Thai Spice

Thai Spice is an unassuming restaurant on the north side of Devon just east of Clark. It was empty when we walked in. The owner and an employee were sitting down for dinner. A couple of police walked in. Someone came in for take-out. Otherwise it stayed empty. They have been in business for quite some time and it was a Wednesday evening.

We got the standard first attempt at a Thai place - Crab puffs, Panang Chicken, and one misc dish - Broccoli-Chicken. The menu was large and they were offering several specials which were discounted menu items. The menu items were quite pricy.

The Crab puffs were very large with a thick and crusty won-ton. They came with a very tasty sweet vinegar sauce that was better than the typical sweet chili sauce. The cheese however was very cream cheesy and didn't get much further than that. Something was different but they were good.

The panang chicken according to the expert was also different. The guess was more of a chicken stock base than a sweet coconut base. It was mildly spicy and the ingredients were fresh.

The broccoli chicken came in a pool of sauce to the rim of the dish, chicken and broccoli. It was fairly bland and reminded me of chop suey. On our walk home it served as the missing link to what was amiss.

From the won-tons to the Chop Suey-ish Broccoli-Chicken and even the Panang. It reminded us of Chinese food. The won-tons were large and very fried, the Panang wasn't very sweet... not sweet at all. We went back and forth and then I was asked which country bordered Thailand to the north? We assumed China. Ahhhh! That explains it. The restaurant considers its cuisine Northern Thai food. After looking at a map it turns out Laos or Burma are north before you get to China as well as Vietnam (depending on your route), so who knows. It was like no other Thai we've had and unfortunately it's more expensive than our favorite Thai Pastry so the chance that we'll go back is slim.

That being said the service was excellent and very friendly.

*If anyone knows what Northern Thai is and how it's different let me know.

Thai Spice
1320 W. Devon

Comments

[Eric]

I personally find the not ultra-sweet panang to be signigificantly better then the sugar sauce served at most places. Further, I would recommend going back and asking for more recommendations from the host. Ordering chicken and brocolli is asking for an ordinary dish. A musch better comparison would be to have order pad thai, or other truely Thai dishes. I don't thinkt that there is a restaurant in Chicago that can match the quality of the food, so my opinion is that you get what you pay for there.

[Claire]

I used to live right across the street (well, down a little, since right across is a parking lot) and practically lived on their Pad Thai, which is the best I've ever had. Definitely more expensive but also much larger portions than standard. We still make the drive ... totally worth it.

[Lee]

I've only eaten a few dishes from there, and everything I've had was just too expensive for how avarage it was. However, the Som Tum Papaya salad is, so far, the best I've had in Chicago, and I've tried a lot here. Spicy enough to break a sweat, but tasty enough that you don't care.

[justin bieber shoes]

Definitely more expensive but also much larger portions than standard. We still make the drive ... totally worth it.