RFK Cuisine · Thai · Los Angeles
Best Thai Restaurants in Los Angeles 2026
Thai · Los Angeles · 6 kitchens ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 20, 2026 · Updated June 20, 2026
No city outside Thailand cooks Thai food the way Los Angeles does, and the proof is a single mile of Hollywood Boulevard. East Hollywood's Thai Town is the only municipally designated one in the United States, the city holds the largest Thai community in the country, and that density bought something rare: regional specialists. You do not eat "Thai food" here so much as Southern curries at one address, Isaan party food at another, boat noodles at a third, Phuket crab a mile south. The pad thai is incidental. Six kitchens, ranked from the Southern Thai institution that put the scene on the map down to the late-night noodle counter that locals never stop arguing about.
1.Jitlada
The Southern Thai institution that defined LA Thai food; go for the fiery regional curries and order braver than you think you can.
Jitlada on Sunset is the heart of the scene, and it has been since the late Tui Sungkamee turned a small Thai Town room into a shrine to the fierce, sour, herb-driven cooking of southern Thailand. His sister, Jazz Singsanong, still runs the floor, and the kitchen carries on a 400-item menu that earned Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition in 2019, 2022 and 2023. Order off the Southern pages: the crispy morning-glory salad, the dynamite-hot curries, the crab dishes, the boar. Tell them you mean it on the heat and they will believe you. It is loud, cramped and beloved, and it is where any serious tour of Los Angeles Thai food has to start. Walk in; weekend nights run a wait.
Walk in (cash welcome); the crispy morning-glory salad and a Southern Thai curry, dialed to the heat you can take.
2.Luv2eat Thai Bistro
A strip-mall room cooking the best crab curry in the city; go for the Phuket specials and ignore the parking lot.
Luv2eat sits in an unglamorous Sunset Boulevard strip mall in Hollywood, and chefs Fern and Pai Kaewtathip have made it the kitchen that other Thai cooks name when pressed. It is in the Michelin Guide on the strength of one dish above all — the Phuket-style crab curry, a sweet-salt-sour southern gravy over noodles that people genuinely cross the city for — plus jade noodles and a chef's-special section that rewards anyone who reads past the front page. The room is small, fast and unpretentious; the cooking is anything but. If Jitlada is the institution, Luv2eat is the kitchen at the top of its game right now. Walk in or order ahead for takeout on a busy night.
Walk in; the Phuket-style crab curry and jade noodles, straight from the chef's-special list.
3.Night + Market Song
Kris Yenbamroong's salt-and-funk Thai with a natural-wine list; book for a loud, modern night that classic Thai Town can't give you.
Kris Yenbamroong grew up in his family's Thai restaurant and then blew the format open: Night + Market Song, his Silver Lake outpost, serves the spicy, salty, fermented "party food" Thais actually eat — crispy rice salad (nam khao tod), startled pig, fried chicken, larb — in a pink-and-orange room with one of the best natural wine lists in the city, a list that has drawn James Beard nominations. This is the modern counterweight to Thai Town: not better than Jitlada, but doing something the institutions do not, pairing genuinely fiery cooking with wine chosen to take the heat. Book it when you want the volume up. Reserve on Resy; prime evening tables go.
Reserve on Resy; the crispy rice salad and fried chicken, with a chilled red off the natural list.
4.Holy Basil
Bangkok street-food roots run through a modern kitchen; go for the contemporary end of LA Thai without losing the heat.
Holy Basil began as a tiny pandemic pop-up and became one of the most talked-about modern Thai kitchens in Los Angeles, now settled in Atwater Village. Chef Deau Arpapornnopparat cooks from Bangkok street-food memory but plates with restaurant polish — the kind of room that takes a familiar dish and sharpens it rather than dressing it up. The crispy-rice and laab dishes, the curries and the noodle plates land with real chili heat and clean technique, and the contemporary setting makes it the easiest of these rooms to bring a date or a skeptic. It is the bridge between Thai Town's specialists and a more polished sit-down meal. Walk in midweek; weekends and reservations fill.
Walk in off-peak or book ahead; the crispy-rice salad and whichever curry is the kitchen's focus that week.
5.Ruen Pair
The Thai Town stalwart that stays open when the rest close; go late for crispy duck and the city's most reliable papaya salad.
Ruen Pair has anchored a Hollywood Boulevard corner in the middle of Thai Town for decades, and its appeal is steadiness: a deep menu of central and street Thai classics cooked the same way, late into the night, for a crowd that runs from Thai families to chefs off shift. The crispy duck over greens, the green papaya salad pounded to order, the morning-glory and the curries are the orders; nothing here is reinvented, and that is the point. When Jitlada and Luv2eat have closed and you still want a real Thai meal, Ruen Pair is the answer. Walk in; it keeps later hours than almost anything around it.
Walk in late; the crispy duck and a som tum (green papaya salad) pounded to order.
