Thai Lagoon

Thai Lagoon is contentedly grungy and low rent, a Thai place for people whose lack of pretension borders on the militant. This is the trade off: low prices for average food casually, almost indifferently doled out for the opportunity to dine in an ambiance that exudes zero pretence. Neat to some people, I guess, but I just don’t get it. Why bother leaving home? Why not just have it delivered?

And the food is no great shakes. The egg rolls are all cabbage, insufficiently chopped, without a hint of complexity or nuance, like something plucked from the frozen food case. On the other hand, the pad keemow with tomatoes, onions and bean sprouts is laced generously with basil and endowed with just the right amount of zest upon request. The green curry with pork, coconut and Thai eggplant makes similar good use of basil but tends to overdo the bamboo shoots.

As is the case with most Thai places, the portions are ample, but unlike many of its competitors, Thai Lagoon offers no niceties. A paper napkin and plastic tumbler kind of place, the presentation is slapdash and the service is sluggish and overtaxed. One weary server juggles several tables and attends to the take out crowd. A blasé twenty-something in a wrinkled T-shirt circulates filling water glasses and leaving a faint trace of body odor in his wake.

The ambiance makes barely a nod to ethnicity. There is a kind of Polynesian flare to the canopy over the bar and some colorful ball lights that might be considered Asian but that’s about it. Otherwise its bare wood floors, square edged, un-clothed tables and defunct drink cooler shoved off to the side make it about as interesting a place to dine as the back of a warehouse.

Yet this low rent, apathetic approach has a certain appeal in a neighborhood where gentrification has made many of the restaurants too snooty and dear for some of the denizens. Restaurants like Thai Lagoon are relics of a more down-to-earth era when Wicker Park was the haunt of poor artists and college students. So it retains a devoted following, many of them lesbians, for whatever that’s worth. But I’m not impressed.

Like anything else, a grungy and down-to-earth ambiance can be done well, like they do it at Bite or Earwax. On the other hand, Thai Lagoon’s studied indifference is neither studied nor convincing. It’s just sort of sloppy and run of the mill, and it doesn't impress.

Thai Lagoon 
2322 W. North Ave.
773-489-5747 / Reservations Not Accepted

Hours: Su-Th 5pm-10pm, 5pm-11pm F-Sa

Features: BYOB, Carryout, Delivery

Avg price of a meal for two including tax $30