Wine and Walnuts

I’ve always loved Indochine.  Very good Thai and Vietnamese food, and so close to my house, too.  On New Year’s Eve, a friend and I decided to brave the crowds and have dinner here.  If you’re a Wilmingtonian, you know how packed this place can get, and on New Year’s Eve, I was betting it would be slightly chaotic.  So we arrived at 5:00 p.m.  Yeah, crazy, right?  I mean who besides your grandparents eats dinner at 5:00 p.m.?  But it was New Year’s Eve, and I sure was glad we picked that time as we sat there and watched the restaurant fill to capacity, and then saw the bar spill over with folks waiting for a table.  And this was all before 6:00 p.m. When we left at a little before 7:00, I practically needed a crow bar to get my car out of the parking lot.  All of which speaks to the popularity of this place.

I had what I always have, the chicken pad thai (creature of habit and all that). My friend had the ginger chicken, and both were as expected — delicious and oh-so-satisfying, and with plenty of leftovers to take home.  In fact, I just enjoyed the rest of my pad thai about 10 minutes ago, a very good New Year’s Day lunch, indeed.  (I know here in the South it’s all about black-eyed peas, typically cooked with some kind of ham, and served with collard or other greens for New Year’s Day, but not for me. I’d rather eat left over Thai food.)

Indochine’s menu is about 10 pages long, so you’re sure to find something to fall in love with here.  As for me, I keep telling myself I will try one of the many, many other delights on the menu one day, but I keep going back to the pad thai. I am still lovesick and enamored of it, and I don’t seem to have eyes for anything else when I go there.  Though I’ll admit to a budding fondness for the ginger chicken.  ; )

Another of Indochine’s singular charms is it’s lovely interior and exterior, spaces made beautiful by a rapt attention to every detail. Half the joy of going here for me is the visual feast of the décor.  If you can ever get the outdoor room for a party, do so; it’s especially lovely.  If you’ve never been to the restaurant itself, Indochine’s website will give you a small taste of the visual delights you can expect; go to the home page and look through the slides.  But you must go here in person to really experience the vibrant warmth of this place.  I don’t know, there’s something about being in this space that makes me feel calm, like everything is right with the world. 

For hours and location, go here.

Tags: ginger chicken, Indochine, pad thai, thai food, Vietnamese food

This entry was posted by Kimberly Houston on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Wilmington Eats and Drinks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.