Lime Leaf Asian Fusion — Restaurant in Lacey

My wife and I lived in Beijing, China for five years. This city is amazing in so many ways. One of which is the astounding variety of food. I once asked a Chinese friend how come the exact same dish tastes slightly different in every restaurant. To my surprise he said that people come to Beijing from all over China, and they prepare the dish the way it was prepared in their home towns and villages.

I arrived in Beijing in May of 2006. The family joined a couple of months later, when I was already established at work, I rented an apartment, and the container had arrived. During my time alone in Beijing I tried countless restaurants. Since I couldn't speak a word of Chinese, and the locals could hardly speak English, I used to carry my address, in Chinese, on a piece of paper, in my wallet. I would start walking, and get lost on purpose. When the time came to get back home, I would hail a cab, show him the note, and get back home.

In one of those "getting lost" walks, I stumbled into a restaurant. I was hungry so I went in. The menu was in Chinese, but it had pictures. It wasn't expensive, so I ordered a few dishes, and asked the waitress to write their names, in Chinese, on a piece of paper. It was delicious. Everything was delicious. I took the restaurant's business card, and came back there again and again, until I had a full menu, in Chinese, of what I liked.

When the family joined me, the kids were already registered for school, the apartment was all set, I hired a driver, and I had a precious menu that I put together on my own, that my administrative assistant printed for me. We were ready to explore.

Five years is a long time. During those five years we ate at "The Big Restaurant" countless times, and were always happy and full.

When we moved back to America, we were always on the look for that "Beijing Flavor", but we never found it. All of the Chinese restaurants we tried, and we tried dozens, were good, but were missing the authentic flavor of China.

And then we went to the Lime Leaf restaurant. I ordered the Chinese Eggplant dish, with chicken, vegetables, jicama, and rice. First bite, and there I was in The Big Restaurant in Beijing, showing my Chinese Menu note to the waitress, and starting to salivate. I am not saying the following lightly. I don't. The Lime Leaf restaurant in Lacey, WA was the first time I tasted an authentic Chinese dish outside of China. All the rest were "westernized" versions, and quite frankly, not even close.

The dish was generous, we took boxes and ate them the next day. And it was not expensive at all. Not compared to other restaurants, and most certainly not compared to flying to Beijing and staying for a few...

I'll start by saying that the food was very good. I had to drive 20 mins to get home and enjoy the food and it was still hot and tasted fresh so kudos to Lime Leaf. This was our first time ordering from here and my family were all very happy with the quality and portions. We would have expected plain white rice with some of the entrees but there wasn't any. I'm not sure if that's normal or if we just had the wrong expectation from other restaurants we've been to.

Where Lime Leaf failed us was with the delay and the overstuffed bag. They shoved everything into one bag which began to tear and the containers were packed hard together. This caused the lid on one sauce container to break and we lost nearly the entire container of sauce inside the bag. Luckily the sauce did not spill in my car.

To address the delay. I placed my order and was told it would be 25-30 mins until the order would be ready. I arrived a the restaurant at about 30 minutes and people were standing around waiting for orders. After 10 mins I went to the counter to go ahead and pay and get a status. I was told it would be ANOTHER 25 mins, minimum. So, I left and returned about 30 mins later. The food still was not ready. It took another 30 minutes for us to finally get the order.

I'd expect some sort of courtesy gesture for the inconvenience like free appetizer. They did apologize but it's just disappointing to have such poor service when you were told an expected time for your meal and have an extra hour+ to wait.

In the end I'm not sure I'd eat there again. If we do we'll have to visit them in person and gauge the delay based on their customer volume. I certainly will not call them ahead and assume their forecasted pick-up time...

Some of best Asian food we've ever had. Don't let the strip mall facade fool you. The setting is quaint with nice cushiony booth seating available. We started with appetizers of "Vietnamese Spring Rolls" (2-2" thick x 6" long rolls cut in half) for $8. These were huge and delicious, filled with pork and prawns. We also had a second appetizer of "Egg Rolls" with the chicken option, which appeared to be made in-house, and were scrumptious (4 for $8) For the entrée's, I ordered the "Almond Asian Fusion Chicken", served on an oversized plate which the huge panko breaded chicken breast covered from edge to edge. The breast came topped with an unobtrusive layer of orange/almond gravy with a side dish of more gravy, giving a choice of how much gravy to use. The vegetables comprised of steamed cabbage and carrots were cooked perfectly aldente', all for the bargain price of $19.95. My friend had the "Lime Leaf Special Beef" again served on an oversized plate and comprised of a very generous portion of braised top sirloin coated in a special sweet sauce with spicyness of your choice, and a generous side of steamed vegetables. When my friend had questions about this dish and the possibility of substitutions, the chef was so accommodating. She came out and personally described the contents and substitution options, promising to make the dish to my friends liking until it was just right. No correction was necessary. Again, all for the extremely reasonable price of $20.85. All told our food bill came to $56.80 and had enough leftovers to cover dinner for days to come. We highly recommend this place and will come back often. Thank-you "Lime Leaf" for a great...