Little Orchids Kitchen & Bar Serves Big Flavor

It isn’t every day you find a restaurant in a shopping center, rife with big-box stores and chain retailers, that qualifies as a culinary gem. That makes Little Orchids Kitchen & Bar—tucked among a strip of commercial enterprises from Planet Fitness to Best Buy in Quakertown’s Richland Marketplace— an exciting discovery.

The restaurant, which opened at the end of November, is the latest venture of the Virojanapa family, who launched White Orchids at Promenade Saucon Valley in 2007, and Notch in Lower Macungie Township in 2019. As the name might suggest, Little Orchids is a smaller offspring of the Promenade enterprise. 

The cuisine here is mostly Thai like its parent, says Jeff Virojanapa, who comes by Thai food naturally. His parents were born in Thailand, so, although he was born in the United States and has lived in the Lehigh Valley since the age of two, he ate authentic Thai food at home throughout his childhood. Restaurant experience gained in side jobs during engineering school paid off when he left an engineering career to join his parents in establishing White Orchids, following his father’s longtime dream of owning his own business.

So locally owned Little Orchids, which features fresh food that’s scratch-made, follows a star that is not part of a big-box constellation. Dishes are bright with bold flavor and so appetizingly presented you can eat them with your eyes. An out-of-the-ordinary drink here, from the restaurant’s creative bar program, offers a welcome respite from the outside hustle of shoppers and an often-chaotic parking lot. 

There’s an immediate sense of comfort and calm at Little Orchids—not to be taken lightly, given its location in a bustling center of commerce. The former kickboxing studio has been totally renovated, with muted shades of blue predominating—from the walls to banquettes and chairs as well. Asian appointments underscore the restaurant’s roots: wall décor, for example, features carved wooden Thai musicians and an elephant. A striking Thai glass-and-teak table with an elaborate hand-carved nature scene that Virojanapa remembers from his childhood welcomes guests at the entry. 

While the cuisine at Little Orchids is inspired by its parent, the food here has a character all its own. The smaller menu was developed to offer more shareable dishes: starters and appetizers make up half of the offerings. A few Asian fusion dishes that originated at Notch are available, and several dishes showcase other styles of Asian food: consider the bibimbap rice bowl with its roots in Korean cuisine; the chicken katsu sando, a handheld hailing from Japanese fare; and the crispy sweet potato wontons, inspired by Chinese dumplings. The Spanish dish paella also makes an appearance as a seafood combination seasoned with Thai flavors such as nam prik pao.    

A few dishes from the White Orchids and Notch menus appear at Little Orchids in deconstructed form: for example, White Orchids’ pineapple fried rice features shrimp and chicken among other ingredients; Little Orchids’ version deletes the shrimp and chicken, but offers the option to add the proteins, if desired.

Options to customize dishes are available across the menu. Along with a choice of proteins to add to entrees, several starters—edamame, shishito peppers, Notch confit chicken wings and crispy popcorn shrimp—can be ordered with sauce based on individual preference: honey sriracha, Thai sweet chili, White Orchids red curry or “Bobby’s BBQ Secret Sauce.”

Starters, while big on flavor, also provide a bonanza of textures. Sweet potato wontons with chili aioli and pomegranate syrup, crisped outside and creamy inside, get crunchier with house-roasted and seasoned peanuts. Similarly, sweet corn fritters are chewy inside and crispy outside; mango-plum chutney boosts the flavor complexity. 

“Traditional Thai Money Bags” filled with minced chicken, shrimp and mixed vegetables give new definition to crisp, and Thai sriracha dipping sauce ups the ante of flavor explosively. Edamame contributes soybeans’ toothsome texture to the array of starters; Thai sweet chili sauce adds addictive notes of sweet heat. 

Talk about texture—chicken katsu bao buns may just have a monopoly on the concept. Super-crispy chicken gets added crunch from its pickled cabbage and jalapeño topping. Served in the ultimate counterpoint of pillowy steamed bao buns, with katsu barbecue sauce, this starter ignites taste buds for sure.

Main dishes continue the taste and texture themes. Tender sesame scallops, with their crisped golden-brown crust, get a nutty flavor boost from sesame seeds, not to mention the balancing flavors of coconut fried rice, pineapple, green apples and sesame agrodolce. The fruit and seeds ensure textural foil to the oh-so-tender bivalves.

