Flying Elephant in Telford and Wrekin

Booked large group table a month in advance, to ensure we would get in as its always been busy in the past. They took my contact details. Arrived on the day to find it shut up in darkness and handwritten sign on door saying closed due to refurb until further notice. Why bother to take contact details and then not use them to advise change in circumstances. Wagamama to the rescue! Having read the reviews since, I have to say it seems we had a near miss as the quality and service isn't what it used to be under previous management.

Visited here with wife and family on a Saturday evening. On arrival there was a handwritten sign on the door advising that sushi was not available until 5pm. Luckily it had just turned 5pm, so no issue. Ordered drinks to be told the draft beers on the menu were not available, bottled alternatives offered, these things happen. Food order was taken, at which point wre told half the items we attempted to order were unavailable, including all sushi except the salmon. The starters that were available eventually arrived, except one, small portions, but not too bad. As we finished these starters we were advised that the missing starter was unavailable and an alternative offered. Annoying but at this point we were very hungry. During the starters we observed a gentleman arrive for just eat collection, (remember him). First main course arrived, prawns with cashew nuts, except it was chicken. Mains 2 and 3 arrived, both flying elephant special fried rice, one with chicken, one with beef, what we received was not even remotely special and costed of egg fried rice with chicken and beef in the other, each costing upwards of £10. We did mention this to the waitress, who got the manger, who noted there was nothing else in the rice and took them away promising to get some veg in there and a discount on the meal. These meals eventually returned with some diced pepper added, again a far cry from what I would consider 'special'. Both meals were still lacking in any real flavour, but at this point hunger took over. Just eat collection man has now been waiting half an hour to collect his food and now just been informed half the items he had ordered were unavailable, fifteen minutes later his food was handed to him, he wisely checked this and found items missing, to be told they were unavailable. But thats his story to tell in greater detail. Away from the food, the restaurant is very nicely decorated, but having the staff members children there holding the door open for no reason but to allow cold December air in, didn't help moods. Watching a waitress open a customers diet coke (from a can) with her teeth was a new experience for me despite 20 plus years in hospitality. Also watching the manager sell his personal hifi to someone was also new to me, and hardly what I would consider professional Upon paying the bill a 10 per cent discount was added after some prompting, but the bill still totaled £90 for 3 people for very disappointing food, service and ambience. Badly run, badly organised, bland food, overpriced with no standards of professionalism front of house, so God knows what the back of house is like....

Not a Thai restaurant appalling food been before and this establishment has gone down hill I should have read the recent reviews Ordered a chicken and cashew nut stir fry what came can only be described as a plate of slope Lack of chicken all vegetables all sauce this is not a Thai recipe and when looking at kitchen staff can see why they aren’t Thai I would strongly avoid as overpriced for poor quality food Closing statement NEVER AGAIN

Group of seven booked in advance. Place was half empty on a Friday evening and now we know why! Shown to wrong table by one waitress, and as we were trying to squeeze 7 into a booth for 6, a second waitress pointed us to the right table. This was just the start. Took 15 mins to take drink order, but flat refused to take food order until drinks had been served. Starters arrived spread over at least 10 mins, so the faster eaters had finished before last had even received their food. Then we sat for over an hour before an hour before the first of the mains arrived. Plus they took more than 30 mins just to clear the empty stater plates. Then the chaos started for real. Lost track of how many times they brought the wrong dishes. One at a time. We were sending back incorrect orders one after another. Again, the first people to be brought their correct orders had long finished before the last person was presented with any food. And to top it all off, the food wasn’t even that brilliant. Tasty, yes. But small portions, and more veg than meat - on supposedly “meat” dishes. AVOID.

