Thai Lotus — Restaurant in Winchester

Have eaten here in the past, good food. Unfortunately on this visit the overwhelming scent of the spray cleaner they use made it very unpleasant experience.

Went for lunch, had to wait a couple minutes for a table to be cleaned. Smelled cleaning solution the moment we entered the restaurant, but not too bad. However when the young man sprayed a whole lot of solution on the table he cleaned for us, as we sat there the smell was very strong . We ordered anyway, hoping the smell would dissipate. However as several other tables were then cleaned in same manner(lots of spray) soon the entire restaurant was filled with the overpowering cleaning solution smell. That was enough, asked for our food to go and waited outside until it was done.

I explained to the young man why we were not staying, and he asked if I was allergic to the smell. Told him no, but that it was just too overpowering to try to sit in the midst of it and enjoy the meal. (Didn’t mention to him that 80% of taste is based on smell, and that nobody wants to eat with the overpowering stench of strong cleaning solution.)

Couple things to note about our food. Ordered a side of gyoza to share, it was deep fried. It is not bad, but in my opinion not as good as the pan fried cooking method. Another thing was the heat level, ordered Kapow minced chicken spicy (out of the choices of mild, medium, spicy, Thai spicy). What I got was very mild, definitely not spicy at all.

Would I go there again….not to dine in, however would consider ordering takeout.

Would I recommend…notif you want to dine in,...

This is hands down my favorite Thai restaurant, even after having lived in the DC/NoVa area. To start, the food is always consistent and absolutely delicious! You can immediately tell the ingredients are very fresh and combined perfectly together with the right seasonings. The owner/staff is so very friendly and great at what he does! Most of the time it's just him, but he's so fast and attentive, making sure you have everything you need. Even with every table sat, I've seen people more pleased by one person than most restaurants I've visited or worked at in the past. When you get a glimpse of the kitchen or it's staff, you see an immaculately clean place and staff always wearing protective equipment(even well into 2022 when most restaurant employees bypass PPE). The menu offers a wide variety of options, plentiful for many dietary needs and is very affordable and reasonably priced. The location is very convenient and the interior always kept clean, organized, and welcoming. They do offer a good selection of beer and wine as well, offer a small outdoor seating area with heating in the winter. It's surrounded by tons of shopping, so it's fun to visit and then walk around. I'm guilty to almost never change my usual pad Thai, but all their dishes are superb, including the Tom Yum and Tom Ka soup, the drunken noodles, cashew chicken, pad se-ew, and more! Heads up, you CAN request spice levels from mild to hot, even on dishes marked as spicy. A TRUE MUST TRY GEM...

I was shocked by the unprofessional service here. When I politely asked for ketchup for my kids, the server initially pretended not to understand English, only to later admit she understood my request but refused it anyway, claiming there was no ketchup. Thankfully, the kitchen staff was kind enough to help and provided it. Such dismissive and dishonest behavior from the waitstaff left a sour impression and overshadowed our dining experience. I hope the management addresses this issue to improve the service for future guests. I will not stop writing these reviews as I was very I disheartened by this experience. The wait time for our food was too long and came cold. The woman at the front just continued to give us stare and not ones came by to check on our table. I am not one to write reviews but at the end I was not going to tip the server, then found out they require 18% gratuity for parties 5 or more.

This is not a way to encourage your staff on excelling customer service values. I hope that the woman up front is not the owner, that would just halt the growth of this restaurant and depreciate...