Royal Thai Cuisine

High prices, mediocre Thai food. Curry was cold and didnt have any spice (despite ordering it spicy!). A shrimp tempura app (8 pieces of shrimp tempura) was $ 12. Jeezy– pass!

Side note: This place isn’t closed, it just moved. It re-​opened on the other corner of the street, now attached to The Blarney Stone.
My buddy and I were wandering around the Gaslamp District around dinner time tonight when we walked by Royal Thai. The prices seemed somewhat reasonable (for downtown restaurants), so we figured we’d give it a shot. We were immediately presented with waters. They ended up being refilled often by some guy (not our server) because we didn’t actually get our Thai Iced Teas that we ordered until halfway through the meal, after we had to inquire about them. As for the food, I got pad see ew (phat si io). I asked to add eggplant, because just broccoli & carrots weren’t going to be enough allow me to pretend this dish was a ‘healthy’ choice. The dish overall tasted good. However, the eggplant skin was really tough to chew, but the chicken in the dish was tougher. Which was strange because the carrots and broccoli were on the verge of being raw. How could half the ingredients be under cooked, while the other be so over? In a tug of war, my jaw was the obvious loser. I only ate about half before asking for a to-​go box… mostly because I was sick of chewing.
Overall, not the best I’ve had, but $ 10 for dinner & people-​watching downtown? Worth it. I might change the stars tomorrow if the leftovers hold up.

I really like this place. Came here twice and left satisfied each time.
The pad thai here is off the chain. Had the fried vegetarian egg rolls as well which were very tasty.
Family style plates but I get the pad thai for myself. Sorry not sorry.
Food comes out very quickly but minus 1 star for the annoyingly long wait it took to get our check last time and it wasn’t really busy.

Always come here when we are in San Diego.
Their tom yum soup (shrimp) is to die for.

Open until 3a Thursday-​Saturday nights! This has been my downtown after-​party [for my tummy] spot for years — everything is pretty good, but I especially like their spicy fried rice, tofu veggie soup, and summer rolls.

If you’re craving drunken noodles… Don’t go here. There’s much better choices for that dish in particular plus it’s not included in the lunch special…
Also… I can’t help but find it suspect when they don’t ask how spicy you want it…
Service was great though! If you want good quick service and don’t particularly care about getting good, spicy drunken noodles definitely come here.

Solid 4 from a vegetarian who eats Thai food at least once a week, or so it seems that way most months…
There are a few main staples that I tend to hover around in the Thai restaurant genre. I basically order these things and try little else. When I do try other items I’m usually disappointed –this is largely because I subscribe to the anything that isn’t dessert or breakfast should be savory camp (I don’t think there’s actually a camp for this… unfortunately). They are:
1. Drunken noodles
2. Yellow curry
3. Satay skewers
4. Tom Kah soup
Royal Thai does a good job on my menu. I stick to these things, it’s routine. I’m happy. Everyone I bring to the restaurant loves the food (if we stick to the menu above). Haven’t been disappointed yet. On the rare occasion my table does try something new (it usually isn’t me) and we’ve had to send it back, the restaurant is very nice about substituting. They are very nice here, a little busy and hurried but accommodating to the right degree.
I am a repeat customer.

Great service and good food. My fiancé and I got the $ 17.95 per person for the 4 course meal. Its definitely cheaper than ordering them individual. The spring rolls and the hot and sour soup was great. It was spicy which I liked. There are about 20 entrees you can pick from. We got the yellow and red curry. It was good. At this point, we were full but we had one more course… the dessert. Its was a fried banana eith ice cream. Overall, it was good and I would come back.

Went to this place last night — got super busy really, really fast. That tells me right off the bat that it’s a cool place to be and people like it — but the question is whether WE like it.
YES.
Very cool staff, attentive and quick to help you.
Nice layout of the place — good interior design, good art décor, and great food.
Check it out!

