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I was born in Bangkok and raised in Los Angeles, spending almost every weekend of my childhood at Thai temples in both North Hollywood and La Puente. I performed Thai classical dance at restaurant openings in our community and practically every Songkran festival in the city ; these gigs were always followed by extravagant meals of curries, sticky rice, and foil-wrapped jerky at whichever local Thai spot we happened to be near. All of this is to say that in my 31 years as a Thai Angeleno, I intimately know and love the Thai food scene here.
Los Angeles is home to the only Thai Town in the United States, which also, in my opinion, makes it the best place to eat Thai food in the country. Across the county, you can find rare dried cotton flower noodle soup, scoops of pandan-scented ice cream , platters of fried fish, and yes, endless plates of pad Thai . Here are my favorite places to go that transport me back to Thailand.
For this update, we removed Miya, which has been temporarily closed due to its proximity to the Eaton Fire in Altadena; Sri Siam in North Hollywood; Panvimarn in Long Beach; Rad Na Silom, which looks temporarily closed; and Tasty Food in Long Beach. New additions include Hollywood Thai, Kanomwaan, Mix Bowl Cafe, Luv2eat Thai Bistro, and Chiang Rai. Anajak Thai Cuisine Four-decade-old Anajak Thai is more than just a James Beard award-winning family restaurant.
During the pandemic, the Valley staple became a dining destination for second-generation owner Justin Pichetrungsi’s creative plays on Thai classics and events like Thai Taco Tuesday and omakase dinners. Must order dishes include the hamachi crudo, Southern-Thai fried chicken, and grilled black sea bream with nam jim sauce. You don’t have toReservations are difficult to come by but are highly recommended.
Also featured in: The Best Restaurants in the San Fernando Valley The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Holy Basil Atwater Village With Holy Basil’s Atwater Village spot comes a larger space to enjoy the same hits from the Downtown location: Instagram-worthy beef tataki sprinkled with toasted rice powder and a puckery chile sauce, a nostalgic ode to chef Deau Arpapornnopparat’s grandma in the form of fried barramundi and lime-kissed rice, and wild shrimp curry loaded with fluffy egg curds. There still isn’t a ton of space to dine on site, so expect to wait during the busy hours. The eclectic wine menu also remains.
Expect Holy Basil to expand to Santa Monica later in 2025. Also featured in: The Best Restaurants for Lunch in Los Angeles, According to Eater Editors Mae Malai Thai House of Noodles It’s been a journey for Mae Malai , the street Thai noodle soup sensation that moved from operating outside Silom Supermarket into permanent digs on Hollywood Boulevard in November 2023. Now that owner Malai Data has settled into the space, it’s possible to slurp up her supremely satisfying bowls of boat noodle soup and tom yum noodles any time of day.
To take advantage of having a fully outfitted kitchen rather than a makeshift one, Data has added plenty more to her roster of Thai hits, including a pair of pad thai preparations . In addition to the regular version that comes with tofu, chicken, or shrimp, diners can order the pad thai Anusawari, an old-school style with plenty of dried shrimp that’s flavored with sweetened radish and tamarind paste — ingredients popularized during less prosperous times in Thailand. The expanded menu also includes homemade sausages, sticky tamarind-glazed meatballs, wonton soup, and steamed coconut custard for dessert.
— Cathy Chaplin, senior editor Also featured in: The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Los Angeles's 18 Most Iconic Restaurant Dishes Lacha Somtum For papaya salad connoisseurs, Lacha Som Tum is a must visit. There are more than a dozen kinds of som tum to choose from, including variations that swap out the base of shredded papaya for long beans, corn, green mango, and even mixed fruits. Protein additions include fried shredded catfish, crispy pork belly, and salted black crab.
Beyond the papaya salads, the hot pot options, which include Isaan-style hot pot and Thailand’s interpretation of sukiyaki, are also excellent and hard to find elsewhere. A post shared by @daniel.tiwa_lee Bhan Kanom Thai Bhan Kanom Thai is a bodega-like palace of Thai sweets and snacks.
