I was very pleasantly surprised by this place. They were very willing to accommodate dietary modifications and have a decent number of vegetarian (able to be vegan easily) dishes.
The original plan was to have sushi a few doors down, but I was not pleased when I called to find out information about ingredients and they were unwilling to find out for certain. Yes, I realize that it is MY choice to no longer consume animal products, but there are people with legitimate allergies and there should be access to the ingredients of their products. But I digress, back to Modern Orchid!!
The interior is clean and open, and decor is typical for Asian restaurants with limited space. There is no clutter added just to add flair. The washroom was clean and well-stocked, although the ladies is a horrendous shade of pink (for my liking ;-)). The waitress was very pleasant and prompt, kept our water glasses full and asked about our meal experience at the end with specificity.
And on to the fooood...
I ordered the Thai Hot and Sour Soup with vegetables and tofu, a vegetable spring roll, and the Thai Golden Roll. E ordered a lunch special that included the Cashew Nut Vegetable stirfry, rice (which he upgraded to fried rice), spring roll, and a mango carrot salad. We both stuck to water.
The soup was super good. It was a tomato-based broth with lemongrass, lime, mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, carrots, shallot, and a good, but not overwhelming, does of heat. There was a decent amount of veg in the soup, which is pleasant considering some soups often are pretty scant on added bulk. It was served in a lovely homestyle handled bowl with a normal large spoon, rather than the one I expected, you know... the type you normally get for many Asian soups with the flat bottom. It was perfectly hot and sour with a fantastic swirl of liquids combining on the spoon. I was surprised, and later delighted, to see that after squeezing the lime for the juice they added the wedge to the bowl. Maybe it doesn't add anything, but I couldn't help but feel that it was contributing to the continued flavour merge. I could see myself craving a bowl of this soup - I'd highly recommend giving this one a shot!
The vegetable spring roll was also really good. They include vermicelli noodles which always makes me happy because so many places don't bother with much besides cabbage. Don't get me wrong, there was cabbage in the spring roll, but also carrot and noodle and possibly other things too, but the noodles kind of did it for me. It was served with an ordinary sweet and sour sauce, nothing super special about it.
The Thai Golden Roll is a raw spring roll, I got the veg, but there's also chicken or shrimp you could go for. It was loaded up with fresh veg and some more rice vermicelli (hurray) and served with a mango dipping sauce. I was expecting the sauce to be a sugary concoction barely reminiscent of mangoes, instead, it was akin to pureed mango and was very fresh. The only thing I didn't love about it was the way in which it was cut. Two rolls, cut into three pieces each meant that the middle piece did not have a rolled end to hold it in place if you were taking it in more than one bite, but let's be real, that's not really a big deal.
Of course, it wouldn't be a normal meal if I didn't try new food off E's plate :-) I had a small bit of his cashew vegetable stirfry, and first of all, the vegetables were cooked perfectly. I am a terrible stirfry cook, something is always overcooked and something is always undercooked, but Modern Orchid has their stuff down. Now their menu says it's a chili sauce, but I personally found that it tasted a bit teriyaki-like with a kick. Either way, it was tasty and with a good helping of cashews. It also had the same extra veg in it that my soup came with. The fried rice, of which I am just not a fan of in general, came with extra veg in that as well, some bean sprouts, carrots, onion etc. and tasted like fried rice. If you enjoy fried rice then you'll probably like it. The mango carrot salad was very plain, just some mango, carrot, and a very light dressing of sorts that I could not taste, but I could see the hint of red from maybe a chili powder or something. I ate the mango from it, but I was not over the moon for it. Bit boring, but ingredients were fresh and firm.
I will definitely be back, but I just know that I will be having hot and sour soup again. I am very excited to give one of the curries a try, they actually have a red, yellow, AND green option. I mean, talk about exciting choices!! read more