Grilled, skewered chicken, infused with soy curry marinade, is drizzled with Thai peanut sauce—a brilliant and satisfying play of flavors in Little Orchids’ chicken satay.

The partnership of flavor and texture in the pineapple fried rice is, indeed, a beautiful thing. Stir-fried jasmine rice gets fruity contrast from fresh pineapple and raisins and crunchy contrast from cashews. The sweet notes balance the light curry powder’s touch of heat. 

Savory red curry, silky in its coconut milk base, is jewel-like in color and rich with spice. The addition of tofu, which absorbs the electric flavor of this dish, intensifies the taste. 

A favorite of mine, as well as Virojanapa, is pad gra prow. Many people think of pad thai as the dish of Thailand, says Virojanapa, but it’s really pad gra prow: stir-fried holy basil, minced chicken, yellow onions, broccoli and red peppers, topped with a fried egg, and served with rice. When the yolk breaks, all of these elements meld in rich, luscious creaminess. For lack of a better technical term, this dish is just plain yummy.

Pad gra prow inspired one of Little Orchids’ specialties: Thai basil cheesesteak. The ingredients of this dish—minced chicken, onion, bell peppers and Thai basil—are translated into their all-American sandwich, with the addition of smoked Gouda and garlic, on a house roll. What a tasty transformation of an American standard. 

The bar program is as approachable as the food menu. Five white wines and four reds are available by the glass and the bottle. About a half dozen selected bottled beers are featured, along with the same number of beers on draft. 

Specialty cocktails include “Thai Basilrita” with Libélula tequila, Cointreau, lemon juice, simple syrup and muddled basil. The drink, slightly sweet, yields light savory notes of the fresh herb. 

The restaurant’s version of an old-fashioned features Private Barrel Elijah Craig bourbon, demerara sugar, orange bitters and Angostura bitters—plus an option for customization. What old-fashioned flavor profile do you prefer: orange, cherry, smoky or vanilla?

Little Orchids’ interpretation of the traditional whiskey sour is lip-smacking good. The usual notes of caramel and fresh citrus make the drink refreshing; the flavors linger, and hearts parade around the perimeter of the glass atop a layer of frothy white foam.

From the Spirit-Free Specialties section of the beverage menu, the mango pineapple boba refresher easily fulfills its promise: this just-sweet-enough drink refreshes like a cool tropical wind. The drink’s sunny orange hue is enhanced by a big, fat pink straw and pineapple frond garnish that add visual appeal and an element of fun.

When White Orchids opened, Virojanapa and his parents did the cooking. Now each restaurant in their group has its own kitchen staff, but his parents, who are semi-retired, still make many of the restaurants’ sauces, and his mother makes desserts. Restaurant Group Chef Nicolas Rouzier and Restaurant Group Sous Chef Bobby Keong work with all restaurants, while Justin Acevedo, sous chef, is in charge of Little Orchids’ kitchen on a daily basis. 

Clearly, the restaurants’ kitchen staffing showcases one of Virojanapa’s reasons for launching Little Orchids: he wanted to open up more growth opportunities for longtime White Orchids and Notch employees. But he also seeks the challenge of trying new things and wants to keep the company’s business exciting and fun.

Ultimately, though, from a micro perspective, Virojanapa says he set out to create a warm and welcoming restaurant that offers delicious food and a great experience with an everyday vibe. Little Orchids certainly checks all those boxes. “Come here straight from the gym or for a nice business lunch,” he says; “It’s an every-occasion kind of place.”

From my perspective, the quality of the Little Orchids experience makes this a no-occasion kind of place—there’s no occasion needed to dine here. The food alone is reason enough.

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WHAT TO ORDER

Chicken katsu bao bun for its big-ticket flavor in a petite package. Sesame scallops: special occasion flair at an everyday value price. With fruit and nuts, vegetables and egg, pineapple fried rice is a one-dish wonder. And, for goodness’ sake, the Thai take on our All-American sandwich: Thai basil cheesesteak. If anything should inspire FOMO—this is it.

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Published as “Inside Dish” in the March 2025 edition of Lehigh Valley Style magazine.