Dara Thai Express — Restaurant in Page

WORST SERVICE AND WORST THAI FOOD!!

Please, avoid going to this restaurant at any cost. My overall experience was pathetic both in terms of food and service. Here is what happened... (sorry for writing a long review)

We were a group of 6 adults and 3 kids. We were seated, however nobody cared to even give us the menu cards for god 10mins. When I asked one of the waitress, her response was very rude as if I asked for too much. I had to go to reception and just pick myself. I could not understand as even after long weekend it was not at all crowded (probably explains may be it is not really popular). While ordering, my wife requested if they can add cashews to her meal, the response from the waitress was a rude smile. The waitress behaved very rudely when requesting if they can make a non-vegetarian dish without meat (a very common practice for vegetarian Indians). They served our food, but gave the soup about 10-15mins late. When my wife asked for soup when the meal was being served, the waitress reacted again as if we are on the wrong side again. While eating, one of my complete vegetarian friend realized that they served a chicken dish. When we informed (yes, not complained) the waitress, their response was pretty lame and did not offer any signs of apology. In the mean time, my wife requested extra plain rice and nobody responded and I had to go to reception to request it again. The whole series of events made every one very upset. The food was AWFUL, easily the worst thai food we ever had.

I could not control myself and politely walked up to the reception and told the lady there about the whole situation and about the waitress's rude behavior. This lady (apparently the daughter of the owner) was perhaps the only person behaved normal. She said that they will not charge for the chicken dish they gave to my friend by mistake. I also told her that we would not like to pay any gratuity for the waitress who behaved so badly. After some discussion, she agreed to our request of not paying gratuity. When the bill came, they added some charge for a salad (which was supposed to be complimentary with lunch). I was furious, not because of the extra money, but with their intent to show that they want to get money somehow. I asked their owner to come and explain. Now this owner was even more rude than the waitress. Instead of showing signs of apology, she explained us the bill in a very blaming demeanor. She said, that since my friend ate the salad and did not pay for any lunch meal they will charge for salad. Let me explain, my friend had salad assuming she ordered her lunch and it was their mistake to bring a wrong dish. Logically, makes sense.. but ethically, completely wrong. I told her, that I will go on and pay for the salad, but will make sure to let people know how bad is this restaurant in terms of service.

I was more upset because of their behavior, but i should say, this was easily the worst ever thai...

I just want to be really objective here.

We came here on Dec.28, 2014 for dinner, and it was a Sunday. The restaurant was under-staffed, and we waited about half an hour to order and another half an hour for our food to come. Our waitress was nice and polite and apologized for the long wait, which we understood. The food was good and authentic, at least the Green Curry and Red Curry we ordered. The salad bar only had lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes, and we kinda skipped it. The price for dinner dishes are a little bit on the high end, with Curry dishes priced at about $15 and Pai Thai at around $13. But we all come here to see Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend, and to stay only shortly and so it does not really matter how much dinner costs as long as it is good.

After we finish, it took another 20 minutes for our check to come, and we noticed on the check that it was $81 for the four dishes we ordered, while in fact each of us ordered less than $15. My friend checked the bill and found that they actually made a mistake and added $2 to one of the dishes we ordered and charged 10.67% tax and then on top of that 15% gratuity. We'd be happy to pay more than 15% gratuity, given the fact that our waitress was nice even she was terribly busy that night.

However, at the checkout, when my friend pointed out that on the menu it said automatic gratuity for 5 guests and above, the owner of the restaurant ( a white male around 50) got angry and murmured that he did not force us to sit down when we first came in. Then my friend was surprised about his attitude and argued that this was not how restaurants do their business, writing stuff on the menu which don't they did not implement. This comments, as it turned out, enraged the owner and he said, and I quote," If you want free food, you should look elsewhere." This is a jaw-dropping comment for all of us. My friend was trying to argue more, but the the owner yelled at him and demanded him to get out of his restaurant. We paid whatever was on the bill and left feeling extremely disappointed.

I noticed that most of the guests at the restaurant were tourists like us, who will most likely only come here once. And also there is no other Thai food restaurant in Page area and so there's no competitor for them. That, as we later concluded, encouraged this owner to care nothing about his customers and do whatever as he pleased.

Today I feel I have the responsibility to tell how bad the treatment we had at this restaurant, not because of the food, or the waitress who served us, but this horrible owner who failed to show us the...

Worst thai food. bad service. They serve wrong dishes and charge you for trying those.

I chose this restaurant as it was in front of my hotel and I had no energy to search for other restaurants. It was about 8.00PM. When we entered the restaurant had some negative feeling as nobody welcomed us or asked us for seats and the owner was talking on phone without bothering. Few minutes later a gentleman came from the counter and requested us to sit. I love Thai food very much and I knew what to order. Just to be on a safer side I decided to just order the soup to try and then order main course. After checking with the server I ordered Tom Yum Gai from two options available. 2nd one was with coconut milk and told specifically that I don't want coconut milk one. He took around 20 minutes to get ready. When he got the soup, he got the wrong one. I brought this to his attention and he took that away saying he will get the correct one. It took again 25 minutes to make it ready. When he served the soup it was 9.10PM. When we tried it, chicken was not cooked. we couldn't chew it.

We again complained about it. By this time the owner's phone conversation was over. She came to us and asked us about what happened. She took the soup inside. Came back after few minutes and said chicken was boiling for 10 minutes in hot water. It should have cooked. I wonder how they cook food when they are not aware whether food is cooked or not. We told her that we wasted 1.15 hrs of our time just to get the soup, we don't want to order anything further. Cancel this order. She replied saying I will have to charge you for the soup as we served you. I was in no condition to argue with her as it was already past 9 and many restaurants were closed then. I wanted to take my family somewhere we can buy some food to eat.

I paid for the soup and then went to Burger King as...