Review Semas Thai Cuisine - Christchurch

Everything is beautifully cooked! Very authentic dishes you couldn’t find elsewhere too. My missus ‘go to’ for Thai dinner night now.

Great place, best Thai I've had since returning from Thailand few weeks ago. Super friendly hard working staff When you order, rice/noodles is separate part of your order as an option. Will definitely be going back soon.

Good food, nice friendly staff, love authentic thai taste and real Thai spicy 🔥 nice!

Nice little local Thai restaurant that was within walking distance of our motel. Staff were friendly, and our takeaway order took about 20 minutes. The place was fairly busy for a Sunday night, so it must be popular with the locals. We ordered the scallops special and a chicken noodle dish. Both were delicious.

Food was super tasty! Enjoyed the tom yum noodles and green curry. Only wish portions were larger especially since prices were abit steep. All in all was a pleasant experience and the service was excellent. Thank you!

Great place to go, good food. Unless there are larger groups, then it can be very noisy. Pick your day

11th Dec 2020: This Thai 🇹🇭 restaurant never fail to impress me. The food is always tasty and flavoursome. It is quite he authentic Thai food as you can get in Christchurch. I ordered a mix entree platter (consists of one Thai fish cake, one chicken satay, one spring roll and one money bag) and for the main course is simmer bacon hog noodle soup... Delicious and yummy 😋 Would I go back? Yes, of course I will 😊 P/s: It was 4 stars for the last 4 years from me but as of today, I have bumped up another star ⭐ from 4 to 5 stars ⭐. Well done 👍 and I hope they keep up the good work. Disclaimer: Please note that this review is entirely based on my personal experience at the time of the visit (11th Dec 2020 incl previous years). You might have a different experience than me and also, the food may or may not suit your taste. 25th Nov 2016: One of the best Thai restaurants around. I like the duck noodle soup... Very delicious and tasty... Good atmosphere and friendly staff. However parking will be an issue as there's limited parks around. Would I go back? Definitely. 4th September 2017: I had lunch at this Thai restaurant today. I had this dish called "red noodle", dry version 🍜. Comes with seafood like battered fish, fish balls and cuttlefish slices with diced cabbage. The red soup is spicy and nice. Reasonably priced, NZD $12.50. They also serve Chang and Singha beers 🍺🍻 Would I go back? Definitely yes 7th October 2017: Chicken Tom Yum Kha (soup), Talay Pad Prik Sod (seafood) and Sweet & Sour Chicken. The meals were delicious and flavoursome 😋. I wish the soup and seafood are a bit more spicy to give more "kick" in my tongue and mouth 😰. Would I go back? Definitely yes 24th Nov 2017: I had Fish Air Sac Soup for the first time today and it was marvellous. It looks like hot and sour soup but it is not spicy. The texture is smooth and flavoursome. It came separately with a small bowl of Vermicelli and you can either eat it separately or add it into the soup. I suggest you put it into the soup as it will be tastier! 😋 Would I go back? Of course 😁

Delicious food, appropriate portion sizes, good for larger groups and friendly staff that was very accommodation. Highly recommend.

Authentic Thai cuisine well established in the St Albans community. Requires prior booking in the weekend due to popular demand. Staff are welcoming and polite. Entreé of chicken satay is second to none. We ordered fried fish fillets with 3 flavoured sauce (Pla Tod 3 rod), Stir-fried beef with cream cheese (not so traditional but has its Stroganoff fusion) & deep-fried tofu salad (yum tao hoo tod). Great to see those Thai names written out in English pronunciation so people don't just order translated dishes like Green curry, Yellow curry etc. Sticky rice with mango (Kao Neuy Ma Muang) is a must for dessert.

Best Thai food I have ever tasted. Ordered the Massaman Lamb Curry. Divine, with a bottle of red.7 Service outstanding. The family who run it have been doing so for 22 years. Obviously a very popular place to dine. Thank you!!

Tasty food! Great service. Will be back to try as many meals as I can.

Excellent food and service . Will definitely be back.

Nice food, love the fish dishes & duck curry

Good customer car park. Wonderful Thai food.

Always a nice meal and good presentation. The menu is really good, with clear photos and descriptions so you know what to expect. Pleasant staff.

Beautiful lunch with so many good options. Flat noodles were super tasty 😋

This place us3d to be top of the range. The food we had tonight was just horrible... could distinguish the flavours of the different dishes...overloaded with sweetness even though we didn’t order anything sweet...Tom kar was horrible...massaman and duck curry almost identical and drunken noodles a mess of tasteless mess...never go there again...gone downhill what once was a great place to eat

Great meal. Asked for a Thai dish that wasn’t on the menu but similar to something they did make, it’s a true Thai dish almost identical to what you’d find in Chiang Mai.

