thai chef's restaurant

i was hoping to relieve my thai food craving and was expecting something fantastically tasty and authentic after reading the reviews. unfortunately my take out meal was neither. i had the mixed entree which was mass produced, tasteless and deep fried to an oily crisp. my tom kah gai was tasteless - not a piece of galangal or lemon grass or kaffir lime in sight and no zing of fish sauce or lime - garnished with what i believe was frozen coriander. very disappointing. the only positive was it was priced very well.

a group of us went for a birthday meal, midweek, and just lovely. super tasty meal. have been before and love the range of spicy meals, covers all tastes, which is great. grandchildren arrived with a birthday cake and staff couldn't have been more helpful in providing candles plates etc........made one poppa very happy!
highly recommended

ordered takeaway dinner. order taken and meal ready easily within 10 minutes. mildly spicy was right on the mark and very pleasent. a very enjoyable and fresh meal for a fairly reasonable price.

my husband and i had a large group of friends had heard of this place and really wanted to go. we requested to be picked up (a service available to large groups) the young man driving was very friendly i must comment! a true delight. slim young man with a beautiful aburn beard.

anyhow, the food was amazing! such a vast array of flavours, heats, colours and tastes. very very nice.

the decor was a bit aged, needing some upkeep.

staff very friendly, however, the owner decided to greet us as we were eating our meals, asking how everything was going, etc, etc. he went on and on and on and put us right off our meals. he stayed for the entire duration of our meals, even pulled up a chair! ruined our evening!

however, we had the pleasure of having the same young man deliver us home which made up for it ha ha.

4 of us went to the thai chefs restaurant on wednesday. we were shown to our table and the ignored for 30 minutes. when the wait staff eventually came to our table, we were not asked if we wanted anything to drink, she sullenly asked if we were ready to order. there was no information given on any of the starters or main courses. the food was mediocre at best, tasting as boring and generic as any fast food noodle house. we will definitely not be wasting our time or money going back.

i cannot recommend thai chef restaurant enough. my friends and i eat there frequently and have found not only the food fantastic but also the service is without doubt absolutely wonderful. kay been head waiter is a joy, friendly, professional and sees to our every need. unplanned outings we are seated and never have to wait even when they are full to capacity which is just about every night. delicious food and wonderful friendly service. can't ask for more. thank you thai chef

land of smile? i don't think so.....
neither myself nor my 7 dining companions would bother going back.
the service was good considering that waiters were mostly high school students…., after sitting for almost 1 1/2 hours waiting no snacks were offer to calm our grumbling tummies and when asked on food estimated arrival and why some customers who arrived after us were already paying their bills, the thai manager "kay" was rude, arrogant and told us those customer “pre order” and that was it…… obviously those people were bitten before with the delay….
i worked in thailand for 5 years and even in the worst touristy places like pattaya or phuket, thai nationals behaved in such un-courteous manners.
as for the food, too hungry to appreciate....
in conclusion, new plymouth is a small town, words goes fast, my guests and i work in 4 of the top engineering companies in town….

wait staff pleasant but could be more onto it with service - one diner out of our party of six not happy with meal (duck fatty only two pieces of meat edible-would not come back) thai chef's at mangonui rules !!!
so in comparison our experience in napier was, unfortunately, somewhat disappointing.

there's only one word for this restaurant.........fantastic!!!!
we frequently eat thai food and in fact look for a thai restaurant before any other and we have a couple of favourites back home in aus. this one is up there with the best we've ever had.
they were very busy on a friday evening but the staff were very polite, seated us promptly, took our order in adequate time and the waitress enquired as to our satisfaction with meal.

my wife and i visited here for a meal before christmas, we had only ever had thai food once and to be honest it was awful. anyway we had heard good things about thai chef and we though we would give it a try for something different.
we had the mixed appitisers to start. we both enjoyed this although we should have bough 0ne each. for the main course i had the naughty pig and my wife had the black pepper beef, we each sampled both dishes. the food was ok but not really something we would go for again. the service was acceptable without being friendly, it was busy at the time. i will say that it was much better then the last time i had thai food

great atmosphere, good service and the food was fantastic, especially for the price range. the menu has to be the largest i've ever seen so there's definitely something for everybody. the singha thai beer went down a treat - you won't be too disappointed if you gave this place a go.

awesome place. have been there many times and am constantly impressed. great food, service and ambience. always busy which is no mean feat in new plymouth!

went there last night with a group of 9. we had a range of meals - green curry, 3 alcoholics, suicide bomber, satay chicken to name a few. only one flaw was that the waitress was not as clued up on the menu as i would like one to be.. though there are a heck load of meals on the menu so i'm not surprised.

this has to be one of the best restaurants in hawke's bay, if not the best. although any idea of "best" is subjective, i'm sure the thousands of customers that chaang and his wife have had through the doors in the years they've been open, would agree with me. the food is always excellent, with genuine chefs from thailand preparing your meals and marvellous service by beautifully uniformed staff. the maitre d is a colourful character, making your evening a most enjoyable experience for both small and large functions plus adding interest to the evening for those just going for a value for money "couples" night out. i don't dish out complements or recommendations lightly, but you won't be disappointed if you were to visit here. well done chaang and the gang.

we had the same problem before the place burned down in the recent fire. everyone of our party received their meal except me and nearly and hour later and i still hadn't received my meal. the staff didn't appear to give a stuff and i left refusing to wait for my main - they got angry but i did not want to have to eat my meal on my own, it was embarrassing. disgusting service, just a different culture.

dined out 7 adults and 6 kids including 2 infants. staff were courteous, efficient and helpful and the food was great. we took our own wine one bottle which we hadn't chilled off properly so they brought out it out in a cooler for us, helpful wait staff in recommending best menu mix for our adult/children ratio. we all would recommend this as a place to dine and would go there again.