Thai Orchid Restaurant — Restaurant in Salem

I’m not one to write bad reviews as I’ve worked in a restaurant before and understand a lot of the complications that can arise. However, this was the first time I have ordered from Thai Orchid and I will never order here again due to the disregard their staff showed towards me when I was patiently and politely waiting in their pick-up area for an order that was never marked as “ready” when it had been sitting there, completely prepared before I had even stepped in the door.

I ordered two Pad Thais this evening via DoorDash (at around 7:10pm) and arrived a minute before my food was scheduled to be ready (7:40pm) I spoke with an employee about my order and said that it was past my scheduled pick up time, but that it said it wasn’t ready yet. The employee assumed that the chefs were still preparing it without checking the multiple completed orders that were sitting on the table. She also didn’t even bother to really look me in the eyes as we were speaking.

I sat down off to the side as she continued to sweep and help customers picking up orders for about ten minutes. She then decided to come back out, I’m assuming because she saw that the chefs weren’t cooking anything at the time, and asked me again what the name on my order was. My order had been sitting there, completely ready to go, before I even arrived.

When the employee handed me my food she quietly and nonchalantly said, “Sorry ‘bout that.” I really don’t like treating people poorly, but I couldn’t help but just say, “Ok,” and walk out the door. Had they been busy, I would have completely understood. Things happen. But all of this together along with an insincere apology without even the offer of a small soft drink for the inconvenience is unacceptable.

I don’t order food out very often because I can’t really afford to so I chose one of the more highly rated Thai places in the area and opted for pick-up to ensure that I could get my food right when it was ready and enjoy it. The fact that, at a slow time, the employee couldn’t be bothered to do their job and actually help me is just really bad customer service.

You either need to pay your employees more so they actually care, or you need to hire...

I want to update my review, as this restaurant has worked hard to deserve one. I had given it 2 stars, and left the reason why below, in my first review. For the last year, they have improved their service so much, we happily go there on a regular basis, as the food was never the issue. Thai Orchis has the best noodles & curries. The servers are polite and courteous and on the ball. The cooks well organized and quick as well, as lunch time is usually our time to be there, and we are on the clock too! Dine in or take out, we enjoy this establishment again. I wish others would take the time to revisit/review a business you have given less than 3 stars to in the past. As a small business owner myself, I can tell you everyone deserves a second chance,once they know what to fix, as we all do. Right? I thought so.... :D OLD REVIEW FROM 2+ YEARS AGOWe are done giving this restaurant our business. The service is beyond slow. The servers blame the kitchen, the kitchen, when I asked, blamed the servers. And this is when there are only 6 to 8 other people being served... much worse when it is busy. It has taken an hour or more to get everyone at our table served, most finished before others even got their food... and more often than should be, some do not get what they ordered, after waiting 45 minutes of their 1 hour lunch break... this is bad management, not bad servers or cooks. We tried Royal Thai in Independance and Thai Dish Cuisine in Silverton and WOW!!! They are more than worth the short, beautiful drive, for both quality of food, as well as service. Give them a try, you will be happy you did. As for Thai Orchid in Salem, stop charging extra for spoon fulls of extra sauces, for brown rice & get the menu up with current prices for your take out orders... PLEASE! You need to work on trying to get your service in better shape. You owe that to your customers that you have left... Lots of empty tables are a sign that you are not listening to your customers... or former customers... Thanks for listening now, if you...

We visited on 6/15/19 about 4:15 pm, with one other table, who left shortly after we arrived. We ordered the chicken satay. Our waiter came back and took our order for our main course, which we then added another appetizer, coconut shrimp. The chicken satay arrived timely and was very good. The waiter then brought our shrimp, and the moment he sat it on the table, we could see it was overcooked. One bite and it tasted bland and very dry and rubbery. A party of 8 came in were seated. Our waiter began helping them. We were on the top part of the dinning room with a clear veiw of kitchen. We watched the cook come out the kitchen, then he went back in and disappeared. Meanwhile we were still waiting on our main entrees. No one is in the kitchen and has not been inthe kitchen for at least 7 minutes which meant our food was either done or not started. Our waiter was delivering drinks to the party of 8. Let it be noted that there were 3-4 people behind the counter talking to each other. Finally our waiter delivered our food, and it was cold, no steam, and that dull sheen on the food when it has been sitting for awhile. We told him about the shrimp being overcooked as well. He offered to have our order redone, but we declined. Our food would have been behind the 8 top. We were very disappointed, as we have visited this place many times, and never have we come away disappointed. To the cook, I like to say that the food he cooks is his signature, and should be ashamed to let our meal go out as his "best". And to the waiter, asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. As for your dinning room peers, not offering to help, is being complicit for substandard customer service. From start to finish, we spent 50 minute inside this establishment for an order of...