Bangkok Royal — Restaurant in Waco

I love Bangkok Royal! In fact, I think I am obsessed. Perhaps I should share a bit of personal history to set the stage for why I love this restaurant so much. My wife is a Waco native and I hail from just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We met in New York City. She was working on her master's degree in education and found employment with a not-for-profit theater company on Broadway. I moved to The City for work as well, but nothing as glamorous as working on Broadway (managing housekeeping in hospitals)! Anyway, we met at a fantastic church on Staten Island and were married within a year. Staten Island became our home and like many young couples with enough money and few responsibilities (no kiddos) we explored the food landscape as much as possible. One particular cuisine grew to be our favorite: Thai. A quaint little restaurant called Forest Thai was near our apartment and we oft frequented it for its delicious Thai food at a great price (for NYC anyway). A friend and coworker called it: "cheap and dirty Thai," and I was inclined to agree!!

Well, fast forward about 10 years and we moved back to my wife's hometown: Waco! Our move was for a whole host of reasons which I may elaborate on in another post someday. Suffice to say that we were elated to learn that Waco now had a Thai restaurant. We were pumped to try it and Bangkok Royal did not disappointed. My personal favorite dish is the Pad Khing. Phat phrik khing or pad prik king (there are lots of different spellings!) is a type of Thai curry that is drier than other Thai curries. It is fried in oil and does not contain coconut milk like other Thai curries. I just enjoyed a generous helping of this dish over spring break and I already want it again (pictured above). My wife tends to favor the Bangkok Noodle dish and my son and daughter prefer Pad See Ew. We also usually order the Spring Rolls and the Fresh Rolls. The spring rolls are fried and are similar to a Chinese egg roll but have a different flavor. They contain ground chicken, bean thread noodles, and vegetables. The fresh rolls are wrapped in a cold rice paper (I think) and contain shrimp, rice vermicelli, basil, and cilantro Both are served with delectable sauces.

I know that a lot of reviews online cite bad service, but we have always had good service here and feel as though the servings are generous, especially if you order carry-out. The atmosphere is inviting and we like to spend a significant amount of time here even taking time to let our food settle and have some great after-dinner discussion (without overstaying our welcome, naturally). The staff never rush us and always continue to...

I've given this place two chances in the last two months, and both visits were very disappointing.

On the first visit, I arrived 45 minutes before closing time. The employees were not friendly at all, and made me feel like my presence there was a huge inconvenience. I was rushed to place my order immediately upon being seated, because the kitchen was already closing. I got the Pad Thai, which was weird and extremely sweet. I've had Pad Thai from several different restaurants, and this didn't taste like normal Pad Thai at all. I ate quickly and got out.

On the second visit, I arrived an hour and 20 minutes before close. Once again, I felt unwelcome right from the start. The front of house employees did the bare minimum with complete indifference; sitting me down, taking my order, and going back to playing on their phones. They apparently apply this same indifference to their appearance, with messy hair and baggy t-shirts. This time, I got the BBQ chicken and it was good! I was a little disappointed in the inflexibility of their menu, but oh well.

In short, it's the employees that ruin the experience... The place simply lacks any sort of customer...

Major disappointment in the wait staff. We had to wait too long for the waiter to come ot our table. He did not even ask if we wanted anything to drink besides the water they provided. He had no personality what so ever. We had to ask for lemons, napkins, extra water. We were a table of 5. There was hardly any diners in the restaurant when we go there. It started to fill up. Several tables that were seated after us got their food and had left. I had to find our waiter and ask him to check on our meal. I had explained there were people getting their meals before us. He acted like he could care less and told us our food would be out soon. Grabbed the only other waiter we could see. He said 2 minutes. Our food finally came out! We had been there for an hour. When we asked to speak with the manager, one waiter said he did not have time for us. Our waiter listened to our concerns and acted like he could care less and walked of. Totally rude staff and unconcerned with...