Brilliant meal! Went on Saturday night with friends and we all thought the food was excellent. Very traditional Thai. We will definitely go back. Well done.

Sema’s got our order wrong and when I called back they insisted that I ordered something I didn’t and argued with me on the phone. Customer service extremely lacking and rude.

Brilliant atmosphere and authentic thai! Only thai place I've been to that is authentic. I always get garlic beef and phad thai (only one that has all the right ingredients)

It seems there are very mixed reviews of Sema's though as of now it seems to be heading in the right direction. I've been there 3 times which all of which has made me wanting more. Every curry on that menu is amazing, anyone who likes traditional Thai food shouldn't want anything else. The cashew chicken is packed with juicy and great veggies. I've heard only good things of the Pad Thai and anything with the signature satay sauce. The portions are perfectly sized and pricing is ridiculously cheap. It says its approx $80 for two however with two entrees, two mains and a desert my bill was about $50. For lunch, all you need is one main and nothing else, which mains are $13.50 for the whole menu (the pricing on the photos and estimate pricing for two need to be recalculated). Overall the service is very friendly, the atmosphere is welcoming and the price and food is an absolute stand out.

They offer one of the better Thai menus in town.   The wow factor here are the dishes that you're not going to get elsewhere at Christchurch's many other mundane Kiwi- Thai outlets.  The service is a touch simpering and the lighting verges more on dark than romantic.  Those minor factors aside the menu is well worth putting your bum on a seat.

Used to be a great place, lots of wonderful smells or Coriander, lemon grass, chilli's, & other herbs. People raved about the place. Boy has that changed now. Serve food like that in Thailand & you have a mass walkout. The food may be nice, but its not Thai Even the curry's are watery. Little amount of any herbs used. Would not waste my time going there again

Delish! This has long been our favourite Thai in Christchurch🙂 Really enjoy the great range of dishes. Perfect for a date or larger groups. Sema is byo too.

One of very few Thai restaurants where the food actually tastes like 'Thai' and least modified for local appetite. Overall great Thai food with fresh ingredients, herbs and complex flavours. I especially love their lunch menu - variety of selections including the unique Thai noodles. Will be looking forward to trying out the dinner menu someday which appears to be much more extensive.

Heard rave reviews about this place, thought I'd try it out. Very bad food and overpriced. Not worth the money at all. Watery red curry, anything but a Thai curry. Will not recommend.

No matter how good or bad the reviews are, at least it tastes thai. When I eat there, I know I'm having thai food in a thai restaurant. The food is not fantastic, but still acceptable or actually delicious. The price is reasonable.

Kind of a hit and miss place. Anything with their peanut sauce is amazing (it's my go to comfort food) but whenever I order with a friend I end up with the best dish by far! The prices are also a bit steep for what you get- especially if you end up with a not so good dish!

Went for a meal, the place was quite empty but we got shoved in a corner. Waitress sullen, atmosphere non existent, and the 2 seafood dishes we got tasted and looked exactly the same. Seafood was grossly overcooked, tough and chewy. Waitress's were rude to other guests too. Terrible place to spend your money in.

It was our wedding anniversary so we thought we would try Sema's as we enjoy Thai food. The restaurant was almost full when we arrived on time. Our waitress was pleasant enough but seemed abstracted and showed little enthusiasm.We had the tasting platter which was OK but not memorable. When the Pad Thai eventually arrived the presentation was awful ....just a large monochrome mound of noodles with large bean sprouts on top ....what was underneath my husband said did not taste as good as his efforts . My deep fried sea food with the chef's special sauce was equally awful ......thick tough batter surrounding tough "seafood" which was impossible to identify. The special sauce was nowhere to be seen. It may not be wise to go on a night when they are busy eg: Saturday night, but we certainly won't be back no matter what night of the week it is. It is not worth our money.

Thai Pad Noodle<br/><br/>It was not "Pad Thai Noodle" it was just plan noodle which was just a big lump with hardly any meat no taste and crushed peanuts poured all over it. It was a take away meal so I had to drive back to the shop with my complaint. <br/><br/>But here is the big thing the chicken was off yip the chicken was off...........<br/><br/>And then the staff wanted to argue and be rude so now it was time to call the health department. And suddenly there wanted to refund my money with no more questions asked that has to make you wonder why ???<br/><br/>People do not go there you have been warned........

