My Los Angeles meal reports from our trip in June have so far encompassed a dim sum meal and a sushi meal. Let’s switch cuisines again for the third and do a Thai meal. On our last trip—back in December—we’d eaten after some years at one of our favourite Thai restaurants in L.A, Luv2Eat Thai Bistro. We didn’t go back there on this occasion but we did the next best thing: we ate at Noree Thai, which is owned and run by the same chefs who own and run Luv2Eat. If, as I’ve noted before, Luv2Eat is located some distance outside Thai Town proper, Noree Thai is further out still, on Beverly just short of Fairfax. The restaurants’ menus are nonetheless still quite close to each other and it’s fair to think of Noree Thai as another location of Luv2Eat. Which is not a bad thing at all to be.

The menus are not, however, identical. While some of Luv2Eat’s most famous dishes are on the menu at Noree Thai, others are not. In June the menu was also not identical to what was on the restaurant’s website. We were told that hadn’t been updated in more than two years. The good news though is that what’s on the menu is very good. Though I should say that we stuck on this outing entirely to items from the Chef’s Special selections that take up the first two pages. The restaurant, by the way, is quite a bit smaller than Luv2Eat. Unlike it, however, it has some dedicated covered, patio seating and we got a table there. The interior is attractive, should you want to sit there. We didn’t order in quite as unrestrained a manner as we often do but we still managed to eat a good range of things and take some leftovers home.

What did we get? One of our favourites from the Luv2Eat repertoire, the Hat Yai Fried Chicken, and it did not disappoint. That was the only thing we got at this meal that we’d previously ordered at Luv2Eat. The other dishes included the Isaan Sausage; the Mee Thai Phuket, a tangy and mild stir-fry of rice noodles with shrimp etc.; the Squid with Salty Egg; and the Keang Kua Phuket, a stir-fry with coconut milk and a curry paste heavy on turmeric and herbs, which at our server’s recommendation we got with ground pork. All were very good and the Keang Kua Phuket was outstanding. We got it at the second hottest level (“spicy”, one down from “Thai spicy”) and it pushed my limits. I speculated that getting it with ground pork might accentuate the heat as the sauce clings to every crevice of the meat.

The squid dish was also supposed to have been made at that heat level—our server specifically recommended it as better that way—but came out much milder. (This is something we’ve had had happen randomly to dishes ordered hot at Luv2Eat as well.) Our server did bring us out chilli flakes and chilli paste when we pointed this out and with extra heat added it was much better. The Mee Thai Phuket was a good relief dish. The boys enjoyed the Isaan Sausage as well but they ate most of the fried chicken.

To drink: a couple of sprites, an order of Pink Milk (strawberry milkshake, basically) and water.

For a look at the restaurant and the food, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

Service was friendly but not always present outdoors—this despite the fact that they weren’t so very full indoors. But it was nothing that was very irksome. The total with tax and tip for all of the above was about $117. We generated, as I noted, a fair bit of leftovers, and it’s probably fair to say this was enough food for five hungry adults. So just about $24/head which is very good value indeed for the quality. If you’re out at the museums on Wilshire you could do far worse than eat here. Or indeed at any other time that you’re in the vicinity.

What’s next from Los Angeles? Probably a non-sushi Japanese meal. Before that I’ll have another restaurant report from the Big Island and a report on an Italian dinner in Minneapolis next Tuesday.