King & I

This place is damn good. Amazing Thai food — green and red curry a real winner for me. Prawn Pad Thai is another regular favourite. Byo booze is another winner. Best Thai in Perth.

King and I Thai Cuisine. I’ve eaten here on a previous occasion, and its won several gold plates, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 (although only up to 2011 is printed on their napkins!) so I know it’d be pretty awesome.
The King and I is located in Guildford, opposite the Guildford train station, near Alfred’s Kitchen. The restaurant can be recognised by it’s massive, yellow, billboard-​like sign on it’s roof and because it’s on a main road, parking is mainly street parking. Although, I’m glad the place has parking places at the back of the restaurant, even if it only fits about 10 cars or so. At least it tries.
The King and I, was most likely to have been a house of some sort in its previous life because there are several different rooms, all of which have been turned into dining rooms. The décor is rather subdued, which I think is fine. Although the colour scheme of pale green, maroon with touches of metallic browns and golds may be slightly outdated. Nonetheless, it provides a cosy, homely vibe.
The waitstaff wear traditional Thai costume, and I really love that (and I love the costume!.. Wouldn’t mind having the pants — it looks so comfortable — almost harem pants, but in a slight metallic colour). They were all very polite, quick to provide us with water and gave us ample time to look through the menu to decide. I must admit, however, that because we were in the back end of the restaurant, the amount of times the waitstaff visited is probably not as frequent as at the front of house. Granted, the back of the restaurant, wasn’t particularly busy. Having said that, they did bring out our dishes very quickly after we ordered, and gave us fresh bottles of water when it ran out without having to be asked. They also checked up on us to make sure everything was ok and cleared our plates so quickly when we were done. Rather efficient.
As for the food? Well, there was only 3 of us for dinner, and one of us was on a massive health kick (safe to say it wasn’t me!), so unfortunately I can’t show you the full range of their menu. Nonetheless, we got an entrée to share, one main for CR and two mains to share between me and JC.
We started the night with a serving of vegetarian spring roll (4 pieces). They also have satays and other delectable things (mainly coming in 4 pieces). The spring rolls were packed with vegetable goodness and was crispy and crunchy on the outside without under cooking the stuffing. It’s also good to know that the oil they used was not old oil (didn’t have that old oil smell). Paired with the sweet chilli with a slight hint of lemon for the sour kick, it was a rather pleasant start to our meal.
The vegetarian Pad Thai, which looked came out with a swirl of steam on top and looked rather appetizing. I saw lots of tofu, shallots, carrots, cabbage and beansprouts, along with the noodles, the crushed peanuts and slice of lime to balance out the sweetness of the Pad Thai sauce.
No visit to a Thai restaurant is complete without a Thai curry (whether it’s red, green or penang curry). I felt like something with a decent dose of chilli kick and one which is less likely to have an adverse effect on my hips and thighs, we decided green curry reign supreme (partly because coconut milk is likely to be less fattening than coconut cream. although we did not any evidence on that matter). We settled to have it with chicken. The chicken green curry was absolutely delicious. The chicken was succulent and moist. It was not over cooked and it was not dry (trust me chicken can dry out even in a curry!). The sauce of the curry was creamy (without it been too much), it had a bit of kick from the chilli (without the chilli overpowering it too much) and it has the right dose of coconutty-​ness through it. We ate the curry with the rice and the girl gave me a bit too much — more than what I have at home. but I’m glad she did because the curry sauce was so good I wanted to just devour every last drop of it.
Although, having really tried only 2 of their mains this time around, I can safely say (combined with my previous experience) that King and I Thai Cuisine is one of the better Thai restaurants in Perth. You can understand why it won so many Gold Plate awards. It’s worth the track to Guildford to check it out.

