Noree Thai on Beverly is a relatively new Thai restaurant from the Luv2Eat team. The chefs’ namesake eatery, which opened this week, is the most mature of the bunch with Thai-inspired design elements coming from the warm gold chandeliers and cascading art on the walls. What I adored about this place was the unabashed Thai flavors and cooking that comes from the kitchen.
We started with the tum pu pla ra, a salted crab green papaya salad made with fermented fish sauce and black crab paste that was both spicy and deliciously funky fermented flavors that made this papaya salad stand out. The squid with salted egg and pineapple was a good foil to the spice of the aforementioned salad since the sweetness of the pineapple and the overall mild flavors didn’t antagonize our palate. (The glasses of Thai iced tea helped to alleviate the pain a bit.)
The rice noodle curry with crab was an easy to like dish since the flavors were generally familiar for those who eat Asian curry dishes but it was very spicy (and I handle a decent amount of chili spice). The accompaniments to the crab curry were the pre-soaked rice noodles, fresh bean sprouts, shredded carrots, Thai basil, and hard boiled egg. The overall dish was tasty but we had to be mindful not to let the rice noodles stay in the curry for so long as it became mushy.
If there was a highlight of this entire meal – and it was an unexpected one for us – that would be the tom kha gai soup. This rich, flavorful soup felt soulful and comforting even though there were sour and spicy flavors with large chunks of chicken and fresh banana blossoms. We were told by the wait staff that the chef adds a little bit of fermented shrimp paste for that je ne se quoi that you can taste but can’t really say what it is.
The crispy chicken with lime sauce was sent out to us from the kitchen. Though it tasted like it’s the most westernized dish, it was good for what it was. The fried white chicken meat coated in a slightly tart lime sauce surrounded by a nest of fried minced Chinese broccoli (or other mildly flavored Asian green vegetable) topped with slices of lime. The meat was moist but lacked the robust flavor complexity that all the other savory dishes we had.
Even though we were quite full, we must have the sticky mango rice. This classic dessert was sublime. The pastel green hue on the sticky rice is from pandan that gives a very unique flavor and aroma that is vanilla-like but not exactly. (Pandan is a classic Thai dessert flavor besides coconut and mango.) This is a must have dish besides the soup.
We had a lovely lunch here. The staff is kind and knowledgeable of the food and happy to explain to you the dishes and the ingredients that may not be familiar to us. The food is very good (especially the classic Thai dishes). Definitely worth coming back to.
To view more photos of this visit, please view the gallery below or CLICK HERE for the photo set:
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Information:
Noree Thai on Beverly
Official Website
7669 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone: (323) 937-3100
Map
