Yesterday I had been to Magnolia with father and daughter who loves Thai.
As mentioned in one of the earlier reviews yes the service is definitely good.
No rushing you and being served the next dish only when the previous one is cleared. The used cutlery being replaced with every dish being served. A sign of professional management in force I would say.
However the food was a very big disappointment.
The order was for
The menu listed vegetarian satay which however was not available that day.
Vegetarian Lemon grass and peppery soup. I tasted a little but the pepper / lemon grass was overwhelmed by the sour in the sweet and sour base of the soup.
Spinach toast that my daughter loved.
8 vegetable in a soy sauce based gravy. Kind of average.
Egg fried rice. Well cooked but calling itself a Thai speciality restaurant, I was definitely expecting Jasmine rice to be used for this not the local rice.
Vegetarian Pad Thai with basic. This was the biggest disappointment.
What I got looked liked soggy mess of rice stick noodles. No hint of being stir fried. No tofu to be seen at all. No cilantro or basil. No bean sprouts or crush peanuts anywhere in the dish. Frankly speaking I could have had plain old soggy rice sticks at home instead.
Called for the manager asking to speak to him. Guess he delegated to his steward. Explained to him that what I was expecting in a Pad Thai was quite different I asked him about this and to my surprise the Chief steward tells me this is Pad Thai. This is how we make it, with an expression of take it or leave it attitude. Almost borderline condescending I would say.
- Date pancakes with ice cream. Average. Seemed to me that it was deep friend in oil that was used for some other dish. The flavor of some other seasoning lingering on it.
All in all, this restaurant has a great location, good service but an attitude that appears like it thinks it can take people for a ride when it comes to food. I am certainly loath to recommend this place to anyone who wants authentic food.
Hope the management takes this as a wake up call and does something about the authenticity of the food.