Thai Somtum Cafe &takeaway

We ordered a takeaway and the food was excellent. Can particularly recommend the beef and oyster sauce and the chicken and ginger. The service was very friendly too.

Honestly the worst customer service I've ever had! We ordered the set menu, which was £23.50pp to eat in or £21.50ph take away. We wanted an evening out to celebrate so decided to eat in. We asked whether we could take the food away if we couldn't eat everything and we were told that it would not be a problem. The food was good but not the best Thai food I've ever had. There was lots left over and the man serving us put it in some take away boxes for us. We heard lots of comments during our meal about how they preferred to be paid in cash etc. We were not told cash only at any point. My husband went out during our meal to find a cash point and withdraw £55 in cash to cover our meal (expecting just under £2 in change) in order to prevent awkwardness at the end. The bill arrived and this is when it all got weird... Our bill arrived and there was no breakdown just a figure of almost £60 written on a slip of paper. We both only had 1 soft drink so we couldn't understand the £6 additional cost. We asked for a breakdown on the bill, thinking we had accidentally been charged for somebody else's drinks. But no we were advised that we were being charged £1 per plastic box to take the food away!!!! I pointed out that we are already paying a lot extra to eat in (including the inflated costs of all items) and that if we had a takeaway at a much cheaper cost for the same food, they would have included the plastic trays in that cost. I searched Amazon and found you could purchase these boxes for £0.09 per box. Other diners in the restaurant made comments to us about where we could purchase our own cheaper food boxes from etc. I walked 10mins to a shop to buy food bags so we could take our food home without having to pay a crazy amount of money and having to go to the cash point again. While I was gone, I phoned my husband, which is when it all kicked off. Other diners from other tables got involved and pointed out that it's a ridiculous charge and it should have been mentioned beforehand, at the point of ordering. The waiter was saying that the boxes are expensive and that they wouldn't buy them on Amazon because they don't know the quality. £1 per box covers the cost of the boxes they buy. At that point the waiter got frustrated, raised his voice and stormed off to fetch the boss (chef). She repeated the same things that the waiter said, saying that they need to cover their costs and we needed to pay for the plastic boxes they had given us, claiming that we were being unreasonable by questioning this. This is when several other people in the restaurant got involved, agreeing with us and pointing out that they had never seen such an approach taken elsewhere and saying how unfair it is to add such a charge on at the end without any communication about it at any point. People who were waiting for a take away also expressed their surprise and disbelief at what we were being asked to pay for. Eventually after loads of awkwardness and embarrassment he took it off the bill and we paid for the original expected amount with the £55 we had withdrawn from the cash point. We were then asked if we wanted our change?!!!?! I mean do you seriously think we would leave a tip after all of that? I've never been anywhere without leaving a 10% tip, so ironically most of the plastic boxes would have been paid for through the tip if the poor customer service hadn't upset the entire restaurant!

My go to when visiting friends in Bridport, Always excellent authentic Fresh Thai food, Generous portions , the soups are amazing Wish it was closer to home Go you won’t be disappointed

Great evening with family and friends celebrating a birthday. You can take your own alcohol so the bill is very reasonable! The food is delicious and plentiful so what’s not to like?!

We found this place by accident. It's slightly tucked away from the busy town but once you are inside it's cosy and friendly. Food is very authentic Thai generous in portion.