A lot of you villains complain we focus too much on the downtown/corner area of Charlottesville and neglect that far corners of our elitist community.  I thought I would listen to some of you and try something new, and very far away from the welcome comfor the downtown mall has to offer.  Yes, thats right, I ate at a strip-mall restaurant (gasp!).  Not just any strip mall restaurant, Lime Leaf Thai Restaurant in the Rio Hill shopping center (same place as Crutchfield and Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts). What drew me there was a combination of hunger and that intoxicating wok/burnt sugar smell that was in the parking lot air. Nothing spells tasty food like tasty smoke…mmm mmm good.

I tried the three dishes any Thai restaurant should be judged with: pad thai, pad see ew, and the tom yum soup. The reason being these are easy to find street food picks in Bangkok, and if you can’t get street food right in a professional kitchen, you just gotta go…Lime Leaf can stay however. Find out what made all of these dishes zoom.

Ambiance

Rio Hill Shopping Center looks like a run down 1980’s relic. Step inside Lime Leaf and you are transported to 2009, in a good way. The decor is exotic yet inviting. Warm dark woods lead you to your table. While the abundance of orchids adds to the setting, don’t give them too much credit, they are fake. Then again, imagine trying to maintain 50 orchids in a commercial setting, you would probably go crazy. The place even has a bar. So the next time your girlfriend is shopping for fabric or new sewing machine attachments at Jo-Anne’s around the corner, head over to the bar and order a draft Bass Ale or Stella. Ya, two decent beers randomly found in a Thai restaurant, awesome.

Food

Tom Yum Soup
A sweet and sour soup interpretation by the Thais, this soup fuses the sharp sour taste of fish sauce with the soothing kaffir lime leaf and lemongrass combo. Throw in some brown sugar and dried chili pods and your mouth is so busy it feels like a fat kid at a chocolate cake buffet. The stock they used (liquid) was very good with a well balanced taste. My only gripe were the mushrooms. They definitely tasted as if they were thrown into the bowl at the last minute before serving. What this does barely warms up the shroom and it doesn’t impart any of its flavor in the soup, and the soup doesn’t get sucked into the shroom. Lose-lose situation. If you aren’t a picky shroomer, ignore this and order away. Giving the quality of the stock in this soup, I would imagine the tom kha gai soup (coconut chicken) is just as good, if not better.

Pad Thai
Ah, the most popular dish at any Thai restaurant and no doubt the only reason why Thai food became popular in the USA. I hate ordering this dish because it is so dam cliche given my experience eating Thai food, but like I said, at a new place, this is a good dish to judge the rest of its creations on. I ordered both the pad thai and pad see ew “Thai spicy”. At Lime Leaf that means 4 stars. Thais love their food hot, and Lime Leaf means business. I wasn’t trying to prove anything by ordering it hot, I just didn’t think it would bother me that much. I handled the spice fine, but between temperature hot food and insane chilis, you just cant eat it as fast as you would like. If you like spicy food, like really spicy, I would suggest ordering a 3 star dish, that is what I will do anyways.

Ok, so the presentation, as seen in the above pic was awesome. The portion was perfectly sized for a hefty appetite. The eggs, sauce, crumbled peanuts and chicken were all cooked very well…nothing was overlooked on this dish, as it should never be. It was a success. Was it the best pad thai I have had? Impossible, you can’t compete with Bangkok street food. Best pad thai in Charlottesville? Yes.

Pad See Ew
WTF is pad see ew? I will tell you what it is…sticky soy cause mixed with chili, wide Chinese noodles, Chinese broccoli and your choice of meat or tofu. I am pretty sure this is the Thai version of Beef Chow Foon that you can get at any Cantonese restaurant or dim sum operation. FYI there is a large Cantonese minority in Thailand and they have influenced the cuisine a lot. This is a great dish if you love chewing on noodles, really good ones. You know what I am talking about. What really makes this dish is how well the sauce gets sucked into the noodles and how well the wok sears them and the eggs, while not imparting a burnt flavor. Lime Leaf did a great job with this. Again the only thing that got in my way was 4 star spice. Thai food is always so delicious, you want to eat it quickly. Fresh from the wok+1lb of chili powder does not make this an easy task.

Price

Most of the entrees are between $9-$11. For some reason I thought this was a bit expensive while deciding what to order. Looking back, the food and presentation were good, and the cost of food continues to increase. Maybe we have been spoiled by cheap Asian food for so long we always balk at anything over $5. The check came to around $30 with tip and Thai iced tea. I won’t comment on Thai iced tea as most restaurants use a pre made thai tea mix/syrup laden with high fructose corn syrup. Find me a place in town that makes their tea fresh and mixes it with a new can of condensed mix and consider me converted.

Conclusion

I previously thought Lemongrass Thai on the corner was the best in town but my Thai feathers are now ruffled. Can this strip mall spot beat the hipsters and students focal point? I would like to say “yes”, emphatically, however the Level 2 test of a Thai restaurant is its curry offering. Most will skimp out on the curry base and use cheap ingredients…like water instead of a good chicken/beef/veggie stock, or shitty curry paste. Its all in the ingredients.  Next time you are hungry and stuck on 29, head to Rio Hill and give this place a try.

Lime Leaf Thai Restaurant
1958 Rio Hill Ctr
Charlottesville, VA‎ – (434) 245-8884‎
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[pic from spicy bear on flickr]

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