Mai Thai in Merton

AVOID THIS PLACE. THE OWNER IS A HORRIBLE MAN AND HOS WIFE CANT COOK. He went from telling us a pity story about how people come in causing trouble, to turning on us saying we were the worst people ever, shouting at us being very aggressive. Alongside this, his wife cooks the food and its flavourless.

Lovely atmosphere, but the waitress looked like she couldn’t be bothered, a few drink options weren’t available and was a bit pricey. I had a Pad Thai it lacked flavour but plenty of it. I wouldn’t return, we did have to wait a while and there was only the two of us, it. We did see the take away side is prioritised over the restaurant. Wished I’d read more reviews before going.

Where do we start? Eaten here 3 times before , wish we hadn't come back. Rude front of house. Food was salty 8 of us eating and meals brought up individually. Lack of wine, no cider. Can't give you change when you pay???? Incredibly poor no wonder they were empty.

I’m glad we didn’t read the reviews before we went. We had great food and service. The approach is interesting, down an alleyway lined with bamboo and lots of little lights. The inside is colourful, clean and appealing. The service was relaxed, which I like; time to chat and enjoy the food and ambience. It’s not the place to go if you need to be in and out quickly eg to get to the Hall for Cornwall. There was a slight curiosity with the wine list. It was in the waitresses head! The wines are Thai so wouldn’t have meant anything to me anyway, but I’m used to a written list so this was new. I can’t fault her knowledge of the wines though. I’m vegan and I’m confident I got vegan food. The waitress was careful to elicit that I didn’t want fish sauce but that my Pesci-veg husband did. And he was sure he got it. I was sure I didn’t (quite often I’m not!) which I take as a sign of food cooked from scratch and with care. The starters were good; corn ribs for me (a cob cut into quarters lengthways and fried with flavourings and served with dip), fish cakes for my husband. Served on banana leaf. One portion of rice is quite big. I think we could have shared. My Thai holy basil with veg and tofu was very spicy and aromatic, extremely delicious. My husband enjoyed his veg and tofu with ginger and chilli, which he thought he had less heat than mine but good flavour. We had no room for dessert. There was none of the awful food or drama that others report. I’m intrigued as to why the reports change so much. Are there different chefs? Different pressures on different nights?

Best thai I've been too and I've been too lots around the country. Ignore the bad reviews. I've been here a few times and never had an issue. All the food is homemade and cooked from fresh. The flavours are stunning and you can choose your own heat. We always choose a few starters to share and then have a meal. Best Thai in Cornwall. And the staff and atmosphere is lush.

What a gem of a restaurant! Visited for the first time tonight for dinner with my daughter and we loved it. Delicious food, colourful decor and great music. Thanks to John for his excellent service and company.

The food is no way even close to authentic Thai food and it's expensive to boot! Thai green curry shouldn't have carrots and red/yellow peppers to fill it out! We ordered 4 different curries and they were all bland! I think most competent cooks could better at home! Avoid! So many better options in Truro than this!

It is with great regret I am writing this review. Ironically both the food and the ambient I enjoyed. The food prices were on the slightly dearer side but acceptable. A small beer was £4 and this is were the story begun. We firstly waited around 30-40minutes for our starter (4x spring rolls) easily another 45-50min went by until we received our mains. The place was not busy at all...it was clear that we were supposed to buy more of those expensive little beers. Then, my chicken dinner didn't contain any chicken. I politly made a staff member aware of this which then resulted in what I can only assume to be the chef stomping in the room. She was asking "when we had received our food" (about 5-10min ago, I had about 95% of my meal left on the plate) she then stated: "that clearly I made the mistake while ordering and everything was my fault". I explained that Iam ordering chicken on my nights out since EVER as it is my favourite meat. After alot of eye-rolling and huffing and puffing the plate was taken back to the kitchen. I now really didn't want anything to do with this meal anymore so under shock i told another staff member not to worry about it and that I won't be eating here. THIS then resulted in the same chef walking past our table 10min later getting me in to trouble for the placement of my rucksack and that I should please move it so she wouldn't trip over it. By this point it was clearly only agressions being served by her. My rucksack was tiny, leaning against our table leg and in no shape or form a trip hazard. To my suprise, the way we just had been treated, we still had to pay for the remaining food (to make this perfectly clear we didnt have to pay for MY main meal...how generous). So to wrap this up: the actual owner was nice, so was the food and ambient. What makes me never want to go back there again was the aggressive chef and possibly the make-you-wait-so-you-drink-more-ideology.

Went here with a date on a Friday night. We had a great time! The food was absolutely spot on. My favourite part was the trio starter with the satay and chilli sauces which were to die for. The music was reggae playlist which my date absolutely loved, the decor was beautiful (plenty to look at) and John had us in stitches. Weird little things like the peanuts and chilli in little sealy bags and a refreshers chewy sweet instead of a (boring and generic) mint were the icing on the cake. We will definitely be back. Thank you!

