I thought it was better than at Sapp.
But unlike many people, I didn’t really care for the crab curry. It was just too damn spicy even though I ordered it mild/medium. All you got was heat and not much else.
I’m going to regram myself since I first “found” this place from Thai newspapers near the beginning of the year:
For solo diners:
the yen ta fo is far more satisfying than the jade, cuz, “umami” n shiz.
Jungle curry khanom jeen with chicken feet:
https://www.instagram.com/p/1_GEZ_GwHy/?taken-by=sinosoul
aka: Thai diarrhea weight-loss program.
khao kluk kapi with mackerel:
https://www.instagram.com/p/3rOqRuGwHj/?taken-by=sinosoul
For ~4:
“tray” size somtum, customized with whatever style salad you like:
Southern style curry with FISH, not crab, unlike all the print that says otherwise.
It’s far easier to eat, and gets greater mileage. Same curry, better QPR. Like @ns1, I’m all about QPR,
@Helper_Monkey’s fave Massuman curry:
pork rib kua kling with sator (by default, I skip beef at Thai restaurants in the US)
turmeric soup:
skip the fried chix/khao muk gai, and unless you’re really into chewy snails, skip the cockles (in either form). then again, WTF do I know? I think Jitlada serves brilliant Thai food even if I have to bus my own rice bowls + beer bottles there. 0 damns given.
NB: here you go @Porthos, 10 best at an LA Thai joint of which I was an early [edit: first] proponent.
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@TonyC no need to convince me of Luv2eat. I’m a fan.
That Jitlada tho…
Btw, is that white balance a bit off in the first photo? 
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How the hell do you eat that somtum and do I spy cha lua (viet word for it, no idea English or Thai word for it) at the top of that plate?
The countertop is grey-specked caesarstone; color is accurate but the exposure is completely f’d.
If you’d asked me for a Jitlada top 10 in '08 there would’ve been an immediate response on CH (or not), but that HDD died and I just didn’t GAF enough about food photos enough to have made a backup. Also, ErikM already did that for y’all in '08.
@TonyC I’m messing with you on the photo.
No photos needed for your Top 10 at Jitlada.
I don’t know who erikM is but I do know a TonyC.
Haha. I know.
The Erik M – white dude who learned Thai just to eat Thai food. Before Pok Pok opened, I might add. JG mentioned him in his Jitlada review.
Do you speak Thai?
¯_(ツ)_/¯
yes.
[quote=“set0312, post:22, topic:1586, full:true”]
Do you speak Thai?
[/quote]no
how luv2eat wasn’t included on ANY best new restaurants list of this year is really beyond me. I mean… Baroo?
A very good lunch at Luv2Eat today. We got the fried chicken (in place of the usual satay for the kids), pork liver salad, turmeric-chicken soup, massamun curry (with chicken) and the fish curry. The waitress independently downgraded our heat setting on the fish curry from Thai hot to medium. It was pretty hot at medium (though manageable) but would probably have killed me at Thai hot. Anyway, the fish curry, the turmeric soup and the massamun were the highlights–probably in that order. We’ll be back on the next trip for sure to try more of the recommended stuff; might even try to squeeze in another visit on this trip–only problem is I can’t eat anything too lethal (Thai/Sichuan) too close to getting on a 15 hour flight across the Pacific…
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I was there for lunch too!
I think that translation that Erik did was the first thread I ever viewed at CH… ::weeps gently for a bygone era::
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We got there a little after noon. Table for four, right by the door.
Then you haven’t been to Yai’s. Dam just thinking about it I may go there for lunch.
Had a wonderful meal here tonight. Very funky stuff. To be honest, my favorite dish was the jade noodle–far better than the Sapp version to me. One of the more comforting, perfectly balanced noodle dishes I’ve ever had.
Shrimp paste fried rice and kua gling spare ribs both good (if not great). Grilled pork larb was great.
Then there was the phuket style curry. This was simultaneously great and difficult. The flavors were incredible, but the heat was really just too much for me–first time that has happened to me in a while. I was deep in a sweat meltdown. I had to stop eating for a little while.
They were out of fried chicken. I think next time I’d probably get the same meal, but with fried chicken and massaman added (kua kling out and phuket curry out)
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fear not, Erik’s still alive. He still dabbles in Chicago Thai translations, and he’s keenly aware of the Ricker/Pok Pok sitch in LA (read: we’re all being trolled)
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I agree their jade noodles are better than Sapp. I thought it was fantastic.
Also agree about the crab curry. Even though I was for it medium, the heat level was just too high for me to really enjoy it. Had to throw most of it away.
I thought their fried chicken was just average at best and probably would not order it again. I need to go back there to try their massaman curry. It was my favorite dish while traveling in Koh Samui.
Also, as an update, my fingernails were yellow for two days. No idea why; nothing I ate was yellow. My best guess is it was the kua gling short ribs which has to be eaten with hands. My girlfriend also would not come near me due to smell. But still worth it.
We got the crab curry and the massaman as take out this weekend. The massaman was unbelievably good. The crab curry was, unfortunately, inedible due to the heat. They said “it’s spicy so we’ll do it just below medium” but I should have insisted on “mild”. Bummer and lesson learned.