ROYAL THAI CUISINE - GASLAMP QUARTER in San Diego, California, USA.

There are 4 Royal Thai Cuisine restaurants. They are owned by the Tila Brothers (Sam and Lucky) from Thailand who claim their cuisine to be fit for the Royals. Well, my palate is far from being royal, but the food there is kingly to me.

Getting there:
The location I’m reviewing is at the corner of 5th Avenue and Island Avenue in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter part of Downtown. So naturally there is no such thing as free or easy parking. There are a few off the street metered parking on Island Avenue side, but don’t count on these after 6 PM. There are a few ACE Parking Lots nearby that charge an arm every hour or so (and a leg, too, if you go there on days where the Padres baseball team is having a home-game since this place is only a few blocks from Petco Park). The best lots are Park It On Market ($5/hr) at the corner of 6th Avenue and Market St., another on on 4th Avenue between Island Avenue and Jay St. (a block away), and the Petco Park parking structure (about 4 blocks away).

If you’re taking the Trolley Orange Line, get off at San Diego Convention Center stop and walk north on 5th Avenue. It’ll be on your right just before Island Avenue. This is a relatively safe neighborhood at night (as long as you don’t stray east of 6th Avenue into East Village area...toward Petco Park).
Royal Thai Cuisine
Tel (619) 230 - THAI
467 5th Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101

The Restaurant doesn’t look much from the outside (especially from Island Avenue), but the interior is beautiful and spacious with high ceiling and many authentic Thai artefacts decorating the walls. It has only 1 story, but clearly divided into sections. Great view of traffic on the 5th Avenue side through the glass wall. If you like privacy you can go for tables toward the back beyond the bar counter (though there usually are a few servers lounging there). There are a few patio dining tables as well (under a tiny roof that doesn't really do much to protect from rain... but since when does it rain in Southern California anyway?).

There is a good bar and a large screen TV (always showing either The Golf Channel or some other sports). There are separate restrooms for Ladies and Gents. Very nice and clean. This is a middle-upscale place, you don’t need dinner jacket, but you don’t want to walk in wearing tank top either. They probably won’t turn you away, but you’d look out of place. Casual business attire is about the norm here.

Hours:
Mon - Sat : Lunch from 11AM - 3PM, dinner from 5PM - 10PM.
Sun : dinner from 5PM - 11PM

They’re open on most holidays (at least for dinner). Reservation isn’t needed but is advisable during holidays season when the San Diego Padres are also having a home-game.

Food:
Big portions and big taste! And beautifully presented, too (though not to the point where you’d feel guilty for ruining the piece of art by eating it). All the usual suspect Thai dishes are present and quite a few innovative house dishes as well. Most can be modified for vegetarians and they go the extra mile in accommodating your specifications (no MSG, hold the oil, no peanuts, no meat, no...whatever). The food is tailored to American taste; tending to be sweet, creamy, and not very spicy. Though if you are daring, you can ask them to prepare it the way a Thai would want it and they’ll indulge you (hopefully after notifying the fire department to have an engine on stand by and ready to hose you down after a mouthful of Thai scorcher chili).

Appetizers: include the stuffed rolls, satays (skewered meat or tofu), yums (cold tossed meat with or without thin rice noodles with lime sauce, onion, cucumbers, and mint. Very light and a touch spicy), Mee Krob (crispy sweet rice noodles), bar-b-que spare-ribs (REALLY good, lighter than Southern spare-ribs), Tod-mun (spicy fish-cakes), tempura.
These range from $6.95 to $8.95. There is the Royal Thai Sampler that goes for $10.95 that can be a meal all by itself (to me, anyhow).

Soups: There are 5 choices and come in 2 sizes. The small ($3.95-$5.95) would fill regular coffee from Starbuck (grande), the large ($9.95-$10.95) is ...well, large. More than double the ‘small’. My favorite are the ‘Tom Yum’, which is a clear and lemony spicy broth, and the ‘Tom Kah’, which is creamy (white) and sour, but not as spicy. These come either with chicken or shrimp (costs more), lots of mushroom, and ginger. Terrific for cold days or when you’re having nasal congestion... A large soup and steamed rice is an entire meal to me. Vegetarians might like the Veggie Soup with tofu and glass noodles instead. It isn’t spicy, but chili can be added if you’re determined to have your entire alimentary system sterilized by the heat by the end of the meal.

Salads: I haven’t tried these green stuff much. They come in either small ($3.95) or large ($7.95) size. I have the Som Tom (green papaya salad) once in a while, but don’t care for it much. It is sweet, juicy, and the papaya is finely chopped indeed. Very Americanized in taste.

