February 2026. "A Comedy of Errors" Thai Lemongrass, for the past several years, used to be one of our favourite restaurants where we had often enjoyed lovely meals, but when we went there recently, it was immediately obvious that it had changed hands. The waiter was totally unknowledgeable about the menu, and his service was slow and hesitant. We were served cold tea and when we asked for hot tea we're told that they had forgotten to plug in the water heater. After a second serving of cold tea, third time lucky, and the waiter brought us tea that was hot! We proceeded to order our meal, and when we asked for mild curry, we were told it would cost extra because the cook would have to add more coconut milk. When we expressed our amazement, the waiter said he would check. He came back with the manager/owner, who said no, a mild curry would not cost extra! Every course of the food, when it eventually arrived, was cold or luke-warm and the meat (lamb) that I chose for my curry dish was gristly, fatty and tough. When our main courses arrived, one was missing. The waiter, who had started to walk away, seemed surprised when we asked where our son's meal was. He couldn't remember what we ordered, so we told him and he said he'd check with the kitchen. My husband and I proceeded to share our almost cold meals with our son and waited for the his meal to arrive. It was very cold in the restaurant, so we kept our coats on during our meal. When we asked if the heat could be turned up in the restaurant, waiter brought a small space heater which could not be plugged in near us because the waiter couldn't find an outlet to plug it into! Consequently, he plugged it in on the other side of the room. My husband finished eating and excused himself to go out into our car to start it and turn on the heater so he could warm up. Our son's meal arrived at last and we asked for it to be packed up to take home. When it was time to pay for our meal, I mentioned to the waiter that I didn't think we should pay for the lamb curry that I had ordered because we couldn't eat the meat, and only ate some of the undercooked hard potato. I pointed out the majority of my mail that was left in my bowl. The waiter said he would have to ask about this and went and got the manager owner again who said to me that I couldn't expect to eat for nothing, but he would deduct 10% off my meal. He was adamant about this until my 6' 2" son stood up from the table when he immediately agreed with me that I should not have to pay for this inedible meal. Despite all this, the meal still cost us $80+. Another family had arrived and sat at adjacent table to us. They kept their coats on too, and decided to order their meal to take away so that they could eat it at home rather than sit in a cold restaurant. Much needs to be done by the new owner of this restaurant to train his staff and to improve his own attitude towards his customers. Needless to say, we will not be going back to Thai Lemongrass! read more

We just had a quick luncheon today and it was delicious! Drunken noodlea and a colleague had a luncheon special. Tasty and great service! More folks from UVic should pop down for lunch! read more

Overpriced, bad service, very small portions, and terrible food. The Tom Yum Gai was $21 and just some mushrooms and uncooked tofu floating in broth. The lemongrass stir fried vegetables were a few sad steamed veggies with cheap peanut sauce poured on top. The lettuce wraps came with half a head of unwashed iceberg. We ordered just these three dishes for take out and it took more than an hour, and wasn't ready at pick up. read more

We came on a Thursday at around 4:00 pm. I had read multiple reviews where they said the service was slow etc. So I had prepared myself in advance for this and to my surprise it was not slow at all. But that's probably because the restaurant was empty at 4 and there was no one here but us. The food came out really fast and the servers were really attentive. They gave out new plates for appetizers, mains and desserts. They weren't over bearing but when asking for the bill and to order it might be a bit difficult depending on where you are sitting in the restaurant but that's just my take. On to the food! Por pia -$10 - 4 spring rolls with a sweet and sour sauce. Very crispy. Lots of cabbage inside. Not overly salty Prawn Pad Thai - $15.50 - big portion. I liked the proportion of fresh bean sprouts and peanuts to noodles. There were around 7-8 big shrimps which was very generous for the price. The noodles were nicely cooked. A lot of places that have pad Thai always overcook their noodles and they break easily but here they are still intact long noodles. They are bouncy and have a good chew to then. Not overly sweet or salty. Nicely seasoned and not too oily. Vegetable green curry - $14.95 - lots of veggies - green peppers, bamboo shoots, carrots etc. The curry itself was really flavourful. Hint of lemongrass. Went so well with just plain rice. I could eat lots of rice with this dish (maybe 3 bowls haha) Drunken chicken noodles - $14.50 - big portion. Very strong basil flavour overall which I really liked. The noodles were again nicely cooked. Good amount of chicken. Would definitely order it again. Deep fried banana with ice cream - $5.50 - not too sweet. The batter was nice and thin and crispy. Good way to end the night. Overall I would recommend this place for Thai food. The interior feels very homey and the service is pretty good. The portions are good enough to feed a couple people and the flavours are pretty good. The prices are also reasonable for the amount of food you get. TIP: order their drunken noodles read more

