My grandparents have lived in Bloomfield Hills since I was born. When I saw them for the first time after starting at Organic, they had just one question for me: “Where have you been going for lunch?”

Me: “Well … There’s not a whole lot around here.”

Them: “We know!”

I’m an Ann Arbor native and have lived there for most of my life (minus college and a brief stint in Buenos Aires). That means I’m a bonified food snob. I used to work right on the U-M campus, just a few blocks from three (yup, three) sushi joints, two Middle Eastern places, two pubs, a Thai place, Korean hole-in-the-wall, deli, salty Chinese oasis, knock-off Chipotle – and that’s not even counting the many chains (Jimmy John’s, Potbelly, Noodles & Co., Cosi, and Great Wraps, just to name a few).

On my first day at Organic, my official buddy, Paul Gazda, and EM extraordinaire Emily Pasquier Harrington took me out to Bloomfield Hill’s finest: The Moose Preserve Bar & Grill. The Moose is a cozy lodge of restaurant with a friendly wait staff and a reputation for warm chocolate chip cookies. I think I ordered a steak salad. The steak was tender and flavorful even if the surrounding veggies were limp disappointments. The jalapeno-cheese roll that came with the salad was random, but tasty. I wasn’t blown away by any means, but I certainly wasn’t discouraged — until the next time I went out to eat and the group chose the same restaurant. I was starting to get suspicious: Was this the only halfway decent place to eat in the area?

After sampling Sushi Hana (mediocre sushi, but like pizza, sometimes mediocre sushi is still pretty good), a veteran Organic, Bridget McKinley, offered to take me out to one of the two Thai places in the area. Now, let me be clear: I am smitten with Thai food. It’s the one “ethnic” cuisine I consistently crave. I love the basil, the lime, the coconut milk. They’re not exotic ingredients, but they have the power to transport you to another world. I’m not necessarily picky when it comes to Thai, but I do think there are some basic standards that must be upheld: the food shouldn’t be too sweet, spiciness shouldn’t come at the cost of flavor, and the sauce better not be thick and syrupy. (To me, thick sauces are a red flag because they say, “I don’t have enough flavor not to be full of thickeners!”)

I wasn’t expecting much from Lemon Grass Thai, a small restaurant off of Opdyke. It’s small, sparsely decorated, and generally looks like one of those places that does the bare minimum to pass for whatever type of food it’s selling. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

After you’re seated at Lemon Grass, a hot bowl of soup gets placed in front of you almost right away. That definitely got my attention (I’m a soup fiend!). The soup is a riff on sweet and sour – but a bit less sweet and slightly spicier. No complaints here — Brothy Asian soup is like my thing. And this soup, though a little thick for my liking (I’m sure there’s some thickening agent in there), set a decent tone. It was hot (don’t even get me started on lukewarm soup!) pleasantly spiced, and filled with thin rice noodles that add a nice texture. But it’s easy to woo me with soup, so LG would have to do a lot more to earn my stamp of approval.

The first time I dined at Lemon Grass, I ordered the Thai dish that I only order if I’m not feeling confident: Drunken Noodles. Drunken Noodles are hard to get right, but they’re also hard to get so wrong that they’re inedible (at least, for a carb lover such as myself). Imagine my surprise when these noodles turned out to be the most flavorful drunken version I’ve ever sampled. The meat and veggies weren’t drowned by noodles, which was a huge plus. I’d even go as far as to say there was a 50/50 ratio of meat and veggies to noodles – a rarity. The flavor was also a highlight: the perfect amount of spice (I ordered medium), no sickly sweet taste, and not a bland noodle to be had.

I immediately knew there was more than meets the eye at Lemon Grass, so I was back a couple weeks later. This time, I ordered my go-to Thai dish: green curry (called Emerald Curry on the LG menu). To say I’m picky about green curry is an understatement. I’ve sampled at least 10 different versions and only a few stand out in my mind. I’ve ordered just two iterations a second time. My favorite green curry comes from an inauthentic place in Farmington Hills. I don’t know what they do, but it’s genius – and impossible to order at any other spice level than “fire-mouth.”

Okay, so LG could do Drunken Noodles. But could they do green curry? Yes, friends, yes they can. Again, perfectly spiced at “medium” with just the right creamy-to-sweet ratio. My only complaint was the seemingly disproportionate amount of eggplant, but I’m not big on it to begin with. I loved the visible chunks of basil and the classic peppers and peas I need to have in my any green curry. The sauce wasn’t syrupy, but thin and rich. Though I can’t say this Emerald Curry beat out my favorite version, it’s a close second.

I haven’t tried anything else from LG yet, but I hear the Pad Thai is solid (I’m not a fan of Pad Thai in general – too sweet). I’ll definitely be back for my Thai fix, but I can’t promise I’ll ever order anything other than the Emerald Curry.

I’m giving Lemon Grass 3.5 out of five golden forks. Really, really solid.

-Leah Sipher-Mann