Tande Thai — Restaurant in The Colony

Let me tell you, I have never given a 1 star before. I usually only post a review if it’s positive and will help an independent business.

I have been here before on a date and had a great experience so I was so excited to bring my family. I especially wanted them to try the Panang Curry Queso!! It’s so special, but apparently they only have it on weekdays. Super bummed but it is what it is.

The Thai Lettuce Wraps looked nothing like the picture. The meat was not minced. Fine, no big deal. It was still good.

This was the real problem: My aunties ordered the following, description for reference:

Chicken Curry Noodles (Khao Soi) Tender chicken, noodles, khao soi curry, pickled carrots, red onion, chili paste, lime

If you’ve ever had Khao Soi before, it’s a yellow curry with a creamy coconut base, with thin noodles, served with picked greens, cilantro, lime, and topped with crispy egg noodles.

What we received was a wide, flat noodle (like you would get in Pad Kee Mao) in a BROWN (not creamy) sauce. The toppings were nonexistent/all wrong. The taste, texture, and flavor was nothing like Khao Soi. Another thing to note is that, like many Asian foods, this dish was to be shared. However no extra plates were given. Our waitress simply said, “oh you can use the plates you have,” which were side dish plates already covered in different sauces from the appetizers.

One of the waitresses, who is Thai, assured us that this dish was nothing like real Khao Soi and should not be named that on the menu. She was kind, professional, and understanding. Mel made us feel validated.

Then the manager came out and said “Our chef is from Bangkok so if he says it’s Khao Soi, it’s Khao Soi. Then he read aloud the description after we told him we did not want to rehash the conversation. He was incredibly rude, condescending, and patronizing. We were just trying to enjoy our dinner as best we could at that point and he kept arguing with me telling me I was wrong. Let’s say I was wrong, hypothetically, would a manager argue with you for 5 minutes or apologize for an incorrect menu description or say, “I’m sorry this wasn’t what you were expecting?” Needless to say, our moods were ruined.

A few extra items: I wrote on the reservation that we were celebrating my birthday. This must have been completely overlooked. We sat on the lovely patio, all the other tables had fly fans, ours did not so the flies kept swarming our food. That also must have been overlooked. We had to ask 3 times for clean plates. Overlooked? One of the curry dishes had spilled and the plate was dripping when served. Overlooked. When we asked for water refills our waitress was “in the bathroom,” but for 20min? The gratuity was automatically added so we did not get to tip based on service. Whatever we just wanted to get out of there.

Hey look, if it were just 1 thing described wrong on the menu, I wouldn’t make a fuss. This experience was multiple mishaps and simply bad management of said mishaps. I have to be clear, the problem was not the food or atmosphere, this was a service and hospitality issue.

I’m not mad, I’m disappointed.

Oh by the way, one of my aunties is a restaurant auditor...

The reason for my low rating is purely due to hostess. She creates a very unpleasant and unwelcoming atmosphere. So much so that after I was subjected to her poor service I had to check the reviews myself. There it was exactly as I thought, most of the low ratings were because of this hostess.

We had a reservation for 8 people yesterday. I was the first person to arrive from my party. When I went in and stood at the reception, I was left waiting for around 10mins, finally frustrated, I went and sat down at the seating area. Even then no one approached me. The whole time the servers and bussers all were staring at me and looking over, but no one approached me to came to greet me.

After an extremely long time, almost felt like 20mins the host finally came to the reception, still didn’t say anything or greet me. Just started at me. Mind you, there was no one else waiting, it was just me. After being put off by her stare I approached her and told her about our reservation.

She said “Looks like you’re the first one to arrive” in a very un welcoming and unpleasant way. Felt very racist. Then she followed to tell me to continue to wait and let her know when we were ready. I wasn’t even offered to get seated, which I guess might be their policy? But not a great policy. But finally when my party arrived I saw and heard her continue to act improperly to the host who had arrived.

The food was very good. However, when the night start off at a bad note, it leaves a bad taste in your mount. I work in the Frisco area will not recommend this place to anymore, more over will share my experiences, in hopes that no one else has to deal with this level of unpleasant and unprofessional behavior

The servers and waiting staff were all great though. My only complaint with the waiting staff was a busser, slightly big build, while he came to pour water to our table before they started packing he offered us all one last pour, but kept making comments under his breath and talking about how we should leave. We were the last people to leave, but there were 2-3 parties who left just minutes before us.

Overall Tande Thai has a chance to become a great Thai spot due to its location in the Groove. But unless they change their staff they will never make it in the competitive food industry. And again, I’ll leave it at this, their food is good, but nothing exceptional, does not make up for poor service. Hostess needs to be sent to some kind of service...

I initially loved the vibe of the restaurant and the decor, if the food was better it would actually be a good place to talk and vibe at, but unfortunately the food was not decent and not authentically Thai as well. We ordered fried tofu, thai tea, beef pad thai, chicken curry noodles, yellow chicken curry, and fried rice. The fried tofu was decent. The thai tea was very sweet, they could down the sweetness by 30% I think. The pad thai was way too sweet for our palate and not enough blend of sweet, sour, and spicy. Both curries were quite bland as well. The fried rice was a bit mushy and moist as well. Our server was accommodating, he did make a few mistakes in taking our order but he seemed earnest in his apologies and did comp out the dishes he ordered incorrectly for us. I think they have potential to grow, but they definitely need to check the quality of the meals they're sending out. I didn't think much of the quality of the food till the fried rice came to us, and I think staples like fried rice should be done well especially in an Asian restaurant. I will say they do an excellent job of presenting the food, but I wish that also translated in the taste and quality of the food. I think the high price tag is not worth the taste nor the portions you get, but if you want a pic for the gram, go for it. Overall, if you just want the vibes I think it's okay to go, but they definitely need to iron a lot of kinks out structurally for the restaurant to be running...