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ordered from this thai spot tonight. five of us ordered 109$ worth of food. As soon as we picked up the food, I could tell the portions were super small. We were given one small bag only, with five containers that were tiny. The take out containers werent even full. The food was ok, but for the price it was very expensive. But we are comparing it to Sabhai Thai so thats a tough measuring stick. Wont be going back for the shrinkflation. read more

Thai Lemongrass - the small containers all 2/3 full - Thai Near Me - Victoria, British Columbia

Three friends and I had an excellent meal on a Friday evening at Lemongrass. So good to see the restaurant full with patrons enjoying the end of the week with a tasty Thai supper. read more

A family dinner for five: my mother once lived in Thailand, and we've enjoyed Thai food for many decades. My family has been coming to this restaurant for many years. The food was fine, though there was quite a bit of sugar added with everything being hot and sweet. Adding a little nam pla prik took care of the balance, but the sweetness was a bit much for this diabetic patient. The restaurant appears to prioritise pick-up / take-away orders ahead of in-restaurant diners. After being seated, it took nearly half an hour for our order to be taken, and another hour before the food was brought to the table. The food was already lukewarm, suggesting that it may have been sitting in the kitchen for a while. By the time food arrived, we were hungry and were ready to leave. Seriously, in-restaurant diners should have priority over take-away orders. Or, perhaps prioritising take-away orders is more profitable. I doubt I will go back again. read more

The food was delicious but it was a long wait after we ordered it. An alarm goes off every time someone enters or exits the restaurant. It is a very loud "Duh-DING" sound. It's very obnoxious and ruins the dining experience. It is so annoying that it outweighs the quality of the food or our desire to return. I'd definitely go back if it weren't for that damn bell. lol read more

We have been twice. The service both times was very disappointing with very long waits for our food and other customers complaining as we did. And our food was cold when it arrived 1 1/2 hours after we ordered. Won't be back. read more

Excellent spicy noodle dish, best with tofu. Caters to special requests/needs, like GF, no onions - no problem.

Review: Just tried Lemongrass (take out) for first time on the advice of friends. We're big fans of Thai food and typically order from Baan Thai or Little Thai Place. We ordered crispy squid, spring rolls, red curry and chicken phadthai. Delicious!, but the portion size of the curry and the phadthai were ridiculously small - dissapointed. On a taste/quality scale I would rank it better than Little Thai Place and on par with Baan Thai. Considering the small portion size and the price point higher than both local competitors, I think we are likely not to return Sorry, we like to support local business, but feel there are better options. read more

After ordering my food and told it would be over an hour I still waited in the take out line for another 20 minutes. My takeout was the only one sitting on the table inside when I finally got into the restaurant. No one called out my name to say it was ready. Very poorly organized. There were more than 15 people lined up behind me and at least 4 inside waiting for their orders to be ready. Pad Thai was cold and noodles over cooked and stuck together. The other dishes were fine. You can't be successful running a business like this. Definitely not going back. read more

My lemongrass seafood was only warm. Disappointed. Veggies hardly spent time in the wok, they were cold. Carpets are old & need a deep cleaning or replacement. Bathrooms need to be upgraded. read more

