Orchid Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Winter Park

ABSURD AND UNACCEPTABLE EXPERIENCE!

On March 9, 2025, around 5:00 PM, I visited this restaurant expecting a good experience, but what happened was simply outrageous. I never imagined I would receive such a disrespectful and embarrassing service. A young waiter (around his early thirties) completely ruined any chance of me ever returning or recommending this place. His behavior was not just unprofessional but extremely rude, offensive, and irresponsible.

Right from the start, when I was trying to decide between two menu options, his response was absolutely unacceptable. With sarcasm and no reason at all, he said: "You have to choose, just like when you go to the bathroom, you need to decide whether to enter the men's or women's restroom."

What kind of employee makes a comment like this to a customer? This was not just rude—it was totally disrespectful!

Things got even worse when I ordered a dish for my wife, repeatedly emphasizing that it could NOT contain any peppers because she is allergic. The waiter confirmed, but when the food arrived, her dish was spicy. Thankfully, I tasted it before she did because she had already noticed small pieces of pepper.

When I confronted the waiter, he answered with arrogance and irony, saying: "Our least spicy dish is this one. For us, no pepper means it’s like there’s no pepper."

This is completely unacceptable! Playing with a customer’s health like this? This could have caused a serious allergic reaction!

I refused the dish and asked for it to be removed. The waiter left without showing any concern or respect. Some time later, he brought another plate, even though we hadn’t ordered a replacement, and tried to force us to accept it. He said: "Now it’s not spicy anymore, there’s no pepper."

What happened next was the most disgusting part of the entire experience. When I looked at the dish, I noticed that the spoon that came with it was dirty, as if someone had already put it in their mouth, and to my total shock, there were SEVERAL STRANDS OF HAIR in the food.

This went beyond unprofessionalism. It was pure disregard for the customer!

At that moment, I was completely embarrassed, outraged, and speechless. I immediately asked for the bill, paid, and left without even eating my meal.

And it wasn’t just me. Right behind me, a lady approached me, saying that she had also been treated terribly by the same waiter. She mentioned that he got her order wrong, was rude, and was treating customers very poorly.

A staff member like this tarnishes the company’s reputation and leads it to gradual failure.

I am sharing this review so that management takes IMMEDIATE action!

A place that tolerates this kind of treatment toward customers does not deserve anyone’s time or money.

My wife and I will NEVER return, and we will make sure to warn our friends and acquaintances to avoid such a terrible experience.

If this restaurant cares even slightly about its customers, I hope serious action is taken...

Dining out of doors is the way to go here and choosing from among the menu favorites will keep you at five star food.

We've had good service here but not always great. Lots of check-ins with you by the servers but not always the best follow through and not always the best attention to start with. That can go up and down based on how busy they are in the time of year and the time of night and whether it's lunch or dinner and 10 other variables, so we're not knocking the service here. In general you know that they're putting forth the effort and they're usually satisfying.

Go ahead and get the whole fish deep fried. It's beautiful and two people can pick the meat right off the bones and enjoy the crispy skin and have some nice Thai vegetables to go with it.

Wine selection is very, very good here and beer selection is a collection of Asian beers about like you could find at an Asian grocery. Nothing really special in the beer category but the wines are carefully thought out and pair beautifully with the food.

Since everything is so sweet and starchy in Thai food you don't really think about desserts here although I've seen some come out and they looked pretty good but I think your main course is going to hit your sweet tooth just fine, and that's if your appetizer didn't already.

This is a date night out and romantic place, or a place to visit with five or six friends at around table sitting outside in beautiful downtown Winter Park and it's good to choose a temperate time of year. That means not at midsummer, unless you get a cooler night. That means it can get a little cold on a winter's night so it might mean dining earlier in winter.

The place is old inside and the bathrooms sort of reflect that, but that's just part of the charm of all the old buildings in downtown Winter Park, and they keep things pretty clean here so there's no objection.

Now that we have a toddler I don't see us returning until he's old enough to sit still and let us linger over a meal, although sometimes that can be achieved with some crayons and a few toys, or if we get him tired enough that he falls asleep.

Not saying it's a bad choice for kids because they will bring you a small plate of whatever you ask for. Need little bits of chicken? They will cover you. So kids are possible but it's not really the kind of place where you want your kid crying with everybody else around trying to enjoy a relaxing and expensive meal to be savored.

Don't take anything I've said negatively because orchid thai is a real treasure to downtown Winter Park and even though we just don't eat there very much now it's the kind of place we will return to within a year or two with more frequency than we have been.

And it's always changing so the menu is going to be fresh for the season and fresh for the trend and fresh for new ideas, but the traditional stuff will...

How is this place not on the Michelin Guide yet?! We lived in Thailand for over 2 months in 2022 and we have NEVER found a Thai restaurant in Florida that comes even close to the quality and flavor of food we found in Thailand…until today. Orchid Thai Cuisine is just like if you were to compare a fancy steakhouse filet mignon to a frozen Walmart steak…Walmart just doesn’t compete at all, and the same for the other Thai restaurants in Orlando. As someone who has been to MANY Thai restaurants, trust me when I say this: this is one of the best restaurants on Park Avenue and in all of Winter Park, and for the price? Unbeatable! There are restaurants in the Mills/50 area that mimic street food (e.g. place an order at the counter and grab a number, wait to be called) and they cost THE SAME. EVEN MORE. And this is a sit-down restaurant on Park Avenue with great service - incredible!

When you come here, you could get virtually anything and be extremely happy with your meal - they have something called mieng kum, a dish I’ve only ever found in Thailand, and never in the US. If places do have it, they just use regular lettuce and NOT betel leaves, which honestly make the entire dish because of their unique flavor. It is a fantastic snack and they replicate it so well here. They also have an amazingly flavorful Thai beef jerky & sticky rice appetizer, which is a must-try as well. Their panang curry is the best we’ve ever had (even including ones we tried in Thailand), the PEI mussels are incredibly unique and a really great balance to other dishes, and the curry puffs are a flavor-bomb of goodness! The Thai donuts are of course always a treat at the end of your meal, and there are just so many incredible options you don’t find at other Thai restaurants. Seriously, if you love Thai food, you want to take things “to the next level” and try higher-end Thai food compared to what you find elsewhere, you need to come here. We instantly found a favorite and will be coming back many more times!!

PS: You have real orchids on every table here, and you can buy them and take them home if you like them - a neat touch considering the...