Authentic Spice, Authentic Pain
Our go-to Thai spot in the area for the past year has been Sapp Coffee Shop in Los Feliz. Tonight we decided to try somewhere new after learning about this spot on Yelp. It was incredible and surely holds a candle to Sapp. Naturally, we compared the two; however, we ordered very different dishes than what we usually order at Sapp.
Per Yelp’s recommendation, we ordered the tom yum noodle soup with wide rice noodles, boat noodles with regular rice noodles and the crispy pork with basil. One aspect about their noodle dishes that is great is that they offer a small ($4.50) portion and a regular ($6.50) portion which is super perfect for us food lovers who often want to try everything on the menu but don’t have big enough stomachs to fit it all. Also be warned, that their dishes are very authentic. And authentic Thai, means spicy Thai. Which means ordering medium spiciness for all of their dishes resulted in coming home and immediately downing Tums for us pansies. So, if you’re a spice lover, medium oughta do the trick. I think we’ll next time, we’ll stick with mild.
So, spice aside, we’ll just focus on as much of the flavor as we could taste after getting our taste buds nuked. The tom yum noodles were very tasty; tangy, sweet, salty and milder than what you’d expect tom yum to taste like if you ordered it on its own. It’s served with peanuts, ground pork, BBQ pork, fish cake, fish ball, liver, bean sprouts, green onion and cilantro. They do a fantastic boat noodle that is flavorful, aromatic, dank and savory just as boat noodles should be. The boat noodles taste great with just the regular vermicelli noodles. These two soup noodle dishes are equally great, so it kind of just depends on what you’re in the mood for. The Tom Yum is lighter and not as thick and heavy as the boat noodles are.
Lastly, the third item we ordered, crispy pork with basil, was GREAT. This is also something we order at Sapp, so after going back and forth comparing the two, we couldn’t really say that one was better than the other. They’re both so good in their own right but are slightly different. At Pa Ord, their dish is served with cut up bite-size green beans. Everything is tossed in a delectable fish sauce-based sauce. The green beans add a nice crunch and freshness to an otherwise very salty and heavy dish. At Pa Ord, they also don’t serve their dish with an over easy egg like Sapp, although I’m sure you could arrange for that if you asked.
If you’re in the mood for a dry noodle, head to Sapp and order their jade noodles. If you’re in the mood for soup, head to Pa Ord and order their tom yum noodles or boat noodles. Or you could just do them back-to-back and get the best of both worlds since they’re down the street from each other. Pretty sure we’ll be doing this in the near future.
Pa Ord Noodle
5301 Sunset Blvd #8
Los Angeles, CA 90027
