lemon_grass

lemon_grass. First thing that comes to my mind was the Thai lemon_grass in Lan Kwai Fong, HK. The second one was the other place called lemon_grass in Toronto. However, I never relate this new lemon_grass restaurant to the one on Bayview since the look and feel are quite different. (Also, this new lemon_grass definitely caters more to the Asian population.) That¡¯s why it somewhat suprised me when I found out this restaurant is acutally under the same management/company as the other restaurants e.g. lemon_grass, Riz, Saigon Star and Green Papaya. But if I knew it after the meal, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised at all since the food there really resemble the ones at Saigon Star. The deco of lemon_grass is actually pretty nice. High ceiling, white IKEA-style lanterns on the side where you can see from outside, dark-brown wooden tables and chairs¡­

Friday night 8:30p.m., walking into this new restaurant. Full-house, but we were quite lucky that we didn¡¯t have to wait too long for the table. Seated and looking at the menu, there was a pretty wide selection of dishes, from thai to vietnamese to somewhat chinese. There was also a special 1-page menu listing all the best-picks.

Here¡¯re what we ordered for the night.

Shrimp salad roll as a starter.
Taste was okay; not as greasy as spring roll.
I already had enough dim sum from Friday¡¯s lunch.

Spicy Fried BIG prawn!!! Seasonal price - approx. $10 each.
But it was sooo yummy¡­ Does it look familiar to you?
The ones from Saigon Star are also this huge.

Thai-style pineapple fried rice. Quite good.
With lots of shrimps, chicken pieces, diced pineapple, etc.
The look was very appetizing.

Finally, the charcoal broiled pork (neck). Tasted very good. But I would recommend 4 people sharing instead of 2 coz it¡¯d be much better if you eat it with rice, but you can only each so much rice¡­ Pork neck is the most ¡°crispy¡± part when cooked. How can I describe it? But you gotta try it yourself.

Overall, including 2 lemon cokes, excluding tips, total came to $57 for two people. But I think lemon_grass is still worth-going once in a while. Downside is that they don¡¯t accept credit card!!!! I know, that¡¯s just ridiculous. But I guess it might be because they haven¡¯t had it installed yet. During Friday night, there were about 6 waiters/waitresses, and another 2 persons at the bar. Services was ok, food delivery could be a bit faster.

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