A Tale Of Two Thais

Thai Nipa
4315 Lemmon Ave
Dallas, TX 75219
Phone: 214-526-6179






I whined and I whined about how there are no good Thai restaurants in my neighborhood.

"I have to go all the way up to Lovers Lane go get Thai food at Mango and really its not even real Thai, its schizo Thai!", I whined to my friend Mark

"How 'bout Toy's?" - Mark said.

Oh yeah, thats right, I always forget about Toys, its so small and in such a strange strip mall.

"How 'bout Thai Nipa?" - Mark said.

Thai Nipa? No, I think I've seen it though. Isnt that on Lemmon?

So off we go to Thai Nipa.

Don't bother getting dressed up, really. In fact, I think you if are still in your jammies or maybe boxers and wife beater, that would be entirely acceptable. It seems to be largely take out service anyway. You will not see or be seen here; noone will care if you drive a freshly detailed 500SL or rusted out El Camino filled with empty Whataburger bags. This is about the plate.

The Thai Egg Rolls surprised me. I was expecting light summer fare; the clear rice paper rolled variety with herbs. Instead, the plate the server brought had two large torpedos, HUGE. The torpedos were stuffed with all forms of cabbage plus pork granules and some herbs; they were deep fried and a spicy sweet sauce with chopped peanuts tagged along. DEE-licious.

I had the Spicy Eggplant with Basil & Shrimp. YUMM-y. I had a similar dish at Toys which was also good but Toy's uses much more herb in their preparation. I think this is because Toy's is vegetarian only. Nipa's rendition was just the right amount of basil, hot pepper and fish sauce. I felt comfortable full after finishing, not like I needed to unbutton and assume the Al Bundi position.

Mark had the Thai Chicken with Black Mushrooms. He wanted it a little spicy but there must have been a communication gap. The server responded as though she understood. "Oh, you like a spicy, I make a spicy". She giggled and covered her mouth in that cute Asian girl way then mumbled something in Thai or whatever to the cook. Whatever she said must have been Thai for launch a flame thrower and scorch the hell out of Mark's mucosal linings. A wee bit warm. Even I could see the red pepper flakes were far more numerous than they should have been. Ouch. Mark is a good sport though, he managed to eat half of it without spontaneously combusting.

"Uh oh, I think I feel the ring of fire coming later on." - Mark said

"Dont worry, I'll bring over the blue ice boxers for you later." - I said, being the good friend.

Hey, what are friends for?

Be careful when asking for spice at Thai Nipa.

Thai Nipa is very inexpensive, except for the large fish dishes, everything is about $6-8. I would imagine that the lunch menu is even less expensive. Service was good, not surprising since we were 2 of 3 people seated.

Also good and on the other side of Lemmon



Toys Cafe
4422 Lemmon Ave Ste B
Dallas, TX 75219
Phone: 214-528-7233

Toy's will only do cash.