Lemon Grass Restaurant
2179 Lee Road
(corner of Cedar and Lee)

Once a McDonald's, this is now a Thai restaurant with a crisp decor. Dress is very casual here. No reservations seemed necessary, but you should always call ahead if possible.

I dislike Chinese food. "Oh, but Thai food is different," you say. Yeah, substitute pine nuts for peanuts. It's still a plate of bland vegetables swimming in an annoyingly pungent sauce. If you're lucky, you might find a morsel of meat. My wife, however, loved the food.

We started with Kajtom Kha, a mild soup of coconut milk, lime juice, galanga and chicken stock, with little bits of bone white chicken floating about in it. It tasted as good as I just made it sound. After that disappointment, we had a Beef Satay (a strip of beef with peanut or cucumber dipping sauce) which was good and a tofu salad. Some people seemed to love the tofu salad - I can't understand that for the life of me.

The main dishes were Pad Thai, noodles with shrimp, chicken and spices, and Chicken & Pine Nuts, which were sauteed with the usual vegetables soaking in a strong sauce. The Pad Thai was pretty good, except for the fact that the shrimp tails were not removed - leaving the diner to either shove his hand into his food to fish out the shrimp by the tail, or skewer the thing near its end and chew it off his fork. The other dish had more vegetables than chicken, as is typical.

Food came and dirty dishes went with an air of competence. I had absolutely no problem with those aspects of the service. My coffee was never refilled. That irritates me. I simply expect better.

Still, this isn't a fancy place. The prices were reasonable, I guess. I felt their wines were over priced, but that's a minor quibble. If you like Chinese, er Thai, food (that damn peanut/pine nuts thing) then you'd probably enjoy the Lemon Grass.

Casual place with two sections of the room plus outside patio seating. Of the two indoor rooms, we picked the one on the left hand side which was surrounded by glass over looking the not-so-busy Lee road. The place was not too noisy to carry an adult conversation, yet lively enough for us to enjoy the food. The decor was simple, tables were not over crowded in the small room.

There were 4 of us and we started with a chicken satay as an appetizer. The portions were definitely that of an appetizer and we each had one stick. The chicken pieces were juicy and tender, and the peanut sauce delicious. The waitress suggested a sweet-sour fish which was good. We also order a Paad Thai (fried rice noodles with peanuts, lemon juice and chili pieces) and the Thai beef salad (grilled spiced beef slices with a green salad, soya sauce and oil dresssing). I must confess that the portions are a bit small and luckily we had some rice to go with the food! For dessert, we had the homemade coconut ice-cream and it was decadent! Very creamy and it clears the palette of the hot and garlicky food, a nice compliment to the entrees.

The service was good and friendly, nothing elaborate, but at least we got the attention of our waitress fairly quickly, although it was a Friday night and the place was busy.

The cost was a bit on the high side for the amount of the food served, but it was as delicious and authentic as it could be. It was as good as some of the Thai restaurants I have been to in Asia! I will definitely recommend it to friends and even bring out-of-town guests there.