Rama Thai Café — Restaurant in Springfield

Decided to try Rama after seeing the stellar reviews on Google. We were interested because the restaurant was located in a house, which we’ve never experienced before. The house looked cozy, and it was fairly easy to find parking.

The restaurant is a house, so it’s pretty cramped inside, especially where you wait to be seated. Our first impression was honestly not positive as we were not acknowledged at all when we entered. My partner had to get the attention of one of the staff just to ask about being seated. The place seemed to be severely understaffed as the employees looked like they were frantically running around like headless chickens. I’d say we waited maybe ~5 minutes to be seated, but it felt much longer because of how cramped it is at the entrance.

When we were seated, they provided us with some water. My water glass had a very noticeable lipstick mark on the lip of the cup. It took a bit of time for me to get the waiter’s attention so that they could give me a new glass. We ordered the thai tea, and we waited quite a while to get our drinks. Then, they only brought out 1 of the 2 drinks we had ordered as they had forgotten about it. It also took them a few trips to bring our straws as they kept forgetting a few things.

When the food came out, however, we were very happy with how everything tasted. We ordered the golden bags as our appetizer, which was very delicious. For our entrees, we ordered the beef pad see ew, yellow chicken curry, and the crab fried rice. We loved it all! The crab fried rice was my personal favorite as it was wonderfully flavorful. We thought the portions were family style, but it seemed to be single serving. That was fine with us, though as we were all pleasantly full after the meal. The price we paid for everything was pretty decent, too as we paid roughly ~$43 for the two thai teas, the appetizer, and the three entrees.

I’m honestly pretty amazed because despite the subpar service (the waiter was friendly at least), the food was just that good to make up for everything else. We loved the food so much that we ended up going back to Rama the next day. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rama is the best Thai restaurant in...

I normally do not like to leave bad reviews, but after last night's service, we will NOT be returning.

A group of us arrived for dinner, places our order, and thus started the waiting game. While we received our appetizers and drinks in a timely manner, that was all.

An hour after we had ordered, I noticed the people who arrived around the same time were paying and preparing to go while those who got there after were wrapping up their own meals. Yet we had nothing.

I waved down our server (no one had stopped at our table for more than 30 minutes to check on us) and pointed out we had ordered an hour ago. She apologized and sent someone to check. Several minutes later she returned to say that someone was checking on our food, but we would have it shortly. At last, our food arrived!

And it was all cold.

I flagged the server down again, and she apologized once more for the tardiness. I pointed out our food was cold, and asked for boxes so we could leave. She said she could have it remade, but we had been there so long, we just wanted to go. She left, and the waiting game began once more.

Several minutes later, she returned to state she had called the manager, but was waiting for a call back. I said that was nice, but could we please get boxes - we would like to leave. Boxes were brought to us, but no check.

Se minutes later, another server approached. She said she did not feel comfortable with us paying the whole bill with 1) late food and 2) cold food served, but she was not authorized to make any changes to the bill. I said it was fine, but we would like to go.

More waiting, server 2 returned to let us know it would only be a couple more minutes - the manager was almost there.

Several more minutes, Server 1 returned with our bill. There would be no discounts, but the manager (WHO WOULDN'T COME TO OUR TABLE OR TALK TO US DIRECTLY AFTER HAVING US WAIT) wanted to over a $20 gift certificate for NEXT TIME. Nevermind our bill was $75 and change for cold, late food.

After the waiting game followed by a dismissal like that.... no, we WILL NOT be returning. This was...

The main dishes ordered were nothing special. The pho tastes like something you could get in an instant bowl with very low quality chicken on top. Almost no vegetables at all. Curry was just ok. The spring rolls were literally just slightly wilted cole slaw mix in a rice paper wrapper, despite the description listing other vegetables. By far the worst I've ever had. The restaurant itself was interesting; a cute house turned into a restaurant. However if you look at anything longer than a few seconds the walls, doors, everything was covered in a layer of grime. The AC either wasn't working or just wasn't on and it was sweltering inside. Sitting in one place I was sweating. Not to mention the doors were all open so there were a lot of bugs inside. Much of my meal was spent rooting for a beatle climbing the window next to me, or dodging one of the several mayflies that had come inside. Waitress was not very attentive. It took quite a long time for everything, including for her to come take our order. We did arrive when it was "busy," but there were no more than 10 tables both in and outside and they were not full. She said she would take care of our bill then spent 20+ minutes walking by us looking at our bill with the credit card sitting on top at the table without taking care of it which was odd. The chopsticks provided were the cheapest, poorest quality I've ever come across, and that's coming from someone who has eaten a LOT of takeout. They started fraying and almost disintegrating as soon as they touched the pho broth. We had to ask for silverware, ask for water, and didn't get spoons with our brothy meals. There was no salt, soy sauce, anything on the tables. I really hate to leave bad reviews on small businesses, but two stars I feel is generous. I'm entirely unsure how this place has such...