I went there twice this past week. Me and my wife went on Thursday and were immediately told when we walked in that it might be 30 minutes before we get our food. We sat down, because we had no food at home anyway. I ordered basil chicken fried rice and she ordered green curry. Both were excellent. One thing you could tell was that the dishes were made fresh, albeit with a little less salt, but good nonetheless. Service was decent on that night. We went again on Saturday with another couple and had four dishes and some soup. We got a little more creative on the ordering and it hit and miss. We liked the Masman curry and the Tom Kha soup but not much else. Service just brought out dishes one at a time over about 30 minutes so we did not do much justice to the last dish, but they tried hard.
I think the one saving grace of Thai Harmony is the food. I think the operational problems can be fixed, they have to be because the place will not be sustained otherwise. I have read comments about long wait times, messing up orders, and other things. I think those can be worked on. I talked to the chef’s father who is working there after his normal job and they know what they need to fix (more people and more training of waiters and staff). I like the place overall and when the service catches up with the food it could be a real good restaurant.
23 responses so far ↓
1 mr. mowsers // Sep 22, 2008 at 9:37 am
how about some information on where this place is?
2 mreddy // Sep 22, 2008 at 9:41 am
Thai Harmony is in Steiner Ranch where Quinlan Park Grill/Tutto Gusto was. It is in the first shopping center on the right when you enter Steiner Ranch. Website is http://thaiharmony.us/
and address is 4300 Quinlan Park Road, Austin, TX-78732
3 Steiner Res // Sep 22, 2008 at 10:48 am
Here is an interesting note: another (!) Thai restaurant is opening where Mood & Food was located — a banner is already up. Can this area support two Thai restaurants?
4 Victoria // Sep 22, 2008 at 3:08 pm
It is Thai and Sushi…we went by on Saturday but they were not open yet. Seoul Food closed and Hunan Grill - i think Chinese is coming to that shopping center at River Place too
5 ARS // Sep 22, 2008 at 3:30 pm
You are correct. I have been told that a Chinese food place is replacing Seoul Food. Nothing like a little competition to keep these places on their toes
6 Steiner Gal // Sep 22, 2008 at 5:25 pm
My husband and I went to Thai Harmony, Thursday night around 7pm. The man at the front told us that there would be a 45 min wait. I also heard him tell another couple that they could sit outside but could not eat out there, I thought that was a little strange. We didn’t eat there that night. We went there today for lunch. I have to say it was pretty good. I ordered a chicken dish, sorry can’t remember the name. My husband and I will return there to eat.
7 Danny // Sep 22, 2008 at 7:45 pm
As everyone else agrees with all their post on Thai Harmony. The food is good and we all want them to succeed. I checked out their website but no link to the owners email for comments. I wonder how we can get the owners involved in this forum so they can understand what they need to do to improve. Quite simply, if they continue their poor customer service they will just go away.
Thoughts out there?
8 JA // Sep 22, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I plan on visiting this place this week. I’m pretty patient and know a place just starting out will have some kinks. I hope others give it a chance.
I too believe the owners should do their best to respond to customer comments and suggestions, but I also realize you cannot please everybody.
9 Mike // Sep 30, 2008 at 11:57 am
Gave the restaurant a second shot last night.
The good news is that the place is working MUCH better. Food was really good, I had the pineapple curry and my wife had the spicy noodles. Both dishes came out really fast and were actually spicy (unlike our first time).
Also, we got a wine bottle from the Market, and I love that idea so much that it’d be awesome if they didn’t pursue a liquor license (then again, I know the economics of restaurant usually make them to get the majority of profits from alcohol mark ups).
The dissappointing news. Even though our waitress was really nice and did a good job overall, I can’t understand why there was no adult supervision onsite. I didn’t see the owner, a manager or anybody with a stake in the restaurant. This is probably the biggest sign that the restaurant has commitment and for some reason people running that location (QPG before this) have not commited to really run it. I have been to Fion and Lakeside many times, and there’s always one of the owners, general managers around. I hope Thai Harmony makes it, but unless their owners really step up and spend time here, they will flounder (and we may reviewing Mexican food).
10 Steiner Mom // Sep 30, 2008 at 1:05 pm
There is a new Thai Place opening at RiverPlace. It is where Mood and Food use to be. I guess the Steiner one will have some competition soon. Didn’t know there were so many people after Thai food so I guess I will have to get out and try it!
11 Mike // Oct 1, 2008 at 10:28 am
Steiner Mom,
Do you know when they’ll be opening? Hopefully they won’t suffer the way mood and food did, which was so hard to find a way to get in that people who live in Riverplace don’t even know it was there.
12 Melissa // Oct 1, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Mike - I think the owner of Thai Harmony is the chef as well. So I think he is usually there but in the kitchen, so you probably didn’t see him.
I’m glad they’re doing better. I haven’t been back since my first visit, and that one was pretty bad. I’ll have to check it out again.
