Thai royal is a hidden gem, located in northern Rhode Island in the small town of Burrillville. Located right in the center of town, views of the gorgeous waterfall and river can be seen just off the back deck. On a normal spring or summer day prior to the pandemic, you could see a bustle of people dining outside enjoying their food and drink, or parking their car at the restaurant to quickly grab their take-out orders to-go.
This restaurant holds a special place in my heart as it is located in the hometown I grew up in. The management switched just a year ago. The new managers are very friendly and always make an effort to get to know their customers on a personal level! To properly review the menu, I ordered a variety of appetizers and entrees. Most of the entrees come with your choice of a protein, which includes the vegetarian options of either tofu or extra veggies. Other non-vegetarian protein options include chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, squid, duck, salmon or scallops. Additionally, the menu contains a star rating to indicate the level of spiciness of each of their dishes. Spice ranges from one star “mildly spicy” to three stars “extremely spicy”! Customers can always adjust the spiciness of their dish to match their spice tolerance and tastes. To start, I ordered the pork dumplings. These doughy bites are steamed and topped with fried garlic. They are served with a slightly sweet black ginger dipping sauce. You can also order the dumplings fried if you prefer a crispier texture! Dumplings are one of my favorite appetizers, and these certainly satisfied my craving! Next, I ordered the soft spring rolls with shrimp. Inside the rice paper wrapper, are vermicelli noodles, lettuce, shredded carrots, cucumber, Thai basil and cooked shrimp. They are served with a sweet chili sauce that is topped with crushed peanuts. These little bites had the perfect texture, with a chewy outside from the rice paper wrapper and a crunchy inside from all the fresh vegetables. The sauce had a bit of a kick to it from the chili spice, and perfectly balanced out the flavors of the spring rolls. Then, I ordered a classic appetizer that is commonly served at Thai restaurants: edamame. The edamame is steamed until tender and topped off with flaky sea salt. These protein-packed bites are so delicious and fun to eat. Still encased in their pods, you can pop the edamame beans out of the shell and into your mouth! Lastly, I ordered my all-time favorite Thai dish: curry. I opted for the yellow curry with chicken for protein. This curry is packed with produce including pineapples, baby corn, potatoes, carrots and onions. It is also served with white jasmine rice. This slightly sweet and spicy combo is a perfect dinner meal as we head into the warmer months of spring and summer. The menu also offers red, green, panang, massaman, and seafood curry if you prefer a different flavor profile! The process to order takeout is easy! To order, just give the restaurant a call. The phone was answered right away, and the food was ready for pick-up just 20 minutes later. If you have any allergies, just make sure to let the employee taking your order know what they are, and they can help guide you to make your selections that are free of any allergens! I highly recommend anyone who makes their way out to northern Rhode Island to stop by and try out Thai Royal! Author: Kaidy Cornell
0 Comments
“I can’t breathe” sits in the window of the popular downtown restaurant “North” as they continue to bring attention to racial disparities across the country. This is the first thing that caught my attention as I walked up the steps to the restaurant to retrieve my takeout order, it’s been months since I had one of my favorite menu items, North style Dan Dan Noodles. To review this restaurant, I chose a few menu items. To begin, we started with a classic off the menu. Tiny house buttermilk biscuits with griddled country ham and rotating mustards. The biscuits were just as I remember, hearty and warm with vinegary mustard. To highlight the variety across the menu, my partner and I chose a few vegetarian and vegan menu options available. As a West Kingston native, I was pleased to see the Blue Oyster Mushroom Bahn Mi featured roasted Blue Mushrooms from the RI Mushroom Company. Along with pickled carrots, cucumbers, basil and an earthy mushroom miso spread, I would make this a top choice for a vegan option. Our favorite menu item this round had to be the charred cabbage and buttermilk. Charred local cabbage from Whitebarn Farm paired incredibly with the tangy buttermilk dressing and husk cherries. In effort to help my partner consume more veggies, this dish will be on our next takeout order. For our main entrees, we chose the Local Fish Chirashi with Point Judith black bass, steamed rice, nori, scallion, pickled ginger and a sweet fermented grape and corn shoyu. Essentially a deconstructed nori roll, the flavors and the freshness of the black bass was a standout in the meal. We finished with local Baffoni Farms Chili and green onion chicken wings, which come on? Pickled chilis, green onion, garlic and ginger combined for a savory side dish. We got a ½ pound of wings, for which we kicked ourselves for not getting the full pound. After speaking with the manager on shift, she informed me to list any allergies, dietary restrictions or intolerances, and to highlight them in the notes section of the online ordering page “Tock”. The ordering process was very simple and user friendly, and the order was waiting for me as I walked up the steps to the restaurant. I will leave you with this, if you have a favorite local spot write in and let us know, we’re looking to show as much support as we can and highlight small businesses like this one. If you would like to support North and sister restaurant Big King, the restaurant has started an unemployment fund for their employees through a go fund me page named “north, big king, and The Dean Bar staff fund”. Written by: Julie Houtchens, MS, RDN, CDOE North: 122 Fountain St, Providence, RI 02903
http://www.foodbynorth.com/ |
AuthorRIAND volunteers author these posts! ArchivesCategories |