REVIEW: Thai Orchid (Take-Out)

785 Robert Blvd.
Slidell, LA

View the menu

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Overall:
Service:	It was take-out!
Atmosphere:	It was take-out!
Food:
Price:

Pros: The dishes and flavors you would expect from a Thai restaurant.
Cons: Nothing extraordinary to make it truly stand out from other Thai restaurants.
Bottom Line: Solid, satisfying Thai food and good for take-out.

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Sometimes after a long day, you'd much rather curl up on the couch in your pajamas to eat dinner instead of having to get dressed and dine in a restaurant. For that reason, we feel it's important to include take-out reviews in this blog in addition to the traditional dining reviews. It is often difficult for dishes to carry as well at home as in the restaurant. Not only are you missing the ambiance of the restaurant contributing to your dining experience, but the dishes have to be packaged in unattractive containers - often separated into elements you have to recombine yourself - and survive the trip home, losing the perfect temperature along the way. But who doesn't love good take-out now and then? So, it's part of the Hippo goal to clue you in to some of the restaurants who do the take-out thing well.

So, when the Hippos were worn out from a long day of work, we turned to Thai Orchid for some comforting Thai take-out. When we got to the restaurant, the food was already waiting for us to pick up. Though it was nice that the food was ready without us having to wait, sitting out meant it didn't stay at hot as it could have. The restaurant only had one table filled with diners and only one other take-out order waiting, so we guess they had some time on their hands. (In their defense, we didn't eat dinner until pretty late that night.) When we got home, the food was still warm (but not piping hot), and the portions were generous.

The first dish we tried was the traditional Pad Thai with chicken. It definitely met our expectations flavor-wise of what we expect in a Pad Thai, but it didn't exceed them. One downside was that the noodles were rather oily, creating a less appealing texture and appearance. Other than that, the dish was a decent, typical Pad Thai.

Our second dish was the Gaeng Kaew Wan with pork, or a green curry dish with coconut milk. The dish had a bit of heat to it, but it was not overpowering. There was a large amount of bamboo shoots in the dish, but it also included a pleasant combination of vegetables - eggplant, red and green bell pepper, and carrots. Again, portion size was generous, but we were not given enough rice for the amount of sauce provided. This was odd, since steamed white rice is usually given in abundance with take-out. Eaten in these proportions, it would be a very soupy dish. The smoothness of the coconut milk combined with the heat of the curry made an appealing dish. It was good enough to eat again, but not necessarily something we loved so much that we'd have to get it over and over.

Thai Orchid provided the comforting, familiar flavors we expect from a Thai restaurant. The food seemed pretty authentic - it felt home-cooked and not commercialized. And, with the exception of the stingy serving of rice, it definitely served its purpose for good take-out. The food did hold up well from the restaurant to our home. We'll probably eat at Thai Orchid again (especially since there aren't many other Thai restaurants in Slidell), but they do still have room to grow in terms of flavors if they want to really set themselves apart from being "just another Thai restaurant."