Thai Chili Pepper, Brandon
One evening we thought we’d try our luck at a Thai sit down spot that was wedged into a local strip mall. This was all very last minute and we were not even sure we’d get a seat. We did and we proceeded to have one of the nicest Thai dinners we’ve ever had. Did I mention it was Valentine’s day?
The flavors and compositions were deliberate and delicious. The service was personal. The experience was so enjoyable that I remember very little of it, we were so enraptured. This entry is not about that meal.
At the time, I hadn’t committed to recording each dining experience. Valentine’s dinner was a we moment, not a thee moment, so I never aimed to remember all the little details. It went off without a hitch and left us very happy. Fans for life.
In my attempts to experience as many different places as possible in our area so as to find the best examples of local cuisine, I find little time to frequent the same places twice. Brandon/Riverview is rife with restaurants. Unless a place is really calling to us or we are simply too exhausted to do anything but phone in for pizza or Chinese, we try to visit new places each time we dine out.
However, that February Thai Chilli Pepper meal was so good that it had been lodged and festering in a fold of brain tissue for a couple months. I needed to scratch that itch and this particular evening seemed the right time. We were hungry, but for something light. We were feeling called by the flavors of East or Southeast Asia but wanted something better than takeout. We wanted a sure thing having no energy for disappointment. It was agreed: Endonasal Endoscopy at Thai Chilli Pepper. Prep the patient…
Don’t let the name Thai Chilli Pepper scare you. My wife is extremely sensitive to the burn of capsaicin and her previous requests for mild preparations have been accommodated to her complete satisfaction. I, on the other hand, like it hot but not mouth-searingly, and they deliver with precision. There’s nothing worse than requesting or being told that your dish can be prepared with no heat, only to have you taste buds singed at the first bite.
The sporty little runabout carried us to Bloomingdale Square, a nondescript shopping center anchored by a Publix, a Bealls, and the husk of a former Walmart.
Thai Chilli Pepper
875 E Bloomingdale Ave
Brandon, FL 33511
Phone: (813) 681-4470
Hours:
Sunday – 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Monday to Thursday – 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday – 11:30 to 10:00 p.m.
https://www.thaichillipepper.com/
Our previous visit was during a busy night—Valentine’s, no less—and they understandably seemed a bit flustered, but everything went off without a hitch and they managed to also work in the carry out orders and delivery orders as well, so kudos to them (and I hate using the word kudos).
This time being a normal weekday afternoon we had our pick of the seats. The narrow dining room was just wide enough to line six tables along each long wall and though they were packed at our last visit, this early evening we were one of only two couples there. The staff appeared to be knocking out kitchen duties when we arrived. We were immediately made the priority of the moment and seated with menus.
Sometimes you think you want something light, but when you open a menu your stomach’s eyes grow bigger than it’s…fundus(?), and decides it can handle a meatloaf platter with mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed spinach, and a basket of rolls with butter, ranch on the side salad. Not this time.
Still feeling in need of something light, we ordered waters and the Lettuce Wraps with chicken to start. That got one course rolling while we decided on the entrees. It’s so hard to choose when everything looks so good.
Previously I ordered the Drunken Noodles with Chicken and it was delicious with the soy and fish sauces perfuming the brothy wide rice noodles that carried fresh Thai basil, lime, and scallion into my happy mouth. This time I went diverge from noodles and ordered the Eggplant Lover with pork.
Christa ordered the Pad Woon Sen (Glass Noodle) with Beef, “very mild”.
The lettuce wraps arrived just after we placed our entree order and were delicious with nice chunks of minced chicken stir-fried with diced carrot, celery, cashews, and fresh cilantro. The dish came with a bowl of the chicken medley, a half head of iceberg lettuce, and a dish of peanut sauce. A spoon of the mix wrapped in a crisp lettuce leaf and dipped in the sauce was a treat. The sauce was so good, I made full use of the entire half head of lettuce, spreading the filling thin so as to have a bevy of parcels to dip up all that sweet spicy peanutty goodness.
We took our time, filling, wrapping, dipping then biting, dipping then biting, dipping then biting. Filling, wrapping, dipping then biting, dipping then biting…and were half finished when the entrees arrived.
The Eggplant Lover was aptly named and contained thick slices of the elongated Asian variety in a delicious pan sauce. Celery, carrot, and onion aromatics joined broccoli, green beans and snow peas in a basil and soy scented melange.
