Lunch at the Royal Thai

This restaurant, on Calle 49 at Avenida Uruguay, calls its cuisine "Authentic Thai" but advertises a mix of both Thai and Chinese. And so it is. I went there for lunch the other day, and our party of three got the “B” lunch special, which combined both of these Asian genres.

With our order came an ample bowl of egg drop, chicken and sweet corn soup; a fried wonton (the kind with meat in it) and spare rib appetizer; and then the three-dish main event, chicken with cashews and vegetables, a mildly spicy Thai curry and beef with oyster sauce. (The latter entree, which featured among other things appropriately crunchy broccoli florets, has this intriguing slightly smoky flavor to it, a touch that I very much enjoyed. You can get beef in oyster sauce in lots of places around town, but I haven't been anywhere that does this simple Chinese standard better.) I might have ordered whatever from the bar, but I had some jasmine tea with my meal instead.

Had I wanted something else --- for examples to have foregone the Chinese things and opted entirely for Thai, or a completely vegetarian meal, I would have had several good choices either way.

What if I had wanted to experience capsicum flames? Well, Thai food in its original presentation can be very spicy, but they tone things down for Panamanian mainstream tasted here, and they mark their spicy offerings with one, two or three peppers. Our curry was a two-pepper variety, but you could just sense the hot pepper. I would suspect that the three-pepper fare would only register as moderately spicy to my palate, and that the true firebrand gourmand could either use the little bowl of hot sauce that’s provided or let the waiter know and have it spiced up to taste in the kitchen.

By the way, our multilingual waiter was very good. Add to that the tasteful furnishings and decor, the cloth napkins and table setting, the little chafing tray upon which the dishes are presented and the good music selection at an appropriately subdued volume, and you get a very good ambience.

If you have a major league outfielder’s arm, this establishment is a stone’s throw from Calle 50, and facing perpendicularly to the right it’s about the same distance from the edge of the banking district. As word gets around, it ought to attract more of a business lunch clientele.

But the prices are modest, so you won’t need to be a banker, or possessed of a large bank account, to feast at the Royal Thai.

Put this on your list of Panama City restaurants to visit.

dining

Lunch at the Royal Thai