Thai Food: America's 5 Best Thai Restaurants
Thai food is a very popular cuisine in America and is becoming as ubiquitous in the States as Italian food, Mexican food, or Chinese food. Some people enjoy dining at a Thai restaurant whereas others may opt for Thai food delivery. Whichever dining option you choose, you'll want good, quality Thai food.
So where can you find the best Thai food in the America? The Daily Meal put together a list of America's 25 Best Asian Restaurants, and on that list were some of America's best Thai restaurants.
In order to assemble our ranking of America's best Asian restaurants, The Daily Meal tapped into the collective knowledge of more than 100 dining experts from across the country, as part of The Daily Meal's ranking of the 101 Best Restaurants in America. Of the 25 restaurants listed here, 16 of them were included in this year's ranking, with several others included in previous years'.
If you love Thai food, then head to one of the following restaurants, which we've determined to be America's five best Thai restaurants. What do you think?
Jitlada, Los Angeles
All the standard Thai dishes are done very well at this well-known storefront restaurant in Thai Town, but the southern Thai specialties, many of which are found nowhere else in America, are the real draw. Try the oxtail soup, crisp catfish salad, soft-shell crabs with yellow curry, sea bass with caramelized garlic, and whatever else proprietor Sarintip "Jazz" Singsanong recommends; even the beef curry called khua kling Phat Lung, quite possibly the spiciest dish in L.A.
SriPraPhai, Queens, New York
Consistently lauded by critics and Yelpers alike as the most authentic Thai restaurant in New York, SriPraPhai boasts a menu as large as its reputation, from papaya salad with dry shrimp and crushed peanuts to fried fish with green mango sauce by way of classic pad Thai and sautéed pork leg with chiles, garlic, and basil. Feeling overwhelmed by the spread? Ask a member of the friendly and knowledgeable wait staff for a recommendation, but be forewarned: Things may get spicy.
Night + Market, Los Angeles
While chef Kris Yenbamroong has no formal culinary training, he's not without a Thai food pedigree; he's the son of the family behind the well-respected West Hollywood Thai restaurant Talesai. But Night + Market dances to its own beat, serving Northern Thai street food in the nightclub district of the Sunset Strip with a style and philosophy Yenbamroong describes using Thai term "aharn glam lao," which he explains means making "the most delicious and authentic Thai food to facilitate drinking and fun-having amongst friends." Fried pig tail, fried pig ear with chile and garlic, Isaan-style grilled fatty collar, lots of Thai beer and Mekhong whiskey (which is actually more like a rum) are served in a setting that has been described as a G.I. Bar in '70s Bangkok. [pullquote:right]
Lotus of Siam, Las Vegas, Nev.
Serving Northern-style Thai food in a Sin City strip mall, Lotus of Siam has been nominated twice for a James Beard Award and has been called by more than one critic the best Thai restaurant in America. Chef/owner Saipin Chutima began her career at the age of five under her grandmother's tutelage and cooks such inspired cuisine today as charbroiled prawns in tamarind sauce and kao soi-braised short ribs.
Pok Pok, Portland, Ore.
When Andy Ricker opened Pok Pok in 2008, he took the Pacific Northwest, and many of the nations most devoted eaters, by storm with his uniquely refined approach to Southeast Asian street food. In fact, his Vietnamese-inspired chicken wings and boldly flavored array of house specialties are in such hot demand that Ricker opened a location dedicated specifically to wings in New York City, which has since transformed into a shop specializing in Thai-style noodles. In April 2012, he opened Pok Pok NY on Brooklyn's off-the-beaten-path Columbia Street Waterfront, and it proved so popular that last year it was forced to move into bigger digs up the street; but his Portland original remains Ricker's definitive establishment.