1^st things first I rarely eat here before 1am. Great service, good food, prices were ok and they have a very wide menu.
Most of my experiences here are post downtownage. When you don’t want pizza, don’t want to walk to Brian’s and can’t wait to get to Kearney Mesa. It’s pretty convenient.
I’m gonna go in reverse order of the most people and the menu. Dessert. Fresh coconut ice cream. Not the coconut water you see at henry’s it’s heavy on the cream and bright versus just overly sweet. Perfect after you get double or triple spicy. Lychee over ice takes all the work out of hand peeling those delicious jelly fruits. Be a super gluttonous pig and ask for condensed milk to throw over the whole thing for a near death experience.
Bring it back to the beginning witht eh pot of gold, like thai taco’s they have a little bit of everything and tons of different ingreidnents. Satay is marinated very well, perfectly cooked and I suggest you descewer prior to eating for speed and agility when maneuvering around your plate. BBQ ribs to be could have used a more bold sauce, and seasoning. Good, not fall off the bone a la low and slow, but tender and not fatty. Yum nuah is a great salad type appy with a strong lime sauce. Sampler has their top 4 and the best way to try a little of each.
I stay away from the soups for the price point alone. I stay away from the seafood because I prefer mine baked, seared versus wok fried like most of their noodle dishes.
If you want rich, sauce laden rice dish go with the Royal Thai Divine Rice. It’s a combo of meat of choice, simmer sauce, mushrooms, bamboo shoots. It’s heavy on the garlic and curry esque. It tastes like something you would make at home. If you want that except a true curry go with the Bangkok delight which has shrimp, chicken and pork in the curry sauce. Pad woo sen is a great and light noodle dish not overbearing with sauce, reminds me of Filipino pancit. Royal Thai Noodles are crispy unlike the egg noodles which are starchy, but I really like the sauce or just straight curry noodles.
Beer and bar, best of both worlds. I love how open it is, corner located and open late. Service could be better with water, but I get that they don’t quit bend over backwards for us drunkies. It’s a classic south 4^th street drunk rally point and not to be missed if your even attempting to eat after going out and don’t feel like walking too far or getting in your car.
Prices are ok, could be better, but for drunk food it’s really good. Décor is pretty traditional scheme, wood and lacquer with tall ceilings. Bathroom is only ok and it’s weird that they serve beer in mugs.

The presentation was artfully executed and our server was attentive without hovering. The mock meat far surpassed any thai in Portland and the peanut and plum sauce had me contemplating licking the plate. It was a welcome respite from the normal gaslamp chaos.

I absolutely love Royal Thai when I’m out in Downtown. They’re open until 3am for God’s sake!
The first time I really tried any type of Thai food was when I was away at college in LA. From my understanding is that LA Thai food «dirty» Thai, meaning it’s no where near as healthy as it should be. Well my fellow Unilocalers, I love my Thai food dirty and Royal Thai keeps it pretty dirty.
You can never go wrong with Pad Thai or Pad See Yew here. I should venture out and try a rice dish here and there but the previous recommendations are just soooo good!
The only thing holding me back from giving this place a 5 star rating is that service can kind of be slow but I understand no one wants to be working at 1:30am.

Meh. I’ve experienced better.
We were pleasantly greeted by a lovely hostess but it was downhill all the way after that.
Nothing was outright disgusting, but the Volcanic Chicken ($ 12.95) dish was dry and lacked any and all flavor. Disappointing Chicken Kang Kari ($ 12.95). The yellow curry sauce was great but the 3 minuscule pieces of chicken (ridiculous) were overcooked.
The highlight of the evening — shirtless dudes eating inside the restaurant. WTF. Isn’t there some type of law or code against that? Anyway, the food portions are extremely small for what they are charging. All the fabulous choices we had footsteps away and we settled for this dump. Stuff happens. First and last time I visit Royal Thai.

So bad. This is definitely not good Thai food at all. Service was lacking, and they were sloppy too.
Albeit it was pretty busy, I think that restaurants should be able to handle busy nights. We were seated after a 15min wait and we had waitress #1 come over to get our order. We were waiting for someone so we just ordered tea. Right when she left, waiter #1 came by to ask us if we need anything. We informed him that we already had someone ask. After waiter #1 left, we proceeded to get into conversation as we waited. Literally within 5min, we had waitresses #2 and 3 and waiter #2 (all different people) come by, interrupting us and asking if we were ready to order.
When our table was finally all there (a little less than 10min total since we sat down), there was no service in sight. When we finally got a chance to order, waitress #2 took the teapot that was on the table, even though it wasn’t even near empty. As she did, she spilled a bunch next to my plate and didn’t clean it. The napkins we had were not absorbent, so the tea just sat and soaked.
I ordered Pad See Ew. Being Thai, I know what decent Pad See Ew tastes like. This was no where near acceptable. If I wasn’t so hungry, I probably would have had it sent back. No char on the noodles, and no color really either. Bland, mushy, and very one-​note: bad. Bleh.
I’ve been to the one on PCH — I like that one. This one just has zero quality, zero organization, and crappy service.
Never again.

