Thai Lao Orchid Restaurant — Restaurant in San Antonio

We are visiting from Dallas and went to this restaurant after looking up Thai options in the vicinity of our hotel. Found this place on Google and read reviews there and on Yelp before heading out. We were 5 of us, the other couple was not eating dinner but came to give us company. First up, when we walked in, the server was sleeping with his head on the desk and there was no other table occupied. This was not exciting but we still grabbed a table, one side of our table had remains and had to be cleaned. The seat was also sticky but we didn’t raise it to the server.

Before we ordered, the served told us that they had some issue today with card transactions and we had to pay cash, luckily we had enough and this was not an issue.

We ordered Chicken Penang Curry and Tofu Red Curry with 2 portions of rice that came with it. We were eating snacks through the day and hence weren’t very hungry. For the otter family, we asked for an extra plate and we could hear the chef shouting at the server for this and telling him “Charge extra, charge extra”. Since it was not a conversation which was addressed to us, we ignored and continued. The food came out quickly, we asked for extra rice and for which the server had issues - he wanted us to order anything extra that is needed to be ordered in one go!! Extra rice in a Thai/Chinese restaurant being an issue was a joke!! Worst was when the cheque came, there was a 5 dollars or so charge in our bill. We asked the server what that was and he said that it is 18% gratuity charged. We paid the money and before leaving wanted to clarify why they charged that much since the menu card didn’t have any information on this and it was never told to us. The server became defensive and said that it was the first time a customer was bargaining with me, we had already paid and it was not bargaining but just a clarification. In fact, it was my first time when an eatery Applied 18% gratuity on a party of 5 when 2 members were just having water!!

Onto food.. Both dishes tasted exactly the same whereas Penang and Red Curry has distinct difference.. Overall, it was a pretty bad experience on every aspect - service and food, which matter...

I read the great reviews here the night before, so I told my family to check out this place earlier today, Friday January 3rd, at around 1pm. The place was packed. Not surprised since the pace is super small. More like a café than a restaurant. I was told that I had to wait for 15 minutes. Luckily, the two customers were about to leave, and I just grabbed their table. The food were ok.

My husband ordered Pad Phet which was extremely salty. I ordered a lot of appetizers for my kids (11 yrs and 4 yrs). The Thai crispy eggrolls were yummy, like came out of the hot oil kinda yummy. The pot stickers were warm, like they were microwaved or steamed from frozen. I personally didn't like them, but my 11 yr old liked them. The fresh egg rolls were ok... the same as any where else... nothing special. I ordered Pad Sa Si Ew, and it was pretty good. Tasted like I made them at home. I ordered miso soup for my son, but never got it. Instead, the server gave us 2 chicken lemon grass rice soup. Huh? We didn't order that. But we ate them anyway because we were hungry. And they tasted good even though they were lukewarm. There were only two wait staff and both were friendly.

Food came out on time (not too fast, not too slow). We didn't see any Lao dishes on the lunch menu. But my husband and I agreed that this was the first restaurant in Texas that we visited with the name "Lao" in it. Wish there was Lao authentic dishes though. Anyway, if you don't cook Thai foods at home, I'd recommend this place. But if you do cook Thai foods at home, their foods might taste average. But you know what, if I live in town and I don't feel like cooking, I'd do a take out... maybe try out their other dishes to see if I would like them more.

The 3 stars are for average dishes we ordered today. 4 stars for the friendly service, even though he mixed up the soup order. P.S. The "Look Inside" pictures on Google Maps are not correct. The place didn't look like the ones on the maps. FYI, I thought there was a parking lot in front of the restaurant. When we got there, we had to find parking space. We did the meter parking not far...

It took about 40 minutes for our food to come out because there was only one chef working the evening we visited, but we were patient and understanding. The food itself was decent enough when it finally arrived. However, even though the manager was apologetic about the slow service, his demeanor changed once the bill came to our table. Though the restaurant says it "accepts credit card", the manager will insist you pay him cash only and direct you to withdraw money from an ATM at a seedy-looking dive bar across the street, except the ATM was broken that night. I only had a $20 bill on me for the $27 check but once I pulled out the cash the manager's eyes grew wide with greedy delight and all of a sudden he was fine charging the remaining $7 on credit card.

It was such an awful sketchy experience and after reading all the other Yelp reviewers saying the same thing happening to them, I would bet that some tax fraud is probably going on in this business. I will never come back here again and I highly advise everyone else to steer clear as well. There are better Thai restaurants out there that actually...