Thai Orchard
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Thom
Posts: 5
Joined: Jan 2008
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13-01-2008 10:36 PM
Hello everybody on this forum!
The Thai Orchard Restaurant is celebrating its first year anniversary on 17 January 08!! It has been a good year and we would like to thank everybody on this forum, Forest Hill residents and customers from farther afield for their continued support and patronage to our restaurant! This forum has been very important to us and we feel very much part of the strong SE23 comunity feeling here.
In order to improve our service, we would love our customers and Forum users to reply to this thread and express any sincere comments about the food, service, ambience....etc....anything that you wish to say, be it positive or not so positive. We will treat these comments with utmost attention and do our very best to improve areas that you perhaps feel are found wanting.
In order to mark the occasion of the 1st anniversary of The Thai Orchard, on Thursday evening 17 January 08 we shall be offering all our customers a free glass of house white/red or bottle of beer to go with their meal.
Siraporn and Martin
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steveb
Posts: 113
Joined: Nov 2007
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14-01-2008 11:21 AM
Congratulations on your first anniversary.
We've eaten with you several times and always enjoyed the food, and excellent service. A great addition to Forest Hill scene.
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Les
Posts: 95
Joined: Jan 2004
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14-01-2008 01:59 PM
Owing to a new family arrival, we have been restricted to picking up food and eating at home mainly, and have only eaten in the restuarant once.
The food has been consistantly very good, and I really enjoyed our one visit. Staff are always friendly.
I would like to say congratulations and thanks for some great meals.
Les.
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simonj
Posts: 51
Joined: Dec 2007
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14-01-2008 08:23 PM
quite new to the area, where are you?
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Thom
Posts: 5
Joined: Jan 2008
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14-01-2008 10:29 PM
The Thai Orchard Restaurant and Bar is at 3 David's Road, opposite the Forest Hill station and next to the Hob Pub.....look out for the orange/saffron shop front!
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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15-01-2008 11:19 AM
Congratulations! Doesnt time fly. I'm glad you are doing well and have had many pleasant meals in your restaurant over the past year.
A small criticism (and only a small one) is that the ambiance still feels a little like the previous establishment. It would be nice to have some oriental background music, low lighting, candles perhaps?
It would also be good to see the traditional Thai Salad on the menu - beef or squid, spicy and cool - yumm.
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foodieluver
Posts: 10
Joined: Nov 2007
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16-01-2008 03:40 PM
I have visited the Thai Orchard 3 times and the one thing that really works for me is the bright lighting since I have a sight impairment.
While I appreciate that people enjoy the soft lighting and the candles, it becomes a total nightmare when you are registered partially blind. I like to see what I am eating![/font]
It would be good if you could give some consideration when making a final decision about the lighting at the restaurant.
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gemmar
Posts: 8
Joined: Oct 2007
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16-01-2008 06:51 PM
Congratulations on your year anniversary. I have been to to the Thai Orchard and always had good food which is reasonably priced. The staff always provide a very good service.
I do agree with an earlier comment about the ambience and that could be improved - it doesn't have a distinct Thai feel.
Also I think I saw on your website that you were thinking of offering Thai cookery classes. Is that going to happen?
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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17-01-2008 09:55 AM
Also worth noting that a lot of planning applications are rejected due to lack of light and over looking another property. Well worth emphasising these points.
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Thom
Posts: 5
Joined: Jan 2008
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17-01-2008 12:32 PM
I have visited the Thai Orchard 3 times and the one thing that really works for me is the bright lighting since I have a sight impairment.
While I appreciate that people enjoy the soft lighting and the candles, it becomes a total nightmare when you are registered partially blind. I like to see what I am eating![/font]
It would be good if you could give some consideration when making a final decision about the lighting at the restaurant.
Thanks to all for the comments so far..... We can adjust the lighting in each area so, if please let the staff know if you require a level of lighting that allows one to read the menus and are generally comfortable with.
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gingernuts
Posts: 505
Joined: Nov 2007
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17-01-2008 01:51 PM
Also worth noting that a lot of planning applications are rejected due to lack of light and over looking another property. Well worth emphasising these points.
ooops - wrong thread!
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Happysnapper
Posts: 93
Joined: Aug 2007
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17-01-2008 01:57 PM
I've eaten with you a few times and agree with the comments above - the food is delicious and the staff are lovely.
I find the restaurant to be quite hot though!
Keep up the good work!
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vipes
Posts: 145
Joined: Oct 2006
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17-01-2008 01:58 PM
I agree with gemmar and gingernuts observations - it got 1/5 in my Hardens entry for ambience and much higher for food and service. The lighting is OTT while the decor, furniture, even the name and signage font all lend the feel of an inherited establishment. The quality of the food and service are a million miles from the tripe served up by the odd couple at the Orchard and this should be reflected by a strong and independent front of house identity. I suspect this may be an issue of finace.
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Thom
Posts: 5
Joined: Jan 2008
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17-01-2008 09:55 PM
In response to Gemmar's query about Thai Cookery classes, due to the pressures of running a relatively new business and the arrival of an additional family member within the next few months, we have had to delay this venture for the time being. However this is something that we have very much in mind to do in the near future.
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Thom
Posts: 5
Joined: Jan 2008
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17-01-2008 10:33 PM
The quality of the food and service are a million miles from the tripe served up by the odd couple at the Orchard and this should be reflected by a strong and independent front of house identity. I suspect this may be an issue of finance.
Thanks for this constructive comment vipes! As a matter of fact, we have plans to carry out interior design changes over the course of this year, but as you suspected, this is an issue of finance. The initial outlays needed to start the restaurant have been quite high. We need a little more time to build upon our revenues prior to reinforcing our front of house image and branding.
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Rin
Posts: 15
Joined: Nov 2007
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24-01-2008 02:24 PM
Well count me in for when you do start Thai cookery classes. My husband and I love your food but can't afford to eat out very often, it would be fantastic to be able to create it ourselves at home.
Rest assured, we wouldn't stop coming to dine with you!
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mandy_playbox
Posts: 18
Joined: Nov 2004
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22-01-2009 09:36 AM
The Thai Orchard is awesome.
We had the best food of our lives there about a year ago (gai yang and beef panaeng). I nearly cried it was so nice. While it hasn't managed to be as good since, it is still usually very nice. The only time we've had a disappointing meal was their early bird special offer, but even that was okay.
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Dan on the Hill
Posts: 36
Joined: Jan 2009
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22-01-2009 09:37 AM
If they are normally filling the place fine. But on the night I was there it was empty. My wife and I were the only people in there.
If I was running the place I would drop all prices to closer to ?7.95 a dish and then offer a ?2 discount for all meals ordered before 7pm. I appreciate the GPM would drop, but I would be amazed if the place wasn't at least twice as busy as it is now. Takings as a whole would be up.
I really don't know, but my guess is that the bar is subsidising the restaurant right now.
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voyager3
Posts: 29
Joined: Nov 2007
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22-01-2009 09:58 AM
I'm with mandy_playbox on the Thai Orchard - we've always found the food delicious whenever we've been and the service great. Have had a lot of really bad Thai food experiences in London (most recently in Greenwich) and I'm really glad to have the Thai Orchard locally.
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