Good restaurant, not too expensive. Really enjoyed the food. I will definitely be coming back. Would recommend the green curry

This is my favorite Thai restaurant! No 35 and No 36 are amazing!! Every time I go there I will order these two read more

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They were so kind and customized a pad see ew type dish to vegan-ize it and add a ton of veggies. It was so delicious, one of the best dishes we ever had and we eat Thai food all the time! Good service and yummy food! read more

Thai Lemongrass - custom vegan delicious dish - Thai Near Me - Victoria, British Columbia

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I'm surprised I can find a good Thai restaurant in Cadboro Bay Victoria! It's authentic taste and yummy!

Bland and oily! If you have any standards for Thai food, you will be disappointed. Ironically, there was no trace of lemongrass in my phad thai. Portions are mediocre... Unless you are stranded in the bay, you'd do well to save your money for some of the city's better Thai. read more

Nice lunch menu and the fried spring rolls are really crisp and flavorful. The Phad Thai was just so so. Asked for it medium spicy. Not sure whose scale it was but in my area it would have been no stars. It does sit in a cute little strip at a 4 way stop and contains outdoor seating. Oddly though we weren't even offered the choice of indoor or out. Just a strange experience. read more

I ordered the spicy noodle with shrimp and I added additional pork. To be honest, it was phenomenal. I would absolutely recommend this place to anyone who lives around U-Vic. On top of this, the server was friendly and helpful. read more

Extremely slow and unapologetic service, excessively staggered delivery, and mediocre food that was not worth the wait. Waited 1.5 hours before getting first dish, and half the party had finished eating before the other half's food arrived. One person's dish didn't arrive before we had to go, and the restaurant had the gall to only offer a gift certificate instead of a comped meal. The restaurant should consider reducing seating capacity if they can't deliver food in a reasonable timeframe. read more

As we were leaving this expensive restaurant, I realized that it's useful to have restaurants like Thai Lemongrass because otherwise how can we appreciate even mediocre places? We started with a nice cup of tea, which I suppose had been brewed with warm tap water. The waitress wondered what we would like her to do with the now cold tea in our cups. Hmmmm. Then we had a $10 wee bowl of soup. Lots of cheap cold mushrooms bobbing in top. Very little flavour and again the temperature of warm tap water. We moved on to the special. For $17.75 we were treated to the lettuce wrap entree. It's a whole iceberg lettuce cut in half. On one half was a puddle of ground chicken and chopped vegetables in a spicy oily sauce. It was tasty enough but then enough oil can make anything tasty. We were invited to use the other half of the lettuce to make wraps. Wraps are a nice idea if the lettuce is ripe and leafy. Nobody told the chef that Unripe iceberg lettuce doesn't work. I suppose this restaurant gets some nice ratings because their nearby competitors are a Subway and a Starbucks. We saved the evening by enjoying a coffee and dessert at Starbucks. You'll get far better food, better service, and better prices at Baan Thai, Little Thai Place, Noodle Box, Noodle Cart or any of the many independent Thai restaurants. read more

Latest visit . . . Nothing special unfortunately. I know I shouldn't order a lunch "special": For $12.95 I got a plate of dry Thai fried rice that had been around awhile with six decent-sized prawns, both dominated by the same red chilli paste flavour. The spring roll was mostly vermicelli noodles and the starter soup was flat, both had no distinguishing seasoning. They didn't have Thai iced tea and lime as ordered, so I agreed to try Thai iced tea and milk, which was a sweet treat but a heavy sweet given the condensed milk. My three friends all said their lunch dishes were OK, although the mango wraps seemed expensive at $19, not much on the chicken and mango, and more on the ol' fried rice, diced vegetables and some cashews. Amongst the multitude of Thai restaurants in the Greater Victoria and Sidney area, this one isn't the best. read more

