Ammathar Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Washington

Solid spot for classic, decently affordable Thai food at a cozy, no-frills spot located on 14th Street and just a few blocks away from Logan Circle. I dropped by Ammathar for dinner with a friend who was visiting from out of town and deeply craving Thai iced tea, and we had a great time here. It's a relatively quiet restaurant, so it was perfect for us to hole up in for several hours and catch up about life and all that had happened since their last visit to DC. The staff was super friendly, and I appreciated how long they let us hang around the restaurant after we had finished eating. It wasn't a huge problem for us, since we were spending so much time yapping, but it did feel like the place was a smidge understaffed. The food took quite a while to come out, and the poor singular waitress seemed a little bit overwhelmed with the four or five tables that came in and out during our time there. Again, it wasn't necessarily problematically slow for me since we weren't in a rush, but I might recommend trying a different spot if you are in a hurry.

Their food is all solid. The menu is quite large, so it was a bit hard to choose what I wanted, but I eventually settled on the pumpkin and shrimp red curry. It was super warm and comforting, with the spices from the red curry and the rich, mushy pumpkin adding to the cold weather / autumnal vibes. The shrimp was nice and tender, and they packed a great seafood flavor. My friend got their fried pork belly, which was also quite tasty; it was tender, fatty, and had a great balance of sweet, savory, and...

In general, I love this place, formerly Thaitanic (back in the day) but perhaps new ownership/different name if anyone’s interested — It’s no-frills quite reasonable but given the portion size this time I have to make a case for it being overpriced — was very surprised that my lunch special was so small/mostly rice

I don’t get why because it was totally deserted (very cold outside and it was a Tuesday). However I have to say, I am noticing a trend towards small portion size since the pandemic maybe they are struggling..

For this recent visit, I would’ve given them three stars, but I’m giving them four stars overall because that reflects an average in terms of my overall visits..

Let’s hope this post pandemic inflationary slump is over soon and then we can all get back to how things were — for my part it is bad business for restaurants to cut corners — in the end it’s better to have a full restaurant with happy customers and slimmer profit margins per meal than the equivalent empty restaurant with unhappy customers/diners.. value is critical and few are inclined to support a business if the value proposition isn’t there unless the food is super special/unique which by nature is a rarity..

Essentially, the likes of Amazon make a profit because they go with the volume model not so much the...

My husband and I came to this restaurant many times and also ordered online from this restaurant many times, I even took my friends there several times but today I was extremely disappointed with the service at this restaurant due to the behavior of the middle aged woman who served us. She was unnecessarily rude and disrespectful throughout our visit. When I politely asked for a takeout box after our meal, she responded with a rude attitude. Then when we asked for the check and informed her we were using a Groupon. She abruptly stated that a 20% tip must be added and proceeded to modify the bill at the payment system to include the tip without our consent.

To be clear, we had every intention of tipping fairly — even 20% or more — and we did but the issue here is the way it was handled by her. There is no mention in the Groupon terms of a mandatory tip, and forcing it upon customers in such a manner is completely inappropriate. The entire experience felt disrespectful and unprofessional from her, her attitude was unacceptable for anyone working in the service industry and that attitude ruined the...