Bann Thai — Restaurant in Wichita

I read about this place in the paper and it mentioned their reputation for having some of the spiciest Thai food in Wichita. I absolutely LOVE spicy food, especially spicy Thai food, so I made it a point to check this place out this week. I stopped in around 1:30 & placed a to- go order. I saw a sign in the window that said something about only placing to go orders after 1:30, (it was weirdly worded- like only place to-gos between 1:30 - 1:45? I didn't pay much attention to it since it was after 1:30. This may have been in reference to their lunch specials. ??) They had their lunch specials handwritten on a white board & had another board hanging on the wall that explained their heat levels; which range from mild with 1/4 tsp to Thai Hot with 3 TABLESPOONS of chili paste or whatever they use to spice their dishes. The guy who took my order was super helpful & really nice and explained they recommend people new to the restaurant only order dishes at a medium or less, since their hot is super hot compared to other places.

I ordered from the lunch specials & got their Thai Broccoli & Crispy Pork -Thai Hot ($9.95), Spicy Basil Beef from their lunch menu for my husband- medium, & Mango w/Sweet Sticky Rice to cool my mouth off afterwards($5.95). I've been hearing about how spicy this place is for a while & after reading some of their Yelp! reviews, I figured I might as well go all in. The lady (who might have been the owner) was very nice & asked me twice if I was sure I wanted to order it that spicy. Even coming back from the kitchen a 2nd time to ensure I understood how spicy Thai hot would be. (It's written on a white board there are no refunds after you order. Which seems like common sense to me, but I know how people can be.) I assured her that I understood the food would be extremely spicy and that's what I wanted. I could smell the spiciness from the door, wheweee! Poor thang cooking the order was coughing up a storm & I felt bad, cooking spicy food can be hell when you're standing over the stove breathing in those fumes. The employees were courteous and it took about 10 min or so to cook our orders fresh. Food was excellent! It was cooked perfectly and even though my food was spicy it still had really good flavor to it. I really enjoyed my dish and my husband's was tasty too. He thought even the medium had a little spice to it which he liked. The pork was a little fatty, but it's pork. In the future I'd rather order another form of protein be it: Beef, chicken, or even fish. They had several fish options which I was glad to see. And the serving size was huge. There was enough food for at least 2, maybe even 3 meals for me. I was disappointed you don't get the egg roll that comes with the lunch specials on to-gos. I understand not doing soups or even salads on Togo orders, but no egg rolls, Sad! That's okay though, our food was great and I love having a place I can now go when I'm craving spicy food; that's actually spicy! My love for spicy food means my gauge on how spicy food is, is much different from most people. Typically people say something is super hot and to me, it's not. This place is actually spicy and I love that. I'll gladly be back.

Update: After the response from the owner I now know why my order didn't come with an egg roll, dinner portions don't come with them. That's cool, she's right about the amount of food, their servings are huge! We had enough food left over for another meal(for me even 2 meals). I'd give this place a 5 but I've only tried 1 thing from here so far, so I'll...

I really don’t even know how to begin. This place is very nearby our home so my husband and I came in around 7:15. They close at 8pm, but the restaurant was still very full so we sat down to order. They have one waiter (bless his heart) he seemed very stressed and was getting screamed at by whoever was cooking in the kitchen. It was very uncomfortable. The woman’s voice coming from the kitchen was stressed/upset and she was telling the waiter they were out of everything and couldn’t make any food. My husband and I had already ordered, and we felt very uncomfortable as there is no background noise or music in the restaurant so we and other customers could hear her yelling in the back. Everyone has their bad days, but if you don’t want to be open, or serving food at a certain time why stay open?

The server kept it together even though he was getting totally screamed out, we even heard a glass shatter in the back and he came out shaking and fearful.

All in all the curries were good, but when our food came out the curry was a super small portion with a tiny tiny tiny portion of rice, and the crab rangoons we had ordered did not get made because the woman in the kitchen clearly wanted to close more than she wanted to make sure the customers still in the restaurant were taken care of. We heard her yelling at our waiter saying that she had already made our crab rangoons, and that “he brought them to the wrong table” which he did not. She just didn’t want to make them. So then the waiter (was forced) to ask us “if we still wanted them” which we replied “it’s ok” because I didn’t want the waiter to deal with anymore verbal abuse.

So, we walked out of the restaurant not being able to finish our meals that we paid FULL PRICE FOR, because the woman in the kitchen was screaming and getting mad that she had to make any food at all. We received no crab rangoons, and the Thai iced tea— she screamed about that to the waiter to. It was like she was irritated at all to serve any food. Again, nobody is forcing this restaurant to be open.

I want to emphasize that the waiter did an immaculate job because if that was me I would have walked out of there. Food is ok, but wow to treat your worker in that way and to do it so loudly? Inexcusable. I don’t feel like you should choose to be open until 8pm and get mad that customers want to give YOU business around 7:15pm. We both left incredibly uncomfortable and so sad for the poor waiter who was being screamed at and we heard a glass break! It sounded like it was thrown angrily.

Really sad and a poor way to act. I wanted to love this place and the food is good, but not good enough to listen to a worker being straight up abused. I haven’t seen any other people write reviews about this so I really hope it was an off day. But I won’t be back. A customer shouldn’t feel like they are a burden, and the waiter’s treatment by the woman cooking in the kitchen was...

How is this place still open? I was there over 2 years ago and it was the worst Thai food I’ve ever eaten that was made by a real Thai (poster, probably not real Thai) cook/owner. I’ve NOT been back and WILL NOT ever plan to. I ordered pad kee mao and it was a stir fried and NOT with noodles at all, and served with old looking rice that was so obviously microwaved. I told the server this is NOT pad kee mao and the cook/owner came out all defensive and argued with me. She said I don’t know anything and that pad kee mao is NOT a noodle dish, hence translation of pad kee mao is DRUNKEN NOODLES, LADY! I was born in Laos and migrated to Thailand before I came to the U.S. I know Thai food, and Thai food is similar to Lao food, what is wrong with you, lady? I’m here to support you and you argue with me? The nerve to tell me I don’t know what pad kee mao is? I still remember clearly how defensive she reacted, never in my life I had experience this (I’m giggling). I was browsing around and happened to see that this restaurant is still open which I cannot believe! NOW, I see her online menu pad kee mao is a noodle dish, OMG, really lady?

Her gourmet dishes are served on paper plates! Her food are same price as Thai Village, but Thai Village have better class and served on real plates and utensils AND they are nice and friendly! Thai Village food is 100% more authentic than Bann Thai. She’s rude, rude, rude and nasty! Take my advice - DON’T EAT at Bann Thai in Wichita. I am not affiliated to Thai Village in Wichita but I recommend this 100 times. You’re Welcome!

By the way, if I can rate 0, which i can’t…it’s a...