Mint Leaf Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Newport Beach

There are very few Thai places in the area that I'd absolutely rave about and this place might be one of them. First of all, no corkage fee. AWESOME. Secondly, fellow foodie friend, Drew M. has been talking non-stop about Mint Leaf Thai since he discovered it on the Balboa peninsula last year. He loves that they will make dishes "legitimately" spicy for him. Both of us detest places that say they will make it spicy but hold back because they think the customer can't handle the spice. If we are asking for an 11 on a scale of 1 to 5, give us an 11!! Anyway, I finally made it down to Mint Leaf with Drew M., Mike M., and Lindsay M., feeling a little left out because my last initial isn't M but we had a great meal.

We ordered:

Appetizer Sampler: ($10.95) Combination of lady fingers, veggie crispy rolls, fried wontons, and cheese puffs. Typical fried fare. This was just ok.

Pumpkin Curry with chicken spice level requested was 6 but it came out a 4: ($10.95) Red coconut curry made with tender pieces of pumpkin, tomato, basil, and bell peppers. The curry was barely spicy but the flavors were so delicious I kept coming back for more. The pumpkin was perfectly cooked with a creamy bite to it and the coconut gave it a very rich satisfying flavor. Delicious!

Larb with pork spice level requested 6 but came out a 5: ($8.95) Seasoned minced meat with basil, onions, roasted Thai chili and tossed in a lime dressing. There's so much flavor in the dish that I absolutely loved it. It's served with lettuce leaves and you can essentially make a lettuce wrap with it. The balance of spice and citrus is spot on. So good!

Mint Leaf Thai Noodles spice level requested 6 and it came out a 6: ($10.95) Stir-fried egg noodles with chicken, shrimp, cashews, onions, carrots, celery, and dry Thai chili tossed in the house sauce. This was by far the spiciest dish we had at the table and it was just what I wanted in a noodle dish. I love noodles.

Lindsay who loves very mild dishes ordered the Mongolian beef ($9.95) which was really tasty. We also had a large serving of white rice ($3.00) but they do happen to serve brown rice or sticky rice if you prefer it. We also had the Tempura ice cream which was a special of the day type of dessert so I don't remember how much it was. For the four of us it ended up being less than $20 per person with tip included. Not bad at all for Newport but pricier than other Thai places I've been to.

I have to say though that they do take their time. Service is not their forte but the fact that there is no corkage fee helps out a lot. Bring your own bottle of wine and they will provide wine glasses and a wine opener for you. That's pretty cool if you're not in a hurry to eat. Otherwise pick out your entrees if there's a wait and immediately order food...

One of the yummiest preparations I have had! We ordered - drunken noodles, orange chicken, fried rolls, iced tea and thai tea. Drunken noodles and orange chicken were drooling and so authentic! Everything was super freshly prepared and had a good portion size. Thai tea was also good. Iced tea, i did not really find it that good, would skip on it the next time i visit this place. Rolls were absolutely on point and tasted amazingg! Ambience was also good, the best part is its location! We went for a cruise and when searching for some good thai food around, we came across this one! Also, you might want to park in the beach parking as it’s really tough to secure a parking on the majn road. Server was very polite and the service was also really quick! Overall, a decent experience...

Portions are way to small for the average guy who is hungry it is possible other meals on the menu are larger, I ordered crazy cashew and I counted only about 8 cashews, I said thank you a couple of times with no response back, I asked for extra napkins I received only one. Then I asked for my check he brought it to me, so I put my card on the tray and waited....after a few minutes of looking for my waiter I looked outside and he was on his knees out front praying with what seemed to me was a monk type of person so I took my card to the other guy. There are other places I would recommend like the Thai Fix in Huntington Beach. My rating criteria is serving size, taste as well as customer service and overall value. I will return again in the future and try...