On Sunday night I had a lovely, but quick catch up with the boys at one of JC's favourite Thai restaurants - King and I Thai Cuisine. I've eaten here on a previous occasion, and its won several gold plates, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (although only up to 2011 is printed on their napkins!) so I know it'd be pretty awesome.
The King and I is located in Guildford, opposite the Guildford train station, near
Alfred's Kitchen. The restaurant can be recognised by it's massive, yellow, billboard-like sign on it's roof and because it's on a main road, parking is mainly street parking. Although, I'm glad the place has parking places at the back of the restaurant, even if it only fits about 10 cars or so. At least it tries.
The King and I, was most likely to have been a house of some sort in its previous life because there are several different rooms, all of which have been turned into dining rooms. The decor is rather subdued, which I think is fine. Although the colour scheme of pale green, maroon with touches of metallic browns and golds may be slightly outdated. Nonetheless, it provides a cosy, homely vibe.
The waitstaff wear traditional Thai costume, and I really love that (and I love the costume!.. Wouldn't mind having the pants - it looks so comfortable - almost harem pants, but in a slight metallic colour). They were all very polite, quick to provide us with water and gave us ample time to look through the menu to decide. I must admit, however, that because we were in the back end of the restaurant, the amount of times the waitstaff visited is probably not as frequent as at the front of house. Granted, the back of the restaurant, wasn't particularly busy. Having said that, they did bring out our dishes very quickly after we ordered, and gave us fresh bottles of water when it ran out without having to be asked. They also checked up on us to make sure everything was ok and cleared our plates so quickly when we were done. Rather efficient.
As for the food? Well, there was only 3 of us for dinner, and one of us was on a massive health kick (safe to say it wasn't me!), so unfortunately I can't show you the full range of their menu. Nonetheless, we got an entree to share, one main for CR and two mains to share between me and JC.
We started the night with a serving of vegetarian spring roll (4 pieces). They also have satays and other delectable things (mainly coming in 4 pieces).
The spring rolls were packed with vegetable goodness and was crispy and crunchy on the outside without under cooking the stuffing. It's also good to know that the oil they used was not old oil (didn't have that old oil smell). Paired with the sweet chilli with a slight hint of lemon for the sour kick, it was a rather pleasant start to our meal.
CR had the vegetarian Pad Thai, which looked came out with a swirl of steam on top and looked rather appetizing. I saw lots of tofu, shallots, carrots, cabbage and beansprouts, along with the noodles, the crushed peanuts and slice of lime to balance out the sweetness of the Pad Thai sauce. CR thoroughly enjoyed the dish and loved the sauce that coated the noodles.
JR and I, had the prawn Pad Thai, with a decent amount of prawns, and large one at that, along with slices of tofu, beansprouts and shallots. Mixed well with the peanuts and a squeeze of the lime juices the dish was fantastically satisfying. Although, I have to admit, having the last bites of the dish, it was a tad sickly sweet (too much sugar added to the dish), thanks to the sauce. The lime is really needed to cut through that sweet flavour (unless of course you like that). OH I must add, the Pad Thai didn't taste too oily either, unlike some places where too much oil gets involved.
No visit to a Thai restaurant is complete without a Thai curry (whether it's red, green or penang curry). I felt like something with a decent dose of chilli kick and after CR helping me to decipher which one of the curry dishes is less likely to have an adverse effect on my hips and thighs, we decided green curry reign supreme (partly because coconut milk is likely to be less fattening than coconut cream.. although we did not any evidence on that matter). We settled to have it with chicken. The chicken green curry was absolutely delicious. The chicken was succulent and moist. It was not over cooked and it was not dry (trust me chicken can dry out even in a curry!). The sauce of the curry was creamy (without it been too much), it had a bit of kick from the chilli (without the chilli overpowering it too much) and it has the right dose of coconutty-ness through it. We ate the curry with the rice and the girl gave me a bit too much - more than what I have at home.. but I'm glad she did because the curry sauce was so good I wanted to just devour every last drop of it.
Although, having really tried only 2 of their mains this time around, I can safely say (combined with my previous experience) that King and I Thai Cuisine is one of the better Thai restaurants in Perth. You can understand why it won so many Gold Plate awards. It's worth the track to Guildford to check it out.