One can find an array of Thai-flavored Lays (the betel leaf miang kam flavor is a favorite), both sweet mango sticky rice and sour green mango with anchovy dip, and freshly prepared Thai-style crispy crepes. The refrigerated section also boasts a selection of coconut cakes, Thai tea custards, and black sticky rice pudding studded with cubed taro. A post shared by Cathy Chaplin (@gastronomyblog) Sign up for our newsletter.
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Please enter a valid email and try again. Heng Heng Chicken Rice Heng Heng Chicken Rice’s titular dish is worth a visit to East Hollywood. This Thai take on Hainanese chicken rice comes with the choice of fried or steamed chicken atop garlicky rice with the option of adding on liver and gizzards, too.
The dish is served with a side of comforting chicken broth and a fragrant ginger sauce. For heat seekers, be sure to also get the zabb crispy rice, a medley of pork belly, fried chicken, and herbs coated in a spicy and sour fish sauce dressing. Also featured in: The Best Affordable Restaurants in Los Angeles Roasted Duck by Pa Ord Pa Ord, or Auntie Ord, is a household name in LA for her impeccable boat noodles.
And now she has a duck specialty shop to add to her impressive mini-chain of Pa Ord Noodle restaurants. As the name suggests, the menu is entirely focused on roasted duck, which comes with either steamed rice or noodles. Portion sizes are available for single diners, as well as “family meals” that feed up to four.
Also on the menu are stewed duck noodle soup, holy basil stir-fried with duck, spicy duck salad, and duck green curry. Also featured in: The Best Dishes Eater LA Editors Ate This Year, Mapped Jitlada Restaurant Southern Thai seafood is the star at Jitlada, probably the most celebrated Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Ever since owner Jazz Singsanong and her late brother Tui Sungkamee took over in 2006, the Southern Thai section became a mythological portion of the menu.
A keen food forum user translated the menu and uncovered its treasures, which were later featured in key reviews by Jonathan Gold in LA Weekly and Coleman Andrews in Gourmet Magazine . To navigate the restaurant’s menu of biblical proportions, avoid the treacherous dynamite spicy challenge and order one of Jitlada’s crab curries and the fried morning glory salad. Every table should also have an order of the New Zealand mussels in lemongrass broth.
Over the past few years, Jitlada has become a low-key favorite of celebrities like Benny Blanco, Selena Gomez, and Kiernan Shipka, so don’t be surprised if there are some famous folks dining next to you. Also featured in: The 12 Best Restaurants in East Hollywood 20 Classic Los Angeles Restaurants Every Angeleno Must Try Amphai Northern Thai Food Club No essential Thai food list in Los Angeles could exclude critical darling Amphai Northern Thai Food Club. That crumbly sai oua (pork sausage) is hugely fragrant thanks to the addition of lemongrass, galangal, and a chiffonade of makrut lime leaf, and the khao soi is as good as one can find in the city.
For those really looking to lean into the culinary world of Chiang Rai, where chef and owner Amphai Dunne is from, order the Northern-style larb moo kua, a funkier (but milder) version of larb that features minced pork skin and liver. Also featured in: The 12 Best Restaurants in East Hollywood The 22 Best Dishes Eater LA Editors Ate in 2020, Mapped The Original Hoy-Ka Thai Noodle “Hoy ka,” means to dangle legs — a reference to how Thai boat noodles were originally served alongside the Chao Phraya River to diners dangling their legs into the water. Although Hoy-Ka noodle is not quite as atmospheric, the space is still a fun time with wooden exposed beams, brick walls, and TVs all around.
As the name suggests, boat noodles are the move here, but the spare rib tom yum, pink-hued yentafo, and roasted duck noodle soup are also worthwhile. Also featured in: The Essential Thai Restaurants in Los Angeles Isaan Station Thai Street Food For the sour and spicy bite of Thailand’s northeastern region, Isaan Station in Koreatown is the place to visit. Tucked into a bustling strip mall, the colorful space is dotted with knick-knacks and folded cranes as if it were occupying a stall at a busy Bangkok market.
