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 inflatable slide 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 jumpers for sale 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