We had a banquet style set menu meal for a birthday celebration. This included a Thai curry chicken dish, prawn and vegetable dish and a chili chicken and cashew dish, with starters before hand (chicken satay sticks, money bags, samosas). Really lovely fresh food! Loved every tasty dish in our banquet style meal. Grumpy bit; Dessert was a bit boring aesthetically but quite tasty. The canned lychee and ice-​cream was a bit blah, but for 7 dollars… oh well, cheap enough I guess. Oh, The fried bananas were a bit yum actually, when I think about it. Best bit: Everything was nice and fresh and flavourful.

The King & I is our local Thai and we frequently dine in or have take away. This is our preferred restaurant to take visitors and we are rarely disappointed — our all time favourite is the Flying Duck.

Visited on a Friday. Always been intrigued by the appearance as we drive by so decided to visit. We were greeted efficiently if brusquely by a slim older gentleman in livery, seated at our choice of table by an attractive young (thai?) girl in what I assume is traditional Thai dress. As my knowledge of thai tradition and courts is restricted to a Yule Brynner movie of the same name as the restaurant I cannot say if the costume was authentic. The ambience and décor is very restful, the several children in high chairs were well looked after by staff and parents and the assorted progeny obviously welcome at this place.
Our waitress was very pleasant, served water immediately, and was on hand as soon as we were ready to order. My partner ordered a pork chilli dish, requesting it mild to medium, and I, the «traditional» thai fish stew plus jasmine rice.
The pork arrived quickly, hardly time for our attentive hostess to top up my wineglass (BYO only here) and the pork dish was to her ladyship’s taste, and very nice too, even for my burnt out tasebuds.
My fish stew arrived soon after wrapped in foil shaped as a swan, with a beautifully presented salad (a very fresh one) as garnish. This promised great things to come as I, salivating, regretfully gutted the swan shape to get at the contents. Sadly the fish dish inside was mild to tasteless and unfortunately given as it was one the most expensive items on the menu, seemed to have been prepared at Budget Barn. There was a plethora of baby octopi (very cheap in the market this week), one dodgy mussel and a small fillet of basra in a what should have been a tasty piquant sauce. Two small farmed prawn added nothing to this sad offering. A massive disappointment.
My partner ordered dessert from another attentive waitress; Sweet Sticky Rice and Thai Coconut Custard. Arrived quickly in the hands of yet another waitress, and pronounced way too sweet by SWMBO who didn’t manage to finish it. So in all probability an authentic dish!
As regular diners at other Thai establishments we have a familiarity with what is served in Perth, this place boasts the best in service and décor but maybe not a winner in the value department.
We both liked the place, except the take away queue within centimetres of our table, the ambience was very very good, which is worth suffering a culinary misfire in Perth. We may visit again mid week in the summer. This time I will eschew any pescatorial delights and maybe try the vegetarian selection on the menu which is extensive and looks appetising.

Very popular Thai restaurant in Guildford. Though on a visit this weekend we were disappointed. The restaurant was very busy. I think the takeaway Que by reception is off putting. A woman was stomping around shouting at everyone «where have you parked!» no excuse me please or help? Somebody visiting to collect take away had blocked her in. What a fiasco.
Eventually when it was our turn at reception, a very stern bloke gave us an unwelcome welcome! Never even said good evening or smiled. Asked our name then told us we had cancelled! When in fact we called to change the booking to include an extra person.
The staff ushered us to a table where we were neglected for the next while. We asked for more menus and were told to wait as a large group in the other room had all the menus. Pffffft, eventually the waitress brought us menus. Would be nice if they at least smiled.
They took the order, the guys food arrived first. They were finished their meal by the time the girls meal arrived. By now we were so hungry. We ate our food, without the special fried rice we ordered, which arrived 15mins after we finished our food. We told the waitress politely we did not need it anymore as we had finished our food.
After dessert we went to pay for a pricey meal, which was very average. The whole experience was not the best. Neglected and paid for pricey average food.
Sorry this restaurant really did not live up to expectations. Maybe sometimes they have good days, though this day was an absolute fiasco.