Big Mouth is Thai Takeout Worth Shouting About

Aesthetics count for a great deal, especially when it comes to restaurants.  People will swear up and down that all they care about is the food, but there's a reason that Charlie Trotter's is in a converted Lincoln Park townhouse and not a shack somewhere on Milwaukee Avenue.

The Shack on Milwaukee has reasons to be a shack, too.  And it's hard to argue that if the venue in which we eat doesn't at least enhance the eating experience, it goes a long way toward complementing it.  We like eating in that fancy townhouse and being pampered for the same reason we enjoy standing on the street with our friends, mustard dripping down our chins: the way a restaurant looks says a lot about what we think of ourselves.

If the same holds true for Big Mouth Noodles & Rice, 4031 W. Dempster St., we must think of ourselves as whimsical and artistically gifted.  Looking less like a restaurant and more like the bedroom of your liberal art major little sister is simply the jumping off point for Big Mouth's charm.  Multicolored lampshades hang from the ceiling at different lengths creating a very cool effect, and framed comic book artwork dots the walls in a nod to the location's former life as a comic book store.  The same panache and love of style translates very well through the restaurant's website, and a few elements that have the potential to annoy--bright pink colors and bizarre animation--instead end up drawing one in, each click on a different link revealing a new, crazier little treat.

 Of course, if it weren't for the food, we wouldn't even be talking about Big Mouth.  As important as aesthetics are, no one goes to a restaurant only to admire the manager's choice of furniture.  Thankfully, Big Mouth comes through, serving up some solidly good versions of classic Thai dishes.  Starting with the appetizers, the Shu Mai ($4) is the real deal. Even after transporting the little doughy balls of garlic and shrimp more than 20 minutes, they were still steaming and perfectly able to soak up the accompanying brown vinegar sauce. The crab rangoon ($4) was a bit of a miss, though not a complete write off. There was too much fried dough and not enough cream cheese and crab, though the crab and cheese tasted authentic. The egg rolls ($3) are definitely not the house specialty and can be skipped without missing much.

Soup and salad aren't just for delis and diners. Big Mouth has both, and the Tom Kha ($4) is a coconut milk-based soup that's hot and delicious, swirling with large slices of fresh ginger. The cucumber salad ($3) isn't notable, except as an antidote to those particularly spicy bites.

And particularly spicy bits can be found in the Panang curry ($8). The yellow stuff comes loaded with bell peppers and peas, and can be made as mild or as spicy as you like. Just a bit of heat really brings out the flavor, and the tofu, also generously provided in the dish, is the perfect delivery system. Also of note was the crystal noodle dish ($6). Also called bean thread, the pasta was fantastic with chicken, broccoli mushrooms and other vegetables. Bringing the flavor in the noodle department was the yakisoba ($6), one of Big Mouth's few Japanese fusion dishes. The hearty noodle dish was perfectly spiced and each bite was full of mouth-filling texture.

The great thing about Big Mouth is that, for all its irreverence, it's serious about providing a great deal. The restaurant offers a free entree when you spend $30. That's right: entree, not appetizer. The deal makes trying a new dish very easy for a couple or an incredible value for three people dining together.

Big Mouth works hard to create an aesthetic experience that goes above simple design and good food.  Combining those two aspects into something bigger than the two of them alone is part of what a great restaurant does.  This small takeout and delivery joint, tucked away in a strip mall on Dempster, holds a mirror up and shows us what we should be seeing when Skokie looks at itself: that this town, among all of its other qualities, can be stylish, whimsical and capable of greatness.