Mei Thai Restaurant & Sushi Bar — Restaurant in Summerville

My sister and I finally visited Mei Thai, and while the food (barbeque pork, Shrimp Palabok and Pinakbet) was really good, the service left much to be desired. It became clear over the course of the hour we were there that our server was far more attentive and friendly to other customers (who were not Filipino). When we arrived (2:35 pm on Saturday), the server had 2 tables (including ours). Her first interaction with us was warm and friendly, but when we had some questions about the menu and ingredients, she had to go back to the kitchen for answers. After that, her attitude changed, and she basically ignored us afterwards. When we were ready to order, we had to call her over. While we were waiting for our food, another family came in and received noticeably more attention. She took their order and never once acknowledged us or asked if we need anything. Their drinks and sushi were brought out quickly, while we continued to wait for our meals. Any time we needed a refill, or needed anything else (rice, serving spoon, to go boxes, order dessert), we had to look for our server. The gentleman that brought our meals to us was very friendly and was more attentive than our own server. He was the one that refilled our water and tea, brought us a serving spoon and got us to go boxes; he is the one that deserves the tip. When my sister needed another refill, another young lady was the one to get her some more tea (again, our server never came back to the table to ask if we needed anything, but she asked both of her other tables if they were ok or if they need anything). Literally, when my sister got up to go to the restroom, she told our server that we wanted to order something else. Do you think the server came to the table? Nope! When my sister got back to the table, again, we had to call out to her. When she came back to give us the bill, she cleared some of the plates away, we asked for another to go container for the rice, and she asked us if we wanted a bag. We said yes; she came back with a container for the rice, picked up the bowl of rice, dumped it into the container and set it down on the table without closing the box, set the empty bowl down on the other side of the table and basically tossed the plastic bag on the table by the empty rice bowl. As she was walking away with our bill and credit card, she asked the table behind us if they needed more Sprite. She immediately went to get their Sprite and came right back (still holding the dishes from our table and our bill). The same young lady that refilled my sisters' tea was the one that returned to the table with the bill and credit card; she too was very friendly. We were definitely treated differently. Luckily the food was good, and we just might be willing to give the restaurant another chance (although driving from Goose Creek to Summerville to enjoy a nice meal and be treated poorly makes you think twice!) Note that I have visited their North Charleston location many times before they moved to Summerville, and I have never felt like I was being treated differently because I am...

Great food. Nice people. Ineffective service. The Pad Thai was wonderful. The mango sticky rice hit the spot. And the staff was very pleasant and sweet .The problem is there was very little teamwork and no plan. I want to note first that this place was NOT so busy the staff COULDN'T handle it. the things they didn't do that could have help speed things up are done by busy staff and every restaurant every day. In college any one of my waitress friends could've handle this crowd alone. First, we stood at the door waiting to be seated and although the servers were all in sight not one asked us to wait a moment to be seated or seat ourselves. So we sat ourselves. Then we waited for menus, which we never got so I went up and got them myself. We did get our order taken and received the food quickly, but I noticed many people come in and wait like we did. The servers came out to drop off food but did not pick up dishes as they went back to the kitchen so they were many empty but dirty tables. This place is small and at one point there were 6 empty dirty tables. People who tired of waiting began sitting at dirty tables. Even though we pre-ordered dessert we waited with our food half eaten and empty glasses for too long. And we saw tables who were done where everything was dragged out for too long: they got containers, but no checks...waited ten minutes for checks...got checks but payment not picked up for another 10 minutes. I'm sorry, I no-can-do. My husband went up to the register to pay. We got out of there faster than many people who were there before us. I'm sorry, lunch is not an all day thing. Listen, I think the kitchen is fast and the chef great. All the servers were really nice when you asked for something. This could be a great little place if they worked as a team and had a serving plan. Hopefully they will read this and realize if they tweaked their service, like: 1-put up a sign whether people should seat themselves or wait to be seated. 2- no staff member walks through the dining room without a water pitcher or to the kitchen from the dining area without dirty plates in their hands. 3-Turn over a table within 5 minutes of a party leaving. The table next to us was dirty the whole time we were there, which felt like am eternity. With such a nice staff and such good food this would have been a 5-star review if the service had not been so ineffective. I hope to be able to return and edit this and give them...

I rarely leave reviews but I had to leave one here. I have been traveling throughout the country full-time for over a year, and have eaten at many Thai restaurants. I almost always order the "drunken noodles". Almost every place has included eggs scrambled into the noodles. Not this place. So I asked them to add 2 eggs in. The dish (with chicken) was advertised at $14.95. Two eggs added a whopping $6! I could buy well over a dozen eggs for that price! The total was almost $24 for one order. Way too much for one person. When I first walked in, I was blinded by the ridiculously bright lights throughout. The place looked new with nice decor, but I was there for takeout only. There's no way that I would ever be able to enjoy sitting down for a meal there with such bright lights that hurt my eyes. A nice soft-lit ambiance would have made the place much more welcoming. When I got back to my place to eat my dinner, I was disappointed to discover two sunnyside up eggs placed on top and not scrambled in like they're supposed to be. They were tastless and rubbery, and the meal's texture was not good this way. Furthermore, almost every bite of the noodles was hard and undercooked with several noodles stuck together in clumps. It felt like maybe I had gotten the last of the noodles at the bottom of the batch scraped up. It was one hour yet before closing but the hostess who took my order said they had been very busy just a short time earlier so it's possible. I travel the country in my van and rarely get a hot meal these days, so when I splurge on one, I expect it to be one to savor and enjoy. The flavor was just OK. Not at all worth the cost and extremely disappointed in the...