Pestle Rock

"This cozy Ballard restaurant specializes in cuisine from the Isan region of Thailand and is a great spot to expand your understanding of Thai food. Dipping sauces, fresh ingredients, and pestle-ground spices are central to the dining experience at Pestle Rock. Dig into exciting dishes like kanom jeen nam prik (a roasted peanut curry served over vermicelli noodles with veggies) and gang muu yang (grilled pork with lalop leaves and a turmeric curry). If you’re thirsty, Pestle Rock also concocts some Thai-inspired cocktails such as an Old Fashioned made with homemade Thai spiced rum." - Alicia Erickson

"This Ballard restaurant serves Isan-style food from northeastern Thailand. The menu items are markedly different from what’s served in other local Thai restaurants, featuring meats like boar collar, homemade Thai sausage, and frog legs. Dishes use locally raised meat like Carleton Farms pork, which at Pestle Rock, is marinated in Thai whiskey." - Eater Staff

"It’s not every day you get to eat dinner in a space that looks kind of like an old-fashioned train car with a ceiling of string lights—so do that at Pestle Rock with your friends. The Isan Thai menu here includes delicious things like chili chicken wings, spicy and sour pork belly stir fry, and panang salmon. They also make a mean Thai iced tea." - aimee rizzo

"The dishes at Pestle Rock come from the Isan region, so this is where you come to eat crispy marinated chicken wings coated in Thai chili, slow-cooked pork with egg noodles, crab fried rice, salmon in panang curry, and snappy links of garlicky and spicy homemade sausage. Take into account the super-friendly staff and cozy red-brick interior, and you might never order delivery Pad Thai again." - Aimee Rizzo, Kayla Sager Riley

"Pestle Rock features Thai food from the Isan region of the country, which is known for dishes packed with fresh herbs and chili peppers and drenched in lime juice. Highlights include the crispy fried chicken wings, an excellent kao soi, and a Dungeness crab fried rice. Quality preparations also make deft use of local ingredients, such as the grilled wild boar collar served with lime juice, toasted rice, and lots of chili pepper." - Jade Yamazaki Stewart