TastyPals
Login / Sign up
Taste ID
AboutMethodologyApp
GuideUpdated July 15, 2026

12 Best Places for Pad Thai in Los Angeles

Where to find the best pad thai in Los Angeles — each restaurant rated 4.0★ or higher. Top-rated at 9.6★. Spanning thai kitchens. Curated by TastyPals.

The best places for pad thai in Los Angeles are The Goldfish, Sticky Rice, Pa Ord Noodle, and more. Start with The Goldfish if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By Linh Tran•11 ranked picks•Published July 15, 2026•Updated July 15, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
The GoldfishSticky RicePa Ord Noodle
12 Best Places for Pad Thai in Los Angeles
Google

Top picks at a glance

#1The GoldfishThai • Highland Park • value#2Sticky RiceThai • Los Angeles • $$#3Pa Ord NoodleThai • Los Angeles • $

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated spots for pad thai in Los Angeles. Whether you're a local hunting your next regular or visiting and want to eat well, these picks are sorted by quality and review depth.

Quick picks

The Goldfish
Thai • Highland Park
The Goldfish is doing something genuinely specific on York Blvd: Thai street food, craft cocktails with Thai-inflected flavors, orange felt pool tables, arcade machines, and a checkered dance floor…
Sticky Rice
Thai • Los Angeles
Sticky Rice started in Grand Central Market in 2013, which tells you everything about its original premise: Thai street food stripped back to the counter, the wok, and the dish in front of you.
Pa Ord Noodle
Thai • Los Angeles
Pa Ord Noodle suits a night out when you want thai that feels grown-up without getting stiff.
Browse all Los Angeles restaurantsBack to Los Angeles hub
Editorial details
Author: Linh Tran
Published: July 15, 2026
Last updated: July 15, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. The GoldfishView →
  2. 2. Sticky RiceView →
  3. 3. Pa Ord NoodleView →
  4. 4. The Original Hoy-Ka Thai NoodleView →
  5. 5. Ayara ThaiView →
  6. 6. Spelling Thai BistroView →
  7. 7. Luv2eat Thai BistroView →
  8. 8. Palms Thai RestaurantView →
  9. 9. Ruen PairView →
  10. 10. Jitlada RestaurantView →
  11. 11. Sanamluang Cafe HollywoodView →

How the restaurants compare

The Goldfish
Highland Park • Thai
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
hidden gem
Mood
Highland Park
Sticky Rice
Los Angeles • Thai
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
date night
Mood
Easygoing
Pa Ord Noodle
Los Angeles • Thai
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$
Best for
date night
Mood
Casual
The Original Hoy-Ka Thai Noodle
Los Angeles • Thai
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$
Best for
Thai
Mood
Casual

