White Orchids Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Upper Saucon

My family and I had an awful experience here earlier this month, both in regards to quality of the food and the service. We attempted to reach out to the restaurant before writing this review but received no response after almost 2 weeks.

The restaurant was not busy, so we were seated immediately, however we did wait almost 30 minutes for our drinks to come out from the bar. We were never given the chance to get refills as our waitress truly did not check on us from the time our order was taken to the time she took our plates / brought the check. (A different server brought our food out). Throughout the entire time we were there, our water was only filled up once.

The entrees took an extremely long time to come out, but we do understand how staffing can be at a restaurant these days so we didn’t question anything. One person’s meal actually smelled like it was spoiled- it was such a disgusting smell that two of us had to sit there with a napkin over our nose just to make it through our own meals. Another person’s meal was supposed to have brisket in it, but instead, they seemed to receive a different cut of beef that was ridiculously overcooked and impossible to chew. Only one of the meals was actually decent. We would not have even been able to send our plates back if we wanted to since we were never checked on during our meal. The server collected half to almost full plates at the end and we certainly refused boxes to take leftovers home. After the server took our plates and gave our check, she was seen standing in the back of the restaurant staring at our table, laughing hysterically with another worker. It was extremely uncomfortable. We didn’t even bother expressing our issues to her because it did not seem that it would be taken seriously/we knew she couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

Later at night, 2 out of the guests in our party felt sick and were concerned for food poisoning. We do not have any idea what was served to us that night but it was the worst meal and service we have experienced in awhile. After speaking with one of our close friends about our experience, we came to find out that a few weeks prior, they too returned home and felt sick that evening. We would not have gone here if we knew that before we made the reservation. We love Thai food and we look forward to supporting other Thai restaurants in the Lehigh valley but will certainly be taking this one...

This place is to Thai food what Olive Garden is to Italian food, and that’s being generous.

We ordered the pad Thai and the massaman curry, neither of which included protein. The pad thai as is is literally just noodles. We paid $6 to add tofu, and if you want to add vegetables, it is a $1.50 charge per vegetable, like you’re ordering a pizza. Both entrees ended up being $21. Pricy for Thai, but I don’t mind as long as it’s good. Also, the thai iced tea was $8 and nothing out of the ordinary.

The food came and did not look impressive. Everything was pale and not garnished, but I wanted to give it a fair chance. Both the curry and the pad thai were extremely bland, which isn’t something I’ve ever said about Thai before. The tofu was barely cooked and flavorless. At the very least, it could have been pan fried to give it a bit of texture. It tasted like it was straight from the package. The lack of flavor and seasoning meant that the potatoes and tofu in the curry, which are amazing flavor sponges, were just plain and sad. I had to request salt just to make it edible. Also, someone please tell me what parsley is doing in pad Thai? Yes, you read that right: not cilantro, Italian parsley. We stopped here on a very long road trip and were famished, so we did eat the food, but a Subway sandwich would have been preferable and more flavorful.

This entire meal tasted like whoever cooked it went home afterward and made a macaroni and mayonnaise salad for potluck. If it had been cheap, maybe I’d be more forgiving, but the price/quality balance is so poor that it’s offensive.

Anyway, two stars because the food was technically edible and the service was great.

I’m having a hard time reconciling the hundreds of positive reviews with our experience, and I hope for the restaurant’s sake that this was just a very off...

My Wife and I ordered the Light & Crispy Fried Spring Rolls - Po Pia Tod, Price $11 Described as Clear vermicelli noodles, chicken and mixed vegetables. Served with a light chili & carrot vinegar dipping sauce for an appetizer. The four Spring Rolls came on a oval dish with no garnish and a small tin of a watery substance, that was so diluted that it was tasteless. The Spring Rolls could have come from the frozen food department. Actually, I've had better in the frozen food department. My Wife's main dish was ordered from the "new menu"(website still shows the old one). She had Bobby's Vegetable Curry. Price $28.00 The curry was so concentrated and downing out the noodles it was inedible, except for the vegetables in the dish. The waitress did offer to take it back, but we didn't want to spend anymore time waiting for a different dish.

I had ordered the Chicken Pad Thai. Price $22.00 Described as Stir-fried vermicelli rice noodles, egg, scallions and bean sprouts. Served with crushed peanuts. It was by far the worst Pad Thai I've ever had. It was an uninspired glutinous heap of rice noodles with some crushed peanuts thrown on one side of the dish. There might have been a scallion or two in the dish. Also, I didn't see any egg, as advertised. Seriously an embarrassment, and a poor excuse for Pad Thai. I requested the manager. The woman comes over with defensive hands on her hips, and never apologized. The waitress had actually asked if we wanted to take the leftovers home with us!! Really? As a parting good will gesture, the Manager brings over 2 small flutes of Prosecco. My Wife was already in the car, and I just wanted to leave and...