The lunch special caught my attention, and I could always go for some good Thai food. Unfortunately, this was neither special nor good.
My friend and I came here one afternoon for (obviously) lunch. We were seated at a both where there were massive tears in the couch, and I legit felt like I sunk down to the floor when I took my seat. I ordered the red curry with chicken — my usual Thai dish — with hopes of having my hunger satiated and my stomach pleased. Well, that didn’t quite happen. The soup was fine, but the lettuce in my salad was brown. The chicken was alright, but the vegetables were not, to say the very least. I also had to pick out massive leaves of garnish. It’s never my intention to find a restaurant that requires me to do gardening whilst eating.
If you’re looking for a cheap meal in the Gaslamp District, don’t let Royal Thai’s lunch special tempt you. Just look the other way!

Probably not the best Thai restaurant in the downtown area, but it was the closest, and it was open for dinner when we stopped in.
There was a bit of a language issue when we first got there. There were three people waiting by the menu board outside, and when we turned to them, one asked if we wanted to sit inside our outside. We asked for inside. He turned to the girl, who grabbed two menus, and led us to a table… outside. A quick conversation, and we were moved to the requested inside table. That was kind of strange.
The waiters were attentive, and made sure that our water glasses were always full. They were quick to clear out empty plates, and came back around with other food.
The food itself was mediocre. Definitely not the best Thai food I’ve ever had, but it was hot, and there was some good flavor. Plus, they were able to work with my friend’s dietary restrictions, so that was a nice bonus.
Prices are about average, but I think the lunch prices are better than the dinner prices.

Royal Thai
SD: Downtown
Monday 10^th December 2012
Four Stars
Last time, I ate here was at Comicon 2010. Anyways, I love going to a restaurants where somebody is competent enough to order in native language. In Fern’s words, we got «Duck, Beef, Chicken, Veggies, and Soup.» Everything was rather tasty. The Red Marinated Duck was absolutely the best dish– Succulent, Sweet, Savory and Crispy Skin. The Beef Yellow Curry had a great flavor but came with very little meat. The Chicken Red Curry was plentiful and lighter than I imagined. The Veggies were classic. The Tom Yum with seafood was spicy, sour, and warming. Overall, the Food was delicious and the experience was much better than last time I was here.

Yummy! I come here whenever I want Thai food in the Gaslamp!
I’ve always been seated quickly and like sitting outside. Makes me feel like I’m at a sidewalk café in Europe or something. (Not that I’ve ever been and I’m the only one of my friends who gets this notion, but all the same I give mad props to the outdoor seating area!)
The Spicy Fried Rice is yummy. My boyfriend loved it. It’s definitely pretty flavorful and has kick to it. Knock it all down with a Thai iced tea and you’re good to go!

They don’t speak English well, but its within walking distance from the convention center if you’re looking for something quick.
I was limited in what I could order because everything indicated it was spicy! I ended up going with pad see ew noodles and added duck. Unfortunately the duck was overcooked and dry, and the only vegetable it had was broccoli so it was pretty bland.
The service is good, but there are other Thai places in Gaslamp that are much better!

I can’t believe this place only has 2 & ½ stars. I guess I ordered the right dishes because I really liked this place. The place wasn’t busy when I came here with my husband for lunch on a Saturday afternoon, but we still had to wait for about 5 minutes to be seated. The service wasn’t bad at all. We had a few servers check up on us once in a while, but not too much. I just wished they closed the door and kept the restaurant a little warm. It was like 40 degrees in there.
We ordered Tom Kah — a spicy coconut soup with shrimp, mushrooms, and Laos roots. My husband told them not to make it spicy, but when we got the bowl of soup there was a chile in the soup for garnish. It didn’t really make the whole soup spicy so it didn’t ruin the taste. We still enjoyed eating it, flavorful and tangy.
We also ordered the Thai sampler — naked shrimp, pot of gold, chicken satay, and spring rolls. This was fun to eat with the different sauces. There was also some kind of shrimp salad that was too spicy… kind of disappointing. We did mention a couple of times that we didn’t want anything spicy. Maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more if it wasn’t spicy at all.
The service was good, the restaurant had a very nice ambiance, the food we ordered was delicious. If you’re in the Gaslamp District you should definitely check it out!