What Lemongrass Grill Lacks In Lunch Specials, It Makes Up For In Mustard Greens

I’ve been burned by most of the Thai restaurants I’ve tried in the FiDi, but yet I am optimistic that maybe one of the places I haven’t yet tried will blow my mind. One of those places was Lemongrass Grill on William (at Maiden Lane), and after I discovered they had no lunch special I kind of wrote the place off. But then a craving for Thai hit me and I decided to take a walk up the street to see what they offered for the ML budget.

If you want a reasonably-priced lunch, it’s best to look in the noodle and rice sections of the menu where you can eat for between $8 and $10. That’s where I found a couple of interesting items like Indonesian nasi goreng and what I eventually ordered – the mee Siam with chicken ($9).

I was not expecting it to be a soup, but that’s what it was. There was vermicelli in a green curry with some green beans, chicken, bean sprouts, and the best ingredient ever- pickled mustard greens. I have to give Lemongrass Grill props for throwing that in there because most Thai (and Chinese) places down here keep it safe with the ingredients and spice factor. This had some heat to it, and they didn’t skimp on the mustard greens. If only I could have gotten some pork in this, it would have been kind of like a pork chop over rice in soup form.

The only complaint I had with my lunch was the white meat chicken in there. Really, the broth was so full of delicious oil that dark meat chicken probably wouldn’t have made much difference in the fat department. This is not going to be the best Thai (or southeast Asian food) you’ve ever had, but I thought it was better than Bennie’s Thai and light years ahead of 22 Thai Cuisine.

Lemongrass Grill, 84 William St. (at Maiden Lane), (212) 809-8038

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3 Comments

  • The pad-see-ew at Lemongrass is decent, better than Bennie’s. What about Cafe Sage on John St. next to the BonChon? Any one eaten there? Been meaning to hit it one of these days.

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    I’ve only done the steam table lunch special at Cafe Sage and it wasn’t that great. I think everything else on the menu there is at or out of ML price range.

  • So, I crave thai and my husband won’t eat it with me at home and I was so psyched I scrolled back to find this review earlier because I had a hankering. Just wanted to say thank you, I had the mee Siam and it was satisfying and filling. Also, good to know about Cafe Sage because my office is down the street but I’ll still skip it.

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