Spice Thai

For the better part of two decades, non-Thais looking for Thai food in the southern part of Orange County debated whether to visit one of two similarly named businesses: Thai Spice or Spice Thai. There was one Spice Thai, and for a time, multiple Thai Spice locations, the latter a fast-casual chain that somehow managed to serve a small menu of really excellent Thai dishes at affordable prices. Lunch specials and multi-location convenience made Thai Spice easy to visit.

But foodies insisted that Spice Thai was a much better option if you were in or near Lake Forest – and they were correct. Over time, most all of Thai Spice’s locations folded, and its once strong reputation for quick, high-quality fast food crumbled. Thankfully, Spice Thai (now on its second generation of management) is still going strong.

Its Lake Forest location still occupies the corner spot in a plaza, and between dine-in customers and people picking up take-out orders, the small dining room can get cramped. At lunch, it offers an abbreviated menu of Thai basics that is on par with the old Thai Spice collection, but also has a much larger collection of classics that cover all the traditional Thai bases from 25 years ago: yellow, green, panang red, and mussamun curries, spicy beef or papaya salads, tom yum and coconut soups, plus pad thai, crying beef and satays, plus stir-fried entrees. Everything we’ve tasted was prepared to relatively high standards.