Had a table booked for 10 people at 8.30 pm on a Friday. When we arrived the restaurant had a few other tables occupied but it was pretty lacking in atmosphere. The staff had to push tables together while we waited at the door, even though we had booked hours ahead of time. We were seated and our drinks and food orders were taken, but only a few of us got to eat our food together. 3 members of our group did not receive their meals with the rest of us. The wait staff apologised and brought 2 meals but left one member of our party mealess. In total our friend waited over an hour for his sushi to be prepared, even though staff and the chefs were wondering around the restaurant while he waited. We watched as the kitchen staff cleaned and closed down the kitchen, then sat and ate their own food. Multiple wait staff had food before our friend. Once his food did arrive we were all finished. This meal was for a friends birthday and it completely ruined the night. Bewildered as to why we waited over an hour for one of our friends to receive his meal when there were more than enough staff on. The wait staff did apologise but it felt like it was coming from the wrong person. It seemed as if the younger staff were having to take responsibility for the incident, instead of the managers and chefs. Additionally, throughout the night it a young girl, presumed to be a member of staffs child, was wondering around the restaurant and even being carried around mid-shift. At one point I witnessed a waitress hold the child on her hip near the serving station. I have prior experience in waitressing and have burned my hands on the serving station before. I can not believe that they would let a small child be anywhere near it. Overall, the experience was shocking and appalling. There are much better restaurants in Southwater. Save your money and go to one of those instead, you will not regret avoiding this place.

The food arrived on time, all the order was correct, wasn't overly hot, but wasn't a big problem as a slight distance for delivery. The taste of the food was decent, but too expensive for what you get. Satay chicken starter tiny, 3 small skewers. A large bag of crackers with the tiniest pot of dipping sauce and less than a quarter full. Only 2 pieces of tofu in Thai curry. Unfortunately wouldn't order again, until portion sizes adjusted.

Away on business, this place was recommended. No issues at all with the waiting staff, attended too promptly, seated and given menus. No draught beer so had a bottle which was cold and smooth. Ordered salt and pepper ribs with chilli as a starter and sweet and sour chicken with egg fried rice as a main. No crackers or anything provided as an appetiser so a long wait for the starter, looked nice, good flavour but the toughest meat I have ever had to eat, not joking. I did finish as I enjoyed the flavour, however I’m used to the meat falling off ribs when cooked properly. The main arrived, plenty of it however the sauce resembled uncle bens and tasted the same as well which was very disappointing, the rice was lumpy and not cooked as you would expect in an Asian restaurant. I did flag this up to the waiter when paying my £25 to which I was told the ribs were probably over cooked !! Not good enough sorry. At this rate unless improvements are made this place will fold unless a front for something else as there were a select few seated up the top near the kitchen that the staff were falling over to serve.

Truly awful! We phoned ahead to book a table about 10-15 minutes before we arrived thinking it would be busy. This should have been our first red flag it was 6pm on a Saturday and there was only about 4-5 tables of people in the whole place. The lady who took our order was nice and friendly but that was the only positive about the whole experience. We ordered drinks and after 20 minutes we were still waiting for them to arrive, when they finally did arrive we were served full fat coke when we ordered diet. One member of our party is a diabetic and this could of had catastrophic outcome on her. We ordered and asked if all the food could be brought out together. Some food arrived and we asked for it to be taken back and kept under the hot light until everything else was ready as we did not want to eat separately. The nice waitress took them away and even offered us fresh ones which we of course declined. 3 minutes later the same food was brought out by someone else. Clearly communication was lacking. After 10 minutes some more food followed so 3 of the 6 in our party had eaten before the other food had arrived. The 3 who had eaten had ordered hot food and the 3 left waiting had ordered sushi. The sushi is pre-rolled it was just a case of putting the sushi on a plate and we waited over an hour and a fifteen minutes for this. Numerous staff kept coming to our table ever 5 minutes to tell us the food would only be a few minutes. Clearly lies! In the end we left the restaurant half of us had eaten and half had not. The whole thing was a shambles and the manger had the worst people skills. Safe to say we left with our paying and we were sworn at as we got up to leave by a male member of staff. We will never return, shambles of a place that I’m sure from the reviews is consistently awful. There are plenty of places to eat around this restaurant so give this one a miss!

First we were only 1 of 5 tables in the restaurant. It took 15 mins for someone to ask if we would like a drink. Then 20 mins for a food order. I asked the young girl why its taking so long and she said we are really busy tonight. I said its empty in here what do you mean. Her reply was we are busy with just eat orders. Really!!? So dine in customers don't get priority? We asked for all food to come out together. The courses came out 10 mins in between each one. The food was horrible. Cold and wasn't nice at all. No taste to the sweet and sour. The spring rolls had moyhnh inside. Worst experience I dont recommend at all!

