Downtown Detroit's Orchid Thai restaurant closing suddenly after 18 years

One of the best-known places for pad thai and other Thai dishes in heart of downtown Detroit will no longer be.

Orchid Thai Restaurant on Monroe Street near Campus Martius is permanently closing.

The closure is sudden and the last day for the restaurant will be Tuesday.

At Orchid Thai, according to its website, "you will get and feel the same original Thai taste and spiciness like you were in Bangkok, Thailand."

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Reached by phone late Monday evening, Orchid Thai owner Ally Lee, who built the business in her 20s, said their lease ended and, after 18 years, it was probably "time to move on."

With an authentic menu of Thai food, Lee and her family opened Orchid Thai at 115 Monroe,  after encouragement from a relative.

"I realized my cuisine was lacking in the lower Woodward area," Lee said.

During its 18 years in business, Orchid Thai served plenty of downtown office workers for lunch and dinner.

On its final day, Lee said, the restaurant will be cooking up and serving the last of the food it has left.

"We have a lot of inventory and will open at 10:30 a.m. and be open until we run out of food," Lee said.

While the decision was last minute, Lee said, it seemed like the right thing to do. She called the closing "bittersweet."

"I personally talked to hundreds of customers a day, people I've known for at least a decade and a half," Lee said. "It's hard. It's like saying goodbye to family. But I've been doing this for a really long time and I think that all things have to come to an end and this just seems to be the right time."

The dishes on Orchid Thai's menus are from family recipes, passed down from generation to generation, she said. And its pad thai noodle dish is one of the restaurant's No. 1 sellers, Lee said.

"I call it candied pasta because it's sweet and tart and topped with crushed peanuts and bean sprouts," Lee said. "When I eat that dish, it tastes like peanut brittle and lemon drops dipped in warm honey."

Lee said she is personally invested in the city and is an alumna of Detroit public schools. It's the reason that she gives back to the community.

Lee, who previously worked for the city of Detroit, received the U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance Asian Hall of Fame 2022 Award, as well as a Testimonial Resolution Honor from Detroit's City Council in 2022. She is also a Mary Turner Community Leadership Award recipient.

During Orchid Thai's 18 years, Lee said, the restaurant has donated food to Forgotten Harvest, Alternative for Girls and homeless shelters. During the height of the pandemic, Lee said, Orchid Thai also donated to the city's police and fire departments and the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Even in the end, Orchid Thai's community work will continue.

After the restaurant closes, Lee said, they will donate all its furniture to Detroit public schools and she said she plans to give all the restaurant dishes to an organization that helps Ukrainian refugees.

Lee, a member of the Hmong community, said she is a refugee from Laos who, along with her parents, fled the Vietnam War.

"So, we can relate to the suffering the Ukrainians are going through right now," she said.

Lee thanked all her loyal customers for supporting the restaurant for the last 18 years and for the "opportunity to serve them and be part of the growth and revitalization of downtown Detroit."

Contact Detroit Free Press food writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Orchid Thai restaurant, near Detroit's Campus Martius, to close