Malee's Thai Bistro — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Staff is friendly and accommodating. Food not so much. The dishes seem to cater to an American palate, and had large servings, which I think would have been fine had it actually tasted good. Overall it felt like I was eating from the "Asian" section of a McDonald's.

I ordered the Siamese Kisses and the Tom Ka Gai to start (spiciness level 2), and then Arizona Heatwave curry (level 3). I was told by the waitress that 3 was very hot, on a scale from 1-5.

The Siamese Kisses were okay. They resembled the shape of shumai, just minus the shrimp and rice, and was topped with a crunchy garlic crumble. They came on a bed of lettuce/salad mix. It said it consisted of crumbled chicken, and it indeed tasted like it. But that was really it. The garlic topping was honestly the most flavorful part of the whole dish, which doesn't really say much for it. The salad bed was also soaked in the grease of the kisses. You know how you can eat a burger, and it'll be greasy, but that's fine because it tastes like the cow lived a luxurious and pampered life, and put every moment into the burger? This was not that. It tasted like they dipped each kiss in canola oil "to taste".

The Tom Ka Gai was weird. It tasted like someone dumped coconut curry into french onion soup. The chickens and onions tasted fine, but it didn't necessarily taste good. Maybe that's your thing? Just felt odd to me. The spiciness of this dish seemed to come from the ginger (and actually tasted spicier than the heatwave curry I ordered afterwards).

The Arizona heatwave curry felt bland. It definitely felt like I was missing something the entire time I tried to eat it. It came with vegetables, rice, and your meat of choice. I could taste the vegetables, as well as the meat that was in it. But it just didn't feel like a cohesive dish? The curry was not flavorful at all. Some Thai places add too much of something, and the coconut, or maybe the spice ends up being too overwhelming and literally punches you screaming "I'M HERE". This curry tastes like the underachiever in class who works just enough to qualify, but is hardly passing. It tastes like enough like a curry to qualify, not enough to taste good.

Regardingy the "very hot" as my waitress described - level 3 was less spicy than Sriracha. When I mentioned this to the waitress, she brought me an array of 4 different spicy pastes/items to mend this (garlic chili paste, red chili powder, Sriracha, and Thai chili peppers in a sweet sauce). Adding any of them did not make it taste any better (nor spicier).

Overall, it was just very okay, bordering on subpar. Staff were very friendly and accommodating. Perhaps I just picked the "wrong" dishes/came at a bad time - regardless, I did not enjoy...

I've been going to Malee's Thai for the last 4 years. Today I had the rudest experience. First I tried calling the restaurant to order a takeout order. I called, no answer. I called back, was hung up on. I called back, no answer. So instead I placed an order through Yelp's Eat24 platform for takeout (a trusted source I use VERY often). It was estimated to take 20 minutes. After it was confirmed the restaurant had the order for 19 minutes I walk in and try to pick it up. AT this point I was told they has "just received the order within the last 1 minute" which made zero sense since they had confirmed the order 20 minutes ago. I explained that I was told it would be ready now, that I had ordered it 20 minutes ago. I was given ZERO apology, ZERO efforts to right the situation, and told I would have to wait another 20 minutes for my order to be ready. Buckle up for what's next. I'm not so upset about the miscommunication or whatever with my order being double the amount of time I was told. I am however upset that I was given no apology and no attempt to right the wrong done to me. After 15 or so minutes waiting in my car for my order, I go inside to check on things. I am abruptly met by a rude man, who immediately and curtly says "you're order has been ready for awhile we've been waiting for you." Excuse me. I explain the situation, or try to, when he interrupts me saying I should not have waited in my car because they couldn't find me. Let's remember that EAT24 and the restaurant have my contact info, if the order had been ready 'forever' a simple call would have done. As I protest what he is saying he starts laughing, and condescendingly saying "That's funny right. You think that's funny." To which I respond that it's clearly NOT funny that I've waited 40 minutes for my food. He then looks at the hostess, who is probably the one who doesn't know how to answer phones and hangs up on people, and continues to laugh rudely.

I will never go back. These people clearly don't understand the most important concept about running a restaurant,...

I asked the waitress for a spicy dish, I explained that I want my food spicy and can handle it, I ordered “hot”, but the meal came bland without any trace of pepper flakes. I spoke to the manager, but they did not offer to replace the dish or to take the charge off the bill. As much as I find it unpleasant to give a bad review to a popular restaurant, I truly did not enjoy my meal.

Even disregarding the issue with the spice level, the food was not good for a Thai restaurant. Pad Thai with sticky noodles is not a Thai dish.

UPDATE:

I am not sure if the owner's review will show up in my update, so I am going to quote it here with my reply. I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience based on the spice level. Our servers warn customers of the spice levels because it can get VERY hot and it can become too much for customers to handle. I'm not sure which heat level you chose that day. But, if the dish is not spicy enough we can always offer spices so that each customer can add to their dish to their liking. We respectfully ask that you give us another opportunity to change your perspective.

Kind regards, ~Deirdre, owner Deirdre, with all due respect, we asked for a VERY hot dish (please see above) and we told the waitress we can handle it, and that we do not want a spice tray, and we want the food cooked with spices rather than add anything later (from my experience the only way to enjoy a spicy dish it to cook it with the adequate level of pepper). Why was it so difficult to satisfy our request? The manager saw I was extremely upset over my meal, and yet, she did not offer anything in compensation, not even a simple dessert on the house.

I am afraid my perspective considering your reply is going to remain the same. One can't get a truly spicy dish in this restaurant. Perhaps everything else is going to be to someone else's...