Thai food is of course nuanced and delicate. Not here though. Re- tried a second time and it was disappointing. What really sank the whole experience was abrupt service even my wife commented. And she is highly accommodating. Do yourself a favour and go downtown to one of Victorias fine selection of Thai places read more

I ordered some food for take out last week and it was terrible, greasy, broken up noodles with no flavour, and the curry was so oily it was inedible. Extremely disappointed. read more

Fresh piping hot authentic Thai food!! Thai lemongrass has a lovely ambience with lots of room to accommodate large parties (although it can get very busy so you may want to make a reservation)This fantastic, family owned business has the best Thai chefs in the city. The food is flavourful, authentic, fresh and there are many dishes to choose from. I love their seafood curry and lettuce wraps!! I am very impressed with this place and would highly recommend it to everyone!! read more

Quite an unexpected find for dinner. We tried quite a few dishes and they were all very delicious. Chicken satay was probably the only one that I would rate "as good, but not great". OK, maybe more of a 4.5 stars overall, rather than 5, but there aren't a whole lot of options around anyways. :) The staff was also very courteous and also very accommodating for the little kids we brought in. I would definitely eat here at some frequency if I was living in the area. Apparently, the closing times vary, so it's best to call to check if planning a late dinner. read more

Service tends to be slow, and some of their items on specials are overpriced for both the quality and quantity of food. The mango wrap we ordered was priced at 19.99, but it's a small bowl of fried chicken and veggies and mango bits plus half a small iceberg lettuce. Both the fish cakes and chicken satay was over cooked. read more

They screw up your phone orders after 45 minutes when they give them away to other people, which is what happened to us, then dont expedite the correction as they say they are busy with other larger groups. They head girl made this mistake, but totally unavoidable as the younger lady that she said came in and too the order did NOT match up to our name and phone number on our bill/order!!! I tried using their house phone to see if my family still wanted to wait for them to recook and process my order, but every-time they handed me the phone to dial, I got incoming phone order customers (5 times!). So finally got through and past the phone to this waitress to have her take what my fiance and her father wanted to re-order as I lost my appetite (partly due to the clientele there with a man and his female companion, proceeding to eat and sucking every morsel out of 4 of his 5 fingers. I guess they must have been short on napkins, or that just the clientele base?? So after processing the re-order there while I painfully waited at the bar for a long time without any inquiry into a drink, snack etc while I wait. She finally came back and woke me up (yes I fell asleep) with my re-order less my meal as I lost my appetite due to the situation and poor service in correcting it, as they refused to deliver it. So she made the gesture that she only charged for one (of the 2 selections re-order out of 3) , only to find out when I got home they missed out my fiances Pad-thai! as they suggested for a quicker time to recycle the PadThai that was left from the previous orders mixup which they confirmed they were not returning. I was actually surprised they even charged us for anything!!! But I guess that's where North American Restaurant Customer service expectations do not meet Asian Cuisine and expectations. Summary, Good tasting food, poor restaurant customer service as measured against 30 years of my experience in Vancouver restaurants, as well as many other cities. As a footnote, after getting home and noting the further mistake of missing the confirmed one PadThai, we called to ask to speak to the owner, got the manager , as the owner was busy and would call us tomorrow????? Really? Entrepeneur Alert: There is plenty of room in Victoria for a Good quality Thai restaurant :) Great Restaurant food quality, is only measured by the dining/takeout experience.....otherwise stay home and cooking becomes a better option vs convenience :| read more

I'm never going back to this place again. In the past year they have been messing up orders and not making the food vegetarian. They tend to not care anymore or listen. They think oyster sauce is vegetarian and wouldn't refund me once on something they screwed up! They were closing in fifteen minutes which meant I had no time to go back and change the order or get a refund so they made it a final sale! I can't eat meat I'm allergic to it so was pretty shocked they'd turn away a loyal customer. Other times they changed the order but by the time I got home it was too late to eat. I really used to love this place but now have moved onto other places. read more

