Herb

While Chicago has no shortage of wonderful BYOB Thai restaurants, there's one in particular changing the mold. Herb Thai in Edgewater is a sleek, affordable restaurant service elevated Thai food. With four menus representing each season, diners have the chance to order a la carte, or a three or six course meal. Prices are very reasonable, especially for the quality of the food. A three course dinner is $35, while six courses will cost you $55.

The BF and I stopped in on a Saturday night with our friends Courtney and Israel and the modern dining room was packed. We all decided to order three courses, including an appetizer, soup, and entree. We brought our own bottles of wine but had to ask for an opener and glasses. This is probably why there is no cork fee! Three courses per person was plenty--we couldn't imagine eating double the amount!

Our server brought out an amuse-bouche consisting of a betel leaf with toasted coconut, ginger, shallot, lime, bird's eye chili, peanut, and palm sugar sauce. We rolled the leaf like a taco and ate it in one bite. It was so refreshing and tasty!

Betel Leaf

The appetizers we ordered included grilled pork skewers with coriander root, lettuce, roasted banana pepper, and spicy tomato sauce, chicken and walnut tapioca dumpling with sweet radish, fried garlic, bird's eye chili, and zucchini, and the grilled beef with shallot, cucumber, coriander leaf, carrot, mint, red chili, toasted rice and chili lime dressing. I ordered the grilled beef and it was my favorite. It was super spicy and tangy! I also loved the beautiful plating of each dish which was very colorful and featured fresh flowers.

Grilled Pork

Chicken & Walnut Tapioca Dumpling

Grilled Beef

Our next course was the soup course. Herb's summer menu featured two options, a red snapper soup, and a mushroom soup. We tried a bit of both but the red snapper soup was the favorite. It featured cherry tomato, king mushroom, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, onion, coriander leaf, lime juice, bird's eye chili, basil, and coconut milk. The soup's components were artfully placed in the bowl and our server delicately poured the broth on top. The flavor was similar to a tom yum soup, but more flavorful.

Red Snapper Soup

Red Snapper Soup

The mushroom soup was plated in the same way and including enoki, shimeji, and king oyster mushrooms, heart of palm, and an herbal coconut broth. The dish also was garnished with a beautiful squash blossom.

Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup

Moving along to the main course, all four of us ordered something different. Courtney tried the pork belly with five spice stew, egg, collard green, shiitake mushrooms, pickled carrot and daikon with chili vinegar.

Pork Belly

Israel opted for the lamb with massaman curry, potato, yam, carrot, onion, and bay leaf.

Lamb

I went with the chicken curry in a Southern Thai coconut curry with fuzzy melon, butternut squash, Thai eggplant, bell pepper, kaffir leaf, and sweet basil. I was obsessed with the wonderfully flavorful and spicy curry and ate every last bite. It was one of those dishes I never wanted to end!

Chicken Curry

And lastly, the BF tried the lemongrass chicken with coriander, and lemongrass, with a spicy-sweet chili garlic sauce on the side.

Herbal Chicken

For dessert, our server brought each of us two spoons, one with a small bite of coconut layer cake, and the other a sweet mung bean dessert. Both had interesting texture and very sweet flavor.

Mung Bean & Coconut Layer Cake

The owner and chef, Patty Neumson, stopped by to chat with us and it was easy to see how passionate she is about her restaurant and cuisine. Pleasing her guests is most important to her and she had no problem pleasing us! We all loved everything we tried. Patty also brought out some Asian fruits for us to try including mangosteen, rambutan, and longan. I had tried the last two before, but the mangosteen was by far my favorite! It was a fun and refreshing end to our meal.

Mangosteen, Rambutan & Longan

We had such a great meal at Herb and I can't recommend it enough to others. No, you're not going to find fried rice or pad see eiw on the menu, but you will uncover amazing flavors and perhaps a few dishes you may never have tried before. I'm giving Herb 4.5 ghosts out of 5!

Herb
www.herbrestaurant.com
5424 N. Broadway St.
Chicago, IL 60640
773.944.9050