Lime Leaf Thai Restaurant in Downtown Spartanburg was today's victim for my Friday afternoon pit-stop. After leaving Minnesota in June and not having any Thai food other than the way too hot Curry I attempt to make at home every now and then, I felt it was time to start to look for a new Spice House. I absolutely love Thai food, not for the same reasons as many, but for that adrenalin rush of eating something way more spicy that should be humanly allowed and then asking them to make it ever more spicy, just for me. Missing my old stand-by Thai cafe in Savage, MN (Spice), I was off to find something that could satisfy my craving with as low of expectations as possible.
Here we are, walking in the wrong entrance at first and quickly realize that is for the handicap only and you need to ring a bell for service, I finally stumbled on the real front entrance. I was greeted, seated and before I knew it, I had a hot bowl of soup and an egg roll in front of me. I hadn't even looked at the menu yet. Cool, how did they know I wanted some hot soup on this cold and rainy day? Anyway, I ordered up the #7, Stir-fried Spicy Beef (Namprigpaow): Stir-fried chicken with namprigpaow spicy paste, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, cabbage, bell pepper and zucchini. $7.50
About 4 minutes and 30 seconds later, just in time for me to finish my soup (still not sure what it was, but it hit the spot) and per-packaged egg roll that tasted like someones dirty sock, I was presented with this beautiful plate of food. When I ordered the #7, it already indicated that it was a spice level of 1 out of 3 or 4. I asked my server, who was very punctual and left me alone to enjoy my meal perfectly, to make it spicier. He suggested a 3 out of 4 and I went along with it not knowing if Lime Leaf understands what Thai Spicy is or not. All I can say is, next time, Oh Yes, there will be a next time, I will order a 5 out of 4 spice level. The dish itself was extremely sweet rather than spicy. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, I enjoyed every single bite of it down to that very last grain of rice. My initial perception of the dish was, "GREAT, another vegetable dish with one or two pieces of chicken in it". But, oh no, after I started chomping away at it, my perception was quickly changed. Just enough chicken with some vegetables that could not have been cooked anymore perfect. And the sauce, other than the fact that I would have liked it about 20 times more spicy, had excellent flavor and wished I had more of it on my plate for the rice to swim around in before being placed upon my fork.
Bottom Line, the food served at Lime Leaf has excellent flavor (other than the egg roll they try to serve you) with fresh ingredients and homemade sauces to accompany your dish at an incredible value. However, Lime Leaf has no concept of what Thai Hot is, or maybe they saw some poor white, Northern boy ask for spicier food and they were trying to do me a favor and be nice, either way, we can work on this with them. I have a feeling that this place will become a new regular hang out for me during the afternoon lunch hour on nice days. Check it out and if you have any other Thai suggestions with real spicy food in the area, please let me know.
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