Having lived in Angel for a number of years, I have visited Thai Square several times. At first (3-4 years ago) it was very good, always succulent meat, delicious sticky rice, good service. Sadly, the Thai Square of those times has DEFINITELY gone.
I ate here for a birthday last year, and as a group was seated upstairs in the soul-less and shabby first floor dining room. I remember the food being okay, acceptable, but the service being horrendous. It took us over 25 minutes to receive our drinks, and well over an hour to receive our meals. The staff were unattentive and unapologetic, despite there being many of them for few tables. In the end we reserved our right to refuse the 12% service charge they had added onto our bill. They were LIVID and tried to stop us leaving the restaurant without paying the service charge.
Needless to say it was not my choice to return last week.
But return I did, as this was another table booked for another birthday. Again, a largish group (9 of us) and so again shoved into the ever shabbier upstairs section. Again the service was awful, the staff deliverately avoiding our gaze as we craned our necks to get their attention. The table next to us, a table for two, had sat down, eaten, paid and left before our starters arrived.
Only this time there was one noticable difference...something which is a bit of a deal clincher when it comes to a restaurant...the food was absolutely dreadful. I had a starter of Tom Yum Goong soup. Usually a taste sensation of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and spicy. Not this one... it was fishy. Just fishy. And salty i guess. Three tough prawns bobbing about in it with their waste pipes intact. Ugh.
And for the main? Weeping Tiger... something I remember being a deliciously tender medium rare steak in a lipsmackingly tasty sauce was replaced with unbreakable chunks of boot leather steeped in sticky, oily treacle. Fat rice noodles which should have been fresh and moist were claggy lumps of overcooked dough, again steeped in oily treacle.
We left feeling sick, ignored and robbed. This restaurant is not what it was... don't be fooled by the fancy madonna headsets the staff wear... They do not have a freaking clue. read more