Aroi — Restaurant in Washington

If I could give this establishment zero stars, I would. As a restaurant worker, I am sad to say that this was the absolute worst service experience of my life. Two friends and I were in town for the Women's March, and after rallying and marching all day, we found this place close to where we were staying. We were seated at 7:20 and ordered immediately as we had been looking at the menu while we waited for a table (~5-10 minutes). We ordered one appetizer and 3 pad thai. We waited for a full hour and a half and we got our pad thai at 8:50. Our appetizer never arrived. During the hour and a half wait, no one checked on us, apologized for the delay, or brought us anything to eat. The restaurant was very busy, clearly more than they are used to, because of the march. As a restaurant worker I know that when your kitchen is backed up and people are waiting too long for their food, you should slow down. This place did no such thing. They continued to seat people as soon as tables opened, and they were taking insane amounts of takeout orders as well. So, while half of the restaurant was waiting an hour and a half for their food (the tables on either side of us were seated at the same time and got their food at the same time as us), other people who arrived after us were seated, served, paid, and left before we got our meal, and we saw many people pick up takeout orders while we were waiting. The pad thai was okay, and when we got the bill I asked to speak with a manager. A girl came over and said that she was in charge. I politely told her about our experience and let her know that I didn't want to pay for the meal, as the service was completely inexcusable. She apologized and said she had to speak to her boss (I don't know why they wouldn't just send him over in the first place). A man came to our table and belligerently told us that we shouldn't have eaten his food if we didn't want to pay for it. I re-explained the experience that we had and let him know that I didn't believe our experience was worth any amount of money, and of course we ate the food considering we waited an hour and a half for it. He started to yell at us and said "why did you eat my food" repeatedly, told us that EVERYBODY was waiting (isn't that worse?) then finally told us to just leave and said that we should go home and think about what we've done.

All three of us work in restaurants and agreed that the level of service we received was inexcusable. While we are entirely sympathetic to the difficulties of a busy night, if any of us were to treat our guests the way that we were treated tonight, especially when the problems that we experienced could have easily been remedied (slowing down/not seating so many people at once, sending a complimentary appetizer while we waited, or even just apologizing for the wait), we would be fired. While the food was okay, I would not dine at this establishment considering the level of service and the way that we were treated by the...

2nd Review: Fast forward two weeks. This place has proven inconsistent. I ordered the chicken pad Thai again. Of course I was looking forward to it, with high expectations. I was disappointed to find it dry and overcooked as if it had been sitting out all day.

It was packed differently in a small flat plastic container instead of the larger styrofoam bowl which seemed to lock in moisture and keep the noodles soft (like the first time). Which may not have mattered because it was obviously overcooked and likely not prepared fresh.

1st Review: I ordered the chicken pad Thai. It was well prepared, quality ingredients, fresh chicken, sprouts,scallions and peanuts and fresh noodles. Decent portion size. Good value. I was actually satisfied with a delivery order this time...its been a while. Truth is, Uber Eats is getting more expensive while restaurants in this city are obviously skimping on quantity and...

This place used to be one of our go-tos for takeout, but it's taken a nosedive recently.

Maybe it's under new management. I don't know. What I know is that they changed the menu and removed some of our favorite dishes, like the vegetable tempura. What I also know is that their curries have become almost flavorless.

But tonight was our worst experience with them. We ordered spring rolls, pad thai, and a spicy salmon roll--all items we've ordered before and enjoyed. The spicy salmon roll was not spicy; I'm pretty sure they got our order wrong and gave us a regular salmon roll. One of our spring rolls was burnt on the bottom.

But the biggest disappointment was the pad thai. It had no eggs, almost no spring onions, and basically no flavor or kick. The noodles were all stuck together. It came with a lime that was dry and almost rotten. It was a disaster that we couldn't bring...