Wish I had gone there sooner! We ate there and chose to be outside on their back patio. The food was great from the soup to the banana dessert! The server was very attentive and my only regret is that I wish I eaten there sooner. Lovely beach down the road at Cadboro Bay is just another reason to go! read more

Thai food that will satisfy your hunger here for a decent price. I ordered the satay chicken with garlic, ginger, mixed veggies, and seasoning for $13.50. It was really tasty with great flavours and overall a filling portion of food. You had to order a side bowl of rice, which is cheap and easy enough for the restaurant to include if they really wanted to satisfy customers, but I guess that just means less carbs for me!! The chicken skewers were okay, nothing spectacular in the sense that the chicken wasn't oozing with the marinated juices. Skewers were average at best and simply a filler appetizer. Expensive for what it was to be honest. I do commend this restaurant for good plate presentation! However their downfall is fast service. Although they have nice and friendly wait staff, expect to beckon them every now and again to make requests... also, be prepared to wait a bit longer than average wait times to get your waters refilled or for them to fulfil other requests. Overall, a solid 3. Not bad, but not great. read more

Thai Lemongrass - Chicken Satay marinated in herbs & spices served with peanut sauce! $8 for 4 skewers - Thai Near Me - Victoria, British Columbia

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Great food. This is our favourite Thai place in town. Didn't give it five stars because of their payment machine suggested tips. 18%, 20%, and 25? Really? Too much. 10,15,18 is more like. read more

Honestly the worst service I've had at a restaurant, thus the first restaurant review I've ever written. My family made a reservation to eat together before going to a movie, so they knew a big group was coming. We arrived at 5:30 and our food didn't arrive until after seven. Staff ignored us and didn't bother to inform us of wait times or apologize for delays. My order was wrong, so by the time it arrived my family had already eaten and left for the movie. I got it boxed up and ate in the theatre. Multiple times family members had to go to the front to ask where the food was--no communication. No offer for on the house for my meal; we had to ask three times before I was begrudgingly given a gift certificate. It's fine if you're understaffed or you get an order wrong, but you need to communicate wait times, be apologetic, and when things go badly, offer a free meal. My sisters are both servers elsewhere in town and were shocked by the service. I will say the food was good--credit where credit's due. read more

I went to Lemongrass in a group of 10. The food was actually pretty good! The service was not. I understand we were a large group, but we were very patient and repeated our orders if needed. The waitress was really annoyed that she had to serve a large group. Then when we went to pay, we had to wait at the front while they processed take out orders. The wait staff gave us the general vibe that we were a nuisance to their restaurant and couldn't wait to get us out. We were not thanked for coming nor told to come again. read more

I love that their veg options can be made vegan and they recognized that that meant no fish sauce, they brought it up not me. Their cashew veggies come with the best tofu ever. Love love love this place. And it is affordable too. Close to UVic it's awesome for students and visiting relatives! read more

Loved the food here! Fresh ingredients and well seasoned: made for a great meal. The beer selection was a bit lacking on the day we ended up there. However, there was a beer list with more selections. Perhaps this is available on other days? read more

I have eaten at many Thai restaurants around North America and this the best one by far. Be sure to order authentic Thai dishes as they are much higher quality than none authentic ones such as sweet and sour pork. Most dishes are expensive but completely worth it as they are bursting with flavour. read more

We come here sometimes because we live close by and there are no other restaurants except for the pub. The food is reasonable but the reason we try not to come here is that the service is always very slow. The servers rush around and always try to ignore any attempts to attract attention; it always takes almost an hour for dinner to arrive. The beers are good value but the wine which seems to come in4oz servings is incredibly over priced. Next time we will be going back to the pub ! read more

Ate here for the first time today after hearing many colleagues comment about the great food. I found their comments accurately described the decor, service and menu. I thoroughly enjoyed the Pork Phad Thai found on the lunch menu. Prices are very reasonable and I look forward to returning to taste the many dinner entres offered. Service was excellent and attentive. read more