Wimal Authentic Thai Food — Restaurant in Woodstock

The chef must have had the night off. In reading others' review, it's hard to imagine it's the same restaurant. Ordered takeout -- Basil Chicken and Chicken Panang curry. Service was curt and less than hospitable. Upon returning home, I opened the boxes and it was really disappointing. The basil chicken filled only half the box and the curry was so unappetizing looking. Worse yet was the taste. Basil chicken was bland and tasted so flat. There was no fragrance when you open the box. Chicken was very rubbery as if it was boiled ahead of time and then just tossed in sauce when someone ordered a chicken dish. There was no punch of flavor like you expect from Thai food, no taste of garlic, fish sauce or basil. The Panang curry was worse -- no distinct taste of spices and way too sweet. The worse atrocity was that the potatoes were microwaved and then thrown into the sauce. Usually, when you eat curries with potatoes, the potatoes would have absorbed the flavor of the curry after having been steeped in the sauce. Instead these potatoes were not even fully cooked -- it was still a little crunchy and very gummy just like when you microwave them to try and cook them quickly. The chicken was chewy and tough -- tasted like preboiled chicken again. All in all, my excitement of having a Thai restaurant in the area was quickly diminished. There are very few times that I would turn down Asian food. This unfortunately is it! It was inedible. I am contemplating giving them another try hoping it's because the chef was off that night but it may take me a little time before I can return.

Edit after owner's response: I appreciate you responding to my concerns, however, your answers reinforced my assumptions. Your attempts to velvet the chicken and then precooking it made it rubbery, tasteless and totally inedible. Likewise with potatoes -- while you can explain your methodology, the results are such -- it tasted bland, flavorless and the texture was gummy and inedible. At the end of the day, isn't eating food about taste? As with service, you should train your staff better -- not use the "call a manager" as a defense or fallback. No one goes to a restaurant with that mentality -- people go with the expectation of being served and...

I was excited to check the place out with my girlfriend. We came and ordered to go, staff was friendly and attentive. I ordered the pad thai with braised beef and my gf ordered hainanese fried chicken. We also got the mango sticky rice for dessert.

First thing I noticed when I opened my togo box after getting home was that the beef didn’t look like the pictures and seemed bland and wet. I was hoping it would still taste good but after trying some my fears were sadly realized as the taste of nutmeg overpowered any beef umami you would expect. The flavor did not match the rest of the pad thai and I ended up just chucking it to the side as i regretted not going with the chicken option instead.

Another thing I noticed is the lack of spice and flavor of the pad thai itself. I had asked for the to make it spicy when ordering (asked for medium spice) yet there was no spice to be had whatsoever, and the flavor was lacking in general sadly. Luckily I have an assortment of spices and sauces at home so I was able to save my dish.

My girlfriend’s fried chicken was dry, tough and chewy but overall flavor was good. The ginger rice however was mushy, which she disliked. Also similarly to my pad thai, there was no spice in her dish even though she had asked for some.

After finishing our meals we were hopeful yet hesitant to try out our mango sticky rice, expecting the worst when we saw the intimidating blue color. However upon consumption we were pleasantly surprised by the satisfying texture of the sticky rice and the tasty but subtle flavor of cocunut mixed with the mango, which was perfectly ripe and delicious.

Overall, avoid the braised beef and keep in mind that the fried chicken will be dry. Aside from that be ready to have your own sauces on hand if you’re expecting rich flavors. I would be open to coming back here to give it a second chance because there is potential, perhaps we came on...

Wimal Authentic Thai is one of the best new additions to Cobb County writ large. We loved everything we had.

Appetizers: Corn fritter and the curry puffs--both were fantastic and are highly recommended. It's actually kind of funny that Southerners don't already make the corn fritters, as they're almost like a funnel cake breaded batch of fresh corn.

Salad: we got the Nam Tok. Definitely the best Nam Tok we've had--sour, salty and spicy all in one. The sauce is not for the faint of heart. It was super spicy but the spice didn't overpower other things. It was legit hot, but the flavor profile was fantastic.

Mains: Thai Basil stir fry was super flavorful. Drunken man noodles were the best we've ever had. The texture of the noodles were great and the spice was spot on. Warning: medium is akin to hot in most other Thai places in the area.

Standout dish that's not to be missed: Kao Soi. This dish is so awesome. It's a curry noodle soup with large pieces of bone in chicken, served with sour mustard greens, lime, red onions and crunchy noodles on the side. Add/season to your liking with the extras. This dish was crazy good and had a ton of complexity to it. Don't get me wrong, everything we had was great, but this dish was hands down the banger of the bunch.

Desserts: don't sleep on the mango sticky rice or the banana roti. Both were well worth it.

I would say that Wimal leans more heavily into Thai street food over your typical strip mall Thai joints we have in the area. We do have great Thai in Cobb County and in the city, but Wimal stands out as the best that we've had.

Anyone reading this: if you've ever eaten at Pok Pok (RIP) Wimal Authentic Thai has way more dishes like that than your typical 4 curries, standard stir fries, etc.

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