Review Caveats:
- Reviews are limited to restaurants, street vendors, and grocers that offer plenty of vegan options.
- The geography includes Thai Town proper and adjacent streets.
- I visit multiple times.
- This is a work in progress and not an exhaustive list.
Scoring is based on a total of 20. Flavor and vegan options are judged more critically than atmosphere and service.
Salaya
Hollywood Blvd & Kingsley
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
19 chiles
Salaya is the perfect vegan restaurant—almost to a fault. All the dishes are plant-based and conscientiously prepared with wholesomeness down to every detail. Entering Salaya is akin to a spa, immediately placing you at ease and ready for a deep cleanse. The food is utterly fresh; the dinning area is impeccably neat; and the kitchen is spotless. The colorful menu booklet and delightful dishware are picture perfect. The menu features an assortment of Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese dishes. You could eat there every day without boredom and not gain an extra pound. The mock meats are effortless. The curries and other Thai stables are delicately prepared: no greasy noodles and rice, no sugary coconut milk, no sodium overload. The adherence to purity, however, sometimes sacrifices flavor and potency. A bit of Thai grit and piquant is good for the soul.
Pattaya Bay
Vermont & Hollywood Blvd
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
19 chiles
A Thai restaurant that comes with a warning label and refuses to cater to all is tucked away near the entrance to upscale Los Feliz. Pattaya Bay could have abandoned its raison d’être to grab bank from the milquetoast hipsters preening about the local bistros on Vermont Avenue. Instead, the menu preserves Thai classics and incorporates vegan substitutions without the bat of an eye. The small entrance off a parking lot hides a larger space, including a stage for live music. The wait staff double checks your tolerance for heat, and in the same breath suggests vegan alternatives on and off the menu. Salads, curries, and veggie dishes are well balanced between sauce, spice, and crispness. Located just outside of Thai Town, Pattaya Bay feels like it’s giving the middle finger to Los Feliz. This Thai place knows where it belongs.
LAcha Somtum
Hollywood Blvd & Kingsley
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
18 chiles
Excellent dishes across the board. No holds barred on spice levels. Rich inclusion of Thai flavors. Somtum is the real deal and does not cater to tourist palates. Most dishes can be made vegan, and staff are charming and considerate about informing you of vegan options. The food is consistently luscious anytime, including take out. The curries and salads are standouts. The comfy mis-matched seating and long community table feel like an auntie’s living room. The building, however, has chronic HVAC issues; you may encounter blowing fans, electric heaters, or closed doors due to a building maintenance problem.
Silom Supermarket
Hollywood Blvd near Serrano
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
18 chiles
Silom is the grocery store in the neighborhood to find everything, featuring fresh produce and Thai essentials, including Kaffir limes (in season), galanga, and an array of Thai chiles. The frozen section has an amazing assortment of mock meats and seafood that you probably never knew existed (e.g., vegan cuttlefish). Silom carries many imported canned and packaged stables that are vegan-friendly to make your favorite sauces. Be sure to read the fine print on everything, however, since there’s no specific vegan section on the shelves (and Thai goods often have a base of fish sauce). Its noodle aisle is vast, while the rice varieties are limited but high quality. You can usually find vegan take-away “deli” foods and sweet treats. The produce section is small but comprehensive, although occasionally not well stocked. Silom’s staff are proudly not chefs, do not provide language interpretation, nor act as ambassadors of Thai cuisine and culture. But if you do a little homework and come as polite guests, you will find everything you need. Strike up a conversation with aunties shopping in the aisles, and they may share a valuable cooking tip.
Bulan thai
Santa Monica Blvd near Sunset Blvd
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
17 chiles
It’s a stretch to include a restaurant nestled on a curved hill where Santa Monica Blvd ends at Sunset Blvd in a review of Thai Town. But Bulan stretches what can be considered Thai food—without disappointment. The dishes posses no heat and little connection to their flavor origins. You would be hard pressed to taste kaffir or galanga or a red chile in any meal. Yet the chef masterfully and delicately prepares every item, and the crispy rice and dumplings are local legends for a reason. I was attracted to Bulan for the purely plant-based menu and left delighted if slightly confused. Perhaps the adorable restaurant suffers from its proximity to the imposing Erewhon across the street. Bulan’s marriage of Thai culture to a certain kind of earnest vegetarianism results in a beautiful if anachronistic culinary experience.
Boran Thai
Hollywood Blvd & Serrano
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
16 chiles
Boran is the little shop around the corner that caters to all. Recently expanded into the store next door, Boran is growing but hasn’t lost its take-out vibe and neighborliness. The menu is simple, tasty, and doesn’t try to overwhelm or impress. The noodle dishes and curries will keep you coming back, as well as the reasonable price tag. The friendly staff are ready to receive “make it vegan”, but you may need to be specific about ingredients. The spice level base is quite mild, and I’ve had to ask for a chile tray to up it a notch. On any given Tuesday night, you’ll find a family sharing a pot, a yuppie couple with their dog, workers grabbing a quick bite after exiting the Metro, lost tourists enjoying a respite, and regulars chatting and watching a sports game. Boran serves as everyone’s kitchen table.
Thai Central Cuisine
Hollywood Blvd & Hobart
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
16 chiles
Thai Central Cuisine probably refers to the region in Thailand, not its location in the heart of the Thailand Plaza strip mall on Hollywood Blvd. The food is very good but no extraordinary stand outs. The plate presentation is lovely, portions modest, and flavors on point. The prices are above the average, and only select items are (or can be made) vegan. The spice level is low, but they provide nine hot sauce varieties (which you can take home), instead of the often recycled chile tray. I love the warm blue and wood interior—and even warmer staff. I never feel rushed or bothered by obsequious attention. It’s a comfortable place to hang, a reprieve from the tightly packed tables or “dinning hall” rows of the restaurants next door. Overall, Thai Central Cuisine falls somewhere in the middle of my exploration, and so is aptly named.
Thai Patio
Hollywood Blvd & Hobart
Flavor & Menu
Vegan-ability
Quality, Consistency & Value
Service & Atmosphere
12 chiles
Thai Patio was on my regular rotation for years in large part due to the partially-enclosed patio seating—a great spot for Hollywood Blvd people watching. The friendly staff never batted an eye when I asked about making dishes vegan and anticipated my needs on return visits. Over time, the staff turned over, the menu declined, and the patio has seen better days. Much of the dishes are now “pre-mixed” (say goodbye to vegan papaya salad and curries). Several sides appear to be out of the box from the frozen food aisle, and other items on the menu are no longer available. The noodle dishes are solid, and the tofu portions are generous. I especially love their tray of various chiles. But I yearn for the earlier days when the waiters chatted with you over ingredients, the patio was clean, and the plant-based plates were abundant. It’s reasonable food for a reasonable price served on a reasonably sturdy patio table.
Avoidables:
- Hollywood Thai (Hollywood & Hobart): The food has been good and service unremarkable, but the last two visits were down right terrible: one time we were served the wrong dishes and replacements were cold; another time we were ignored for 15 minutes in a mostly empty space; I walked towards the kitchen to look for a waiter, who dismissed me to attend to a private party. We left, joined by another group standing at the door for a while unwelcomed.
- Jitlada (Sunset & Harvard): It’s famous, always crowded, and extraordinarily expensive. The menu is not vegan-friendly, and what remains are overly sweet, bland, and oily curries. The menu caters to spice-intolerant carnivores addicted to fatty, syrupy food in large portions. Jitlada cooks for gentrifiers with an IHOP palate.