Spice Thai Cuisine — Restaurant in Savage

I'm originally from the West coast, where there is a plethora of good Thai restaurants. Since I moved here, I have been looking for an authentic-ish Thai restaurant that really showcased the unique flavors (fish sauce, lemongrass, etc) that Thai food is known for.

Tonight my husband and I chose Spice because we live in Burnsville, and it had decent reviews online. We were not disappointed.

They were busy, being a Friday night, so I can't really comment on the speed of service. There appeared to be only one waitress working the main part of the room.

I ordered a Thai iced coffee - it was decent, not the best I've ever had. In my opinion, the coffee wasn't quite strong enough (maybe too much ice in the glass) and there wasn't enough sweetened condensed milk.

We shared a chicken satay appetizer. It was good, and a decent portion for the price. It came with a little cup of peanut sauce and also a little cup of minced cucumber in some type of white syrupy stuff... maybe coconut juice? Not sure.

Being boring, my husband and I both ordered the Pad Thai. I figure if a place can do Pad Thai (a well-known dish in Thailand, I'm told) well, then other things would be good also. Plus, Pad Thai is something I can never manage to make right at home, so it's a treat for me.

The sauce was complex and not too sweet. I ordered mine medium, husband had his hot. Neither of us were let down by these hotness ratings. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the vegetables within (bean sprouts, cilantro) were fresh.

Also, unlike many restaurants these days, the background music was truly that, instead of being poundingly loud, jarring, and making it hard to hold a conversation with your dining partner. This is something we appreciated.

We will go back here when we get a...

What has happened to one of our very favorite restaurants? While the ordering and pickup has vastly improved, the food and its packaging has deteriorated. One of our entree orders was put in a takeout box. When I started to remove the plastic covering, all of the sauce poured out of the container and onto the counter and floor below. We frantically attempted to transfer the content into a bowl, but by then the dish was totally dry. While the other entree was placed in one of the takeout boxes, the sauce in that dish had also poured out into the plastic bag. We were able to place all of the contents into a bowl before losing ALL of the sauce. I suggest they invest in better LEAK PROOF takeout containers. The Satay appetizer was cold, the peanut sauce was runny and way too sweet, and the Chinese pork fried rice (which was formerly DELICIOUS) was barely edible. I suggest they return to the former recipe for Chinese pork fried rice. I am tempted to return the entire order and demand our money be refunded. As it is I will be asking for more sauce to replace that which I had to clean up from my kitchen floor. needless to say, I won't be giving them any...

I hate to leave negative posts, but I truthfully didn't care for Spice Thai. I've had Thai a thousand times. I've traveled Thailand. I wasn't expecting that... But honestly the Pad Thai was just not good. I got the lunch special and as you can see from the menu, you can pick a few varieties of dishes, then your protein, then your spice level and sides. If I'm brutally honest, the chicken just had no flavor. It felt like it was cooked separately and just thrown in to make a fast combo. I don't know that that's how it's made but point is....the chicken was just really bland. The spice level was off too. I asked for medium; mine had none....zero. You couldn't have made it less spicy.

That said -- the fresh spring rolls were nice. Very large. You don't need to order an extra if you are doing the lunch combo. One is enough.

The service was really attentive and good. Very sweet gal seated me and checked in an appropriate number of times to make sure I was doing ok.

I'll maybe consider trying them for dinner sometime but if that's not a slam dunk, this place is...