Aroy Thai Eatery - Cuba Street — Restaurant in North Island

This popular and busy eatery in Cuba Mall offers a wide selection of tasty Thai street food served quickly, piping hot and in generous portions – perfect for an affordable mid week dinner and a great place to take children - I have been a long time patron of Aroy but think since their refurbishment a few months back, addition of a bar license, and redecoration to a minimally decorated but spacious and very pleasant diner with a central bar and serving counter the commercialisation of the brand (as there are now 3 x Aroys - Courtney Place & Newtown) has affected the once perfect (IMHO) Thai Street dishes that they used to serve. Hard to put my finger on it but if I had to use one word to describe the change it would be "bland". The roti was a tad too greasy and the peanut sauce was not the iconic peanut sauce of the past. Roast Duck as a main was a bit disappointing and very average - it was quite watery and chewy - certainly not a patch on the succulent glazed roast duck served in the past which was something to die for - the bed of bok choy was more like regular stir fry veges and sauce bland - don't get me wrong, it's still a great place to go to if you want an affordable and great value diner to go to, It is just in my opinion that in the effort to get food out hot and quickly the commercialisation of the brand has taken an edge off the food from its previously super tasty street...

The food tastes fine. Nothing special and nothing terrible. The service however is not good. The menu on display across 4 television screens says " ALL DISHES CAN BE MADE VEGETARIAN, VEGAN OR GLUTEN FREE ON REQUEST" - this is DEFINITELY not the case. I tried ordering the green curry made vegan with tofu and I was told no the curries all have fish sauce etc and aren't able to be vegan. I was then shown a very small vegan menu with a list of 6 or 7 entrees.. no curries at all. They're all made in sweet sugary sauces. This is a far cry from thinkin in all dishes can be made for my diet.. that's why we chose to eat here! Ok so i order something because my companion wants to eat here. We also order two starters and pay together. The cashier gets the price wrong but then fixes it. Ok. We sit down and our main food comes out after a few minutes ..... no starters... we have to tell them we are still waiting on two starters. Then they come out more than 5 minutes later and we are wondering why the heck we even ordered them. The atmosphere is VERY bright fluorescent pot lights even on a dark evening for supper.. not good overall. Restaurant prices and a cafeteria type atmosphere - although I've gotten much better service in camp cafeterias than here. Cant...

We came in looking for a nice dinner and decided to give Aroy a go while walking down Cuba St. The decor is nice and they have these Thai aluminium cups for water. You order and pay for your food at the counter and get a number. The mains came out super quick for us, but we also ordered a side of rice and tim yum soup. When we were halfway through our mains I asked staff if we could have our rice and soup sides. We got our rice but no soup. By the time we finished our dinner I had to ask for my soup as it still hadn't been served. Service was fast for mains, but forgetful for our sides...

Food was great, reasonable portions (not too much) and the flavours weren't too heavily seasoned. Pad Thai wasn't too sweet and the noodles (thin) soaked up all the flavour. Crispy pork with bok choy had the skin of the pork done well and it wasn't too greasy. Chicken with cashew nuts also had well flavoured veges in with it, very delicious. However.... the tom yum soup failed to deliver for me. It was exceptionally sweet which on top of the onions added in the soup became too rich within 3 sips. A real shame.

Shop was clean and tidy, staff mostly attentitive although a bit forgetful, and the food hit the spot for...