Head chef at Thai restaurant hits back at rude review: 'you don't need to have lived in Sydney to appreciate authentic Thai'

Don't offend the chef

Although everyone is entitled to their own opinions, one chef expertly responded to a customer’s review criticising the authenticity of her Thai food.

SoThai eatery in Gloucester has plenty of positive reviews on Facebook, where it is rated 4.8/5 - but one patron’s unfavourable review on TripAdvisor was enough to convince head chef Thitapha Martin to fire back - and it’s likely the diner will think twice before posting another review.

The customer wrote on TripAdvisor: “I visited this place hoping to finally have a truly authentic and good Thai food in UK.

“Food was not bad but pretty disappointing, had tasteless tempura prawns and a Pad Kee Mao, my favourite when living in Thai and Sydney where Thai restaurant are great.

“The ingredients were pretty right apart from using wrong noodles, but just it missed the deep flavour, the smokiness of the real Thai.”

The unhappy customer then proceeded to offend UK citizens and the chef with her next sentence.

She continued: “There is a tendency in small UK cities where Thai restaurant jump to the top of the reviews, I believe cause people is both bored to eat fish & chips and never tried good Thai. Having said that the food was not bad, 3 stars not more."

Customer review criticised authenticity of food

Clearly annoyed by the review, Martin took the time to comment on each of the patron’s claims.

Responding on TripAdvisor, Martin wrote: “I am sorry they did taste as good as the prawns you had in Thailand, fresh from the Pacific ocean and no doubt eaten in beautiful sunshine!

Martin, who was born and raised in Thailand, continued: “The noodles are imported from Thailand and I confirm they are the ‘correct’ noodles for the dish I presented.

“I was born & bred in Thailand and all my dishes are cooked as I would cook them at home, with tastes specific to my home region.”

The head chef of SoThai fired back at a rude customer

She concluded her post with: “You underestimate and insult diners from ‘small UK cities’ and our own customers' taste & knowledge of Thai food - let me assure you that you do not need to have lived in Sydney to recognise and appreciate authentic Thai cuisine!

Despite the negative review, SoThai still has four and a half stars on TripAdvisor and over 500 reviews.