I was really keen to try this place as a friend had recommended it. Firstly, the service from the waitress was fantastic. The chef however... We had several starters which were OK. Then we had a prawn pad thai which was the most bland, plain, tasteless pad thai I'd ever eaten. We absolutely covered it in the peanuts and chilli flakes, which were presented in little bags (???) in an attempt to add some flavour. We didn't even consume it. When we said we were not paying, we were demanded to pay half of it, which was £7.50. Yes the pad thai was £15!!! I really don't like conflict so I just paid but I did advise I'd be leaving a review. The chef was so rude, really confrontational and not accepting of the fact the food she had served us was just shocking. I was quite frankly appalled. Really, really unimpressed. Would advise not to eat here.

Couldn't have had a more disgusting, disappointing, bland meal. Absolutely no flavour, no taste, over cooked prawns, the veggie Thai was absolutely awful, embarrassing to be honest and for £15 quid we expected it to be epic! Papaya salad drenched in fish sauce (yes we know it's supposed to have a slight hint of it along with shrimp's because that is "traditional" but overpowering taste of fish was rank, the fish cakes were processed garbage and tasted like rubber and to top it off the owner/ chef had the worst attitude I've ever experienced, said the word traditional a fair few times and was very defensive about her cooking, and said she knows how the food is supposed to taste, to which we wondered if she had actually tried any of it? It was absolutely awful, nothing tasty and authentic about it any of the food, a rip off for what felt like a massive joke... really cheap tacky menu's felt like we were in a kebby! I would not recommend this place to any one, wouldn't feed the food to my dog! I would recommend the chef / owner rethinks her entire career and go to sukothai in Penzance for some real authentic Thai cuisine!! We went home and ordered a curry as we were so disappointed with what was served up!

Worst Thai food ever.....im a fan of Thai food and a local...... We had a range of dishes..... All had NO tasty and were oily. My masamam curry was full of sultanas, oil and onions, no flavour. Very very disappointed.

Great place - run by a really nice family. Food cooked to perfection and to your taste (strength of heat) Large portion, Excellent quality for the price.

Kleines Restaurant auf 2 Etagen in einem Hinterhaus. Viel üppiger, bunter Kitsch, aber dabei absolut charmant. Wir haben sehr authentisch Tom Yum und Som Tum gegessen. Absolut zu empfehlen! Nettes Personal!

Ordered food to go, chicken pad thai and a prawn thai green curry. Inside the restaurant is very cute and quirky decor and the waitress who took my order was nice. Only had to wait about 15 mins for the food to come, great. When we got home and opened it up though, it was really disappointing. It looked like leftovers from lunchtime heated up. The chicken in the pad thai looked dodgy/rubbery and the noodles themselves were bland. The prawn green curry was ok but it was just pure spice, not fragrant or aromatic at all like I’m used to. If it were more reasonably priced I wouldn’t have minded but it’s not cheap—came to a total of £25 with a side of rice.

We felt at home as soon as we walked in . John an amazing host . Hats off to the chef fantastic food . We do like our Thai food but never known such a cosy quirky atmosphere to enjoy it love the little Caribbean twist with some of the decor . Mai Thai is a little hidden gem .

Such a lovely place, we were greeted by a friendly guy who was happy to chat and was very helpful with what some of the food was (was our first Thai visit) he always made sure we were happy and had everything we needed. We had sticky pork balls and satay chicken to start with both were delicious and juicy. We then had a green Thai curry (this was slightly too hot for me but I could taste the big flavours and my partner loved it) I had a slightly milder curry panang? (Red curry flavours with peanuts) and we shared a prawn and veg fried rice. All dishes were full of flavour and you could tell they were fresh.. I wish I could have fit more in.. if we lived closer we would definitely return again and again.

Food was remarkable and staff were super friendly and accommodating. Only ever had a takeaway which is always superb but went into the restaurant and the decor inside and atmosphere is something not to be missed.

Party of 6 which included 2 vegans and 1 vegetarian and everyone had a brilliant meal! We pre-booked as we are a large party and were the only ones in the restaurant! So we had the lovely big sharing table. The staff were friendly and...

We were on holiday in Truro, Cornwall and had dinner here on our last evening. We'd noticed the quirky entrance to an alley way on our wanderings earlier in the week and decided we needed to try it! We weren't disappointed and had a really...

My fiancé and I went to the restaurant last night and it was fab! The owner was amazing considering it was just him and his wife running it because of low staffing issues. He was so welcoming and kept us in the loop for when...

Good service with lots of enthusiasm from staff. They were very accommodative to our needs during the dining.

Im just wondering if the people who wrote the bad reviews here were at the same place as me! Having decided to try this restaurant after my backpacking adventures around thailand, and the fact i like to support local family businesses, my friends and i...

This place is truly amazing! The drinks are great and to find sangsom, well that made us all happy. Brought back memories of our time out there together. The food was perfect, even use proper Thai veg! Don't find that often, well I haven't. Downstairs...

Recently visited the Mai Thai with my family whilst on holiday.awful service, hardly any staff.one of us had a poor meal and was berated by the owner and verbally abused.will never go again.there are plenty of other resteraunts in Truro who are happy to serve...