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

11 ranked picks

The Goldfish — The Goldfish is doing something genuinely specific on York Blvd: Thai street food, craft cocktails with Thai-inflected flavors, orange felt pool tables, arcade machines, and a checkered dance floor that survived the venue's recent revamp intact. This is not a bar that also has food, or a restaurant that also has drinks — Sticky Rice operates out of a takeout window and feeds the dining room simultaneously, which means the kitchen has its own identity and ambition. Highland Park is the right neighborhood for this kind of layered, unpretentious venue: the block is already attuned to places that mix seriousness about food with a loose, late-night register. The Goldfish leans into that fully, staying open until 2 AM on weekends, and the price level reflects a genuine commitment to accessibility rather than an afterthought. The menu centers on traditional and regional Thai cooking alongside what the kitchen calls Highland Park Specials — dishes adapted to the context without abandoning the source material. Pad Thai is the one dish the kitchen explicitly flags as non-negotiable, which is either confident or a little bold given how often that dish gets buried under peanut dust elsewhere. Drunken Noodle and Boat Noodles round out the noodle end of the menu; Boat Noodles in particular carry a regional specificity — the dish has roots in central Thai canal culture and is traditionally served in small portions with dark, herb-forward broth. The Fish Sauce Wings land in the specials category and represent the kitchen making its case to the local crowd: familiar format, Thai pantry, neighborhood context. The cocktail program is built around Thai aromatics — lemongrass, Thai basil, coconut milk — and the Thai Chili Margarita is the signature drink to benchmark the bar against. Friday and Saturday hours run to 2 AM, which means this works as a proper late-night destination rather than a dinner stop with a last call problem. The move is to arrive after 9 PM on a weekend, grab a pool table if you can, and start with the Fish Sauce Wings and a Thai Chili Margarita before committing to noodles. View restaurant →
Sticky Rice — Sticky Rice started in Grand Central Market in 2013, which tells you everything about its original premise: Thai street food stripped back to the counter, the wok, and the dish in front of you. Eleven-plus years later, with four locations scattered across Downtown, Echo Park, West 3rd Street, and York Boulevard, it has grown into something genuinely LA — a format that travels well because the format was never about a room to begin with. This is a place built for the person who wants a real plate of Thai food without the theater of a sit-down restaurant. The counter-service model, with dishes prepared to order as you wait, is not a compromise; it is the point. The menu gravitates toward the kind of Thai cooking that diners return to on weekday instinct rather than occasion: Pad Thai, yellow curry, and fried rice dishes that anchor the rotation. Of those, the Pineapple Fried Rice and Crab Fried Rice surface most consistently in what regulars praise — both representing the kitchen's focus on fried rice as a dish worth taking seriously, not as an afterthought. The Crying Tiger Steak, a grilled beef preparation typically served with a sharp tamarind-forward dipping sauce, is the menu's one clear nod to something with a bit more occasion to it. At price level two, the value proposition is straightforward and honest: this is Thai street food priced like Thai street food. The multi-location footprint means the practical move depends on which Sticky Rice you're targeting. The Grand Central Market location operates within one of Downtown LA's most navigated food halls, so timing matters — midday on a weekday is the window before the lunch crowd stacks up. Counter seats fill fast. If you're deciding what to anchor the meal around, the Crab Fried Rice and Crying Tiger Steak together cover the range the kitchen is known for. Go in knowing what you want before you reach the counter. View restaurant →

Get the App

Save these spots to your Los Angeles list

Keep the shortlist handy in the TastyPals app and find similar restaurants across Los Angeles.

Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist
Spelling Thai Bistro — Spelling Thai Bistro opened on South La Brea in 2024, which puts it just west of Thai Town proper — a deliberate positioning that says something about its ambitions. This isn't the bare-bones steam-table setup you find deeper into the corridor on Hollywood Boulevard. Owner Mr. Spelling is running something more considered: a small dining room with a clean, modern interior, an open kitchen so you can watch the line work, and a patio out front with low-tops and TVs for when the weather cooperates. At price level one, it's competing with the neighborhood's most casual spots on cost while trying to look and feel like something you'd call a bistro without irony. Early reception has been notably strong, and the egg rolls have apparently crossed over into grocery retail — an unusual move for a place less than two years old that suggests the kitchen is confident enough in at least one product to bet on it commercially. The menu centers on the fundamentals done right. Pad Thai, green curry, and tom yum soup are the anchors — not because the kitchen lacks range, but because diners keep coming back to them, which is its own kind of verdict. The roasted duck over rice is the dish that professional reviewers have flagged specifically: Thai-style preparation, tender interior, skin that crisps up properly — the kind of protein-and-rice combination that functions as a litmus test for a kitchen's fundamentals. Tom yum is worth noting because it's a soup that punishes shortcuts; the fact that it's called out as a signature rather than just a menu filler suggests the kitchen isn't treating it as an afterthought. Green curry at this price point in Los Angeles is everywhere, but regulars gravitating toward it here indicates the balance of heat and coconut is landing right. The practical move: if you want the open kitchen view and the full room experience, go inside. The patio is better for a casual weeknight when you want the TVs and the street air. Given the restaurant's youth and the word-of-mouth momentum it's built since opening, weekends are worth a reservation call. And if you're curious about the grocery egg rolls — order them in the restaurant first, where they're presumably at their best straight out of the fryer. View restaurant →

Explore next

Thai TownHighland ParkThaiDate Nightdinnerhidden gem

Related guides

Los Angeles food and palms
Google

Guide • los angeles

Best Restaurants in Los Angeles 2026

Ten LA restaurants that have earned their reputations without needing the city's hype machine — from a Venice patio institution to a Palms kaiseki sanctuary, a Downtown Israeli-Middle Eastern destination, and the Mid-City all-day room that defines California dining in 2026.

Read guide

Get the App

Save these spots to your Los Angeles list

Save these spots to your Los Angeles list in the TastyPals app, then explore similar restaurants when you want a tighter shortlist for the night.

Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
TastyPalsTonight
Your taste. Our picks.
Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
Keep exploring in the app when you want a tighter shortlist