Spice up your life at The Spice Island Tea House

The Spice Island Tea House 253 Atwood Street 412-687-8821 $$ Panther Funds? No

The… The Spice Island Tea House 253 Atwood Street 412-687-8821 $$ Panther Funds? No

The Spice Island Tea House boasts cheap prices, delicious food and a funky atmosphere on a sign outside its Atwood entrance.

Spice Island’s Pan-Asian menu offers moderately priced cuisine for vegetarians and meat lovers, with tastes from Thailand, India, Burma, China and Indonesia. The alcove’s bohemian atmosphere is a fun, casual place to get adventurous with Asian spice.

At the height of lunchtime, customers were packed wall to wall, but the friendly hostess greeted me immediately after I opened the door and directed me to a table with mix-matched chairs and silverware.

I was happy not to observe an overdone Asian decorating theme, and the exposed piping and jars of tea leaves were simple and satisfying.

Prompt servers asked if I was ready to order before I had a chance to read through half of Spice Island’s alcohol and food menus.

Ordering was trickier than the dim lights and yellowed walls had led me to expect. The options were diverse and numerous, with something for nearly every Asian preference.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls ($2.50) arrived quickly along with a glass of the House Iced Tea ($1). The mild spring rolls crunched perfectly, delicate outer shells shattering to allow the accompanying sweet sauce to seep into the mild, soft interior.

Both the Ginger Salad ($4.25) and the Tea Leaf Salad ($4.25) sounded tantalizing. But I couldn’t resist tasting a tea salad at The Spice Island Tea House. The combination of cabbage, onion, peanuts, tomato and young tea leaves turned out to be a little disappointing.

The spicy garlic lemon marinade dominated the dish, tending to dull the brightness of a salad, especially the flavor of tea leaves. But roasted peanuts and crisp vegetables provided marvelous texture, and the salad was undeniably satisfying to crunch.

The Spice Island Tea House offers all the categories of Asian entr’eacute;es American customers will be accustomed to seeing, plus more.

The menu lists delights such as Mohinga of Burma ($6.95), a fish broth soup with thin wheat noodles, flavored with onion, garlic, lemon grass and fried chick peas, and Burmese Barbecued Chicken ($7.95), prepared with a yogurt honey curry lime paste and hot chili peppers.

It was nearly impossible to overlook the Ever Famous Pad Thai ($7.50), a stir-fried dish with chicken, shrimp, onion, crushed peanuts, bean sprouts and egg in a tangy sauce, or the Thai Basil Fried Rice ($6.95).

Considering the Pad Thai was already famous I eventually settled on the Curried Shrimp ($8.95). The bubbly server presented the shrimp in a hearty Indonesian-style tomato curry sauce with large chunks of onion and bell peppers, next to a mound of white, soft coconut rice.

The modest presentation belied the complex, savory flavors. The thick tomato curry sauce drenched the caramelized vegetables and shrimp in a pleasant, lingering spiciness. The sauce begins sweet and transitions to tangy, ending with a slow, powerful kick.

When coupled with the mild coconut rice, the curry sauce, full of whole spices, reaches new levels of complexity. The shrimp were well cooked but the curry failed to highlight their distinctive flavor, making them appear like a recipe afterthought.

The vegetables took center stage, as is customary in Asian cuisine, keeping the dish relatively authentic.

However, the Lemon Grass Beef and the Curried Chicken, (both $6.50 during lunch), are slow cooked, imparting a diffused, well-rounded flavor.

The Lemon Grass Beef is marinated and simmered in a Burmese tomato curry, while the Curried Chicken is cooked, in bone, in a coconut based sauce flavored with turmeric, onion, hot chili pepper, garlic and ginger.

Not all Spice Island’s curries are meat-based. The menu features The Vegetarian Curry Trio (7.95), eggplant, string bean and potato in a spicy red curry sauce, and promises to make any dish vegetarian with an additional $.50 for tofu.

The Spice Island Tea House has a huge tea list, not surprisingly, and brews a different house iced tea each day. It also features a large, eclectic alcohol selection.

Wine goes from about $5 a glass and $20 a bottle to $8 and $27, respectively. The beer selection includes everything from lagers, like the Singha from Thailand, to lights, and hails from around the world.

With a diverse menu, hip atmosphere and friendly service, The Spice Island Tea House delivers everything promised on its modest sidewalk sign with finesse.