Royd, Phuket
This is a small restaurant in the Phuket town, where the (rich and middle-class) local people live. In fact, it is in the China town. The restaurant itself, I guess, converted from an old house, where one side has a long bar with seats, and another side has some tables. Interestingly there were some Chinese signs, for example, in the bathroom; I guess they are a big group of customers. I also noticed the chef looked Chinese, but I never asked. The menu looked very common, a modern, simple description of all dishes. However, I have been asked and warned that the food here can be very spicy, yet I took the challenge! In short, they were ok for me, but I will be more cautious for general audience.
Menu
After all the light bites, the first dish of squid was a great opening. It looked nothing surprising, but it turned out to be quite spicy and chili, because of the sour curry. I got an amazing sweetness, probably because of the pineapple, then the strong chili flavour from the curry. The squid actually did not taste much, partially because they just did not in general; more importantly, the strong flavour over-powered the squid. However, the squid popped in once the chili flavour is gone, and it provided a strong, sticky and chewy texture.
Andaman Squid / Phuket Pineapple / Southern-Thai Sour Curry
The second dish that literally blew my mouth was “Rice Noodle & Frog Leg”, because of the spicy. Compared with the previous sweet & spicy in squid, this was pure spicy, feeling like in all red. Frankly the caviars on top of the noodle were probably for decoration and decoration only, because their strong flavour could not compete with the curry. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the noodle a lot with a great thickness and density so that (1) they were easy to eat without breaking them, (2) they absorbed the curry sauce very well and (3) the almost tasteless rice noodle indeed gave me a break from the red-hot curry hence a form of balance. The frog leg, in my opinion, was nice but could improve. I could not eat in one bite, but it crumbled immediately. Also, it tasted just like chicken, maybe because it was a bit too dry, and the spicy seasoning was too strong.
Krabi Fish Curry / Huahin Caviar / Homemade Rice Noodle / Frog Leg
The immediate next dish was a fresh fish from the day. I certainly cannot remember the fish, but I recalled the sauce. Unlike common tomato sauce, obviously, the chef added some spicy and chili into them, but not as strong as in other dishes. The dish was paired with some ginger flavour gel, which at this point, was light taste after all previous strong seasoning. The homemade “Keropok”, (prawn cracker), was certainly made from high percentage prawn drizzled with chili powder with no surprise. This was a dish I enjoyed the presentation and the mild and homey feeling sauce.
Catch of the Day / Tu Mae Sauce / Torch Ginger Kombucha Gel / Homemade Keropok
Let’s jump to the first dessert “Marian Plum / Calamansi”. It was simple, used the local produces, and executed very well. The “marian plum”, also known as “mango plum”. I found many restaurants use them as part of the dessert in Thailand. They are less sweet, but a little sour and creamy taste, and slightly firmer than mango in texture. The plum here is soaked in (if I remember) light coconut milk. Anyway, I liked this dessert because it really calmed me down after all the strong seasoning plates. It was actually slightly warm, making it much joyful than pure cold dessert.
Marian Plum / Calamansi
This was a great restaurant. Everything is authentic to some level as the chef did not compromise too much on the spicy and chili seasoning style from the southern Thailand, yet every dish had some fun factors, in flavour and presentation. Some people might argue many ingredients become similar as the spicy dominating the palate. Indeed, I found the spice gave some forgiveness for chef as they can, for example, cover some overcooked situation. However, in my opinion, it is the fun part trying restaurants: I want to see some local characters that are inspiring and well-thought. Here in the southern Thailand, such are strong spicy, chili, fresh seafood and fruits.
🐼 Score: 3/5
