Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Places You Should Avoid: The Amazing Thai

When The Amazing Thai first opened a year or more ago, I had a really great experience. The food was delicious, the service was speedy, and I thought we got a really good value. Tonight? Not so much.

We got to the restaurant at 8:15. The waitress came to ask us what we wanted to drink about 5 minutes later. 5 minutes later, she came back with a beer for The Hubs and an order of egg rolls we ordered. So far so good.

15 minutes later she came back to ask our order. We placed our order and then waited. And waited and waited.

The water boy took away our plates from the appetizer and refilled my glass 4 times.

Our waitress vanished. People at the next table came and went and new people were seated.

Over an HOUR later I decided that we're just going to leave $6 (to cover the beer and the appetizer, both on the $3 happy hour list) because waiting over an hour for our food to arrive is unacceptable. But what's even MORE unacceptable is the fact that our waitress never once came by our table to check on us.

Now you're probably thinking that she was busy or that the kitchen was backed up or that they were short staffed. This is not the case at all. The place was empty and all the people who decided to show up 45 minutes AFTER us and sat out on the sidewalk were served first. Over and over again we watched people around us get their food while we sat there staring at each other. Other waitstaff walked past us more times than I can count, too, without saying a word.

Just as we started to get up to leave, our food arrived. And it was cold. And to make things worse, I asked for NO SPICE. It had a lot of spice to it. The Hubs suggested I send it back, but I really didn't want to wait another hour for a new dish to arrive. I was pissed.

The Hubs loved his meal, which made me happy. But I had to track the waitress down to get our bill. And in order to not drag it into the second hour, I gave her my credit card right away. The last thing I needed was for her to disappear into the abyss with my Visa.

I did not leave a good tip. If the waitress was more attentive, she would have gotten more than the amount I left. But she wasn't. I also left a note at the bottom of the receipt voicing my concern on the wait, the meal, and her being absent.

Of course, The Hubs was cringing through the whole thing (because he doesn't like to cause trouble), but goddamn, why not let people know what a bad experience I had at the Amazing Thai? Should I just let this establishment keep on with their shitty service and cold food? Should I leave a tip to a waitress who really didn't care if we were there or not? NO!

I felt bad for about 2 seconds when I got up and left the bill, but then I realized it would be going against all I believe in if I'd pretended I had an 'Amazing' dining experience tonight. I didn't, and we will NOT go back there ever again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you should post this on yelp.com

Anonymous said...

GOOD FOR YOU TO PUT YOUR NOTE IN! I WOULD NOT HAVE LEFT HER ANY TIP AND WHEN THEY BROUGHT THE COLD, INCORRECT FOOD, I WOULD HAVE SAID, TOO LATE, WE ARE NOT PAYING FOR THIS WE HAD TO WAIT OVER AN HOUR TO GET IT AND IT IS COLD AND NOT WHAT I ORDERED. AND DEMANDED TO SPEAK WITH THE MANAGER ABOUT THE WHOLE SITUATION. BUT I AM SORTA A BITCH ABOUT IT. IT IS RARE WE ABLE TO AFFORD TO GO OUT TO EAT AND A TREAT SO I WANT IT DONE RIGHT!!!!

Michelle said...

Wow...that is terrible service. I would've done the same thing. That's too bad, though. I've been wanting to try that place, but I won't after your review. I'll just stick to Chaing Mai Thai.