The Best Thai Food in Los Angeles

Thai Taco Tuesdays draw lines around the block at this family-run Sherman Oaks restaurant, where a second-generation chef holds a James Beard Award and runs a monthly omakase that books out before most people know it's open. The rest of the week it's classic Thai with a wine list that gets written about on its own terms. Warm, buzzy, and very Los Angeles in the best sense, which is to say it's completely unpretentious about being excellent.

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · Best Chef: California · Justin Pichetrungsi
2. The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
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1. Food & Wine Best New Chefs · Wedchayan "Deau" Arpapornnopparat

Boat noodles are the draw at this Thai noodle shop tucked into a Hollywood strip mall, where the broth runs thick, dark, and serious, and you pick your protein, noodle type, and heat level before the bowl hits the table. The portions are small by design, which is the shop's way of nudging you toward ordering two. A Michelin Bib Gourmand, and on the LA Times 101 list. The stir-fried holy basil with pork is not an afterthought.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Los Angeles Times The 101 Best Restaurants in California

Charcoal-grilled satay mushrooms from Long Beach share a menu with Dungeness crab curry and lip-tingling beef nam tok at this small, casual Thai restaurant in Atwater Village. The team behind it built a following on Northern Thai-style sausage packed for pandemic pickup, and the cooking has only gotten looser and more confident since. The New York Times put it on their list of the 25 best restaurants in Los Angeles right now, which for a neighborhood spot with a takeout window is saying something.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
2. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50
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The birds go in whole and come out deeply browned, every slice carrying crackling skin and a soft layer of fat underneath. This tiny strip-mall Thai restaurant in East Hollywood keeps things focused: duck over rice, duck over thin jade noodles, or duck as the salad. The carcass goes into the pot for a dark broth that becomes duck noodle soup, which regulars treat as a second visit folded into the first.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles Right Now
2. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. AAA Three Diamonds

A family Thai restaurant on the Westside where the chef took over from her parents and didn't soften a thing. The menu runs from papaya salad with a real kick to green curry made from fresh chili paste, and the kitchen will calibrate the heat if you ask nicely. The pastries are a quiet surprise, French technique folded into Thai flavors. The Thai tea flan alone justifies staying for dessert.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The facade is aggressively nondescript, which means most people walk right past a Northern Thai restaurant that the Michelin Guide has quietly noted. Inside, the room goes full color and quirk. The menu is long, but the Chiang Rai Local Food section is where to spend your attention. The kitchen defaults to gentle heat, so speak up if you want the real thing. The khao soi here swaps the usual chicken for thin-sliced raw ribeye, finished tableside by the hot broth.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A Thai breakfast and dessert shop tucked into the back corner of a strip mall in Gardena, where congee bubbles away in the kitchen while the rest of Los Angeles is still eating eggs. The jok, thick with pork meatballs and fresh ginger, is the right place to start. Mango sticky rice appears when it appears, and regulars know to order it before it's gone. Counter service, paper lanterns, turquoise accents, and no pretension whatsoever.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Los Angeles Times #84 · The 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles

1. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50

1. Los Angeles Times Fifty Under $50