Jitlada

It was a cold Christmas Eve night, Jitlada was our location of choice. We showed up at 6:30, the restaurant was mostly empty. The neon sign outside says Spicy Southern Thai, that's what we came for a family of Chiliheads.



We reviewed the menu and ordered some standard Thai dishes and some items we had never had before. For starters we had the Papaya Salad and the Thai Toast. The salad was delicious and refreshing, a bit spicy. The Thai toast wasn't what I expected, it looked like fried plantains, but tasted like some sort of deep fried seafood cake, tasty and it came with a sweet dipping sauce.



Next up, the Spicy Sweet Pork and Spicy Seafood Padthai. The pork dish was really good, the sauce was a nice combination of sweet and spicy. But like the salad, the portion size seemed a bit small. The Padthai was good, but too sweet for me.



We had the Chinese watercress, Spicy Fried Rice and Steamed Whole Seabass with Spicy Lemon sauce. All of these dishes were good, but none of them were spicy enough. We requested the condiments too late, because they added the kick I was looking for.



To finish off the meal, we split a Mango Sticky rice. Jitlada has gotten a lot of praise for being one of the best Thai restaurants in LA. Our meal was good, but I was expecting a lot more spice and balance of flavors. The price of some of the dishes also seemed too high.



Next time I will request Thai spicy when ordering.

President Thai

My mom recommended that we visit this Thai restaurant in Pasadena. I had not heard of it before, but my mom has suggested many terrific restaurants. The restaurant is located on Rosemead Blvd and the building is inspired by traditional Thai architecture. Not only is the building beautiful, the interior was more impressive. But beautiful decor does not good food make. Some of the best Thai restaurants in Los Angeles have a very modest decor, so I was skeptical.


It was lunch time, so they had a large assortment of lunch combo plates and your standard lunch specials. We decided to order ala carte since this was our first visit. We ordered the Pad Kee Mao, Larb, Yum Pla Muk, Pla Filet Lard Prik, Thai Fried Rice and Shrimp and Squid Kra Pow. Besides recommending good places to eat, my mom also loves to order way too much food. The Yum Pla Muk, which is a spicy squid salad, was delicious. The squid was cooked perfectly. Out of the six dishes we ordered, only two were "Thai Spicy", the squid salad was one of them. My family really likes spicy food, so none of the dishes really met the challenge.


Next up was the Pad Kee Mao, Larb and Pla Filet Lard Prik. The Pad Kee Mao and Chicken Larb are two of my favorite Thai dishes. Both of them were good, not great. The flavors were good, but lacked a punch, adding the traditional Thai condiments helped. The Pla Filet Lard Prik was a deep fried fish filet with a overly sweet Thai chili sauce. The fish was very crisy, but the sauce was too heavy and sweet. The final two came, Thai fried rice and the Shrimp and Squid Kra Pow. Both of these dishes were also good, not great, the show stopper was the spicy squid salad.


With so many Thai restaurants in Los Angeles, President Thai sits in the middle of the pack.

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