Restaurant: Palms Thai Restaurant
Location: 5900 Hollywood Blvd b, Los Angeles, CA 90028 | (323)462-5073
Date: February 22, 2023
Cuisine: Thai
Rating: Delicious and super spicy
In Feb and March we had a renewed Thai Tour (which we do every few months). This round brought us first to Ruen Pair and then to Palms Thai.
Large oddly modern interior.
Usual giant Thai menu.
The gang.
And Thai Elvis.
Champ for spicy.
Roasted Duck Salad. Sliced roasted duck mixed with tomato, red onion, cilantro, and chili paste. Yarom asked for it “Thai hot” and sure enough this was ferociously hot — seriously hot — but with delicious flavor. Couldn’t tell there was much duck but it was sweet, spicy, and tangy with nice onion crunch. Really red pepper hot.
Fish Cakes. Deep fried fish cakes, served with cucumber and ground peanut on sweet and sour sauce. Nice spongy texture. Very interesting. The sauce was mostly sweet. My mouth was on fire from the duck though.
Pork Jerky. Deep fried marinated pork served with spicy house sauce. Chewy, very friend, with a bit of a funky flavor, but kinda enjoyable.
Thai Sausage. Deep fried Thai sour pork sausage served with cabbage, chili, fresh ginger and peanut on the side. Flavorful and juicy.
Spicy Coconuck Seafood Soup. Spicy coconut soup with straw mushroom, galanga, lemongrass, chili paste, fresh chili, and mixed seafood. This was one of the two best Thai soups I’ve ever had. The other is the Jitlada Coco Lotus soup, which is great, but milder. This was very spicy, with an amazing curry, coconut, and chili flavor and all sorts of seafood goodness. I had about 4 bowls. Insanely delicious.
More spicy food wine.
Pork Larb. Ground pork seasoned with chili powder, red onion, rice powder and lime juice. Wow was this spicy. Nice texture and not “bland” at all. My head was sweating. My ears were sweating. A good 15 minutes of delicious pain.
Crispy Fish Maw Salad. Deep fried fish maw and cashew nut mixed with red onion, lime juice, and chili pasete. The maw could have been anything fried. Tasted just like fry. Quite spicy too although full of flavor. Spicy sweet.
Clam with Chili Paste. Clam stir fried with fresh garlic, bell pepper, basil leaves and sweet chili paste. These had a delicious sweet chili flavor. Not quite as hot as some of the previous dishes.
Frog with Chili and Holy Basil. Deep fried frog sauteed with chili, garlic, bell pepper and holy basil. The crispy basil was amazing. The frog was boney and quite fried but again with this incredible sweet, spicy, garlicky flavor.
Panang Curry with Chicken. Red coconut cream curry and bell pepper. By this point people cried uncle and we tamed down the spice. This was very sweet panang, but pretty tasty.
Thai Omelet with Pork. Thai omelet with seasoned ground pork. Really nice crunchy egg texture. Very fried.
Quail with Green Peppercorn in Curry Sauce. Deep fried quails sauteed with red curry sauce, bell pepper, coconut milk, basil leaves and green peppercorn. These crispy, fried, boney bits of tasty quail were drowned in a peanuty panang curry. Better than the actual panang this was a great red nutty curry bursting with coconut flavor.
Thai BBQ Chicken. Half a grilled chicken served with sweet and sour sauce on the side. Sweet, tender, and juicy BBQ chicken.
Pad See Ew with Shrimp. Flat rice noodle pan fried with sweet soy sauce, Chinese broccoli, egg and pepper. First rate Pad See Ew with a really nice balance between the salty soy and sweetness. Great texture too with the noodles, juicy shrimp, and the crunchy broccoli.
Overall, Palms was very flavorful. And boy can they pour on the spicy if you ask them too! I actually think this was a tastier kitchen then Ruen Pair. Both were spicy, but this was insane. And that soup was so good.