Playing devil’s advocate since I haven’t been but I have a buddy that’s convinced the misunderstanding is that Pok Pok is mostly northern thai the way Jitlada is mostly southern thai so really can’t be compared to most of the restaurants around town.
Looking at the menu the glass noodles with pork sausage and ground pork, grilled boar collar, and some of the northern dishes look like they could be good.
Kinda like the Jitlada of northern Thai maybe? @TonyC
I doubt that is the issue. Isaan Station, Pailin, Spicy BBQ, and Night + Market are all northern thai. The real challenge for Pok Pok is…why would you eat it when Pailin is 1/3 the price and better?
Oh gosh no, that’s definitely not the issue. Wildly inferior food at double the price is the problem.
No, that’s not the issue.
It’s the food. Just not very good.
The only thing that makes this Pok Pok better than the one in Manhattan is the prices. And speaking of the Manhattan location, it’s exhibit 1 why Michelin is a complete farce in the U.S.
if pok pok is in fact northern (and NOT issan) anyone complaining about pok pok’s food not being spicy might as well complain that water is wet; of the four main regional thai cuisines, northern thai cuisine is NOT SUPPOSED to be spicy.
a little due diligence, people?
I think that’s part of the problem. The menu says northern Thai all over it. Literally printed under most menu items.
Price is the other big factor.
IIRC jonathan gold purposefully spoke up last february when some folks didn’t get pok pok pat thai because they thought it bland, and he made the point of explaining that the dishes came ungarnished so that each dish could be seasoned to the diner’s personal taste. is there perhaps a similar mismatch of expectations going on here?
If the cuisine is indeed supposed to be authentic northern Thai dishes, I don’t think the answer is adding spice to it (though someone above did exactly that).
I think the main issues are
The pricing is offensive here in LA because we have so many excellent Thai options.
Maybe it’s true that LA is truly unfamiliar with Northern Thai cuisine vs Isaan. I’m not saying I do. Heck, I’m still trying to wrap my head around Jitlada’s Southern Menu. Maybe people are having a difficult time comprehending Thai food that is not spicy.
I don’t think the EaterLA piece calling it the “Ultimate” Thai in LA did it any favors on this board.
And maybe, just maybe the LA population is a bit defensive and homer when it comes to LA cuisine vs other cities. You see it all the time, LA Pizza>NYC Pizza, Langer’s > Katz, “LA sushi the best ever”, etc. Maybe that came up in the Mozza Group’s market research and maybe that’s why they cleverly made Silverton the face of Mozza LA while they sit back and rake in the money.
I think price aside, if one views it as just another Thai option in LA, it just continues to build LA’s lead on the best Thai in the country. It’s certainly not the crown jewel as was implied by EaterLA’s title and maybe that’s where a lot of the backlash is coming from.
In any case, the place was packed on a Sunday which once again shows how small of a dining subset we are.
Also, I think the service charge may have been removed. I’m not 100% sure on this because I didn’t see the check myself but my sis said she specifically looked for it and didn’t see one.
If Northern Thai is what it is then Pailin would appear to be the appropriate comparison. Our last meal there came to $52 or so with tax and tip for 5 dishes. The food was not bland but none of it was crazy hot either. Now, if Pok Pok is using far better ingredients–let’s face it, the average Thai Town star is not knocking anyone out with the quality of their meats or fish per se–a premium for that is to be expected. As is an additional cost for “finer” ambience etc. As to whether all of that should add up to twice as much, I’m not sure, but if you like Thai food there’s nothing wrong with spending more money from time to time to eat a good iteration of it it in a fancier restaurant. There are times when one wants to go to a hipper location to eat–isn’t it good if you can do that and still eat good Thai food? Now if the food is actually subpar that’s a different story.
If this is the case then the waitstaff is doing a poor job as well - our waiter specifically told us he was ‘very familiar with the menu’ and that most of the items were Northern/Isaan Thai (which he implied were the same thing), and that most of it was quite spicy. It may just be that he was not as knowledgeable as he suggested, but that was one of the things that lead to our overall disappointment.
I’m not familiar with the differences yet (that’s a project for this afternoon, it looks like) and I feel like Northern and Isaan are often grouped together, but if the waitstaff is adding to the confusion that doesn’t help things…
while in LA you may have a greater percentage of diners that are more conversant with ethnic cuisines,you still have a significant percentage of diners who classify/flatter themselves by describing themselves as gourmands/foodies/what have you. these types eat at popular places more for the cachet than because their palates truly appreciate the nuances. others are enthusiasts who go along as long as the cuisine fits within their personal palates which allow for excess more than they do nuance. then you just have regular provincialism; someone might eloquently argue the merits of pork vs. beef, vinegar vs tomato vs. mustard based sauces, wet rub vs. dry rub when it comes to BBQ yet it wouldn’t occur to them that that there might be at least 20 different regional styles of ramen in japan.
Wow. This hierarchy leaves me dumbfounded.
Looking at Pailin’s menu I see khao soi and northern thai sausage as being Northern Thai so those two dishes you could compare vs Pok Pok’s iteration. But a lot of the rest of the menu looks like central Thai dishes.
Again, I am no expert on regional Thai cuisine.
Regarding the quality of ingredients we’re talking boar collar vs boar loin for the places that offer boar. As much as I like the Thai Nankorn version it is a bit chewy and gristlely compared to the boar meat used at Pok Pok.
Once again, I’m by no means justifying the prices. I like Night + Market better than Pok Pok. But the braised pork curry at Pok Pok is much more flavorful than the braised pork shank at Night + Market even though the portion is like 4x as big at Night + Market.
i’ve seen examples of each.
some post here.
Yeah, Pailin’s Northern Thai menu is only a small subset of what they do–it’s all we eat there though. Though more than those two dishes–the Northern stuff is on the back of the menu at the restaurant; pictured here: Two in Thai Town: Pailin Thai and Red Corner Asia (Los Angeles, Summer 2013) | My Annoying Opinions
Great photos.
Interesting how Pailin has Northern Style sausage and E-Saan style sausage separately.
The Nam-Ngeao looks awesome.
dont you mean “ive conducted extensive interviews with strangers in restaurants about their experience with that cuisine and why they are eating at this particular spot”?
just curious.
for one,i’ve run a lunch group for a number of years now exploring (so far) the SGV and k-town. people have come and gone from this group, and they all had their own set of reasons for participating. that;s one source.
i could go on, but the reality is that everyone has some level of self-serving provincialism in their world view. the issue is the level of denial about it. and that has nothing to do with logic or cogent/eloquent explanations. it’s about vanity.
As long as you understand that you are also describing yourself.
i dunno, man. i like coming here and reading about people’s experiences with the food in restaurants, and becoming
informed about cuisines of the world.
but when i read about people telling me the motivations of anyone other than themselves, i start hearing a roaring
noise in my ears that sounds like a taster-brand vacuum.
“self serving provincialism” sounds like something on a sign held up by a giant rodent that lewis carroll threw in the bin.