Thalia Spice - A BYOB You Shouldn't Miss

This past weekend I checked out Thalia Spice a new Asian spot in I think what we can call West Town (Chicago / Halsted). Tucked away along an industrial alley Thalia is definitely a little find in the rough. The decor in lots of deep purples, reds, draped fabric giving almost a Casbah-like feel but not too much, just enough to be exotic but not in any overpowering way. We were ushered in to a little nook and that is when I realized my error of the evening - I had forgotten it was a BYOB spot! BYOB is great (but not so great when you forget your own B or W). We still stayed and ordered even though it would be a tee-totalling dinner - the menu at Thalia is quite expansive with one menu dedicated to what I'll call a more Thai-styled menu, with curry, noodles, claypots and most of the traditional dishes you'd attribute to Thai cuisine.l Then there's a second menu for the more Japanese / sushi focused items on the menu. So many things looked good and I'm sure I could have been happy with any number of them but we did take the easy way out that night and ordered a special pre-set menu they had in place for the evening. In my opinion it took many of the highlights from both menus and pre-packaged them for us, we got shrimp rolls, perfectly seared and seasoned ahi tuna, fish balls (don't laugh they are tasty) thai beef lettuce wraps, mee krab and then the finale, claypot lobster in a f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s lemongrass broth. Everything and I mean everything I had was delicious, it had the classic Asian flavors but what I especially liked was that the meal and flavors while memorable were still light, nothing oily or heavy that stuck with you after tasting. I must confess that we didn't linger too long after dinner, somehow it's not so fun to stretch out a meal over your water glass as it is a glass of wine so dinner was lovely, and relatively inexpensive (alcohol notwithstanding) but I would love it all more with a great wine or beer to accompany the meal. Thalia Spice a definite addition to my dining repotorie when I'm in the mood for Asian in the future.