We visited here this evening after not being able to get through to them on the phone to place a take away order. When we got there, we were told that it would be half an hour before they could start to make our food......

Lovely lunch today in Mai Thai. I think probably the best Thai fish cakes I’ve ever eaten. A little treasure mid-Cornwall. Deserves to do well. Try it and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

We went to Mai Thai for the first time last night, and will 100% be going back! Prices were super good, food was simply amazing and the atmosphere was great! Excellent hosting! Thank you for a lovely evening.

Had a lovely evening with my family, John (FOH) was friendly and took time to talk to us. Food was great and my Thai Green curry was the best I have had.

Had lunch there. Food was cooked fresh. Covid friendly. Nice n cosy. The thai green was a little too hot for me so she took it away and made it perfect. Let us take the scraps home thanks guys

Delicious, punchy Tom yum soup with a great atmosphere and lovely service. I would 100% recommend! :)

ordered takeaway at 5.30 and told it would be ready at 8.30 ( bit late for kids but earliest they could do ). Went to pick up but then told by waitress that it would be another 25 mins - sat in car outside and...

Fantastic little hidden restaurant. Don't let the exterior fool you, take a risk and visit. The food is fantastic and the service is brilliant. Quick service and extremely good food. Spicy enough to be tasty but not to blow you away, just perfect. Lovely girls...

Excellent meal, very friendly staff and great service. Would definitely recommend a visit to this great restaurant

I was dubious when I entered with a narrow bamboo lined passage. The front of house didn’t seem truly aware of the spice content I wanted. When the som tam came it was delicious, fresh, crispy, cooled and even had the tiny dried shrimp (...

A chance to taste authentic Thai food, with fresh ingredients and bursting with flavour. The owners were welcoming and thoughtful, and the restaurant was clean and picturesque. They also provide Thai coffee or Thai tea, and I highly recommend to try it. I would advise...

Very tasty food with great hosts, well worth a visit, you’ll not be disappointed. Decorated to look and feel like a traditional thai hut

Great food and friendly service will definitely be returning with Friends,can tell the chef has a passion for what she does it was Superb

Ive been meaning to review this restaurant since visiting a few weeks ago. Thai is my fave food and Ive really missed having somewhere to go that serves it locally. Im so pleased to have found Mai Thai and hope it does well. I had...

Popped in and got takeaway, great fresh food with plenty of flavour and all at a reasonable price. Will definitely be bacl

First time I’ve ever eaten here and i will 100% returning. Yes it’s quite relaxed & yes the service from the chap working there isn’t the most orthodox and he certainly isn’t your typical waiter. This said he was friendly, relatable, a nice guy and...

The food was lovely, I had the tofu to start, red Thai prawn curry for main and a banana fritter for dessert all was delicious. The service was warm and welcoming, this was my first meal out, felt reassured after being in lockdown so long!...

We had lunch today and the meal was delicious and beautifully cooked. I worked in Thailand some years ago and the taste took me straight back there. Very good value and I look forward to visiting again. We had Pad see ew as a main...

Have eaten here twice, once in Feb and ordered delivery on good Friday! In February the service was "shakey", not very clear about cash only and BYOB, limited staff, served by the lovely chef while a blond lady watched from the kitchen, it was clear...

Great staff and a place to come back to. Bring your own booze keeps it really reasonable. Try the green curry of you like a kick.

Food was lovely but service was poor. When making a booking I wasnt informed to bring our own booze or that it was cash only. I was told very abruptly not to be late only to find there was no one to take us to...

Lovely place great food and good service . Will visit again soon. Limited menu helped as all great dishes freshly made.

Wow what a little gem. Simple menu - just how I like it. Great prices. Generous portions and super friendly service. Don’t come here for fast food, come here for fresh food. Every single dish is cooked fresh to order - and you can tell....

Friend had read about this restaurant opening and since she loves thai food we decided to visit. The food was lovely, freshly cooked and nicely presented. My experience of Thai food is limited but my friend was not disappointed. Front of house was a little...

Booked a table for three for myself, husband and son. Small menu, plenty of choice. All food cooked to order and chef discussed the menu with us and suitable non spicy option for son. Food arrived and did not disappoint! Lovely flavours we all enjoyed....

Called at a bad time, staff shortage led to significant delays in service. Food was very good, proprietor couldn't have been more apologetic about the situation beyond her control and made amends. Looking forward to a return visit.

Booked it for my wife's birthday and Valentine's meal as we read some good reviews on their website. We turned up at the booked time; nobody greeted us, nor were offered a menu,we had to borrow one from another table. One of the other diners...

Amazing fresh cooked food! Super tasty! Hope it stays for good! Spot on service too! Well worth 5 stars 🥳🍾

Amazing food, took me back to my travels. Tastes so fresh and a great choice on the menu. The pricing is great too, nothing in my opinion was overpriced. The decor is relaxing, the staff were ever so friendly and helpful. You can even ask...