Thai Royal Restaurant

Thai Royal Restaurant
Southtown Shopping Centre, 140a South Street, Toowoomba



Last night, we had a birthday celebration for Mochi. Though her actual 'special day' is on the weekend, I'll be in Melbourne so I selfishly suggested we do something during the week as well.



She chose a Thai restaurant she'd been to before on the premise that it was next to a cafe. That way, we could get cake afterwards... smart thinking!



After mucking around with the GPS and driving in the wrong direction for 10min I realised I had provided the wrong address. After I re-Googled the place, I saw that it was located in Southtown Shopping Centre, where I had been several times for my real estate dealings. Silly me.

We found the restaurant to be surprisingly busy for a Thursday night and indeed, when I was pondering over whether to eat inside or out, the decision was made easier by the fact that no outdoor tables were available.

The original idea was to order a Thai banquet but after viewing the options, we decided to create our own banquet. We ordered an entree and 4 mains to share.


Choosing the food was easy. What took some debate was deciding to get a large serve of coconut rice and a small serve of regular rice or, a large serve of regular rice and a small serve of coconut rice. I only wanted coconut. Byron only wanted regular. Mochi wanted a bit of both.

Coconut rice (small)

We ended up getting a bigger serve of regular steamed rice based on the fact that Byron has about 5 times for rice-eating capacity than the two of us girls combined.

Coconut prawns

Our coconut prawns was the first to arrive. They were fat, juicy, fresh prawns coated with a slightly spongy batter and again with a very crunchy, toasted coconut crust. Delicious! The prawns were served with some mayonnaise but I thought they were nice on their own too.

Basil lamb

The first main to arrive was the basil lamb. It was a very nice dish, packed full of flavor. The strong lamb taste worked well with the basil.

Spicy pork

Next came the spicy pork. On first viewing, I was a bit apprehensive because it looked similar to the basil lamb. Luckily, the 2 tasted completely different. The spicy pork (not sure how Thai it is) was my favorite dish. We asked ourselves 'could we replicate this' and decided that it was a) too complicated due to the balance of savory, sweet, sour and spicy, but also b) much easier to purchase from the restaurant.

Beef in peanut sauce

Mochi's pick was the beef in peanut sauce. Byron didn't like it because he likes flavor-packed savory, saucy dishes like the other two. This one is more sweet and creamy. I actually liked it but it was too heavy for me that night since there was so much other food.

Chicken Thai green curry

Our last dish was a chicken Thai green curry. It was a bit watery... I like more creamy and coconutty green curries. Not bad but perhaps my least favorite of the lot.

We thought the service at Thai Royal was excellent. The only thing that could have made my night better was some booze... they're BYO so they don't sell their own alcohol. That's normally great but not for me last night because I forgot to bring something.