Try Thai - for a "Royal" Experience

Thai food is all the rage. With so many new Thai restaurants in the Salt Lake Valley, it’s sometimes hard to choose where to go. Royal Thai , 816 E. 9400 So., has only been open a few months and it’s already become a favorite in Sandy.
 
Royal Thai serves completely authentic food from Northeastern Thailand. Pong Jan Anuyahong is the head chef and mastermind behind the restaurant. She and her husband Greg Christensen have had years of experience in the Thai restaurant business.
 
“For three years we managed the Thai Pepper in Provo,” Greg says. “Jan is from Northeastern Thailand where she ran a restaurant before she moved to America.”

The menu items at Royal Thai include favorites like Thai noodles and Tom Kha Kai, a coconut, lemongrass soup. According to Greg, Jan’s Pad Thai is the most authentic in the valley. With its sweet and sour sauce, rice noodles, eggs, onions, carrots and bean sprouts, it’s easy to see why this is a customer favorite.

Many types of curries are available at Royal Thai. The coconut-milk based yellow curry is popular with its potatoes, onions and bamboo shoots. And the egg rolls have been touted as the best in Utah.

“The egg rolls are a signature dish,” Greg says. “They’re made with noodles and cabbage and served with our homemade sweet chili sauce. We have the best egg rolls in town.”

Diners new to Thai food might be concerned the flavors will be too spicy but Jan tempers her menu items so customers can enjoy their meals without the fear of too much heat.  “When you think of Thai food, you think hot,” Greg says. “But when you come here [Jan] doesn’t add any heat unless customers want it that way.”
 An overall customer favorite is the mango and sweet rice dessert. The combination of flavors keeps people coming back for more.

“It’s a purple rice,” Greg says. “We’re the only restaurant in town that uses purple rice. We give it out and customers come back and order more. We have half the people saying this is more healthy than Chinese food and we offer full vegetarian dishes,” Greg says. “I think we’re the best Thai food in Sandy. It’s a cozy little place.”
Royal Thai is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. For more information, call 571-8791.

Business Highlight provided courtesy of The Valley Journal. Article written by Peri Kinder.

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