The Eastside of Cleveland is pretty pathetic when it comes to regionally diverse restaurant offerings.  Let’s see you’ve got American Fare, Italian, take-out Chinese and maybe a Japanese steakhouse which I have to believe is about truly Japanese as a Styrofoam Cup-O-Ramen.  However, there is a new kid on the block trying to change that by bringing authentic Thai cuisine to sleepy Pepper Pike, Peppermint Thai Cuisine.

Located in a roadside shopping center near Heinens, the unpretentious exterior of Peppermint might cause you to miss it.  My wife and I visited on a Saturday afternoon finding plenty of parking right in front of the restaurant.  With 30-40 tables in a wide open restaurant, Peppermint can hold quite a crowd, but they were slow with only a few other tables occupied during our trip.

Fat Man Tip: Try Peppermint during lunch.  You’ll find the same menu items, but at a 40% discount over their dinner prices.

Peppermint offers a big menu with dozens of traditional Thai dishes like noodle bowls, fried rice and curries.  From the moment we decided to go I had my heart set on a spicy Thai curry, but to start out the meal we tested their chicken satay to see how it measured up.  While the chicken was average its accompanying peanut and cucumber sauces were awesome.  I’m thinking a smart man will one day figure out how to add alcohol to the peanut sauce to make one delicious shot.

With the restaurant being slow the service was excellent although it was almost to the point of overbearing.  Many free waiters and waitresses meant that someone was checking in on us ever two minutes.  We also had a bit of an issue with our waitress understanding what we wanted, I don’t believe she understood English too well, but it all got sorted out when a manager came over to help her.

While Peppermint offers a number of Thai-style curries, I opted for the Panang Curry ($8.95), a sweet and spicy coconut milk based curry with red and green peppers, mushrooms, green beans, eggplant and kaffir lime leaves.  I wish the dish would have come with two more items, a camera and something with which to capture the smell.
The dish was beautiful with tons of meat and vegetables in a thick pink-tinted sauce, I almost didn’t want to eat it.  I said almost.  The smell wafting up from my plate was intoxicating and I’m pretty sure it is the undiscovered cure for the common cold.

The Panang curry tasted as good as it looked.  The vegetables and meats were cooked perfectly, but the jasmine rice soaking up the potent sauce was worth the price alone.  Plus, the portion was enough that once I was full there was still enough left for another meal. 

Peppermint Thai Cuisine provided for an excellent and unique dining experience, especially for the Eastside of Cleveland.  Outstanding service and delicious food made for a great lunch in Pepper Pike which might very well be the last place you’d think to find a Thai restaurant.