It was an eve of public holiday and most of the restaurants and cafes at Ion were packed except for BALIthai being one of the semi-vacant ones. My boyfriend and I were famished and just wanted to settle down quickly. This leaded to us having to make it simple and walked into BALIthai for a proper dinner, since I've never tried the food there anyway and I like trying new places but clearly for a start, I felt it was already a bad choice. Upon arrival, we sat ourselves down with menus. As soon as we had decided our orders, we tried to get a waiter's attention but to no avail as most of them were hanging around the kitchen with their backs faced to the crowd. It took some time for one of them to finally come by our table and took our orders, except that she wasn't very knowledgeable about the menu herself.
"We're ordering from the Create Your Own Noodles."
"Uhhh, -gives uncertain face-"
"Yes, I'd like the grilled chicken chop, with pad thai noodles, and pad thai sauce."
"Um. -continues to give uncertain face- Okayyy."
"I'd also like to request to have it with less oil or is it possible, no oil? more vegetables?"
"(whispers) Errrr, I'm not sure, I've to check... -gives finger gesture-.."
"It's okay. Less oil is good enough."
"(whispers) Errrrr, I still don't know, I've to check but I'll write it down."
"Ok, do y'all serve crackers anyway?"
"-with the still uncertain face- Um. I'm Nottt. Too. Sure......... I don't think we have."
The receipt clipboard was soon placed on our table by another staff who was also timid and soft in his statements. But never mind that as I was glad my receipt printed "Pad Thai Noodles w/ Chicken Chop -no oil -more vegetables."........ except I shouldn't have been glad at all.
The pad thai that came after 20 minutes of waiting turned out not to be no oil or less oil or understandably, like regular stir-fried noodles. But ironically, it was terribly soaked in oil. So much so I could visually see mini puddles of oil flowing along the perimeter of my pile of noodles. Oil stains were also around the white plate. This of course made me responded by telling another waiter how I felt and again, a reply of "Errrrrr, -uncertain face- let me check with my manager." The manager then presented herself and asked us what the issue was. I told her I was upset how my pad thai didn't turn out as requested, showing her the printed receipt as we spoke. She casually responded by "Oh, pad thai is always oily. It should be like that." This made me stirred and I then told her I made a request and it was stated to be possible. With that, she rudely responded, "So you want to cancel your order?" and I came to answer, "Yes".
We took our leave and had dinner at a fast food restaurant elsewhere. I apologize if I come across as a customer with problematic requests but shouldn't restaurants honour their words if made promised? Either that or BALIthai needs better communication between both themselves and customers.
Targeted for their famous Tom Yum Soup, we decided to order two traditional sourly spicy soup. Shrimps, Shallots and other ingredients were fresh and soaked perfectly with spices broth. The price was $13.95 for Seafood version. Beverages to me were both overly thick and sweet, I requested a staff to bring me additional ices. Overall, my rating for BaliThai was still above expectation. Typical mid-ranged restaurant, although not cheap but it was a good place to chill out with established culinary.
