Welcome to Viet Royal

My official favourite restaurant this week!

The service here has always been good in my experience - v friendly and cheerful. On this visit there were 2 large groups and most other tables were full (on a Tuesday) but service was prompt.

The food is fairly standard Vietnamese but leaning quite far towards Thai, plus with a 'Paris' section which I think is the kids menu.

We had lovely fresh rice paper rolls plus some incredibly delicious teriyaki scallops for entrees. I've spent all day today thinking about those scallops!

Mains were red curry vegetables - little bit sweet and I would have liked it hotter, but the vegies were perfectly cooked, a sizzling prawn dish - yum, a beef larb (salady thing) which was really tasty and a chicken dish which I didn't taste because I was too full.

Needless to say I couldn't stretch to desert.

What really impressed me was how healthy all the dishes seemed, with lots of really fresh ingredients esp the vegetables which were all cooked perfectly and came out very tasty.

My only negative is that the decor's a bit funny - beautiful wooden tables on the whole, but mixed with plastic chopsticks and the colour theme is red and pink.

Can't wait to go again.

PS Also v good value - is BYO and in the entertainment book and pretty cheap anyway.

I went to this on the recommendation of a friend who raved over it. It was good, but "not as good as last time". The food was tasty and no MSG and the service, considering there were practically none and they had several large Christmas lunch groups, remarkable.

It was a case of opening the Entertainment Book and seeing what we came up with that landed two of us at Viet Royal for dinner on the weekend. The restaurant is nicely laid out (although some of the tables could be considered a bit close for comfort once the room fills up) and the service was attentive. A tea light is lit and placed on each table once patrons are seated which I thought was a nice touch. Our BYO wine was promptly opened, poured and deposited in an ice bucket although we were left to fill our own glasses for the rest of the evening.

The menu was interesting and by no means Vietnamese only, the curry selection included a lamb korma!

We decided on a stuffed chicken wing and chicken satay to start with, followed by a pork claypot and red chicken curry.

The chicken satay consisted of large pieces of breast meat on two skewers, not cut in chunks like it normally is, covered in a mild peanut satay sauce. Not much flavour, but plenty of chicken meat. My husband enjoyed his stuffed chicken wing. He got a bit of a surprise when the pork claypot arrived though. Having enjoyed clay pots in the past and going by the description on the menu, he was expecting a stew / soup sort of arrangement, but what he got was basically dry stir fry pork with chopped onions and pepper. It was tasty and the waiter assured us that it was an authentic Vietnamese claypot.

My red chicken curry consisted of chicken breast pieces, some capsicum, mushrooms (??), broccoli and two very large snow peas in so much runny sauce that it slopped out of the bowl the minute the waitress tried to place it on the table. We had ordered two serves of coconut rice and I must say I would have been content with just the red curry sauce and the rice, it was delicious. I think the vegetables and chicken had been placed in the sauce at the last minute rather than being cooked in it as they didn’t have much flavour.

Looking at my watch after our meal, I realised we had been seated, served and had eaten in just over an hour- very fast service. By this time, the restaurant had filled up somewhat and the noise levels were becoming a bit unbearable. Hard floors and no window coverings meant we were leaning in to hear what each other was saying. A small pot of tea rounded off our meal which came to about $50 (after our discount) and we both agreed that while we wouldn’t go out of our way to go back again, it was a pleasant enough meal but we could probably get better value for money elsewhere.

After my great first experience, I decided to go back with a friend. This time, we had the Lemongrass Chilli Squid, Vege Stir Fry with Bean Curd (tofu), and Coconut Rice. The whole experience was disappointing.

I couldn't taste any lemongrass flavours in the overcooked squid dish, and the veges were ordinary. We were served plain rice, then someone (the chef?) realised the mistake and bought out our very gluggy coconut rice.

The service was abysmal - the one girl who was on the floor had a hard time getting the order straight ("Chilli beef?"), was hard to get hold of when we wanted water, wanted to order, etc.

The one red/one white by the glass hasn't changed, except that now the "glass" of red is actually one of those mini bottles like you get on aircraft. At least it prevented the server from getting it wrong!

Excellent food and service, minimal wine list (esp. for wines by the glass) otherwise it would've got 5 stars all round.

I was in Perth on business and went by myself. The waitress was most attentive and personable, without being gushy or 'in your face'. I had the Jungle Curry (beef) ($15.90) and after the waitress explained that it wasn't particularly hot - to cater for Aussie tastes - I asked her to get the chef to add more bite. He did - and it was great. With it I had the coconut steamed rice ($3 per serve), and it was a delicious combination of flavours.

The Jungle Curry was a HUGE serve - a large plate piled high with thinly sliced beef, green beans, green capsicum and onions - as well as those delicious Thai spices.

The waitress explained that the menu wasn't just Vietnamese - they were venturing more into Thai dishes as well.

With my meal I had a couple of glasses of a Houghton's Cab Merlot - the only red wine available by the glass. While the wine worked well with the food, I was disappointed that they only had one red and one white available by the glass.

I think this is the finest Vietnamese food I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. the food is fantastic, the atmosphere is wonderful and the service is great, you should be commended, Finest Asian food in Perth! Keep up the great work!

We went to Viet Royal for dinner a few months back. The atmosphere and decor is a lot more stylish than most Vietnamese Restaurants. The food was very tasty.. I love stuffed chicken wings!! This place is however quite pricey for a Vietnamese Restaurant so keep that in mind if you are expecting cheap eats.

However it does offer a more romantic atmosphere than most vietnamese restaurants so maybe that's just the price you have to pay!!