Food and drink order taken quite quick but we waited for ages for anything to come to us.... staff shouting and clicking fingers at each other, one member very quick to blame other staff for delays .... we eventually left almost 2 hours after arriving and having to rush our meal as we had other plans to get to.

We visited here on a Saturday about 6:45 whilst it was still fairly quiet. Food and drink order was taken but after about 15 minutes no drinks came so order was taken again. Drinks arrived followed about 15 minutes later by our first drinks order which was served to the table next to us. First starter arrived about half an hour after ordering followed by our other starter about 20 minutes after that. Food was just dumped on our table and no care given to service. Spring rolls were very generic but chicken gyozas were nice. We finally got our mains at about 8:10 which we had to eat fairly quickly as we had other priorities at 8:30. Thai red curry was delicious and ginger and black bean chicken was also very nice. Staff blame each other for poor service and no customer care was given whatsoever. Even though the food was nice we will not be eating here again.

If the food you get is what you ordered then you can expect a decent tasty plate but I get the feeling it would be much better as take away as lack of investment in restaurant experience let's it down. Waiting staff, although polite have no commitment to deliver a quality service and lack basic training on how to deliver a meal, provide cutlery/ plates as required, how to handle complaints (like incorrect meal delivered), how and when to clear plates, how to deliver a bill etc. We rapidly gave up expecting common sense and fetched our own straw, extra glasses, condiments etc. Staff seemed more distracted with chatting to young people who were collecting takeaways and there seemed various hangers-on who loitered around the kitchen area or out the front. If this was a chain (which I presume it isn't) the Area Manager would have a new Manager in to uphold strict service guidelines, as the staff lack basic common sense on even how to deliver acceptable service. We enjoyed our food, but the couple next to us had two mains (well 3 if you count the incorrect one) delivered 20 mins apart and we're trying to make the best of a very disappointing evening. As we all become even more picky on if and where we eat out then places like this will not survive of they lack the drive to deliver a quality restaurant experience for the customers who make the effort to visit them.

We went to the Flying Elephant in Telford last week before going to the cinema next door. Our drinks were flat and hideously expensive, my wife's starter was wrong with chicken rather than crabmeat, my spare ribs were battered and stale, the mains were barely edible, a plate of vegetables and glass noodles and a red panang curry that was inferior to a frozen packet meal. The staff were clearly preoccupied with personal child care issues, the restaurant which was barely busy was nothing short of chaotic. Our bill was still over £40 for this rubbish and I thought we would be late for our film. Stay away from this place at all costs, I felt like I was held up at gunpoint. It really has no business being open let alone calling itself authentic Thai cuisine

Almost empty restaurant so should have been a relatively quick service. No. My main came out at the same time as our sharing platter starter. Not a problem, it was brought out while it was fresh. While we were waiting for the starter to be cleared, another dish was brought to our table. Nothing that we had ordered. This was taken away, but our starter plates still sat there. 20 mins later a waitress asked if she could clear the plates and if we were ready for our mains. We said that's fine although we had already had one of them. Another 20 mins later the other two mains appeared. The three of us thoroughly enjoyed the food and the portion sizes were great. What was the real let down though was the fact that the owner and what we think was the manager was too busy sitting with a group of people drinking (looked like wine) and leaving the trainee waitress to look after us. After we had finished the mains, we then had yet another long wait to pay the bill. It was only when we got up with our jackets on and stood around did we get attention. We could have easily walked out without paying. After pointing out the problems to the owner (who didn't look impressed with a few home truths) we paid our bill and left. I told the waitress that she was better than the restaurant, it wasn't her fault, just poor leadership. I wished it was better - the food was amazing which is why I was happy to pay but its the service that let's it down massively. It should be a sell out everyday. Such a shame.

Really tasty food. I had the salmon teppanyaki and my husband had the katsu curry. The food tasted amazing and the waiting staff were very attentive.