FWIW not everything was great.
But she is a gem and I hope she works out the kinks.
Issan Sausage was wonderful.
Pad Se Ew with pork - excellent
Shrimp Penang curry had nice shrimp but was quite watery and not much depth of flavor. The watery-ness might be what @paranoidgarliclover was speaking of with the noodles.
Hainan Chx - don’t bother
Spring rolls - all stuck together in the box. But good veg and shrimp.
I know the latter dishes aren’t really Thai but they were on the menu and a fam member requested.
I was wondering about this… Thanks for taking one for the team.
Is “real” Thai curry normally much thinner than what we usually get in restaurants? The few times I’ve had home cooked Indian food, I’ve always been stuck at how much thinner/less rich the sauce is.
Our rice noodles were so, SO soft, and I was almost under the impression that the rice noodles were a bit water logged and had thinned out the curry.
They seemed very open to feedback, so hopefully they’ll continue to fine tune things. My main wish for the curry was to have more flavor in the “front” of my mouth and for a bit more funk or earthiness (but maybe that’s just not what that dish is supposed to taste like).
I don’t really know the answer to this, but I read that the more coconut milk you add, the thicker the curry. I saw Chef cook my dish made with red curry and I saw her use a very light hand on the coconut milk, really just a splash, which I appreciated because I prefer lighter cuisine both taste wise and calorie wise. My curry was light and not gooey, which is exactly to my taste. The dish I had does not come with noodles though, so there was no issue of the noodles being slippery. Instead I got sticky rice and the thinner sauce was perfect for dipping the sticky rice, reminding me of many happy meals in Laos where the cuisine was on the lighter side (although I think Laotian food is different than Southern Thai food).
I did find the som tum that I had for delivery to be too soupy, but in retrospect I don’t think that som tum is a dish that stands up to takeout.
On another subject, I had lunch today at Terra at Eataly and even though it is an entirely different kind of cuisine, I would have been much happier at Sanook Soi 38 because, among other things, the produce at Terra was not as fresh as at Sanook Soi 38. Of course, the lunch was also much more expensive than at Sanook Soi 38 and I didn’t find the banquets very comfortable. But I digress (the salad at Terra was really mediocre though).
Thanks to FTC for the recommendation. I found it better than most Thai Town restaurants and especially good for West LA. I liked the freshness of the vegetables, which were on display in the open kitchen; the balanced sweetness in the tom yum soup (many versions are too sweet for me); and the simple authenticity of the pad kra pao chicken. (Aside: Sticky Rice in GCM also makes a good version of pad kra pao gai, but I’d give the slight nod to Sanook Soi 38, especially because of their purple rice.)
I wasn’t too fond of the massaman curry (the flavor combo wasn’t as tasty for me as Jitlada’s, for example) or the squid I ordered therein (way over-chewy).
Tried this spot a few times after reading this sub. It’s really getting better and better. Recently ordered Pad See Ew, Papaya Salad, Hainan Chicken, Northern Thai Sausage – simply the best renditions in West LA. Their menu is subtly changing, can’t wait to try literally everything!