A-Roy Thai (East Coast)

Sawadee Ka!

Prudence dictates that one's stomach must be filled with food first before beer. This was exactly the reason why SSP and his mates from Jurong West Avenue 4 have decided to eat at this Thai joint first before adjourning to Geylang Lorong 28 for some Singha beer and Thai poultry.

The theme last night was, obviously, Thai.

The gang arrived at about 9pm. The joint was nondescript. The ambience was unremarkable but who cares.

The outdoor dining area was packed with couples who didn't smoke. Bloody morons! They probably preferred the romantic view of buses along Upper East Coast Road than the comfort of an air-con dining area.

Inside, the decor was non-existent. But again, time was short. A quick scan of the joint revealed no delectable waitresses. Only Thai aunties and uncles going about their business of cleaning the plates and clearing the tables.

This is wrong. Thais arn't supposed to look like that. The gang was anxious to fill their stomach quickly so as to make their way to Lorong 28 for some real Thais. They ordered Tom Yum Goong, Green Kwei Curry, Red Duck Curry, Morning Glory with Thai Sauce, Prawn Cakes and of course, lime juice.

The food turned out to be gastro-orgasmic. Tom Yum tasted like Tom Yum, Green Curry like Green Curry, Duck like Duck, Veg like Veg. Special mention must be made of the juicy Prawn Cakes. The sweet juice trickled into the mouth as soon as SSP took the first bite, almost as if it was a premonition of what was to come.

Although the lime juice didn't taste like lime juice at all, it deserves a special mention. Served in crushed ice, the lime juice was a refreshiing change from the usual sourish kind. Not sweet, not sour, not limey. In fact, why was it even called lime juice!?!

10pm. The gang could hear Lorong 28 beckoning. Paid the bill ($78) and scooted off for some ice cold Singha beer and hot warm Thai embrace.

p/s Forgot about the Keropok! Try it with the chili. Works like an aphrodisiac!

At my wife's whim, we decided to try out this restaurant for the first time.
Food :-To be fair, food was not too bad, however, it is certainly not outstanding nor really that authentic, considering it was run by a thai family.
Ambience :- Think coffee-shop zi-char version of thai food (eg. Magic Wok). Ambience is comparable to Magic Wok. Not fanciful, no uniform staff, plain plastic plates and cups (like what u get as free gifts banded with toothpaste or detergent, etc).
Price :- The portion, ambience, taste certainly do not fit that kind of premium prices on the menu. It is one of the most over-priced restaurant I have come across for a long while. For that, I give its value rating a 0.1, simply because it can't go lower. One plate of honey chicken enough for 2 costs about $18++. Crab Tung Hoon at $18.50, comes in a small claypot. The empty crab shell and big slice of ginger already took up close to 35% of the claypot. one claw and two legs barely filled with flesh and some tung hoon completed the dish. Not worth at all, if u asked me. Same goes for the Tom Yum Soup, which costs more than $10 easily. Just 3 dishes, 1 iced tea & 1 dessert (Red Ruby) did us in for $60. For a few bucks more, we could have had that same meal in a upper market Thai outlet with that kind of same or better food quality.
Service :- Just one top up of water throughout the meal and it was a miserable small cup that I can easily finish in one gulp. It also took a while after we sat down on a table before the waiting staff gave us a menu. Not professional but not hostile either.
Recommendations :- I recommend that you don't waste your time on this place especially if you leave far away. Its just simply not worth the trip. Spend the money on a upmarket Thai restaurant instead, you wont be worse off by much. It beats me how this place can survive for so long. We Singaporeans must be starved of new eating places to go to.

I'm not sure I've ever been to a restaurant as schizo as this - it looks really down-market, serves great food, disproportionally expensive, poor to no service, extremely popular. I guess in a way, that sums up Singapore food culture.
Went there with some friends last week after work - someone suggested A-roy (which means delicious in Thai) along East Coast Road - it's roughly between Pasta Fresca Del Salvatore and Big Fish. Not hard to find, but just keep an eye open when you drive by East Coast Rd.
The restaurant was pretty empty when we got there at 7pm, they have a few chairs and tables arranged like many eateries you see in Geylang with not much else in furnishing. We ordered the cotton fish with julienned mango, the garlic fried rice, phad thai, basil leaf pork, tunghoon claypot and green curry. No tomyam coz two of us had tummy bugs and were not fully recovered. In brief, the food was fantastic - Thai Express, LerkThai, Lemongrass, Patara Thai and all the rest of you guys out there who might see this, take my advice...visit this place and buy out the owner. Whoever does it first is gonna win the mass-market thai segment.
We enjoyed our meal tremendously - incidentally, we were there when they had those little fruit sculptures made with some kind of gelatin and stuffed with green bean paste - we bought the whole lot (super good, super expensive) and bummed off to a one of our homes for dessert.
Price-wise, we paid $167 for 5 of us. Ouch!!! I've had more expensive meals before, which weren't as good, but at least we were served in matching plates, on table-clothed tables with real legs, had waiters topping our water automatically - the whole works. The rent on this place can't be that exhorbitant, so they must really be creaming big time. And by the looks of it, they're doing very well - rich east coast people obvously don't baulk at these prices for a "foot-on-stool" makan out.
The service element was the least Thai-like experience of all - many of the waiting staff were Thai I think, but they seemed to have lost that Thai quality of friendliness - these guys looked like they were engaging the enemy or something.
I'll be back on special occassions (like a promotion)or if someone else pays - but for now, I'll just block-out the yuk parts and concentrate on remembering the dreamy food!