potato with tofu. I like the Massaman chicken.

I hate their point-of-sale system, though, and have had issues with one or two of their servers who don't like to give change for a carry-out order.

We always carry-out because we like eating at home while watching movies. For a period of months during the summer of 2024, we went to Savory Thai less because a server there acted like she didn't want to give us change for our orders. When I hand cash to a cashier, I expect them to hand me my change without making an issue of it. The question "Do you want your change?" implies that the server wants it and I actually have to ask for it, as if my requesting it is wrong, somehow. That pisses me off. I've worked the restaurant business, and never expected a tip for carryout and certainly never did anything to guilt-trip customers into a tip. Having the server ask whether I want my change indicates that she expected me to just leave the change with her. That left a "bad taste" in my mouth before I ever tasted the food, and caused me to go to other restaurants instead for awhile. Fortunately, that two server isn't working there anymore.

I also loathe point-of-sale systems that ask for a tip -- especially those that offer tip options that are ridiculous to try to guilt-trip the customer into a larger tip. Again, I worked restaurants and also the bar business in my 20s, where you got a 15% tip for good service and 5-10% for sub-optimal service. NOBODY got tips for just packaging a carry out or fast food item and handing it to the customer. It pisses me off that current servers think they're entitled to higher percentages than I made when I was in the business. Their time isn't more valuable than mine was. So when I see POS systems that do this, I always pay cash to forego the stupid prompts to pay a 25% tip when I'm just getting carryout, before I've even tasted the food, before I've even seen my order in the package, or before I've experienced any table service. This whole tipping-before-service or tipping-without-service...

By brother always says to never buy a breakfast cereal where sugar isn't the first, or second, ingredient. It won't be good. Apparently, that's the creed of all the local Thai places. However, Savory Thai ups the ante in this area. There seems to be a place every couple blocks these days. This is the nearest Thai place to my house. I'd really love to love it. The wife and I ordered Pad Thai and the Duck Curry Noodles. The Pad Thai is such a classic I needed to try it. The other dish is something the other places don't have. We ordered the food without specifying anything about spice, so it wasn't. That's the way the wife likes it. They brought me ground chili to spice it up. I know that's all they will do in the back. It's not like they simmer it in spices at all spice levels for people. You specify and they add the appropriate amount of ground spice. It's hard to talk about the balance of flavors since the sugar put it out of whack. That said, it's a beautiful space. The server was very nice. The prices are reasonable. The flavor profile is pretty close to many other local places, and it's nicer than most. Give it a try and see if it fits your tastes. The other reviews would...

I'm not sure how this place has such high ratings😏 We went for lunch and after asking for a booth but after siting were asked to move to a table. We asked for a booth....and were the only two in the restaurant. Odd. We then had to wait for quite a while for the women behind the counter to bring us menus etc. The food was mediocre. The rice paper spring rolls were flavorless, with barely any rice noodles and served with a too sweet sauce. The tiny cup of coconut "soup" was watered down coconut milk with lime. Not even warm. We were brought our lunch plates one at a time with 5 minutes in between, even though they were the exact same meal 🤔 The main dish was inauthentic accd. to my friend. It was my first time eating it and some of the chicken tasted like it had been in the refrigerator. No sauce can hide that. And strangely, the server rolled her eyes when we called her over for the checks. Then she never came back to pick them up. After 15 minutes we again had call her over to take them. It wasn't that busy and that should have been a signal that something was wrong. The food and service were both no good. Edit: Just look at their response. What does it tell...