A foodie guide to East Hollywood's tasty Thai Town
Los Angeles is home to the largest Thai community outside of Asia. The six blocks of Hollywood Boulevard between Western and Normandie are the officially recognized Thai Town borders. But some of the most beloved Thai restaurants in the area are one block south of Hollywood (along Sunset) and as far west as Hollywood and Bronson, opposite the 101 freeway.
Nowadays, you can find pad thai in nearly every American city with more than 50,000 residents. But the restaurants in Thai Town go well beyond the typical cookie-cutter menus. For this list, we're highlighting our go-to dishes and drinks from our favorite East Hollywood Thai restaurants. And we're also mixing in some fun facts and live entertainment.
Bhan Kanom Thai
While there are a handful of Thai grocery stores along Hollywood Boulevard, only one specializes in sweets. At Bhan Kanom, the walls are lined with boxed snacks imported from Thailand and other parts of Asia. This compact sugar shrine feels geared towards those under 30, but you can find people of all ages shopping here.
Bhan Kanom is also the go-to spot for unique fruit cakes, sweet custards and sticky rice desserts. Large plastic mangoes hang from the ceiling in front of the main counter where the desserts are prepared. It's as if they're trying to remove any doubt as to whether or not you should leave without at least one container of mango sticky rice.
Some desserts are made to order, while you can find the rest in the refrigerators along the back wall. Open any refrigerator door, and you'll be greeted with the pungent smell of durian. For something unfamiliar to most, but not as intense as durian, try the pandan custard.
Jitlada Restaurant
Jitlada's southern Thai cuisine is one of at least two reasons to venture down to Sunset for Thai food. People have been coming here since the 1970s for steamed mussels, crispy morning glory and the jerky-like crying tiger beef. The walls are lined with artworks, portrait photos and various accolades to the point that if they replaced the tables, Jitlada could easily double as a Thai food museum. It's the kind of restaurant where you'll be tempted to tour the place as if you were at a food museum in Bangkok.
The menu is divided 60/40 between the main section and southern Thai dishes. The "Adventurous Bizarre Foods" section includes deep-fried silkworms and spicy pigs ears. At Jitlada, spice is such a prevalent theme that they offer spicy smoothie options. But the pinnacle is definitely the "Dynamite Spicy Challenge," which you have to be at least 18 to try. If you're able to finish everything on your plate, you'll get to sign their SDC book.
Kruang Tedd
Kruang Tedd has nightly entertainment, an extensive menu that covers every major Thai region and cocktails with names cheesier than a Paris fromagerie. Ask what's good, and the staff are likely to direct you to one of the 11 chef's specials.
Their khao mok gai (translates to chicken biryani) is a simple chicken and rice dish. The generous portion of rice (yellow from turmeric and other Thai herbs) is served alongside a chicken thigh with meat so tender that it slides off the bone with ease. The accompanying Thai green mint sauce does add flavor but is not absolutely necessary for enjoying this dish. We recommend enjoying your first bite without the sauce.
Nightly live music starts after 10 p.m. Many patrons come here just in time to order food before the kitchen closes. Then, as the kitchen staff gets ready to call it a night, the music starts. Into the early morning hours, you can watch regulars enjoy Thai beer and cute cocktails like Naked Girl and Ladies Night to a mix of Thai classics and Western pop songs.
Northern Thai Food Club
If you sit facing the walls instead of the windows at Northern Thai Food Club, you can easily forget that you're less than two miles from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In fact, this compact five-table Sunset Boulevard eatery feels more like a tiny Chiang Rai café that also has a limited selection of Thai snacks and beauty products.
While there is a menu, the mostly Thai-speaking clientele tend to order by pointing to one or more of the dozen heated trays behind the counter. Next to the main display, they also have Thai sausage and fried fish, which is kept warm. In addition to their popular spicy pork sausage, the coconut milk-based noodle dish, khao soi, is also beloved by regulars. They'll dial back the latter's spice level upon request.
