Nisa Thai Asian Cuisine — Restaurant in Richmond

Nisa Thai: A dilettante restaurant desperately in need of competent leadership. First, you’ll ask yourself (just as I did) while browsing their menu: “Thai favorites!? Chinese too!? Even Japanese!? How do they manage to do all this and well!!?”

The answer is, they don’t.

To be crystal clear, the restaurant’s menu-concept is, at minimum, intriguing: A one-stop shop for all of your Asian faves. Who wouldn’t be drawn to that, right? The problem is, in attempting to deliver (literally and metaphorically) on the promise of re-creating some of the most beloved dishes in Asian cuisine, Nisa bit off more than it could chew and it shows: The only consistent aspect of the Nisa experience is inconsistency.

Don’t order the same thing twice, expecting the same thing. You’ll be disappointed (or not?) because the second time might be better (or worse?) than the first time. Don’t order expecting your food anytime soon. That it has (more than once) taken MORE THAN 2 hours to botch an order, leave items out and allergens in, IS NOT an indicator that Nisa is busy nor popular. Rather, it’s an indicator that Nisa has absolutely no idea how to operate their own business. In fact, don’t order your food expecting to get it, at all. Explanation: After calling the restaurant (located a mere 4 miles from home) NINE TIMES before someone bothered to pick up the phone, I asked:

Me: “It’s been over two hours since I ordered my food. I live 4 miles away. Are you busy or....Can you tell me where my food is please!?”

Nisa Employee: “No, we’re not busy.”

Me: “Right, I got that part, but where is my food? It’s been more than two hours.”

Nisa Employee: “Ummm....Hold on. (3 minute, non-silent hold ensues) Yea, that went out over an hour ago. You didn’t get it?”

Me: “No. That’s why I’m calling. Can you tell me what’s going on please.”

Nisa Employee: “Ok. Hang on.” (Another hold ensues) “So we use Grub Hub for delivery and your food went out an hour ago. It should be there soon.”

Me: “You’re kidding, right!? You have no idea where the food is, but you know that it left over an hour ago, and you think I want to eat now-cold food that’s MIA!?”

Nisa Employee: “Ummm. If you don’t get it in 15 minutes, call us back, ok?”

Me: “Yes, I’ll call you back, but no, noooo it’s not ok.”

Nisa Employee: [AWKWARD SILENCE]

Me: “Ok. Thanks. I’ll keep YOU posted.”

...........An hour later.....(which is an hour AFTER they close).....I get a call:

Stranger: “Hi. I’m outside with your food.”

(I literally had fallen asleep waiting for my dinner!) So I walked outside to find a sweaty guy on a bike, my food clearly oozing out of a ripped plastic bag covered in Coca Cola, and my soda not present.

Me: “Yea. Ummm. Where’s my drink?”

Stranger: “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I dropped it. It exploded. I’ll go get you another one. But I got your food and brought it directly here as fast as I could.”

I felt so bad (thinking that the restaurant had made the error of losing my food and that the delivery guy had made every effort to fix it. So, I tipped him a ridiculously large amount.

Then, the delivery guy STARTS TEXTING ME WHILE I WAS EATING MY COLD FOOD - TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE AND AWKWARD: “Yea. So that was my bad. I forgot to get your food from the restaurant but I’ll make it up to you, take that out of my pay.”

I wasn’t interested, why does everyone think refunds are the cure-all for service issues!?

So I said, “No thanks. Have a good night.”

I couldn’t reach the restaurant. No refund nor apology. My biggest mistake? Giving them another chance - after all, it was the “third party” delivery service guy’s mistake, right? Or not? We will never know. Next order arrived in 45 min, missing the wings. Wings sent out. Received. Next order, missing bubble teas (TWO OF THEM). Couldn’t reach the restaurant.

They lost yet another customer. (I should have regarded this “one-stop shop” exactly as such: order once, chaos, then STOP.

The only “good” thing I have to say about Nisa...

I don't know what's with the negative reviews, I've ordered delivery from this place countless times and my experience so far has been nothing but pleasant - the owner is friendly, service is excellent, and the delivery person prompt and polite. With the variety of options provided, one might second-guess Nisa's consistency, but if you think that you're mistaken. Here's a list of dish that I would personally recommend:

Curry puffs Savory pastry stuffed with a tasty blend of chicken, potato, onion, and curry powder. It's also served with sweet and sour cucumber sauce. Get it if you like curry and fried pastries.

Pineapple friend rice (with extra mix vegetables) This dish is my semester savior. If you want a meal that is substantial and somewhat healthy, order this (It can last me two meals). Do remember to add extra vegetables so it balances the amount of rice.

Fried wonton

Fresh rolls (with extra shrimp)

PAD SEE EAW (choose beef, add extra vegetables) Basically pad thai only BETTER. The noodles are fat and lubricious, the meat is sliced generously so you really do get a mouthful when you wolf it down your throat. What I usually do after getting this dish, is to mix it with scrambled eggs.

Nigiri and sushi rolls (Pretty high quality for a Thai restaurant)

Things I don't recommend : so far unsatisfied with their thai tea. Som Tum Lao is way too spicy, it will literally burn your tongue.

Thai Fried rice

I give the restaurant 4 stars for its overall package, but I definitely won’t compare it to high-end...

Stopped into Nisa before a show over at the Altria Theater back in December. There were a few other people there, and I assume this place is frequented by college students most often.

The server was doing hostess duty plus serving and seemed to be pulled in too many directions at once. It took her a minute to come over to greet us and get our order because the phone kept ringing, and she prioritized answering it over dealing with the customers in person.

The bubble tea that we got was fine. The boba was a little different than what I'm used to. The papaya salad that I got was extremely spicy. I was not asked what spice level I wanted, so I'm not sure if that was how that type of papaya salad was supposed to be prepared? It was spicy, but I was able to eat it, and we unfortunately didn't have time to wait for her to come over/check on us and ask for a replacement, so I just drank a bunch of water to quell the spice.

When we went to pay the bill, we quickly asked what the difference was between the two papaya salads on the menu was (one is in the meals, one is in the appetizers, I got the one in the meals section). The server either did not seem to know too much about the dish itself, or she just didn't know how to explain it, and just told us it was where the dish originated and that's what the...