Aroy Thai Eatery in Trentham, Upper Hutt is a casual, modern Thai kitchen serving the kind of food its family owners have been cooking in New Zealand for decades: authentic dishes, fresh ingredients and prices everyday diners can live with. It is part of the Aroy group, a family business whose story began with a Thai restaurant in Palmerston North in 1998 and continued with the first AROY restaurant on Cuba Street, Wellington in 2008. The recipes behind the food have been handed down through generations, and the group's Thai chefs come from a number of different regions of Thailand, bringing their varied regional dishes and knowledge together under one roof.
The menu runs through the Thai classics: appetisers, noodles, creamy curries, laab (a traditional warm salad) and stir fries cooked with quick, intense 'hot wok fire' methods that seal in flavour and freshness while keeping meals fast enough for busy lives. Herbs and vegetables are fresh and sourced locally as much as possible, and the kitchen also turns out house-made Thai desserts and beverages. To drink alongside, there is a range of selected wines as well as both local and imported beers.
The vibe is hip and trendy yet casual, and priced for value — the vision the founders set out with when most Thai food in New Zealand was fine dining with a price point to match. Pickup orders go through the online ordering system on the Aroy website, delivery runs via DoorDash, Delivereasy and Uber Eats, regulars can join the loyalty program, and tables can be booked by phoning the restaurant directly (email bookings are not accepted).
Aroy Thai Eatery on Upper Hutt's Main Street is a casual, modern Thai kitchen serving the kind of food its family owners have cooked in New Zealand for more than two decades: authentic dishes, fresh ingredients and prices that don't ask you to save a meal out for a special occasion. The Trentham eatery is part of the Aroy group, which grew out of a family restaurant that first opened its doors in Palmerston North in 1998.
The story starts with the family behind the brand, who opened their first Thai restaurant in Palmerston North in 1998. When the founder moved to Wellington as a student in 2005, he noticed a gap: good, authentic Thai food was hard to come by, and the places that served it tended to be fine-dining rooms with prices to match. Back in the 1990s, with Asian ingredients hard to source, many Thai restaurants simply left traditional dishes off their menus altogether. The family's answer was to keep those meals alive anyway, tweaking the recipes as best they could with whatever ingredients were available.
That determination became the first AROY restaurant, opened on Cuba Street in Wellington in 2008 with a simple goal: authentic, fresh and healthy Thai cuisine at an affordable price. It worked. Aroy has since grown into several locations across New Zealand, Upper Hutt among them, while the original values — and the same ethical offerings — have stayed exactly where they started.
The menu runs through the Thai classics: appetisers to start, noodles, and classic Thai dishes, with creamy curries and laab — a traditional warm salad — alongside a solid line-up of stir fries. Cooking is quick and intense; the kitchen calls it hot wok fire, a method that seals in flavour and freshness while keeping meals fast and easy for busy lifestyles.
Freshness is central to everything. Aroy uses fresh herbs and vegetables, sourced locally as much as possible, and its Thai chefs come from a number of different regions of Thailand, pooling their regional dishes and culinary knowledge into one menu. The recipes themselves have been handed down through generations, which is what gives the food its roots.
Thai cuisine, as the team likes to point out, is naturally fresh, healthy and full of flavour — and Aroy leans into that, building plates around herbs, vegetables and quick cooking rather than heaviness. Save room, too, for the house-made Thai desserts and beverages, and keep an eye out for Aroy's creamy, fragrant Thai Milk Tea Creamsicle, a limited-run favourite that appears in online-ordering promotions from time to time. To drink with your meal, there's a range of selected wines as well as both local and imported beers.
Aroy describes itself as hip and trendy yet casual, and priced for value — the antidote to the pricey Thai fine dining the founders encountered when they first arrived. It is the kind of neighbourhood spot the brand has been building since 2008: somewhere for a quick, flavour-packed lunch as much as a longer dinner over curries and a beer.
Ordering is straightforward. Pickup orders go through the online ordering system on the Aroy website, and delivery runs via DoorDash, Delivereasy and Uber Eats for nights you'd rather stay in. Regulars can sign up for the Aroy loyalty program, and anyone wanting a table should phone the restaurant directly — the team doesn't accept email bookings.
Nearly three decades on from that first family restaurant in Palmerston North, the Upper Hutt eatery carries the same promise as day one: Thai food that's fresh, full of flavour, honest about its roots and kind to your wallet.