Just visited this place today and I must say this was the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Staff are not welcoming and busy. Food is very average, will never ever go there again. They really should look at ways to improve.

Terrible the worst customer service I have ever encountered... most unprofessional staff and manger I have witness. I would give seam Thai a negative star rating... will never ever go here again and will not recommend this restaurant to anyone.<br/><br/>We went here for my birthday and ordered the mix Entree's and our mains... the trouble started with the entree's but after we queried these and questioned why there were hardly enough for everyone when they were catering for five and what was displayed in the menu the manager and staff member started to argue with us to say that this is what it is.... they can not do anything about this and they would be charging us the full $35 which the platter was not even close to being worth this amount... we told her we were very disappointed that this is what they gave us... she then went off and ignored us for 15mins then she came back with a list of prices of each item that was on the platter... we could not believe she came back with this again we discuss this with her and came to no conclusion... she then said she would talk to the owners, she never did we have now been waiting for our food for at least 30-40mins..the manager comes back over to us and tells us that the waitress cancelled our meal due to us being unhappy and assumed we were leaving however never told us!! This is when we had enough and left... but we had to pay for the worst customer service argumentative dinner I have ever had... it was such a shame due to it being my birthday all I can say is thank goodness for coriander next door they are awesome!!!

I give them 5 stars just for their tom yum soup. Oh I can't get it out of my mind. I've been there now 4 times and really it's just to gulp down that delicious tangy Tom yum. Everything else is quite average really, nice but nothing special, but maybe that's just Thai food. Not sure. I thought maybe there'd be more coriander in the food since my Thai recipe books don't seem to have one recipe without it.! Quite cramped for big groups..like really cramped, but I guess they're just meeting demand as it's been full every time I've gone there. Considering the limited space they have, they could do with buying a much smaller baby chair.

Just very average. For the price I expected more. It wasn't bad, it wasn't good. It was just ok. Pretty forgettable.

Best Thai takeaway I've had in a long time. Dine in not so great, interior is a bit tired. Still, love the food.

This place is a joke and an insult to Thai cuisine. <br/><br/>Booked the place for 4, got there and realised that we'd be having one more person (last minute). Manger was adamant that there was NO way she could accommodate our plus one. So never mind. One of our mates was running late so we thought we'd order first, but no! We had to order ALL at once. <br/><br/>I got the Beef Pad Thai. After hearing good things about this restaurant, my perception was about to change when i saw my dish. Visually it lacked colours and garnish and was just one solid ball of noodles; it was barely warm. There was a pathetic amount of beef (4 pieces I counted and not fresh at all) and just copious amounts of noodles. 5% meat and 95% carbs. That's daylight robbery if you're trying to charge $18 for a dish like that! <br/><br/>Mate of mine ordered the basil chicken and asked for it to be slightly spicy. It came out sweet instead of spicy. We talked to one of the servers who was plain rude and insistent that they were correct but anyway she got it "re-done", all they did was add A LOT of chilli to the dish to the point that it was inedible!!! My mate ended up not eating his dish, was upset and manager apologise profusely and his meal was on the house. <br/><br/>Will never be going to Sema Thai ever again. Rude staff, poverty portions of proteins and the worst micro-managing I've seen in a while.

Have been to Sema's many times but not lately. I find the staff that I know there friendly but those I don't are unfriendly. It gets busy and if you ring them, often nobody picks up. The beef at Sema's is really really tough and that is why we would not go there anymore. So tough you just want to complain. Otherwise dishes have been okay. Personally I like Sema and his wife but as a restaurant it just slowly got worse, maybe too big for a small kitchen (sometimes waited long time for dishes to come and then all spaced out, so could not eat together). In need to improve again as he has a great spot there and provides a great opportunity for the locals.

This place rocks, yummy food, always fresh, service has been great every time I have been, which is often... they call back if i leave a message. Reasonably priced, lunch is great, especially if you are in a hurry. The only thing I would like to see would be being able to choose what you want for mixed entrees and enough for the people dining instead of four curry puffs for five people, bring five out....cos it's really a sharing restaurant... it's so good.

Quite possibly the worst dining experience i have ever had. Staff were incredibly rude and unhelpful, orders were wrong and mixed up and the general atmosphere created by the manager was uncomfortable. <br/>Will no longer be providing this restaurant with my business.

Worst meal out in Christchurch. Food was late and really bad. The beef was so bad I should have eaten my shoes instead. The meals were brought out one at a time for the 3 of us with about 15 minutes in between each meal. and then one of the meal was spicy even though my friend asked for mild and when she said it was too hot the staff was very rude and told her that she had eaten too much of it already. We were charged full price and we will never go back and we will tell other people not to ever go here. Anywhere else would be better.

