Jitlada Restaurant

"Jitlada isn’t just the heart and soul of LA’s Thai food scene, it’s one of this city’s essential dining experiences, full stop. The Sunset Blvd. space is cramped and kitschy, and while you’ll probably spot a few celebrities, the real star of the show is Jazz, the legendary owner who still goes around to every table asking if you loved your meal. With over 400 items, the menu is objectively overwhelming, so our tip is to steer away from dishes you can find at any other Thai restaurant, and go all-in on the ones that make Jitlada an LA icon: the crispy catfish salad, coco mango salad, Dungeness crab with garlic, taepo curry, and the secret off-menu Jazz Burger." - brant cox, arden shore, garrett snyder, sylvio martins

"Southern Thai seafood is the star at Jitlada, probably the most celebrated Thai restaurant in Los Angeles. Ever since owner Jazz Singsanong and her late brother Tui Sungkamee took over in 2006, the Southern Thai section became a mythological portion of the menu. A keen food forum user translated the menu and uncovered its treasures, which were later featured in key reviews by Jonathan Gold in LA Weekly and Coleman Andrews in Gourmet Magazine. To navigate the restaurant’s menu of biblical proportions, avoid the treacherous dynamite spicy challenge and order one of Jitlada’s crab curries and the fried morning glory salad. Every table should also have an order of the New Zealand mussels in lemongrass broth. Over the past few years, Jitlada has become a low-key favorite of celebrities like Benny Blanco, Selena Gomez, and Kiernan Shipka, so don’t be surprised if there are some famous folks dining next to you." - Kat Thompson

"Text five friends for dinner recs in Thai Town and there’s a high chance all of them will ask if you've been to Jitlada. Following a change in ownership in 2006, the strip mall favorite has climbed its way to institution status, which you’ll quickly realize once you walk into a packed dining room at dinner, The narrow space is covered in press cutouts and portraits of Thai royalty, and the food—roughly 400 dishes, all served in family-size portions—lives up to the hype. It also brings the heat—if you ask for the jungle curry spicy, don't say we didn't warn you. Crispy catfish salad, khua kling, jungle curry with pork, Jazz burger" - brant cox, cathy park, garrett snyder, sylvio martins

"Famous for its extensive Thai menu, a favorite of Julia Hess." - Eater Staff

"We have some of the best Thai food in the country here. It's just an embarrassment of riches. But Jitlada is like, 'Okay, you want like authentic southern Thai cuisine? Let's go to Jitlada. Oh, you don't know what that is? Wait for her to come out. She will explain it to you.' It's just the mainstay. It can be hard to get into, but not super difficult. It's very not pretentious. I always have so much fun there because I'm always eating something that I have never heard of. I don't always necessarily want to try it all again, but boy, have I eaten silkworms? Yeah, I have eaten the silkworms at Jitlada. And of course, if you're... basic, you can go and get your pad thai and it's amazing and dope there too. But I think it would be a mistake to go to Jitlada and get the pad thai because there's just such a wealth [of options]. It's like a Cheesecake Factory level menu in terms of size, with all of these different options of all of these things that they do so beautifully. It's a really great way to really expand your horizons as a Thai food eater and really get a sense of someone's culture. They know that we just want the pad thai and the crab rangoons. But this place is like, 'No, we're going to give you some authentic food that may seem a little weird to you. But guess what? This is what we eat and this is our culture and you're gonna love it.'" - brennan carley