Jitlada Thai Restaurant

It is already hard to believe there was a time before Suthiporn Sungkamee and his sister Jazz Singsanong were fixtures on the Hollywood Thai restaurant scene. The Southern Thai specialties we have quickly learned to take for granted - just a couple of years ago, the Songkhla-style rice salad; the fried sea bass with homegrown turmeric; and the infamous endorphin bomb kua kling Phat Tha Lung, a beef curry in its purest form is spicy enough to strip the bark off a log - were abstractions Angelenos could only read about in books. The printed menu could pass for the one at your usual Thai banalities, but the typed insert of Southern specialties includes dishes you'll find in few other places: delicious, foul-smelling yellow curries of fermented bamboo shoots; delicate lemon curries; curries of fried softshell crabs and the notorious sataw bean; wild tea leaves cooked down like creamed spinach with bits of gluey-skinned catfish; beef simmered with pickled buds of Asian cinnamon. There are accessible dishes, too, like grilled beef with green papaya salad, steamed mussels with lemongrass and chile, a tropical coco-mango salad and shrimp fried with basil - it's not all fish kidneys and dried mudfish. When you need to show visitors the diversity and wonder still possible in Los Angeles restaurants, Jitlada is Exhibit A. Difficult lot parking. See full review.

• Cuisine(s): Asian, Thai

  Hours: Sun,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat 11am-11pm, Mon 5pm-11pm

  Price: $$

• Payment Types: MasterCard, Visa, American Express

  Features: Takeout, Delivery, Private Party, Catering

  Serving: Dinner, Lunch

• Alcohol: Beer/Wine

  Reservations: Accepted, Not Necessary

  Parking: Lot Available