Vientiane Palace Restaurant
| Address: | 151 W Gorham St, Madison, WI 53703, USA |
| Phone: | +1 608-255-2848 |
| Site: | vientianepalacerestaurant.com |
| Rating: | 4 |
| Working: | 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–10PM 12–10PM 4–10PM |
Location
Photos 47
Reviews 5
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Nathan Smith
My girlfriend and I decided to try this godforsaken place, since the reviews here on Urbanspoon were better than average, but much to our chagrin, this was the worst experience either of us had ever encountered. We went at 6:30 on a Monday night and we didnt expect it to be too busy, but we pulled in to an empty parking lot (and it stayed that way) and reluctantly decided to go in anyway. We opened the door to a frumpy middle-aged woman looked at us (but never said a word), vigorously scratched her nose, and angrily shoved two menus into our hands. After that, she pointed her finger at all of the open tables, as if to say go sit down. The room was dimly-lit with dirty looking carpet. The woman came over with a pen and pad, once again never saying a word, and waited for us to tell her what we wanted to order. We were polite, yet our thank yous were met with a smug look of indifference. We waited 20+ minutes before the horrible woman threw down our plates as if feeding pigs at the trough. The only thing positive I can say about this restaurant is that the portions were generous. The Pad Thai was mediocre, at best; nowhere near the best. We ate relatively quickly, as we just wanted to hurry and get away from this place as soon as possible. Our "waitress" soon threw down two carryout boxes and a ticket and quickly went back to her perch at the counter where she was reading. A man had come in to dine in while we were eating, and she might have treated him even worse than she was treating us. We saw her literally stick the to go box in his face, as well as admiring him having to ask for any water at all (halfway through his meal). When we went to the counter to go pay, she snatched the ticket (without saying a word) and gave us the receipt to sign. She immediately went back to her reading with the ever-present scowl. We left the restaurant--stunned that the service we just experienced had actually happened. The food here was mediocre, but the service is inexplicably poor. The "waitress" always gave off the vibe that you were SERIOUSLY inconveniencing her and that you were the sole source of her lifes unhappiness, even as she might have attended to us for a total of 30 seconds before she would slink back to her counter. We will never go back here, and neither should you. Dont waste your hard-earned dollars on sub-par food and ghastly appalling service.
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kabooty
Let me start off with the host. She really needs to learn how to deal with costumers. When I walked in, she was sitting by the waiting area so I thought she was a costumer as well. And she also did not greet me so I walked right pass her and went to the counter. When she saw me looking around in confusion (because not only was the restaurant empty, the front counter was also empty), she then got up to hand me the menu. I asked her a few questions about the food and as I stood there waiting for an answer, she stared at me for a few seconds and her reply was huh? (So basically, she wasnt listening to me the whole time? ) I thought maybe I was just in a rare case of bad customer service but boy was I wrong. While waiting for my carry-out order, 2 customers came in but the hostess was not at the front. She was in the back socializing (Im assuming). Im not sure what she was doing; i just heard her talking really loudly. They stood there for 5 minutes until they finally seated themselves. Then waited another 5 minutes before the husband decided to walk to the back to announce his presence. The hostess came out to hand them menus and quickly ran back to the kitchen as the husband proceed to say he wanted a lemonade. Minutes later I got my food and left. The food was okay but Definitely not going back. I would rather travel further for thai/lao food eventhough this place is closer.
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A Private User
I wanted to love this place because its only two blocks from where I live. Unfortunately, it wasnt the amazing hole in the wall Id hoped for. When I eat out, I want *good* food, not mediocre food in a restaurant with overly attentive servers and "flair." VPII looks the part as you are clearly not paying for service, decor or hours. Even after reading the reviews, I went ahead and appeased my craving for Pad Thai. Some reviewers claimed they used ketchup, which I dont think is the case -- instead, it seemed like the red Asian hot sauce, which Ive read some places will erroneously do in their Pad Thai to cut corners. It was also greasy and the noodles were too soft. It just wasnt good. We also ordered the squash curry. That was amazing. Other notes -- the meat is limited in the items. Not a huge deal I guess. Also, they dont have the popular papaya salad (som tum I believe) that is oftentimes featured on Thai menus and I nearly got laughed at when I asked if they had fried bananas. In fact, their "dessert" menu was "ask a server." It also wasnt really cheap. $9.50 a plate. I frequently dine at an amazing Thai place in a trendy neighborhood in Chicago that averages $6 a plate. Fortunately, the portion sizes are enough for two, so I guess that sort of makes up for it (I love leftovers!).
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Chiefy Jefe
First of all, I cant believe how this place is highly praised! Lets start with the positive: I didnt get a grumpy waitress or a bad service like many had mentioned. Our waitress was actually friendly. Now, the bad: the food tasted horribly bad. It is by far the worst Laos/Thai food EVER! Lets just sum up what others have said: 85% are white onions and only a few pieces of meat - true!; all their dishes have white onions - true!; no matter what dishes you ordered they all taste the same - true! Their meat/veggies are spoiled - true!; the food is cold/room temperature - true! I was so tempted to ask the waitress if I could speak to the cook and or owner and ask them know what kind of stuffs they serve their customers because IT IS NOT LAO/THAI food! Im Lao/Thai/Chinese mixed. For all those people that rave about this place, people that said this food is mediocre, and people thats looking to try authentic Lao/Thai food, heres word of advice: If you dont ever see any Laos people in a Laos restaurant or Thai people in a Thai restaurant or Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant that all claimed to be authentic - kindly walk out of the place. Go buy a cup of instant noodle for $0.50 and Ill guarantee itll taste better than this crap they put out!
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A Private User
I dont know why everyone is praising this place! It may have once been something worth mentioning back in its day. The place is dirty and the food is absolute crap. After hearing about what great food they had, my boyfriend and I went there a few months ago to order food to go . We were somewhat greeted by a disgruntled, middle-aged lady who rushed us to order our food, sat in chairs that had dried up fried rice stuck to them, and OVERPAID for the garbage they called food. When we got home and opened up the boxes of food, we discovered that each of our dishes had less than five pieces of meat. We ordered sweet & sour chicken and chicken curry--dishes that should have MEAT. Both dishes looked and tasted quite similar--gross. Plus, everything was drowning in what looked more like soup than sauce. I was so upset, but too nice to call back and complain. If I could go back in time, I would have taken all the food back and asked for a full refund. I ended up having to make dinner because we were starving! Just unbelievable. Spend your money elsewhere, folks.