Entrees: There are the usual suspects of Thai stir-fried or ‘kang’ (curry) dishes served with steamed rice that come in choices of vegetarian meat, tofu, chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, calamari, roast duck, scallops, or mixed seafood (ordered from low of $9.95 for vegetarian or tofu to high of $13.95 for scallops). You can even ask for mixed order though, and get a ‘Kang Kari’ (very tasty yellow curry with lots of rich coconut milk in it) with tofu and beef, for the price of the ‘Kang Kari-beef,’ for example. My favorite is the creamy Kang Panang-beef, which looks scarier than it tastes and the beef is nicely tender, too (a little on the stinky side in smell, tho). Unless you’re a fire-breather or actual Thai, I suggest medium to mild in degree of hotness. I got adventurous once and asked for a Thai hot degree once, and I still haven’t regrown all the nerve cells that died the excruciating death from over-chili-osis during that little bout of foolishness. If you still want to try extra-spicy, the best cure for me is to sip scalding hot tea immediately after. It burns like heck for about 3 seconds, and then all is well again. Cold water is the worst thing to try to chase the Thai hot spice with, it just spreads the hotness everywhere.

During the lunch hours (11 AM - 3 PM, non-holidays Mon-Fri), the entrees are available as ‘lunch specials’ from $7.95 (with chicken, pork, beef or vegetarian) to $8.95 (with scallops or mixed seafood). They are served with soup of the day (unless you’re ordering to-go), tossed green salad, Thai spring roll, and a small order of steamed rice.

There are also the Noodles and Rice dishes of the ‘Pad’ stir-fried rice noodles and the many different kinds of fried rice. They cost $8.95 - $9.95 (with shrimp). I’ve only tried the Pad Thai, Pad See-Iw, and Thai Fried Rice, and they are all excellent. Pad Thai-chicken is their best seller. These are a bit dry compared to most other Thai restaurants (they’ll make you thirsty), and quite sweet (again, Americanized taste). Most dishes have peanuts, so if you’re very allergic... well, better skip the place, I guess. There’s no way of avoiding any trace of peanuts here (though they will do their best to accommodate you, peanut is in most of Thai dishes that I doubt that you won’t get at least a trace amount of it).

The Seafood section is full of steamed or grilled fish with different kinds of sauce. The cheapest is the ‘Steamed Catch of the Day’ which goes for $14.95 and usually is very nicely light and healthy. The most expensive is the Floating Delight (Alaskan King Crab legs in curry sauce) and the Lady Thai Prawn (grilled fresh water prawns in tamarind curry sauce), going for $19.95. I haven’t tried them (gotta save the extra few bucks for ice-cream, you know). Anyhow, these come with steamed rice (they refill it for you in the house, but if you’re ordering to go, any extra from a small steamed rice is charged). Very health conscious folks can even ask for brown rice for an extra $1.

There are also Specialties Dishes. Specialties from the North-East region of Thailand, I think. They go for $10.95 to $13.95 and come with the steamed rice. The Crying Tiger broiled steak on bed of cabbages is very good indeed. The steak is tender and juicy, but the sauce is the thing that a tiger would cry to have to go without.

Dessert ....AKA Main Dishes... These are all home-made. There are 3 kinds of ice-creams, New York cheesecake, Fried banana flame on ice cream, sweet sticky rice with mango (seasonal), and lichee fruit over crushed ice. I’m one of those oddballs who actually don’t like coconut ice-cream, but the sticky rice with mango is to die for. The ice-creams and the lichee go for $3.95, while the ‘banana flame’ and the sticky rice with mango go for $4.95.

Beverages: Soft drinks, tea (hot or iced), coffee, Thai iced tea/coffee (VERY good, and very sweet), mineral water, juices (cranberry, orange, or pineapple), cappuccino, or espresso. There is also a good bar in the house, but I’m not a drinker so I haven’t tried it. Sodas go for $1.75, and other drinks beside the cappuccino ($2.75) go for $2.50. No free refill (unless you’re a regular and the boss isn’t watching).

The Service is excellent. Very friendly servers, and most speak English quite well. There is a greeter booth just inside the door, so you want to wait there and one of the staff will escort you to a table. They are very attentive without being a bother. And man, they don’t ever seem to stop smiling!

The place is usually busy between 7-8:30PM, but unless there is a banquet or a big party going on (they have long tables for those) you shouldn’t have to wait long for a table. If you call in to order to-go, they’d usually have the food ready in 20 minutes or less for pick up. Major credit cards accepted, though no personal checks. There is a Bank of America just a block away on Island (between 5th and 4th ), though unless you order triple servings of everything on the menu, this place shouldn’t clean out your wallet.

The restaurant also offers catering, banquets (wedding, birthday, reception, etc), and even cooking classes. There are paper to-go menus available, which fold into the size of folded AAA street map.

Eat it up!!

PS: Thanks very much to Megugrrrl for a very speedy job of adding this restaurant to the database. :o)

Recommended: Yes