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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Lemongrass manager Pichaya Nelson offers up a chicken satay appetizer, one of the many unusual items on the Thai restaurant's menu.
Lemongrass prides itself on serving unique dishes
By Michelle Ku
For Mayuree Nelson, authenticity and quality are two goals that she strives to meet at the Lemongrass Thai Restaurant.
Nelson, the owner and a native of Thailand, opened Lemongrass more than a year ago.
"I love the restaurant business," Nelson said. "Our family back home has a restaurant business."
When Nelson lived in Southern California, she owned and operated a restaurant also called Lemongrass. With her family's years of experience and her own training, Nelson chose to try her hand at another restaurant.
The menu offers a variety of traditional Thai dishes from chicken satay--marinated chicken broiled on a skewer and served with peanut sauce--to pad Thai, pan-fried rice-stick noodles with chicken, egg, peanut, bean sprout and ground peanuts.
Lemongrass prides itself on serving dishes rarely found on any other menu, Nelson said.
Two hard-to-find appetizers are karee puff and mieng kum.
Karee puff is an appetizer made of ground chicken, potatoes, onion and curry wrapped in a crispy crust and served with sweet and sour cucumber sauce. Mieng kum is made of grilled shrimp, roasted coconut, onion, chili, ginger, lime and peanuts, and is served on a spinach leaf with sweet chili sauce. Both cost $6.95.
One of the most popular dishes is tom kha khai, a spicy and sour chicken coconut milk soup with lemongrass, galanga and mushrooms for $7.95.
The garlic-lover shrimp is another crowd pleaser. The shrimp is sautéed with garlic and pepper and costs $5.95.
Lemongrass doesn't ignore its health-conscious customers either. The restaurant boasts a separate vegetarian menu with a variety of curries and stir-fried mixed vegetables ranging in price from $5.95 to $9.95.
Thai food is traditionally viewed as spicy, but Nelson says it doesn't have to be. At Lemongrass, customers can request the spice level--mild, medium, hot and extra hot--on any dish to fit their palates.
"It's about a combination of the herbs, spices, roots and leaves carefully blended to complement the main ingredient," Nelson said.
Lemongrass Thai Cuisine is at 122 South Sunnyvale Ave. The phone number is (408) 735-9050. Lemongrass is open seven days a week. Lunch is 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and dinner is 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
