I witnessed the owners disrespect their employees multiple times during my early dinner here this past Saturday. The best dish was their pad Thai but nothing is worth coming back for, especially the poor behavior of the owners.
We came in and were pleasantly greeted by a server and he said sit anywhere you like (most of the restaurant was empty). We sat at a table of 4 next to the beverage station. After sitting down, this guy comes over and says 'party of 4?' and we said no, and he had so much sass and said "oh, well, it's going to get crazy in here, so..." but doesn't say I want you to move. So I said, we will order like 4 people to try to lighten his mood and he still made a face like whatever and walks away. There were three 4 tops open, and two options to combine 2 tops to make another two more tables of 4. We sat here because we planned on ordering a lot of dishes to try and were told we can sit anywhere. I was put off by this because why not just ask us to move instead of being passive aggressive and rude? I didn't know anything about this restaurant and so I pulled up their Yelp and saw they had a super strong score so maybe the food is that good? We thought about just leaving but just figured he might just be having a hard day. The same guy comes back later and says are you ready to order, and he is so annoyed with us that he can't hide it, constantly rolling his eyes. I tried to ask him about the spice level to try and gauge it and he just said you can add the condiments. I ordered 4 dishes and I asked him if that was enough for him, and he's goes "well that's up to you guys" and walks away. The water cups were metal and very cold like his attitude. The food took a bit to come out but it was not bad, they came out one by one. First was the papaya salad, then the pad Thai, pad sew shrimp, and gumbo. The papaya salad looked great but it barely had any flavor, it was just a very light citrus without anything else. Once we added the fish sauce chili, it was good. The pad Thai was really good, sweet, but actually well balanced- I enjoyed this dish. The pad sew was just ok and the shrimp in it were small and rubbery. The gumbo was not good at all, they burned their roux and it was very bitter. This is by far the worst gumbo I've had. While eating, that same guy (we find out later that he was the owner) comes over and abruptly drops a glass candle holder on the table, he had dimmed the light and I guess we were lucky for him to let us have one.
One of the servers had his drink sitting on the lower table of the beverage bar, that drink had been there before we walked in and was there for a while. At one point the male owner tells the server that he can't leave the drink there, take it away now in a demeaning way. This is important later.
The lady with the red apron comes out to relieve a server for his break and proceeds to walk around the room to take orders (we later find out that she was the other owner). At this point more servers are there and as one guy was making drinks, she comes up to him and rudely and loudly says she needs a coconut green tea for a table, and he shows her the order and says they ordered Thai tea, but she wasn't having it and just kept repeating 'coconut green tea' over and over with an attitude. He rushes and makes her the drink and she takes it without any response to him. A couple minutes later she comes back holding the SAME drink and says in a quiet voice, they ordered Thai tea, and he hands it to her since that was the drink he was making before she ambushed him, and she doesn't apologize or anything. What the actual heck?! Who behaves that way, let alone to their own employees?! When you are wrong, own it. The coconut green tea she 'had to have' sat at the top of the beverage station for a long time, the male owner asked why is that there and the server just said it was an incorrect drink and he said ok, he had no problem with that drink staying there at the top of the beverage bar but the other server was reprimanded for having his drink on the lower table out of view. That drink stayed there until we left.
We were checked on by the server and we asked for boxes and the check, and were brought one brown paper box and then he came back with a black plastic box for the gumbo. The male owner rushes over and tells the server as we were packing the box, 'why would you give them that box, there's no liquid, there's no liquids!!!' while standing right next to us and the server just looked horrified. Gumbo does not have liquids apparently and god forbid that we use the black box. I feel so bad for the servers here, they were all working so hard and it's wrong for them to be openly micromanaged and belittled like that. The owners need to be accountable for their behavior and actions.
They got busier when we left but there was still a table for 4 and 2's open, so...
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