Sema's turned out to be one of our best eating experiences in our recent visit to Christchurch. Very much a take away come restaurant and the service reflected that , e.g. we had to ask for a drinks menu. However apart from that the food was great, verging on cheap certainly would go back.

So good have had takeaways from there a number of times and also dined in. Love there lunch specials. Had garlic prawns takeaway it was so good and I think it was duck curry yum definitely recommend it.

We love Thai food, it's our favourite food.<br/><br/>A total lack of good flavors here, there was little meat and veges in my wife's basil beef dish, which she asked for Thai style, and hot.<br/>When she mentioned to the staff she was not happy with the meal they took it away and put chili in it and brought it back to the table, when we tried it again it was just too hot to eat and still no flavour, the couple behind us at their table also commented bout theirs after hearing us mention ours, the green curry was way too strong and sickly, obviously to much green curry paste, the peanut sauce over our skewers didn't look like a peanut sauce, that's usually a brownish colour, it was more a green colour. We looked at their on-line menu first and thought it was reasonable but portion sizes we're small compared to the price we paid, on the upside the decor was nice but we won't be going back.

Went here tonight. The atmosphere and the decor was nice, not too busy and not too quiet. I ordered the vegetarian green curry and it didn't state how spicy it would be, but wow it was pretty spicy even though I enjoy spicy food. Overall the green curry was very tasty with lots of veges!

Amazing Pad Thai - best in town. Came with crunchy pieces of cashew nuts. The spring rolls left a bit to be desired though (very small and barely any filling). Still tasty though. Service was excellent and decor was very nice. Am going again tonight !

This is by far the best thai place in town used to get takeawys there at least 2 or three time a week unfortunatly only once a week now as I don't live as close.<br/>I usually get the tofu yum it is amazing I would recomend anyone who like great vegetarian food or fresh thai salads try this dish, their currys and pad thai are also good (just would like to suggest the the person who wrote the reveiw before me trys this place again as they clearly had a very rare bad experience either that or they wouldn't know good thai if it ran them over) admittedly this place is more traditional than alot of other Thai places around so it you like crappy westernised asian food this place may not be for you but if you like amzing authentic thai then try Sema Thai you will not regret it

Thought I would try it out after reading the reviews below, much to my disappointment the food was far from what was being described.<br/>This placed is based in a little edgeware village, the restaurant itself is in need a really good clean and maybe a good deodoriser the service was average and the green curry chicken I order came out as a re curry, when I told them they got it wrong they insisted it was what I order, my partner ordered the pad Thai chicken and found the noodles were very rubber like and dry, wouldn't waste my time going there again, and hopefully they learn from this.

Sema's is an exceptional Thai restaurant and takeaway. Amazing taste and rich in flavour. Takeaway wait time is approximately 15-20 mins on an off peak night because the food is cooked fresh. Well worth it, though. Best Pad Thai I've ever tasted. Thanks and well done!

Worst service ever! Let me give you an example: I tried to make a booking on several occasions. No one answers the phone, so it goes to the answering machine. After leaving several messages, the staff at Sema refuse to give the courtesy of returning a call. Very frustrating! I will never go back...

First time I ever had Thai food and I enjoyed it very much, the staff were very friendly just waited a while for dishes to come out but it was worth it :)

Fantastic for vegetarians and vegans - more veg options than any other Thai place I know of in Chch. (28 on th emenu) They understand about not using fish sauce and are very friendly.

Tried Sema's cuisine for the first time and it was super yummy!!! <br/><br/>Especially loved the pad thai, larb moo and black soup with noodles. Highly recommended

What a fantasic restaurant, staff are so friendly and the food quite delicious, perfect sizes and they have no problem if you over order and want to take a doggie bag. You can take BYO for wine only which saves on the bill, but it really is not expensive. Not sure if I should really be writing a review as this place should be kept a secret so that it does not change! Be warned though that it is very busy so you will need to book.

probably would rate this the best tasting thai restuarant in chch based on my experience to date. Best as in closest to authentic thai food, but still adapted for the kiwi sweet tooth. Service and atmosphere great, Pitty not open on Sundays.

Everytime we go it's great! Fantastic value, fantastic food, great service. Totally recommend Sema's

I have been multiple times to this restaurant &amp; it is really good. Value for money but also great food &amp; service as well. Highly recommended but make sure you book first during peak times as everyone seems to be catching on to how good they are recently.....

my favourite Thai restaurant- great food and atmosphere. fantastic to have a nice casual reataurant in my local area.