Thai Orchids

While reading restaurant reviews on urbanspoon.com, Shane stumbled upon a Thai restaurant called Thai Orchids. We read the reviews, all of which were positive and decided to check it out. The restaurant was small, and has only been open since June 2012. There weren't very many other people in the restaurant, and there was quiet Thai music in the background. The menu featured a large variety of Thai dishes, and it was very difficult to decide what to order, as everything sounded so good! 

We had read online that the Tom Kha soup was the best thing in the restaurant, so we decided to order a bowl of it to share.

Tom Kha soup has a coconut broth made with lemon grass, fish sauce, chili paste, lime juice, and more. The menu offers meatless, chicken, or shrimp Tom Kha, so we chose the shrimp. This soup was by far one of the best soups we have ever eaten, and we wished that we each had our own bowl and didnt have to share with each other. The broth was rich in flavor and had bits of lemon grass that gave a zesty zing to the soup. The shrimp were tiger prawns that were perfectly seasoned as well as cooked to perfection. 

Before our meals were served, the waitress brought a selection of spices and sauces to the table. Some of the sauces were sweet, some were spicy. The fact that these were offered was one of Shane's favorite things about Thai Orchids.

For our meals we asked the server what her favorites were. She suggested the noodles with seafood, so I decided to take her word for it and place my order. 

This dish came with a variety of seafood such as tiger prawns, mussels, crab, scallops and calamari. There were also a variety of fresh vegetables in this dish, such as carrots, peppers, onion, and broccoli. The "sauce" on the noodles was thin and light in flavor. This dish was good, but it would have been so much better if it had some extra flavor in the sauce. I added some of the sauces that had been brought earlier and the dish became much better and had a much stronger flavor. My only wish would have been for the spices to have been added before the dish was brought to me, so that my first bite would have been as good as it was with the additions.

Shane ordered the Thai pepper steak. His meal was flavorful and delicious. The steak was slightly spicy and tender, the vegetables were perfectly crisp, and the sauce was excellent. His dish came with a side of rice that was perfect for soaking up all of the delicious flavors from the pepper steak.

We enjoyed the Tom Kha so much that we returned to Thai Orchids within a week for some more. This time Shane wasnt very hungry, so I ordered a bowl of Tom Kha for us to share and the Panang curry steak dish. I had asked our server from this visit which dish was his favorite, and he pointed me to the Panang chicken. Since I wasn't really in the mood for chicken, I ordered the steak. 

This dish was creamy, slightly spicy, and a perfect blend of curry. It came with a side of rice as well, which was once again used to soak up the deliciously flavorful sauce. This dish was much better than the noodles with seafood, and was definitely something I would order again. 

Shane and I really enjoyed our visits to Thai Orchids, and our mouths literally water every time we even think of the Tom Kha. If you are ever in La Vista, be sure to stop by Thai Orchids and order a bowl of Tom Kha. Trust me, you'll be glad you did!