Bill and I had made tentative plans to go out yesterday.  We ended up staying in because our dog, Zane, somehow hurt his paw while Bill was walking the dogs yesterday morning.  After a trip to the on call vet in our area, where Bill dropped 88 euros for an office visit, x-ray, anti-inflammtory shot, and pills, we decided to stay home and make sure Zane was okay.  I’m not complaining about the vet’s prices, by the way.  In the United States, we would have spent way more money.  Zane is fine today, so we decided to stop by Panzer and Patch.  In between stops, we had lunch at King’s Palace, an Asian eatery in the Schwaben Gallerie complex in Vaihingen.

The front door to King’s Palace…

The last time I ate at King’s Palace was when we lived here the first time.  In fact, I think it was during the six weeks we lived at the Vaihinger Hof hotel in Vaihingen, so that would have been October 2007.  I remembered the interior of the place to be kind of fancy.  Having walked past the restaurant dozens of times since we moved back, I can see that it hasn’t changed at all.

At about 1:00 today, King’s Palace was hopping with business.  A young, hardworking waiter directed us to a two top table on the side of the restaurant nearest to the sun.  They had drawn the shades, so the sun wasn’t directly in our faces.  Unfortunately, the restaurant was pretty warm because the weather today was unseasonably spring like.  I was feeling cranky because I was hungry.

We sat down at table 31, noticing that we arrived at the same time as a large party of Asians.  It was someone’s birthday.  They were all speaking German, but hung up a banner in English that read “Happy Birthday”.  As the large party greeted each other and got situated, Bill saw the look of irritation on my face.  When I start getting hangry, I get impatient and bitchy.  But he laughed and said I wasn’t the only one who was feeling grouchy as the partygoers settled at their table.

Bill checks out the menu.  Prices are reasonable, especially on the lunch menu, which is apparently not available on Sundays.

It took a few minutes before a waiter took our order.  Since King’s Palace has a rather extensive menu, the slow service was kind of welcome.  It took time to figure out what I wanted and what was most likely mushroom free.

Bill gives me an obligatory disinterested look…

I took this for Untappd…  It was refreshing in the stuffy restaurant.  Bill’s Krystalweizen came with a slice of lemon.

I made Bill laugh.  I think this is a memeworthy photo.

I started with chicken skewers, which curiously came out before Bill’s bowl of Thai soup.  They were welcome, since I was hungry.  The peanut sauce was surprisingly subtle.  I would have appreciated a little more peanut flavor.  However, I have to admit to scarfing these down…

Bill’s spicy Thai soup with shrimp.  I almost ordered this.  I’m glad I didn’t, because it had mushrooms in it.  Yecch!  Bill liked it, though.  He said it had a kick to it.  He likes that in his food… and his women.

Bill had chicken curry which was pretty good, except it too came with mushrooms.  I tasted a piece of the chicken and it was pretty good.  Too bad I hate fungus.

I had crispy duck with pineapple.  This was pretty good.  The pineapple didn’t appear to be fresh, but the peppers were.  I ate most of this, which was surprising.  But, like I said, I was feeling “hongry”.

Rice and my sweet and sour sauce.  We were relieved that they only brought out one pot.

 

Like many German Chinese restaurants we’ve been to, King’s Palace has warmers on the table.  Everything was served family style.  I appreciated that, even if the fungus in Bill’s selections precluded me from sharing his dishes.  We were pretty satisfied after lunch, which ran us about forty euros.  On the other hand, Bill and I had some take out Chinese food in Kemnat back in August 2014 that was absolutely delicious.  You wouldn’t think a take out place would have better food than a sit down place…  now I wish I remembered the name of the restaurant and lived in an area where I could get it more easily.

King’s Palace offers good food and the interior is kind of cool looking, but I’ve had better Asian food.  On the other hand, I’ve also had worse.  I’d recommend King’s Palace, though the atmosphere was pretty hectic and sort of uncomfortable today– crowded, stuffy, and warm.  I did appreciate how industrious and hard working the staff appeared to be, though.  And today’s choice was a nice change of pace from the German, Greek, and Italian places we’ve been frequenting lately.  My kingdom for a pu pu platter, though.

A house shot with the bill.  It reminded me a little of upscale Hawaiian Punch.

 

We stopped by the commissary to pick up a few items for the week.  While we were there, we donated a ham and a turkey to the USO and I chatted with one of my fellow Facebookers…  Then we went to the Class VI store, where I spotted the wine pictured below…

I’m always skeptical when I see wine so obviously presented to sell to tourists…  I skipped it and picked up a few bottles of plainer wines.