Louisville's best quaran-takeout? We found it.

Louisville’s local restaurants have been catering to the reality of present times for well over a month now. Many have adopted makeshift drive-thrus, Dizzy Whiz-style drive-ups, and even old school in house delivery. The innovation our favorite restaurants have displayed will surely pay off in the long term while traditional dining slowly becomes king once again. As the initial wave of #supportlocal has worn off during the restriction, independents have been forced to find revenue in ways that maybe they had been putting off to perfect during a slow season, or ways that some had never considered before. We’ve seen some really creative stuff around town including Vint’s openness to pedestrians from Frankfort Ave to stand with the cars in the drive-thru line, Payne St Bakehouse’s (Nancy’s Bagel Grounds) text-to-order model, and family sized Easter lunches from The Fat Lamb.

If the Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise, we won’t see more than a few permanent restaurant closures. Everyone who survives will ideally be better equipped and more well-rounded in generating revenue amongst a competitive Louisville restaurant scene.

We can’t help but notice a couple local favorites that seem like they had this stuff figured out long ago. If you haven’t yet parked near the train tracks in Clifton and stumbled into Time 4 Thai, you’re missing out. What the exterior lacks, the inside makes up for with a clean, oddly romantic, Southeast Asian domain. But since visiting the inside is strictly prohibited, based on the chalkboard sign blockading the door, you’ll have to “settle” for takeout. Normally, we do indeed “settle” for a slightly lesser quality, certainly less hot, more thrown together meal when we opt to take any restaurant food home to enjoy. Typically worth the convenience and access to free beer from the fridge, we choose to skip the dining experience every now and then.

For now the choice is not ours. We must take Time 4 Thai home, or leave it. Our recommendation, take it whenever you can. The takeout menu is no different than the dine-in one, the food is equally as hot when you arrive back home, the portions remain the same, and the taste leaves nothing behind. Sunday marked at least the fourth time we’ve visited Time 4 Thai over these last 40 something days locked away.

The Green Curry with Chicken makes all other dishes disappear if you can handle the heat. It boasts a healthy amount of chicken, green beans, carrots, zucchini, and some other unidentified root vegetables. All of that goodness is surrounded by the creamy coconut green curry sauce and optional white rice on the side. Worth a picture and a Yelp review. Our other go-to is the Vegetarian Panang Fried Rice. Vegetarian not for a vegetarian’s sake, but honestly meat would get in the way on this one because those veggies are so good. Panang (which we learned from our waiter last time we were allowed to dine in) is the mildest of three curries that are traditionally used in Thai food. It’s extra ingredient is crushed peanuts, making it a little sweeter and a little less spicy than its red and green brethren. This plate is nothing fancy but everything special. Time 4 Thai makes the simplest Thai staple recipes worth raving about.

We’ll bet many probably haven’t tried Time 4 Thai or even noticed the place, but add it to your takeout to-do list during quarantine, after quarantine, or whenever. It won’t be your last visit.