The fluffy white rice soaked up the extra savory-sweet chili-garlic spiced liquid that wasn’t absorbed into the spongey bias cut rounds of eggplant. Each bite was a treat, the teeth popping through the purple skin and sinking into the soft flesh full of the flavors of chili pepper, herbs, and sauce.
As a formally trained cook, I still screw up eggplant from time to time and wind up with bitter tasting fruit. Though, that could be my own problem. Except that I’ve had bitter and non-bitter eggplant. Regardless of my genes and culinary shortcomings, the eggplant I enjoyed at Thai Chilli Pepper wasn’t bitter in the least. It was delicious.
Speaking of fruit, the eggplant isn’t just a fruit, it’s a flipping berry. How do ya like them apples? The strawberry is an accessory fruit but the eggplant is a frickin’, frackin’…. But I digress. And though we call it eggplant, most other world citizens call it an aubergine. Ooh, la la. Fancy though it sounds, aubergine comes from a Sanskrit word that basically means fart medicine. Or it doesn’t. I call it mascara snake.
Christa’s Pad Woon Sen looked delicious. In a glistening pile on a raft of the thin transparent filaments, broccoli, red peppers and green beans joined the aromatic carrots, celery, and onions with thin slices of stir-fried beef, sheltered under a stark cover of mung bean sprouts sprinkled with minced green herbs and scallion. It was an inviting vessel of color and I harpooned all the red bits to my plate–she forgot to request no bell peppers.
The sweet tangy umami of fish sauce, garlic, and soy flavored the rich stock-based brown sauce now soaking into the cellophane noodles. The vegetables, as they were in my dish, were cooked to a perfect balance of crisp and tender. The beef also was tender, seasoned well, had a mild flavor and yielded easily to the chew.
The plan was for this to be a light meal, and it was. Or it would have been, had I been able to control my eating. I was on the verge of consuming every ounce of the tasty goodness until intervention by Christa who spotted the glazed look that comes over me when I’ve reached full capacity but can’t break my learned behavior to clean my plate. The portions here are very generous, nearly Lancaster County sized. A single entree would be plenty for two with an appetizer. When you visit, plan on taking some leftovers home. Better yet, to leave room for dessert.
My overeating aside, in our hunt for something light and healthy Thai Chilli Pepper proved a worthy spot to provide it. Christa has better self-control and ate just enough to be satisfied but not stuffed, even leaving room for a frozen treat, later. Didn’t I just say I was feeling bloated? I was until Christa said, “…gelati from Jeremiah’s.”
And I get to eat her leftovers, later.
Thai Chilli Pepper’s product is not mind altering fantastic or even the best Thai food you’ll ever have, it is simply consistently delicious—a bountiful menu of skillfully crafted dishes with delicious flavor and in plentiful portions. The price to quantity ratio is a great value that combined with the quality of the food and depth of flavor makes them a 4 out of five-star place.
Atmosphere and decor is a bonus to an already satisfactory food experience. The fascinating paintings of local artist Noland Anderson have a dreamlike quality and bring color, depth, and texture to the stark white walls that liven and expand the space. The substantial solid furniture fixed us to the tile while the food elevated us beyond the acoustic ceiling. I’ve grown a few inches upward as well as outward as a result of our meals.
With the added cleanliness and spiffy decor featuring local artwork, Thai Chilli Pepper is damn near five stars. The only factor lacking for a total five stars is consistency, and with a few more visits, we should be able to assess that, too. So far, not bad for a hole in the shopping center wall.
I don’t know the story on Thai Chilli Pepper, but I should learn it. In fact, I’m considering following up on places we love with little get-to-know-you interviews to glean tidbits for inclusion in my writeups. They’ve posted no bio on their Google My Business website and no one has written a piece on them in any local rags I can find; so it’s all a great mystery to me for now. What I know from their About paragraph is that the owner is a Thai native and that the chili pepper is the focus of their culinary output.
There are two websites for the restaurant: one is a Google site the other is a Menufy site. Both seem to be maintained by the owner, yet the Menufy one is the easiest to navigate. The photos on their website appear to be original to Thai Chilli Pepper, rather than sourced stock from the internet, and a scroll through them is enough to set your salivary glands to eleven.
Thai Chilli Pepper’s site says very little through words but displays an honesty in mission, product, and passion through images and the odd update. That honesty is proven in every bite savored. The operators appear to love making food that looks good and tastes good and they want to serve that food to everyone. That’s been our experience both visits.
The most pleasurably satisfying places can be found in the most nondescript stretches of concrete and backlit plastic. Our experiences have proven this to be the case with Thai Chilli Pepper in Bloomingdale Square.
Thanks for reading!