Dining and drinking review: Indochine Asian Dining Lounge

This week we are pleased to debut a new Esplanade resident culinary reviewer, Ted Broussard, who will join Kurt Kwon in providing us with impressions of neighborhood restaurants. The dining reviews here at "The Esplanade News" get a lot of traffic, so we hope that Ted and Kurt continue to eat out a lot, and share their experiences with us!

Delicious Food with an Orchid on it 
Review and photos by Ted Broussard

Indochine Asian Dining Lounge is located at 1924 Pacific Avenue.

Indochine Asian Dining Lounge is a gem in downtown Tacoma. As part of the UW Tacoma building restoration boom, this very popular place is a winner with a beautiful environment and consistently excellent food. Each dish sings with flavor and the service is friendly and attentive. The cocktail menu continues the theme of bold flavors, and they proudly state in the menu that all cocktails are doubles. Each entrée appears at the table with a beautiful orchid as garnish as do the cocktails and desserts. 

They describe their food as “fundamentally Thai” with influences from many other cuisines. We’ve tried almost all the curries and we are especially fond of the Panang Curry Chicken (rich, flavorful peanut sauce) and Mussaman Curry Beef (think tender beef stew with a twist). Desserts are delicious as well with a large selection of gelato flavors. The Lemon and Coconut Cake is our top choice.

A couple of tips to keep in mind: Indochine is very popular and almost always busy so reservations are a good idea; portions are very generous so sharing an entrée makes sense; their kitchen is very fast and drinks could arrive just before your dinner does, or sometimes after. 


No matter what you order, it will be delicious and it will have an orchid on it.