Pa Ord Noodle
This modest noodle house has 20 different options, ranging from the basic pad thai and drunken noodles to more niche options like khao soi and boat noodles. Everything on the menu is $15 and under, including curries and seafood dishes.
Pa Ord's stir-fried rice noodles with chicken are as unpretentious as the restaurant itself. If you sit inside, you can easily feel like you're in a small café on Yaowarat Road in Bangkok's Chinatown. That's where the pictured dish (known in Thai as "gooay teow cuo gai") has its origins.
Palms Thai Restaurant
With dozens of Thai restaurants packed into a neighborhood less than two square miles, it helps to stand out. Palms Thai Restaurant has been doing just that since they opened a stone's throw from the 101 freeway in the mid-2000s. From having a Thai Elvis performing regularly on their small stage to offering unique dishes like wild boar curry and frog legs with green peppercorn, you'd have to put some real effort into having a dull moment at Palms.
While their Thai Elvis (Kavee "Kevin" Thongpricha) no longer performs, he is immortalized in a life-sized metal statue, which stands proudly by the stage with guitar in hand, ready to strum. You'll often see guests posing with this fragile curiosity that patrons are encouraged not to touch.
But a lack of live Elvis covers in a neighborhood where many Thai restaurants offer some sort of live entertainment has not hurt business. Regulars still flock here for everything from standards such as BBQ beef and coconut soup to anything from their "wild things" menu.
Rodded
This cash-only neighborhood fixture at the corner of Hollywood and Gramercy has been serving duck noodle soup and Hei Nam chicken for nearly a half-century. When you enter this unpretentious spot, you'll likely notice that everything on their blackboard is written in Thai – except for duck soup and Hei Nam chicken. The owners seem to know every single patron, and they're happy to strike up whatever conversation they can.
Ruen Pair
Ruen Pair is located in New Hollywood Plaza, which has more Thai food options than most small cities. The fact that Ruen Pair is consistently packed with a diverse group of diners speaks volumes to their ability to stand out in America's most competitive market for Thai food. Their 107 menu items range from popular coconut milk-based soups served in a hot pot to items tailored to the more adventurous, like pork blood soup.
Many patrons come for the papaya salad with raw crab. You'll see people of all ages performing the tedious job of removing tiny morsels of raw meat from crab legs not much thicker than noodles from a bowl of pad see ew. If you go this route, we recommend letting the meat soak in the salad's som tum sauce for a few minutes before digging in. Other papaya salad options include dried shrimp with peanut and salty black crab.
Sapp Coffee Shop
In early 1975, John Lennon's lost weekend filled with crazy nights on West Hollywood's Sunset Strip was coming to an end. Less than five miles east, "Hollywood's original Thai joint" was serving American breakfast and Thai lunches out of the Hollywood Premiere Motel. The motel is still there, as is the original Sapp signage.
After a decade operating out of a typical Hollywood motel, Sapp Coffee Shop moved to their current location at the corner of Kingsley and Hollywood. They're known for their boat noodles, which come with rice noodles, bean sprouts and beef slices, innards or pork. All three versions of the dish are topped with crispy pork rinds.
If you're looking for a dry noodle dish, try their equally popular jade noodles. This green egg noodle-based dish is topped with duck, pork and crab and then garnished with generous helpings of crushed peanut and Thai chili powder. They will dial back the latter upon request.
As of this writing, Sapp only accepts cash.
Yai
Yai specializes in central Thai recipes. Most of the team are from the ancient capital of Ayutthaya. We recommend starting with their BBQ beef. It's made up of a dozen medium-thick, tender short rib cuts served over romaine hearts and topped with cilantro. The "jaew" sauce they serve it with may look intimidating to newbies, but a tiny spoonful will enhance the grilled meat's flavor. Theirs (more commonly known as "nam jim jaew") is a mix of sweet and sour with a smoky flavor from the rice powder.
Other popular items include roast pork with Chinese broccoli and their signature shrimp fried rice with BBQ chicken.
As of this writing, Yai only accepts cash.
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This article originally appeared on 10Best.com: 10 of the best restaurants in East Hollywood's Thai Town
