Aroy, J.P.Nagar, Bangalore : Restaurant Review

Having enjoyed Thai food in Singapore few months back, decided to sample some of it in South Bangalore. Aroy - is what the Thais call pleasure, is situated in JP Nagar, facing mini forest.

Its a nicely done up classy restaurant with a big roof-top seating area and a small indoor one. It was pretty crowded for a mid-week night - few families but mostly large corporate groups.

I ordered Jamaican Passion cocktail (White Rum, Dark Rum, Passion fruit, Clove, lime & orange), as I love passion fruit. However, there was hardly any passion fruit flavor. Basically orange juice and rum. And no clove for sure!

The Thai raw mango salad - Yam Mamuang, is something I was really looking forward to, and I was very excited to see that it was listed on their menu. While I cannot say that the salad was bad, it was definitely not authentic. The raw mango slivers were fresh and tangy, spicy too - but what was missing was the generous garnishing of crushed groundnuts and cashew nuts. While there were no cashew nuts at all, I did count about 4 pieces of crushed groundnuts. No basil or cilantro. Funnily, the chef had added quite a bit of glass noodles....I am guessing the intention was to add some body to the dish, however they failed miserably at the attempt. I know lots of people who dislike noodles (like my husband) but love the salad, and for such folks, finding noodles in their favorite salad can be quite a turn off.

A starter that was really nice (again - nothing Thai about it) was the Golden Basket Veg. Basically crisp tarts with corn, bell peppers and onion filling.

Moving on to mains, we had Chili Basil Fried Rice (Khao Pahd Bai Kraprow). Tasted like a typical Chinese fried rice with a dash of basil. Nothing to write home about. For accompaniment, we wanted something tasting very very Thai with coconut flavor. We asked the manager to suggest - and he asked us to try the Thai Red Curry with stir fried veggies. This is not on the menu but he offered to make it for us. Again, we were very disappointed. Turned out tasty alright, but nothing Thai again. Just a run of the mill oriental red semi gravy with vegetables.

The service was good, and the staff was obliging when we asked for extra groundnuts in the salad.

On the price front, Aroy is way too steep for the kind of food they offer.

Decent enough to classify as 'oriental food', - but definitely not my first choice for Thai food in Bangalore.

Verdict: 2.8/5