6.Sapp Coffee Shop
The boat-noodle counter Anthony Bourdain made famous; go for one dish done better than anywhere in the city.
Sapp Coffee Shop is not a coffee shop and barely a restaurant — it is a fluorescent-lit East Hollywood counter that has served the best Thai boat noodles in Los Angeles since the late 1970s, the kind of dark, blood-thickened, intensely savory soup that built its reputation and pulled Anthony Bourdain through the door. Order the boat noodle soup, the jade noodles, a plate of pad see ew, and accept that the decor is beside the point. It is the most single-minded room on this list: one regional specialty, executed with the authority of fifty years. The cheapest great meal in Thai Town and a fixture locals never let slide. Walk in; cash is king.
Walk in (bring cash); the boat noodle soup and an order of jade noodles.
How Los Angeles eats Thai
The geography is the story. After 1965 changes to US immigration law, Thai families settled in Los Angeles in greater numbers than anywhere else in the country, and East Hollywood became the center — formally designated Thai Town in 1999, the only one in the United States. That concentration is why the food here is regional rather than generic: there are enough Thai diners to support a Southern Thai specialist, a boat-noodle counter, an Isaan party kitchen and a Phuket-curry room within a few miles of each other, each cooking for an audience that knows the difference. The default American-Thai menu — pad thai, sweet curries, satay — exists, but it is the floor, not the ceiling.
Eating well here means ordering off-script. Ask for the chef's-special pages, say "Thai-spicy" only if you mean it, and treat the regional labels — tom yum (hot-and-sour), som tum (green papaya salad), nam khao tod (crispy rice salad), laab (minced-meat salad) — as a map rather than a wine list. Most of these rooms are cash-friendly walk-ins; Night + Market Song is the one that takes reservations. For the broader frame, see the best Thai restaurants worldwide guide, and map the rest of the city in the Los Angeles dining guide.
Where not to book
Skip these for real Thai in LA
The Westside "Thai bistros" with a full bar and no regional menu. Plenty of polished rooms in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills sell sweet, mild curries and a long cocktail list at double the Thai Town price. They are fine; they are not why you came. Drive east to Jitlada or Hollywood for Luv2eat instead.
Night + Market Song if you want a quiet, low-spice dinner. The room is loud, the cooking is genuinely fiery, and the format is built around sharing and drinking. For a calmer, more classic Thai meal, Ruen Pair in Thai Town is the better call.
Frequently asked
What is the best Thai restaurant in Los Angeles?
Jitlada in Thai Town is the consensus answer for sheer depth, a Southern Thai institution with a 400-item menu and three Michelin Bib Gourmand nods between 2019 and 2023. For pure cooking, Luv2eat Thai Bistro in Hollywood is its closest rival, built on a Phuket-style crab curry that locals drive across the city for. Which is best depends on what you order; both are essential to LA Thai food.
Why is Thai food in Los Angeles so good?
Los Angeles has the largest Thai community in the United States, and East Hollywood's Thai Town, the only officially designated Thai Town in the country, became the hub. That density supports regional specialists, not just generic pad thai houses: Southern Thai curries at Jitlada, boat noodles at Sapp, Phuket cooking at Luv2eat, Isaan party food at Night + Market. The result is the deepest, most regionally specific Thai scene outside Thailand.
What should you order at a Thai restaurant in LA?
Skip the safe pad thai and order regionally. At Jitlada, the crispy morning-glory salad and a Southern curry; at Luv2eat, the Phuket-style crab curry and jade noodles; at Sapp, the boat noodle soup; at Night + Market, the crispy rice salad (nam khao tod) and fried chicken. Tell the staff you want it cooked Thai-spicy if you mean it. The chef's-special sections, not the front of the menu, are where these kitchens show off.
Where is Thai Town in Los Angeles?
Thai Town runs along Hollywood Boulevard in East Hollywood, roughly between Western and Normandie Avenues, with more Thai kitchens scattered up Sunset Boulevard toward Hollywood. It is the only municipally designated Thai Town in the United States. Jitlada, Ruen Pair and Sapp Coffee Shop are all within a few blocks; Luv2eat sits just south on Sunset, and Night + Market Song and Holy Basil are a short drive east in Silver Lake and Atwater Village.
Do you need a reservation for Thai food in LA?
Mostly no. Jitlada, Luv2eat, Ruen Pair and Sapp Coffee Shop are walk-in rooms, busiest on weekend nights when a short wait is normal. The exception is Night + Market Song in Silver Lake, which takes reservations on Resy and fills its prime evening tables, partly for the James Beard-nominated natural wine list. For the walk-in spots, arrive early or off-peak and expect cash to be welcome.
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Browse the full Los Angeles dining guide, place LA's kitchens against the world in the best Thai restaurants worldwide, find a great solo-dining counter elsewhere, plan a meal for a first date in Silver Lake, or open the full RFK cuisine index.
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