We dined there this evening. The food was magnificent - I had Pad Mamuang Himapan (Stir fried king prawn with roasted cashew nut, mushroom and sun dried chilli), which exceeded my expectations, and half a serving each of coconut rice and egg fried rice which were perfect.
We've been before and will go back again, because the food was so good. The service was strange and were I marking it, I would award a big fat zero. Which is not to suggest a negative - I was bemused more than anything.
To be honest, I got the distinct impression that no one 'front of house' has ever been in a restaurant. It's like they're operating a café whilst serving restaurant food at restaurant prices in a place decorated as a restaurant.
The personal interaction was minimal. They were perfectly civil. No suggestion otherwise. We arrived just before 6, and were the first customers, though several more arrived before we ordered. It was only when we arrived that they bothered to put the heating on. The heating partly comes out of a ceiling vent which they poked with a stick whilst people ate, and from a fan heater which was strung across the floor with a trailing cable and no yellow hazard tape! Jimmy kept his coat on for ten minutes!
While we were eating, we watched the delivery man wheel out his scooter which he had parked in the restaurant. We watched two staff members wheel a (stolen) Tesco trolley through the restaurant and return a few minutes later, to wheel it back through the restaurant stacked with cans of drink etc.
The waiter interrupted me while I was ordering - cut short my words - to ask if I wanted a starter. The red wine was opened out of sight; it was just poured straight into our glasses, full to the brim, no room to breathe. I thought it had been stored in a fridge; Jimmy felt that it was merely very cold room temperature (perhaps they didn't know winter has arrived).
When serving the food, they first brought out the warmed plates, then left them there for a while before they brought out my choice - and handed it to Jimmy. I'd plated up and Jimmy told me to start before his arrived.
As I say, the food is lovely, and the staff were not rude nor did they make me angry. I would go back again, largely because they don't really have much in the way of competition locally. But their attitude to service was extraordinary in its naivety!
