Savory starts, sweet scratch-made endings at Lemongrass Thai Kitchen | Review
At Lemongrass Thai Kitchen in Oviedo, which I’m almost certain is the only Thai restaurant that’s been here in the 20 years I’ve been a Central Floridian, chef Tui Dakum makes the durian ice cream in-house. Creamy, cool, in a pale and lovely shade of peach, the scoop sits atop a bright green square of warm, sweet sticky rice. The pairing ($8) is pretty darn exquisite for its flavors, triply so so for the varying textures and temps.
It makes you wish you ate less for dinner. Almost.
“Do you ever serve it with actual durian?” I ask Vickie Dakum. She runs the front of the house.
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She chuckles, and I can guess the answer. Durian, of course, is a notorious love-it-or-hate-it fruit. Popular in Southeast Asia, it’s also banned from many public spaces because some folks find its odor, well — pungent.
“Some customers say they have tried durian, and it smells icky,” she tells me, noting that sometimes if they ask, she’ll bring a small sample. “But with the ice cream, you don’t have the smell. It’s just sweet and really good.”
Dakum employs monthlong durian, a more commonly used variety and arguably the mildest in both smell and flavor, the latter of which is downright ambrosial. Soothing. And a very happy ending to the potential fire of the meal.
“How hot do you want it?” our server inquired, running through our options.
I always want to say “Thai hot,” but this gig stops me at least half the time. How can I properly asses the entrees if I blow out my taste buds on a laab ($14) that is as incendiary as fresh?
The answer this evening was tom kha kai ($6), one of my favorite Thai go-tos. Coconut-creamy in flavor but with broth-like weight, this simple soup beautifully showcases the nation’s culinary cornerstones of sweet, salty and sour. It’s aromatic, too, and while you can make it spicy, here it is served as a cooling counter to the fiery minced chicken of the laab. This salad could easily serve as an entree but shared, it sets the stage for more. On another visit, piquant and lime-infused beef salad ($16), a classic, was the fire starter of the evening.
Service here is friendly and attentive and the spacious footprint allows one to watch the hospitality bees buzz. Those familiar with the location might remember it as a Barnie’s Coffee. It took the Dakums, and their third partner, chef Sa Schmeider, two years to transform that shop into its present incarnation, and the locals appear thrilled for their efforts.
Nearly all the tables lining the wall were full and lively (this, on the later end of a rainy Friday evening), and amid warm woods enhanced by gentle lighting, the mood was jovial, bolstered by bright yellow-green accents.
“We chose the name Lemongrass because it is an ingredient in almost every dish of Thai food,” Dakum explains. “The design ties in. It’s why we use this color in the restaurant.”
The trio, Tui Dakum from Udon Thani, Vickie from Surat Thani and Schmeider from Nakhon Ratchasima, together rep north, central and south. Familiarity is foremost in the menu, for now, Dakum says, but that said, the offerings are broad, with sauces and preparations aplenty on proteins that span from tofu and chicken to whole, bone-in fish. In the future, the repertoire is likely to grow.
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“People know and love soups like tom yum goong and tom kha kai; they know all the curries, and the most popular noodle is the pad thai.”
It took us a while to get to noodles, instead rolling with server recommendations like the Lemongrass signature curry ($24), a formidable serving of shrimp, squid and beautifully prepped scallops in a warm, lightly creamy sauce redolent of lime and yes, lemongrass. The duck entree ($22) — my companion went with the basil sauce — showed up on a sizzling platter, tossed with peppers and onions, its skin crisp and meat tender. The boneless prep will appeal to many who balk at the picking and sucking duck often requires.
The steamed fish called to me from the outset but eluded me on both visits — my fault, not theirs. Not realizing filets ($24) were an option, I thought I was ordering the whole snapper. But my consolation, steamed and steeped in a brothy gingery sauce, was hardly disappointing. And those noods (we went with drunken, $24, toothy and piquant amid sliced pork) hit the spot, as well.
Leftovers were plentiful and included several spongy, spicy fish cakes ($13) from an ample app we’d ordered earlier. No dessert this time, though. But weirdly, that ice cream nearly had me carting one of these mace-like fruits home from the market for my daughter to try. Then I realized perhaps a visit to Lemongrass would be a nice soft entry into the realm of the King of Fruits.
One that would pass the smell test.
If you go
Lemongrass Thai Kitchen: 1016 Lockwood Blvd. in Oviedo, 407-542-0658; lemongrassoviedo.com
Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.