Find all the Isaan classics: fermented sausage, papaya salad filled with pickled crab, succulent pork neck, and an assortment of different larbs or meat salads — all of which pair ideally with a side of sticky rice. Also featured in: 15 Awesome LA Spots for Thai Takeout and Delivery Tuk Tuk Thai This former Pico Boulevard staple has been reborn after 23 years, landing a new (and very updated) location on Sawtelle. Sisters Katy Noochlaor and Amanda Kuntee — who grew up in one of LA’s oldest Thai restaurants, Chao Krung — are running the show, turning out vibrant Thai dishes across a broad spectrum.
Expect everything from noodles and papaya salad to a portion of the menu devoted entirely to pork belly. Also featured in: 15 Delectable Restaurants in LA’s Sawtelle Japantown Ayara Thai Cuisine Ayara Thai Cuisine is very much a family-run business and has been an important part of the Westchester community for nearly 20 years. The Asapahu family knocks out a solid menu with dishes like back baby ribs with a spicy sauce, ground pork and shrimp toast, and poached salmon in a red curry coconut sauce.
It’s also important to check the restaurant’s Instagram feed where special events are advertised, like a marijuana-infused boat noodle dinner and moo krata (Thai hot pot) parties. A post shared by Ayara Thai (@ayarathai) on Aug 19, 2019 at 2:14pm PDT Also featured in: 15 Solid Places to Eat Around Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) 15 Awesome LA Spots for Thai Takeout and Delivery Sweet Rice Sweet Rice is the sister restaurant to Bowl Thai, another excellent Thai food stop, but this Gardena joint specializes in Thai breakfast and treats. Find comforting Thai rice porridge, fluffy omelets layered with sweet onions and crab, and yen ta fo, a pink noodle soup made from fermented bean curd that’s loaded with fish cakes and shrimp.
On the weekends, be sure to nab an order of the tapioca which is studded with corn kernels and strands of coconut and blanketed with a salty and sweet coconut cream. A post shared by TheRiceguy78 (@thericeguy78) Hollywood Thai Restaurant Hollywood Thai is for the club rats and party goers. This institution on Hollywood Boulevard is a reprieve for late nights; it’s open until 2 am during the week and 4 am on the weekends.
My favorite thing to get here is plain rice porridge with accoutrements like Chinese sausage salad, preserved turnip omelet, and stir-fried morning glory with chiles. The menu feels like eating breakfast in a Thai home, while the live band and late-night diners suggest otherwise. Kanomwaan Kanomwaan feels like it was plucked out of Siam Square in Bangkok and placed in LA.
It has all the things you’d want in a trendy Bangkok dessert cafe: fluffy shaved ice topped with salty egg cream, buttery brick toast ladled with pandan custard, and a selection of ice cream that is unabashedly Thai. You’ll find well-loved Thai classics here, like durian sticky rice and butterfly pea flower. My favorite flavor is the candle-smoked ice cream with salted egg yolk, which strikes a playful balance between salty and sweet and tastes nostalgic to me thanks to the use of tian op, or Thai perfume candle.
Luv2eat Thai Bistro Something that makes LA stand out as a Thai dining destination are the specific, regional options that can be found. Yes, you can find standard fare like papaya salad and pan-fried noodles at Luv2Eat. But the restaurant fully shines where it leans into its Phuket roots with Hat Yai fried chicken, spicy crab curry, and shrimp paste fried rice complete with a fried mackerel.
The flavors are spicy and uncompromising; food that truly transports you to the sleepy villages and beaches of the Southern Thailand. Also featured in: The Best Restaurants in Hollywood Where to Eat Near LA's Best Hiking Spots Chiang Rai Chiang Rai is the northernmost province in Thailand, known for its curry noodle soups and herbaceous sausage. The Chiang Rai in Long Beach has both, including red cotton flower noodle soup, a brothy curry dish filled with tomatoes, cubes of pig blood, and the titular dried red cotton flowers that’s difficult to find stateside.
The khao soi should also not be skipped; protein options for the curry noodles includes fried softshell crab, sliced ribeye, and northern Thai sausage. Finish the meal off with a thick slice of buttered toast smeared with a Thai tea custard..
