Food Review: Thai Orchid (Mentor, OH)

After my first day of work at the new job, I decided to go somewhere local to celebrate with some very familiar food that I have always attached with good memories. So I headed to Thai Orchid on Mentor/OH-306.

When I was still a high school teacher (yes I was one in a previous life), my co-teacher at the time introduced me to Pad See-Ew, a flat noodle dish pan fried with meat, Chinese and regular broccoli, egg, and a sweet sauce. It has since then become a favorite dish of mine and one that I look forward to eating when I can make it to an authentic Thai restaurant. This place did not disappoint.

I started my meal by sipping a tall glass of freshly-made Thai tea. It was well-balanced, and all it needed was a giant straw and boba to make it perfect.

A very nice and creamy Thai tea. I would've liked the option of little boba balls floating in there.

As an appetizer, I went with their fried tofu. The sauce was sweet with a tinge of chili topped with crushed peanuts. You definitely needed to douse the tofu pieces in the sauce to bring out the flavor as the tofu by itself didn't have much taste to it. My only critique is that the sauce was a bit thin so it didn't stick very well to the tofu. I made a bit of a mess on my plate trying to get the sauce as spread on the tofu as much as possible but it did taste great when I managed to cover it.

And the main course, a giant plate of Pad See-Ew. I could smell the aroma of sweet sauce steaming off this plate. I enjoyed this dish. The noodles were well done and blended in the sauce. Both types of broccoli were mixed in and not overcooked. The beef in this dish was seasoned well, thinly sliced, and very tender. The only reason I had to stop eating was that I needed some leftovers for tomorrow's lunch!

The benefit of huge portions: Today's leftovers become tomorrow's lunch. Yum.

If you're hanging around Mentor and want some Thai, I definitely recommend giving these guys a shot. Entrees were moderately priced anywhere from $9-15 so it would make an affordable date dinner. Thai Orchid is located at 7329 Mentor Ave., Mentor, OH 44060. You can visit their website at http://www.thaiorchidmentor.com/.