While the majority of Thai restaurants boast some exotic (and usually highly priced) dishes, Tara Thai across the street more than makes up for all those uppity “Asian-fusion” slop-houses you see. Tucked amid the relatively quiet commercial block behind Pizza Hut on College Road, Tara Thai is a place where food is what it is. It’s a restaurant that doesn’t try to pretend to be anything more than a great place to eat. At Tara Thai you won’t find yourself paying for ten-foot-tall bronze statues of Buddha or some decadent waterfalls, but you will find a great place to grab lunch for cheap.

The first thing that you notice coming into Tara Thai are the usually empty tables, and esoteric wall furnishings, but looking past that you find a quaint little restaurant that is big on taste, variety, and a love of food. With one of the largest lunch menus in town, there’s no better place to spend six bucks, especially considering how close it is to campus.

All I can say is that their Pad Thai is my savior concerning hangovers, break-ups, car accidents, and even debilitating sicknesses. Coming standard with a heap of chicken and possibly the best-made tofu I’ve ever stomached, Pad Thai is a hearty and flavorful standby, and one I never pass up. Tofu has never been a friend of mine, and while I’ve always heard its praise, I never believed in such hysteria over this uniquely textured and uncomfortable food. The golden brown morsels buried in the Pad Thai noodles looked a lot more like chicken than any tofu I’ve ever choked down, and from the first moment, I was hooked.

That was three years ago.

But about the food. In addition to the venerable Pad Thai, I would also suggest a rich dish of masamun curry with chicken and a bed of rice, staying true to Thailand’s love of spice without cooking your face off.

At Tara Thai, the food is never served without an appetizer of the day’s soup, and each dish also comes with a spring roll. That is to say, the portions are right on the money, and for only $5.95 a plate, with shrimp or duck an extra two bucks, that is a deal one could hardly pass up.

Once, last Thanksgiving, every dish had turkey in it, and there was really nothing to say to the servers to keep the feathered fiend out of my Pad Thai. That being said, turkey Pad Thai is certainly an eclectic, and totally American, twist to the traditional and ubiquitous Thai dish. It is precisely this intrepid combination that represents what food means at Tara Thai, and while I may be venturing out on a limb, food there is an adventure, one that should be taken in with plenty of good drinks, and a heaping dash of spirituality. Despite how tucked away Tara Thai is, this little Asian oasis is unique in its style and approach to good eating, one that is at once refreshing and gastronomically delightful. And as Quaker Village begins to sound its death-knell, places like Tara Thai are fast becoming the bastions of homegrown goodness.

Places like this depend on student patronage, enhancing our little suburb of Greensboro far more than any store at Friendly Center ever could.