Jitlada is one of the most important restaurants in Los Angeles
Jitlada at 5233 W Sunset Boulevard in Thai Town has been making the case for Southern Thai cuisine since the Suthipaisalsak family opened it in 2006. Jazz Suthipaisalsak, who runs the front of house, has turned the menu into a document of Southern Thai cooking, dishes from the region around Hat Yai and Phuket that you cannot find anywhere else in Los Angeles and that taste unlike anything you've had in a Thai restaurant before.
The jungle curry, dry, intensely herbal, the heat building rather than arriving all at once, is the dish that made chefs from around the country make the drive to East Hollywood. The stir-fried wild boar with Thai basil. The crab curry. Order by pointing to things on the wall. Be honest about your heat tolerance and then ask for one level above that.