Elephant Royale

Great food, service has deteriorated and prices have increased
It wasn’t a cheap place to go to when it opened, now you need a small business loan if your feeding a family
I used to pay £50 for 2 10 years ago, it’s close to £80 now for the same meal and drinks
Only gets 3 stars, but purely because of the prices
Food is always quality however

Updated in 2015: The absolute worst place to go on Valentines day. The food isn’t worth the £90 per head and the service is poor.
Since writing my initial review (5*s) I’ve been here at least 5 more times and the service is fine at best. The last time I went we asked our waiter how to pronounce something on the menu and he just stood there tapping his pen on his order pad for at least a minute looking at the menu and shrugged. He also left the restaurant to take a call halfway through packing our leftovers.
— — — — — -
Food isn’t cheap but it’s definitely worth the money! The menu has a wide variety of food and when I got there I wanted to eat everything on the menu!
The chicken, lamb, duck, and beef are all halal. Plus seafood and the possibilities were so great that we spent a good 15 minutes trying to narrow down what to order.
Loved both starters we got — lettuce wraps and paper prawns. Lettuce wraps were especially yum and quite filling.
The mains are also very filling and larger than expected. Wasn’t a huge fan of the steamed hotpot so when I go back (cause I definitely will) I’ll probably order something else.

Walking through the doors of this restaurant I could feel my wallet emptying,
it has a very classy feel to it from the little bridge you cross over the Fontaine pond to grand piano being played in corner, they also have a half decent singer that’s not over powering wile you eat the food is great here the staff are really nice but it’s very expensive. You can’t help but be impressed by this place though, it has a wide range on the menu and a good choice of champagnes and cocktales, it’s the perfect place to take a first or special date.

My favourite local thai restaurant. A little pricey but the food is vey good. Waiting staff are attentive and helpful.
Nice authentic ambience to the premises. Chairs a little uncomfortable.
Worth a visit.
Benjisfones

In summary the best Thai food I have tasted outside of Thailand (and probably better then a lot in!)
Have been eating here since it opened must be 15+ years now have been taken to several of the so called top London Thai restaurants and none touch it.
Have taken many friends and family all who had other favourites and all now have a new favourite!
Fantastic authentic food, top quality meats, fish etc most amazing flavours.
I also tried there docklands sister restaurant but found this always slightly nicer although docklands does have an amazing view

I took my parents here to get them to try something different from their usual Chinese fare. This place is fairly pricey for a local and does not have authentic Thai dishes on the menu. The drunken duck was average at best, somewhat bland. The pad thai is decentish but there is no pad pra krao if you like spicy noodles. We got the pad kee mao noodles and they were fairly big but came in the thin pad thai noodles which I’m not a fan of. The highlight were the curries, green is lightly spicy and red is sweetish. Plus they tasted authentic. Oh to add, they also are a affiliated with the chinese restaurant around the corner, Mandarin Palace and the chefs are Chinese as opposed to Thai. Enough said.

Pros We have been regulars at the Elephant Royale for a while now. It was our favourite pick if we were celebrating something because we immensely enjoyed our experiences there. The interior of the place is also way above standard and you can appreciate the thought and meticulous detail given to the space. We have been there a few times recently as well for meals and once a buffet.
Cons The food previously was without fault but of recent you can see the drop in quality and also taste. The buffet was also horrible and I think a waste of money. I certainly hope they improve the food quality because they are slightly pricy and you expect something special for those prices and not cheap Chinese style buffet meals.

They’ve really got it good here. This was really really nice: food, atmosphere, décor, presentation.
I don’t think I’d been to a Thai restaurant before, and, aside from the occasional Thai green curry, didn’t know what Thai food was all about. After this, I’m pretty hooked. Primarily, the food is exceptional.
I really got into the range of flavours, lots of galangal and lemongrass. So everything’s really aromatic, and zesty. And again, I thought everyone’s choices might taste a bit samey but no, a real range of sauces and dishes. Again, vegetarian but there was a lot to choose from. I ended up going for the Sammaman Ja which is an authentic plat from southern Thailand. B ang O n. Lapped it up.
And other people were raving about the duck curry. Yup, it seemed like it got big thumbs up from most of the diners. It’s fairly pricey, but for what you get, and the quality, it doesn’t feel like a rip-​off at all. I was a bit unimpressed with the music, rancid easy listening covers and we hit the tape loop twice which I think is a bit amateur. But then there are other touches like a big pool with carp in, actually in the restaurant. And all the waiters and waitresses were really helpful and nice.
It’s in a funny spot, but if you’re in Gants Hill for the evening feeling hungry, bit rich and adventurous, you couldn’t do too wrong for eating here!