Aroy Thai — Restaurant in Walker

Another disappointing experience trying to find some decent Thai food here in the greater Grand Rapids area. My wife and I came by on our way into Grandville; we had passed this place a few times when we were heading into Comstock Park and have been meaning to stop in and give it a shot.

Well, we stopped in around 7PM one evening and the first thing we noticed was that the dining room is closed after 4PM. Apparently, they stop seating tables at 3:30PM, so it's pretty much takeout only after that. To me, it's a little odd - you've got all of this table space and you're expected to pay at the counter before getting your food, but you don't want people sitting in your establishment to eat? They were able to give us plasticware but we ultimately ended up having to eat in the car.

So, we start looking at the menu and trying to figure out what to order. From here, the first red flag comes up - they serve a 'dual menu' consisting of Chinese and Thai food. I like Asian fusion, where multiple cultural dishes are blended together (IE: bulgogi tacos, for instance) but I'm unsure if I've ever encountered a restaurant where a dual menu works well. It's usually a telltale sign that they need to cater to a wider audience to draw in enough business to remain viable. In an area with such limited diversity, this makes sense, but the best restaurants have a simple menu and do what they do really well.

Anyhow, we order - nothing crazy, a beef drunken noodle and a beef pad thai. We sat in the waiting area while they prepared our food. It was SO fast to come out! I was surprised at how fast it was - maybe 5-6 minutes? We were told 10 minutes, so I was impressed with the level of service. Unfortunately, this should have been another red flag, because the food was mediocre at best.

The food was SUPER hot in terms of cooking temperature (not spice). Again, this is generally not a complaint, but then we realized that the food had been microwaved to bring it back up to temperature. The containers are "microwave safe" food prep style plastic and the temperature of the food was well beyond what you could normally get from cooking it on the spot. It was almost "too hot to eat". It appears as if the base (noodles) is prepackaged and they just reheat then add the meat, peanuts, egg, etc.

I'm glad that others like the food / business as much as they do, but I have a hard time seeing why. The girl working the register was polite and the pricing wasn't ridiculous, but the food was severely lacking. We agreed that wouldn't return to this place for food, and we're back on the hunt for a...

Update-

As mentioned below something used here, perhaps a shortening or oil, consistently gave me and my family mild upset stomach, something that our replacement Thai place didn't do to us even when ordering similar dishes. Well, I'm a sucker for good drunken noodle so I had a craving and decided to give Aroy Thai another try and I'm glad to say it was just as tasty as ever, and no indigestion. Perhaps there was a change? Maybe I just needed a break from it? I'm unsure why, but definitely happy to eat the dishes we love again without fear of upset stomach.

Original post-

I really enjoy the taste of the food here! The drunken noodle is the best around and everyone is friendly and service is usually reasonably quick. You get a great portion for the price as well.

Unfortunately, something they use gives my wife, son, and I mild upset stomach every time we try it. Not like we're gonna die upset, but just "ohh that's not sitting well" . We noticed a correlation long ago when they were still in Allendale, but were in denial about it, but unfortunately can no longer claim its just a coincidence. We have tried other dishes there, with the same result. So we have been trying other Thai places and have not had the same effect. This is really disappointing as we both love the flavors and the convenience of how close it is to West GR and GVSU, but we have to avoid it. Personally I have an iron stomach and can degest just about anything, including the ultra-spicy paqui one chip challenge, with no real issues, so this is a mystery to me.

I still suggest giving it a try if you love Thai food as much as we do, but this has been our experience so I wanted to share in case someone else has similar issues. I imagine we'll give it another try soon though, we just can't help...

I fell in love with Bankok taste, mainly because they were consistent. I knew if I ordered Medium, which was my normal, it was going to be that amount of spice. We just ordered from Arroy Thai which is supposed to be by the same owner, and for a long time, we ordered and it was great. Lately, horrible. Mild was NO seasoning whatsoever. The pad thai was basically bare. There was no sauce at all. The mild + was severely underwhelming as well. For someone who orders medium from Bankok and expects the right amount of spice with the right amount of season, it seems as if Arroy just wants to make bland food. If you don't order medium, which is usually overly hot (we ordered medium and mixed it with mild and it was so hot we couldn't hardly stand it!) they just don't understand how to season like they do at Bankok. Pad Thai does have a sauce, ya'll. It's not just dry noodles. Also, don't soak your fried rice in whatever you make it in. Let us add soy if needed. This last 5 times we ordered, not only was I severely disappointed in my "mild" which had ZERO flavor, or my "medium" which was so hot I wanted to scream.. I was also disappointed in the fried rice, which I'm honestly shocked to say, from you all. The crab rangoon was okay, but almost on the over fried end. Slow down, hire people with passion, and continue the...