13 Steiner Mom // Oct 2, 2008 at 9:29 am
Not sure when they are opening Mike. I just noticed the new sign in the front window. There is also a Hunan Chinese Place going in where the other resturant was, I think it was formely Soul Food.
14 Sandi // Oct 2, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I heard the new restaurant that was formally Mood and Food was scheduled to open October 15th. but we all know how that can change.
15 anon // Oct 7, 2008 at 1:44 pm
went to TH for lunch today. It was just ok. Don’t get the fried tofu app. I think it’s really fried sawdust.
16 Linsy // Oct 8, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Hey i had lunch there to Thursday, I got the chicken cashew and it as fabulous. Going again for sure.
17 John // Oct 8, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Tried the restaurant today. My first time to eat Thai food. Service was great but nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t know if it was good or bad for being Thai food. Some things tasted good, some not so good but that is a personal taste preference.
18 John Wilcocks // Oct 9, 2008 at 5:07 pm
We did take out at Thai Harmony last week so that we could properly analyze the quality of the food and not worry about the service. We really wanted it to work out, but I am afraid it fell short of my expectations. The quality of ingredients are nice, however it lacked the flavor one would expect in Thai cuisine (as in Thai Spice, Lakeway). The red curry had too little curry and was overpowered by the coconut milk. I did order it 3 star spicy, but could not taste the flavor.
Not sure why, but I had three entrees and they only gave me a single scoop of rice for 4 people. Maybe they were short on rice? In any event, the owner is really nice, I just wish the food tasted better. I’m not giving up on them yet, I am going to give it a few weeks and promise to try them again.
19 Brian G // Oct 22, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I love Thai food, and up until this place I used to say there was no such thing as bad Thai food, but now I know there is. A few weeks ago I ate there for lunch and ordered soup and the yellow chicken curry. Both were horrible. The soup had obviously been overcooked and had been boiling. There was a film on it and bubbles, and it tasted like paste. The yellow curry was virtually tasteless too - it didn’t even taste like Thai food.
So, tonight I decided to give them another shot. This time I ordered the Pad Thai. You can’t screw up Pad Thai, but they sure did. It was barely edible. It was like a beige mass of goo that tasted like goo jello. No peanuts to speak of on this thing, no lemongrass, nothing but some spaghetti noodles in a beige goo sauce, yuk! Even the chicken in there was hard to find and tasteless. Luckily there was a lime wedge on the place so I used that to drizzle some lime juice on it to give the goo some flavor.
Luckily, a new Thai / Sushi restaurant is being built in Riverplace right now, and that’s just down the road, so I’ll be hoping that one is better because I’m never going to Thai Passion again after the Pad Thai Goo that I just ate (and that I feel like barfing up right now).
20 JayCol // Oct 22, 2008 at 9:27 pm
I went to Thai Harmony for dinner with my wife at about 6pm tonight. Kayla served us tonight and she provided us excellent service. I had red curry with 3 stars spicy and it was great. My wife has PadThai (N1?) and she expressed it was great. This is opposit to BrianG experience and negative comment.
The big picture of BrianG posting is to destroy THR and introduce the new restaurant on the last paragraph. I think he a paid poster from the new restaurant.
I feel bad when seeing people playing dirty game or dirty campaign. To be fair, I and my wife will taste the new restaurant when it opens and will post my observation. By the way, my wife is from Thailand and she know Thai food from born.
21 Kim // Oct 23, 2008 at 2:04 am
While perhaps an innocent mistake, I find it curious that Brian G provided a detailed description of his “goo jello” experience, yet doesn’t remember the restaurant.
He said: “…so I’ll be hoping that one is better because I’m never going to Thai Passion again….”
22 JoeAverage // Oct 23, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I am disturbed with seeing BrainG’s post in our SteinerRanchInfo blog. We, the Steiner Ranch residents, are matured enough for distinguishing the good/bad/ugly posted info. My guess is Brian either a paid poster or one of the stake holders in the new place whom wants to introduce a new business to Steiner Ranch community.
My constructive suggestion to BrianG is: Open your new business soon and let us try out your products. We are in a heartland of capitalism where allows enterpreneurs to compete for better products. Thus, introducing your business in a constructive way to Steiner Ranch community is a way that we are looking for.
23 FrankFair // Oct 24, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Have been in this area for a decade and I am a retiree now. I am so glad that restaurants coming to our community. I want all of them doing good here.
To BrianG: Your review posted indicates that you are an aggressive kid coming to town. You attacked competitor before opening door for consumers. I doubt that you did eat in THR as you described; else how you refers to it as “Thai Passion”?. The Steiner Ranch consumers will fairly taste your PadThai whether yours is as your description. Please come into our town with good behavior, boy.
To THR owner: Don’t be discouraged from the baseless review. Keep continue on refining your food and service. So far, you are a good kid in our town; and you will be servived from the Steiner Ranch consumers’ support.
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